Second Gholan War

The Second Gholan War (305-316 ABV), also known as the Mirene War and the War in Herer, is the name given by Talmoene chroniclers to the confrontation between the Talmoene empire and the mercenary warlord Kashánitsá, who had seized power in the Gholan mountain kingdom of Jha'khyla and launch an invasion of the green countries, conquering much of Herer and threatening Catagholmoa, as well as the Talmoene conquest of the R'shensjikyrae and Niss'jahsjarmeshe Gholan, which took place at the same time.
Despite the name, this conflict never saw a direct confrontation between Talmoene and Jha'khylene armies. Instead, Saiannic agents made contact with Gróhda's Hereri rebellion, channelling them intelligence, material support, and eventually Caxian mercenaries; Kashánitsá is believed to have received support from eastern Saiannic states in his turn. However, the name fits into the Catagholmoenë sense of their own history of confrontation with the desert peoples, forged in the First Gholan War.
The war ended with the capture and killing of Kashánitsá following the defeat of his forces at the Battle of Gasha Assa; aristocratic rule was re-established in Jha'khyla and Gróhda united two-thirds of the Hereri lands into the Kingdom of Herer.
== Prelude ==
=== Catagholmoä ===
In the fifty years since Meruszyph finally crushed the Shákjhara Gholan in the First Gholan War, the colony of Catagholmoa had flourished. The town grew wealthy on the profits from Mirene trade and the output of its salt mines, as well as its position as Talmoa's principal blue-water harbour and pre-eminent military training ground.
Catagholmoa's prestige grew yet further when Tailasz was elected to the Seraiat in 307 ABV and overhauled the Talmoene constitution, giving the various colonies and territories captured and settled since the Second Oathbreaker War representation in the Covoät for the first time. Her brother, Taimaro, was chosen as governor of the colony and secured it a lot of investment, including the famous red walls and citadel designed by the celebrated architect Alophasazaia.
On the eve of the conflict, Catagholmoa was building up for major celebrations organised by Taimaro to commemorate the 220th anniversary of its foundation and, it hoped, the formal granting of city status.
=== Jha'khyla ===
At some point between 305 and 307 ABV, the aristocratic Elder Council of Jha'khyla was overthrown by Kashánitsá and his band of "a hundred renegades and Cursed from the wastelands". 
Originally a surface nomad of the Réssjethr clan, Kashánitsá's family had been cast out, and he had made his living as a mercenary in the various wars against Sh'varaith, perhaps in the War of a Thousand Screams. He was a skilled soldier, and by the time of his employment by the Elder Council had been commanding men for almost a quarter-century.
Jha'khyla was a mountaintop city on the western edge of the Iron Desert. Pre-occupied with its long eastern border with Sh'varaith, it had never shown any inclination to meddle in the affairs of the clans which populated the forested highlights on the western slopes of the Sun Mountains. Indeed, due to its location the city enjoyed an unusual degree of exchange with other cultures; it was the only Gholan city to make extensive use of wood, which its inhabitants bleached white in the sun.
Around the turn of the Fouth Century ABV, Kashánitsá was employed to oversee the slaves in Jha'khyla's extensive mines. After engineering a slave revolt, he used it as cover to slaughter the Elder Council and seize power. Shortly thereafter, the newly-installed tyrant massacred some six hundred of the city's poets - a grievous sin in Scorched culture - in response to an anonymous verse lamenting his coup. 
=== Herer ===
The Hereri hillmen had not at this point made much of a mark in the histories of the region, save for some references to their serving as mercenaries in service to Talmoa during the Second Oathbreaker War and First Gholan War. They are described by one chronicle as "a jolly, primitive people who enjoyed drinking beer, lived in wooden cottages and whose chieftains had ritual coitus with horses."
At the turn of the Fourth Century, their civilisation appears to have comprised two small kingdoms (which the Saiannics deemed city-states and referred to by the name of their capitals, Gasha Assa and Bá.
== Invasion of Herer - 307 ABV ==
Having secured control of Jha'khyla, Kashánitsá turned his ambitions outwards. Traditionally, Jha'khyla had been oriented towards the Scorched civilisation of the Iron Desert, engaging in wars for control over remote mines and to defend its western border from attacks by Sh'varaith. The new king, however, had very different ambitions.
=== Kashánitsá's Strategy ===
Saiannic sources give no definitive account of why the "Tyrant of Jacaila" turned his attention westwards; in common with much of the history of Syo-Scorched relations, the chronicles suffer from scant access to Scorched histories and sources. However, the records of Serai Taimaro of Catagholmoa include the Carmine Keep's assessment of the situation.
Despite (or indeed, because) of the brutality of his coup, Kashánitsá's grip on his new capital was probably insecure. Moreover, even in its weakened state the City of Scorpions likely posed a formidable military challenge, something Kashánitsá would likely have been aware of following his decades of service against Sh'varaith as a mercenary. A campaign against the smaller city-states along the northern bank of the Lower Mir would likewise have meant operating a long way from home and drawing unwelcome attention from powerful neighbours.
Instead, according to Catagholmoene sources, Kashánitsá sought to exploit Jha'khyla's position on the periphery of the Iron Desert to build himself an empire in the west. Had he fulfilled his stated ambitions, this would have compassed Herer and then extended down to the Sumirene salt flats, anchored to the Parelsa by the port of Catagholmoa itself.
Had this succeeded, it would have made Jha'khyla a formidable regional power: Herer would have furnished the nascent empire with plentiful grains, timber, and slaves, whilst rule of Sumir would allow Kashánitsá to control the Mirene trade (and thus, most of Saian's access to bronze, horses, and other Scorched exports), as well as granting access to the rich trade lanes on the Red and White Serpents. Had he honoured his commitment to allow free movement and settlement for Saiannics in Catagholmoa, he could also have built and operated a navy, for the town was the biggest Saiannic blue-water port.
From such a base, Kashánitsá would have been well-positioned to launch further expansionary campaigns: eastwards along the Mir; northwards, against the remaining Hereri tribes and the other Gholan cities of the Red Sun Mountains; or indeed westwards, against the Saiannic city-states west of the Black Serpent.
=== Conquest ===
Whatever his motivations, Kashánitsá immediately began preparing his new people for a western war, on the basis that the Hereri were an inferior people and deserved to be subjugated. One chronicler records:
"He decided to invade Herer, because the Hereri people was short and stocky and had broad faces, all mean with thick beards. Kashánitsá declared before the auditorium that the laws of the world stated that short peoples were less worth and natural slaves of tall peoples, and the tallest of the people were the people of Jha'khyla."
The day after this pronouncement, five thousand Gholan warriors swept down from their mountainside fastness and into the forested hill country of the Hereri, the experienced and centrally-commanded Jha'khylene army smashing the larger but ill-disciplined tribal host mustered against it. The chronicles relate that in short order "all of Herer fell", and that Kashánitsá withdrew to his capital with 13,000 slaves in train.
In truth, around three-quarters of Herer had fallen: the southern kingdom centred on Gasha Assa, and three smaller tribal kingdoms or confederations. The Kingdom of Báchasa was not conquered; its monarchy would later be overthrown by Gróhda for its failure to support its kin against the Gholan. Whether this was as a result of some deal between Kashánitsá and either Báchasa or a nearby Saiannnic state is lost to history.
== The Phony War - 307-310 ABV ==
Having seemingly come out of nowhere, Kashánitsá's conquest was met with dismay in Catagholamoa. It was only fifty years since the nascent city had finally regained control of its hinterland at the conclusion of the Gholan War, and the Catagholamoenë were extremely sensitive to any development which might see their city threatened from the Iron Desert. With the governor's sister serving as Serai, the Talmoene government was live to these concerns, and in 307 ABV began to draw up plans for a military expedition to support the Hereri. 
However, her efforts to forge a broader alliance of local Saiannic cities against the Gholan foundered; Kashánitsá had been actively courting his new neighbours, who had no love for the hillmen and were profiting from favourable trade with the Sunlands through the tyrant's domain. The cities of Galszanom, Holomoa, and Lohmoa all rejected overtures of alliance, and expressed support for the warlord's conquests.
Without their support, Talmoa had no reliable line of supply for any intervention in Herer. Moreover, it meant that any direct military response risked igniting a broader conflict, and this the Red Butterfly was not prepared to risk.
Worse, it left the route open for a Jha'khylene invasion of the salt flats and the Mir delta. Whilst the southern shore of the river and the salt flats were ruled from Catagholmoa as the province of Sumir, the northern shore was host to two independent Gholan clans. Following the emergence of a hostile bloc to the north of the prized territory and with the plan for a full campaign into Herer thwarted, the Talmoene army instead mounted a campaign to secure the northern bank.
=== Subjugation of the R'shensjikyrae and Niss'jahsjarmeshe - 307 ABV ===
The two clans on the northern bank of the Mir had established diplomatic relations with Talmoa, and in themselves posed no threat to the colony. Nor did their territory hold much economic interest for the Saiannics; the salt flats lay to the south of the river, and the foothills of the Red Sun Mountains had never shown any sign of mineral wealth.
As a result, Talmoa hoped to be able to bring both clans into the fold peaceably; each was offered a deal which would see them become formally part of the Talmoene empire - and thus, off-limits to any other power - whilst retaining complete internal autonomy and freedom from taxation. Both refused.
The subsequent campaign was short but brutal; of the estimated 23,000 Gholan living on the north bank, more than half were slain resisting the occupation. Several thousand were indentured, and some few thousand fled into exile further up the Mir. Many orphaned children were placed with Saiannic families in Sumir province, but this effort at integration would over the next few years prove a bloody failure.
However, militarily the campaign was a success. Talmoa secured the north bank, and now controlled Kashánitsá's only route to the sea. A new fortress-town, Merusyphamoä, was established opposite Cataholmoa on the northern side of the delta, securing the new province against any coastal incursion.
=== Kashánitsá's Ambitions ===
At the same time, and with equal brutality, Kashánitsá cemented his grip on Herer. Over 800 farms were burned and a further 16,000 civilians slain; half the crops are seized and transported across the mountains, where they are distributed amongst Jha'khyla's eastern clans to shore up their support. 
More worryingly for Talmoa, and in a clear signal that his ambitions were not sated, Kashánitsá moved his seat down to the Hereri city of Arbá, ordering the sacred stallion of the city's king slaughtered and eaten.
The following year, two Catagholmoene agents who had been infiltrating Herer were captured and brought before the new lord of Herer:
"Kashánitsá is riding in on his black horse Sháivshassésja, followed by thirty warriors armed with bows and bronze swords and axes. He calls up the Talmoannis, who have been given the clothes of the Scorched people, for a banquet of scorpion, beetle and lamb with salted fish, a real delicacy in the inhospitable desert."
After interrogating them about the status of Catagholmoa's defences, Kashánitsá made a stunning offer: in exchange for "tin and gold and horses", he proposed to purchase the city, as well as the newly-conquered territories on the northern bank. He insisted that its Saiannic inhabitants would have free travel rights, and assured the Talmoenë that he harboured no further ambitions in the "green paradise" of the river lands - but that the Mir was part of the desert, which belonged to his people.
In response, the Saiannics pointed out that he had already subjugated Herer, which lay in the green country west of the mountains. This prompted the warlord to fly into a rage:
"He stood up and smashed both his fists, garmented in leather gloves, into the table, and smashed his own dinner to the floor. "Herer is not Talmoä's concern!" he said. "But if you are going to war for it, then for the sake of the World Spirit bring every Syannic here, and this land will become your tomb!" Then he sat down again, collected, though his fingertips were shaking."
After seven days, the agents were released, laden with gifts ("several bronze spears, nine decorated brilliant bowls for soup, with their insides covered with a thin layer of gold") to present to the Serai.
== Gróhdid War - 308-316 ABV ==
The main bit with the fighting. To be filled in.
=== Talmoene Diplomacy ===
Ongoing failure to build Saiannic alliance against the Gholan.
=== Gróhda's Insurgency - 308-315 ABV ===
==== Talmoene Alliance and Early Campaign - 308-311 ABV ====
Talmoene agents make contact with the Hereri rebels and start providing material support. Kashánitsá crosses the mountains to suppress a rebellion in the east; rule of Mérsjt as vicerene in Herer.
==== Conquest of Báchasa - 312 ABV ====
Gróhda captures Bá but declines the crown, declaring that there should be a single Hereri kingdom.
==== Tightening the Noose - 312-316 ABV ====
The Gholan lose control of the countryside; Kashánitsá completes his eastern campaign.
=== Kashánitsá's Final Campaign - 316 ABV ===
Kashánitsá crosses the mountains to put down the rebellion.
==== Battle of Veipheä ====
A combined force of Hereri, Caxian mercenaries, and Jha'khylene rebels ambush and defeat Kashánitsá's army; he is killed a few days later.
== Aftermath ==
What happened afterwards. Kingdom of Herer established; aristocratic rule in Jha'khyla restored; Catagholmoa becomes a city.
Category:History
Category:Wars