February 2nd, AD 2134
Dear Sinn,
I hope you are faring well, with the stress of the Alpha Centauri project on your shoulders. I am writing about the history you asked me to pen down.
Many have ignorant ideas of the Interregnum. From small ones in Crisca that "detail" of the holiness of one of the leaders (varying on the region you are in), to worldwide ones that think of it as inconsequential, to horrifying ignorance displayed in foreign nations that ruin the rich historical interest of the period. So, I have urgently decided to pen this simply written, quite small book which a child could read. I hope that this will dispel ancient myths that should have died with Tarken and Erin.
Here is my latest exerept from the history, which I have dubbed, Empire in Ashes.
-With Great Regard
Gorhai Nain
After the skirmishes in the Alaren forests, Neindar was desperate to get its economy up and its forces trained. Tarken was well aware of Neindar's underdevelopment, and she moved to choke the nation and then complete her conquest. Erin was crafty, however. Using the iron supplies in Nor Crisc, Nor Crisc was able to send forth a small number of iron equipped spearmen. These spearmen were few in number, but hardy and powerful.
Tarken sent forth a deadly force into Neindar. Horse archers. Well trained horse archers. They gallopped across the roads to Neindar, but were paused at the crossroads to Nor Crisc.
Their orders were to advance to Nor Crisc and take the city, and if not, disrupt all efforts to connect it to Neindar. Erin's desperate order for spearmen paid off however...the horse archers briefly skirmished against the spearmen from Nor Crisc to see if they could break, but the skirmish turned into a rout for the Raetan forces. The Raetan horse archers instead attacked the axemen defending the road to Dystopolis and broke through, with heavy casualties.
Tarken was furious. Those horse archers would have been critical in mopping up the forces in Neindar, and they had even failed to disrupt the construction of the Desert Road to Nor Crisc! Nevertheless, the invasion of Neindar went forward.
Her navies were not yet complete, the loss of the experimental Aristiari was now revealled to be a blow on a large scale. Control of Lake Crisco was essential in the war effort. But Tarken was successful in getting a large army to besiege Dystopolis.
Erin was getting very desperate. Dystopolis was only a short distance from the capital of Selia. Who knows what horrors Tarken would unleash on the Christian holy city? Erin quickly navigated around the siege with his galleys and landed a force of longbowmen in Dystopolis. On the walls of Dystopolis, the fate of Neindar would be set...
From Lake Crisco and the gap to it that Erin held onto, supplies were constantly shipped to Dystopolis. The walls of the city were high and mighty, and Tarken's catapults were taking a long time to weaken the city's defenses. Constant backsided raids from the surrounding forests demoralized Tarken's forces. Finally, realizing that she could not take the city, Tarken ordered her weakened forces home.
The Men of the Iron Axe, however, ravaged Neindaren settlements...
Raes Oran said:
Rape, murder, barbarism, all of it flourished under the brief rule of the Raetan invaders! My sister...was dragged from her home and raped and killed...her head was taken by an axemen who proudly has it stuck on the shaft of his axe..my mother died fighting an angry axemen who wanted her body. She stabbed him in the heart and then took his heavy axe and swung it in vain at the Raetan dogs, though she killed three of them. They never raped her...only killed her. In fear!
One of their priests was making furious gestures at the axemen, and when I noticed that a makeshift gallow had been set up, I was fearing my end. But the axemen who murdered my mother and sister were hung instead. It is this event that kept me...nay, all of our village and the villages beyond, it kept us from being consumed by the hatred that had so corrupted the zealots that ran our nation, and now our religion. To this day I know not whether the soliders defied a religous doctrine or an order from Raetan, but I shall believe both, and with them I shall continue to guard against hate.
This was a quote from Raes Oron (Rye Or-ahn), a famous Christian scholar whom has contributed to much of my works. Raes was famed for not only his histories, but his efforts to unite the populace after reunification. He denounced the hatred generated by Tarken and Erin, and constantly advocated
Crisca Novocar Tolraer (Criscan Toleration of Allfaith *or All Religions*).
The Men of the Iron Axe were set upon by a group of longbowmen while the Raetan forces attempted to retreat back to their kingdom. The Men were mostly slaughtered, though 1/4 their company survived and they would be reformed after Tarken arrived home once more.
In Rome, Reanne vehemently denied Caesar's demands for marriage, but she was allowed to remain in court. About 10 weeks after her denial of the offer, and a month since Tarken's defeat in the north, Tarken's long ago dispatched army finally arrived at Pisae. They besieged and took the city, and Rome was now at war.
The Roman court was in shock. Their armies were not in shape for war, this was thanks to the civil unrest and racial tension between Eastern and Western Romans. Caesar knew Rome was in dire trouble, but Reanne knew that if Tarken took Rome she would take Northern Crisca not long after.
Reanne mustered up volunteers from the Roman army, and from the citizens, and immediately led them to Pisae. Fighting a colossal battle against the invaders, she finally took the city and captured the few survivors.
Upon calming the Pisaeans, she assumed control of the city. Theodora III in Rome supported the move, claiming to Caesar:
Theodora III said:
Whom better to run an unrested city then an ally? Why weaken Rome with the rumblings of the Pisaean stomachs and their grumbligs of discontent?
In truth, Theodora was desperate to weaken the power of the Western Roman rulers, and she knew Reanne was a skilled and deft administrator. Perhaps, many mused, Reanne could shape up Pisae and make it a benefit to the Roman Empire.
Pisae Under Reanne
Tarken had formerly been poised to weaken Rome and destroy Neindar, but now invasion of Neindar was impossible and her attack on Rome had failed. But Neindar and Rome were both weak as well. With no sign of the end of this bloody and ever expanding war, the people wept and they sorrowed at their misfortune of being born in this era...
* This part of the Interregnum would lead to its continuation. Never again would one of the warring nations come so close to total victory...at least not so early. The failure of Tarken to take Dystopolis and her failure to take Pisae have dubbed this sequence, "Tarken's Two Defeats" by historians. Many historians argue that it is "Tarken's Three Defeats", for also she failed to disrupt the road to Nor Crisc.
Many of Tarken's sympathizers** called this period, "Tarken's Tragic Defeats".
** Tarken and Erin both had numerous groups of support for several centuries after their demise. The last official support group was a group called "Mentallia Erin Oro" which means "The Living Memories of Erin". They disbanded in 1352, and the last of their former members died in 1376.