The Conquest was a series of wars fought between the Legion Drakoni and the Empire of Tan'Rar. In only 20 years the Drakoni armies were able to surge outwards from their island homeland and, through a combination of superior weaponry and tactics, bring the Empire to its knees. I'm going to focus on how they were able to do this and a few key events that made it possible.
After the Age of Settlers
The Age of Settlers was a great and prosperous time for Tan'Rar. The Spellweavers had successfully conjured the entire continent of Teredahar for the Empire to claim. Cities were being founded, resources discovered, and trade routes established to bring those resources back to fuel Tan'Rar's industries. This rapid expansion had a major drawback, however: defense.Tan'Rar established a second capitol in the region called Tannock in Teredahar's north. Between the two capitols the Empire was able to effectively govern but not control Teredahar's massive territory. The Drakoni saw this weakness and used it to great advantage. When their airships first arrived in the skies of what would become Kurudar in TR 6183 they were met with only token resistance as the Elvish forces were too spread out to challenge them.
Invasion
Since their last war both the Elves and Drakoni knew the advantage of airships in battle, but whereas the Elves development focused on mounting ever-more-numerous guns and carrying increasingly large cargoes to and from the new continent, the Drakoni built lightly-armed carrier ships and invented boarding tactics taking advantage of their natural ability to fly (called "dragon drop" by the elves). Their fast, agile airships allowed them to easily capture defending Elvish ships, deploy rapidly, and keep their supply lines moving.As the Drakoni gained territory they would enslave the local peasantry to produce food and materiel for their armies under threat of starvation. The Drakoni also used slave labour to construct several keeps, airship facilities, and engineering projects throughout their occupation of Tan'Rar. By winter of TR 6188 the Drakioni controlled all of southern and western Teredahar and were closing around Syldar and Tannock, both regions now cut off from supplies coming from Loraida.
The Legion Drakoni quickly conquered the remaining large settlements in Syldar in the spring of TR 6189, the northern capitol region of Tannock was much better defended. The Tannock Shield Mountains are high enough to be nigh-impenetrable by airship and the climate of Tannock is much colder than the cold-blooded Drakoni were used to dealing with. Instead of sweeping through Tannock as they had the rest of Teredahar, they were forced to lay siege to Elvish strongholds guarding the passes through the mountains.
Counterattack
During the invasion of Teredahar the Empire kept a sizable portion of its navy and airship fleet around Loraida to defend the homeland. Several small incursions were successfully repelled but the Legion seemed to be fully occupied with conquering Teredahar and showed little sign of desiring to invade Loraida as well.In Spring 6189 with seemingly the full force of the Legion occupied holding territory in Teredahar, the generals commanding Loraida's forces planned a decapitation strike: They would bring as large a force as they could as quickly as they could to the Drakoni home islands, capture their cities, kill their leaders, and force them to withdraw from Teredahar.
A force of fifty ships and a dozen airships were mustered from Loraida's defenders. Under the command of General Näsir they voyaged into the uncharted waters where the Drakoni home islands were known to rest. No Elvish ship had ever traveled into this region and returned; a record that would remain unbroken for centuries more.
Notes released later by the Drakoni ruling council recount that due to Drakoni universal conscription and the widespread arming of populations throughout their home territory, the Elves were never able to hold a safe port for very long before being driven out by well-trained and -armed local militias. The Elvish fleet survived for five months harrying Drakoni coastal cities with hit-and-run tactics until the need for supplies and continuous damage to their ships forced them to attempt a retreat. By that time it was early fall and an ocean storm is believed to have destroyed what remained of the fleet.
Catastrophe
The failed counterattack drew the focus of the Legion down upon Loraida, where it fell like a hammer. Few records exist of what happened next, but it is known that in mid-autumn an immense force of Drakoni and even Dragons themselves descended upon Loraida bent on wiping Tan'Rar out as they had failed to do ages before. Survivors tell of fire falling from great black storm-clouds and sundering the great stone towers at Rakos Bridge, black-armored Drakoni death-squads dropping from airships and massacring entire villages, and great red Dragons burning acres of countryside to ash. When it was all over, Loraida was completely depopulated and the continent that once cradled the weary Elvish race now holds nothing but ruins.The capture of Tannock in 6191 and the utter destruction of cities on Loraida ended the Empire of Tan'Rar. The Elves would suffer under Drakoni rule for nearly 200 years before seeing freedom.
Gameplay Notes
- Teredahar is dotted with numerous small built by Elves or Drakoni during the fight for Teredahar.
- Ancient battlefields and relics of the war are numerous.
- The entire continent of Loraida (South of Teredahar) is full of bones and ruins. The Ashram Academy has a permanent expedition there constantly bringing back interesting trinkets.
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