The Animas Valley
Update Six: Second Winnowing
For three years Izad and Bela had lived at the mouth of the Animas in what had been a small town mostly of fisher folk. But the last ten years had changed all that. War had reshaped the great valley and as the mighty had fallen, so had the insignificant been raised up. This fishing village had been ‘raised’. It was now an important stopover for goods and people moving from the southern islands of Ereva up the Animas to the interior. The birth of twin girls (Ana & Alia) to Bela had clipped their traveler wings and they adopted a more settled life. Their three story walk-up overlooked the busy docks and had been converted to an inn and tavern. By local standards they were quite wealthy. Over their last series of trips before Bela gave birth, they had accumulated a significant stockpile of gold and silver; it was enough for them to buy the quayside building and still not worry about where their next meal was coming from. They called their place: Juggler’s Reach and it was a popular layover among every sort of traveler and trader who plied the waters of the River.
On this delightful sunny summer day Izad entertained one Captain Beorn of Hinsa Hinga. Beorn was returning from a trade mission sent by Zarnak Jorque to Chief Lightblade of Luallen. Yesterday they had talked of Ereva and all that had gone on in that great nation. Hiram, the Butcher, and his favorite son Marius had marched off to war in 222 by Ereva reckoning (332 to most others). While he was away, Queen Beria and Prince Janus ran the nation. They took a special interest in the valley of the Mirai River in the west and the newly acquired southern lands. They encouraged development of farmland and roads. Prince Donatus pushed Ereva control east as far the Kanese would let him without brewing trouble and after that success the young prince travelled north to Sedaya to confer with the Raina there over matters of trade. And as Hiram’s brood was larger still, Prince Malus captained a small expedition to the very sources of the Mirai River in the lands of the Ksilotai. Now, Izad was friends with all of Hiram’s children, having been a friend of the court for many years, and in turn each prince had passed time at Juggler’s Reach as they came and went on their various outings. Recent news of the death of Hiram and the ascension of Janus III to the throne also brought to the surface the ‘fractures’ any nation with four male potential heirs would naturally have. Marius, Hiram’s favorite and hero of the Luallen wars, now owed fealty to Janus. Marius had expressed his displeasure directly to Izad just a few months earlier.
Today they talked of Luallen and the war itself. Beorn’s fist hand knowledge attracted a crowd of listeners. Hiram and Marius prepared well for the impending war, improving both the discipline and flexibility of their army. New warships were built and elephants added to improve the ‘punch’ of any attack. Beorn had been in Luallen selling weapons as Lightblade made ready his plans also. He actually pursued two plans. The first built up the army with thousands of levies and prepared new and old soldiers alike for a final clash of armies on the plains outside the capital. The war would be decided on a single throw of the war god’s dice. The second plan was flight. Lightblade knew the risks of a single battle and drew together all his seaworthy ships at the island’s west end. Should disaster fall, several hundred families, led by General Water Rider, would depart. The little they did know about sailing the open ocean would be put to the test if the army failed.
Erevan landings, Hiram along the south shore and Marius on the eastern coast, were mostly unopposed and the campaign to the capital was uneventful as King and Prince swept easily through the country side. Within a few weeks both armies converged on the Luallen capital. The day of battle was clear and dry and both armies rested and ready. By mid morning the armies were fully arrayed across the wide plain that marked the southeastern approach to the city. From Beorn’s position on a small, but steep hillock to the north the Luallen line looked terribly unbalanced. Lightblade had strengthened his left such that, clearly, he was vulnerable on his right. His elephants were, for the most part, similarly distributed in front of his battle lines. Lightblade outnumbered Hiram by a factor of two, but Beorn knew that most of the Luallen army were newly recruited and inexperienced in actual combat. Opposite, Marius was deployed on the right (Lightblade’s left) and Hiram on the left facing the weaker Luallen right. The 75 Ereva elephants were massed in the center behind the battle line. The Erevan advance began with a great clanging of swords on shields and a slow paced forward movement. Lightblade launched his elephants forward at a run. To the surprise of those riding the great beasts, as they neared the Erevan lines, the soldiers broke ranks and in an obviously well-practiced maneuver, opened clear pathways for the charging elephants. Some kept going; other stopped. Those that stopped were quickly surrounded and dispatched. Small bands of archers pursued those beasts that collected in the rear and scattered or killed them with flights of arrows. Lightblade waited while the Erevan troops reformed their lines. As they did so, their center opened up and all 75 Erevan elephants charged forward at the Luallen center. Hiram called it the ‘Ram’ and it was designed to break an enemy formation completely. As the raging elephants stomped and trampled their way through five lines of levies that had been prepared for a more organized melee, the battle line disintegrated as soldiers fled any which way from the trumpeting beasts. Lightblade’s second line of experienced troops contained the assault, but only by sacrificing themselves. With the preliminaries over, the infantry advanced with clamorous shouting.
Lightblade’s planned counter attack on the Erevan center died with him as he tried to rally his failing center and a sliced hamstring immobilized him sufficiently the he was brought down by determined Erevan infantry. EarthMower, whose reserves had originally been tasked with supporting the weakened right flank, had to hold the failing center. Abandoned, the Luallen right was crushed by Hiram’s well-drilled veterans. It was only on the Luallen left that the battle was stable and the defenders held their own. Then as Hiram turned his victorious troops to roll down the weakening Luallen battle line, Beorn could see the inevitable end and made preparations to gather his entourage and make his way down to the shore and an awaiting flotilla to take him home. The end came quickly as the increasingly panicked defenders fled away from the fighting. Some took refuge in the city; others ran for the more certain safety of the country side. Couriers, carrying the news, headed west by road and small fast sailboats. As Hiram settled himself comfortably in the spare, former throne room of Lighblade and his court, stiff westerlies carried all that remained of Luallen over the horizon.
War had been the topic of discussion for much of the decade and the fact that Bela and Izad had seen much of it firsthand had made the Juggler’s Reach a favorite among those who wanted news of the wider world. The collapse of Opulenth king’s control destabilized much of eastern Animas and both kana and the Bear People of Prydda’annwfyn seized the opportunity to advance their holdings in the region. The Bear People took offense at some trivial action by an Opulenth trader and cut out his tongue, chopped off his hands and feet and kept him on a leash at one of their trading docks. His crew was crucified left on display along the river. But that was insufficient and with a heightened blood lust, the trade center of Rivur was sacked one dark and moonless night. And it was a terrible sacking full of wanton killing and hideous crimes of needless pain and bloodshed. What was valuable and could not be carried away was destroyed. As the light of the morning shown through the smoky haze, the survivors watched long trains of the newly enslaved making their way on to barges that would carry them west into the dark forest of the Annwfyn and some frightful and unknown future. The young, the strong and the beautiful were all taken. In the lingering fear of the nightmare destruction of Rivur, the land was mostly abandoned by the locals and fell under the tacit control of the Bear People. Such open and unforested land was strange and distasteful to those who dwelled in the deep shade of ancient woods and left untended, the rich fields were neglected (+1 EP Annwfyn treasury).
The Kanese designs on Opulenth were longer term in nature and part of a wider plan. Relatively peaceful expansion spread Kanese control west to the Ereva borders, south to encompass the free tribes of the coast and east to control the lands around the tin mines. And once those areas were secure, the deteriorating Opulenth was next. Ever since the sack of Rivur the lords of Opulenth were in a panic and local lords took to organizing their own defense. The warlords of the old Shekek kingdom grew bold and spread their power west. The city of Slavur and many of the fertile valleys of that region were swallowed by their advance or simply lost to local chieftains. Into that chaos ShiZhi Zhang Ding sent the most beautiful and beguiling Diao Chan, a courtesan of great skill. She was a gift to the lordly and powerful of the Opulenth. Her arrival at the Luxur court brought focus to the increasingly splintered as many sought her favor. Her grace and charm were mesmerizing and few attributed the rash of untimely deaths among the powerful courtiers, least of all the king himself. One rainy morning seven months after Diao Chan’s arrival, the king was found sprawled across his bed with his throat slit and the lovely Kanese gift nowhere to be found. Courtly despair turned to panic when three weeks later news of a Kanese invasion reached the capital.
The invasion followed the River Hu. Shizhi Zhang Ding himself led the fleet up river while Tongjun Han Tzu commanded the land army. For months Tongjun had drilled his generals in his new way to fight a war. He had seen the more organized way the Erevan troops fought and based on their methods he developed his own in a great treatise sometimes referred to as Han Tzu’s Art of War. This would be its first real test. There was no organized defense offered by the nonexistent central power of Opulenth. The emerging local warlords were the only ones who could mount a defense worthy of being called such, but the forces available to them were not substantial or particularly well trained. Han Tzu fought his way north keeping pace with the Shizhi’s fleet. The promise of order swayed many of the local people to welcome the Kanese advance so once any enemy troops were dispersed or eliminated, there was little trouble. With the collapse of Opulenth materialism and culture of greed, the monks that followed the army found fertile ground for their brand of mysticism. On the river the Shizhi faced little opposition until he approached the neighborhood of the Luxur itself. What remained of the Opulenth Royal Navy took a stand. The battle demonstrated the superiority of both the Knaese crews and the ships they manned. Fully half the defending fleet was sunk by ramming before the Opulenth captains could respond. In their panic to avoid being rammed, they opened themselves to boarding and capture. In an afternoon, the opulent navy disappeared completely.
As Opulenth disintegrated, its wealth traveled to safe havens in the bags and chests of those who sought refuge elsewhere. River pirates and land based brigands sprang up to prey upon those who moved goods and money from Opulenth. Izad and Bela had noticed numerous wealthy families moving down the river and into the southern reaches of Ereva. By 340, the kingdom itself was reduced to a tiny area surrounding the capital that had little influence beyond the city boundaries. Its wealth was gone; its power dissipated; and its culture of wealth and opulence a thing of the past. Plus +1 EP each to Ereva, Kana, Sedaya.
As Beorn made ready to depart north to his home in Hinsa Hinga, he and Izad chatted about the changes he might find in Sedaya. Under the high priestess Medi, Sedaina took a more fanatical tone as she preached conquest of the pagan Asran. This was coupled with the building of religious schools and more efficient recruiting processes for building up the army’s strength. The war against Asran was really a series of separate attacks that penetrated deep into the vast open steppe lands of the Asran to cajole fealty from the widespread communities of this pastoral nation. There was little organized defense since there were few actual places that were worth defending. So Sedaya rolled back the borders and accepted the fealty given by local chieftains. Their advance was checked in 337 as they got within 100 miles of the Asran capital. The first real Asran army crossed paths with the Sedayans and while not whipped, the invaders were certainly stung and were reluctant push any further. They were far from home in a barren land and caution was a watchword.
Like the rest of the Animas, war and political change ravaged the expansive lands of the Ksilotai in the west. Good relations between the Nakatai and Ereva were fostered by increased trade between the nations via the Mirai river connection and by the delegation of Prince Malus. The lack of Nakatai success in holding back the Gasiriakora was offset by their expansion eastward. Military losses forced them to relinquish their control over the north bank of the river, but by the year 340, they were no worse off than ten years earlier. For the Gasiriakora it was a different story. They had captured significantly more of the prosperous river valley, as well as, gained access to the southern mountains. Their only enemies lay to the east and it was now clear that the warlords of the Nakatai would not succumb to bribery nor be tempted into rebellion. To a fault they would resist Gasiriakora dominance. Future wars would be just as bloody and hard fought. At home the aging Akurogos III established a bureaucratic foundation to hold his growing empire together and oversaw the ongoing construction of the great Temple of Are-Ahermis as it crept higher and higher above the city. Its narrow, ziggurat like shape dominated the city. Up close, the intricate carvings were beautiful to behold.
As Beorn arrived home in Hinsa Hinga, it seemed a different place than when he left. It was less busy and less vibrant than the nations of the lower river. In his seven years away he had grown used to the cosmopolitan nature Sedaya, Ereva and the fading Opulenth. Like the now gone Luallen people, the Hinsa Hinga appeared backward and less prosperous. It would take some adjustment to feel settled again in these empty grasslands. His trade mission had been successful and the gold he carried was a welcome addition to the state treasury. He was surprised to learn that the Ash Mountains had been settled and were now under the semi-autonomous rule of Sedyzia and her Kanese husband. The Khadzia Valley was the richest and most prosperous of the mountain states and the center of the blossoming economy. Wood and stone products were now available to the cities and towns of the plains.
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![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
time soon!
