Battle at the Gates of Aran

Belligerents	
Creaseraiatu Tālmoä	Second Oathbreaker Coalition
Commanders 	
 Uszyt-u-Tāl	
The Seventeenth King of Aran
Strength 	Approx 5,000	
10,000:
*7,000 Arāni
*3,000 Marani
Losses 	Unknown 	Unknown
Result 	Defeat 	Victory
 
The Battle at the Gates of Aran (Syannic: Veiaku Katāran) was the first major field engagement of the Second Oathbreaker War. In it, a Maramoän ambush allowed a combined Oathbreaker army to envelop the southern portion of the Tālmoän first army, forcing it to fall back to fortified positions.
The battle takes its name from the city walls of Aranmoä beside which the battle was fought. 
==Prelude==
The Second Oathbreaker War had started out as a territorial dispute between two of the Oathbreaker cities, Szamoä and Aranmoä, as the latter attempted to seize control of the former's southern territories and secure a foothold on the west bank of the river Reisra, the central of the Three Serpents of Syan.
After initial successes the northern city of Tālmoä launched a series of counter-attacks along the length of the riverbank, and swiftly secured control of the great majority of Szamoän territory. That secure, the Talmoän army pursued the retreating Arāni across the border into their own territory.
According to the chronicles, the Tālmoän commander made a series of blunders in the prelude to the battle. In direct contravention of his orders, he divided the Tālmoän army into two equal sections, sending one half to ravage the north of Aranmoän territory whilst the second headed for the city. Yet this second portion was too small to challenge the city walls, and ended up marooned outside the city waiting for the other half to arrive.
The Oathbreakers, meanwhile, had not been idle. Using their river fleet, the Marani had slipped three thousand soldiers down the Veisra to the swampy scrublands south of Aranmoä. This terrain had proved very difficult for the camel-mounted Tālmoän scouts, and in an unbelievable act of folly the scout commander did not dispatch additional patrols once his first did not return. As a result, the Oathbreakers were able to position themselves perfectly.
Maramoä had not until this point been a part of the war, and despite Tāli scouts keeping a close eye on their border the river had been left unobserved. Thus the Marani were able to acheive perfect tactical surprise.
==The Battle==
Little is recorded of the battle itself. It is known that the combined Oathbreaker army, led by the King of Aranmoä, came upon the Tāli en masse, aiming to gain maximum leverage from their superior numbers. Pressing hard on the army of Tālmoä the Arāni were able to put them on the back foot from the off, and it became for the Tāli commanders a matter of escaping the field with as much of the army as possible.
The King's haste, however, prevented complete encirclement of the Tāli forces, who were able to organise a fighting retreat towards a fortified position at a nearby mine. Unable to press the attack against such a position the Oathbreaker counter-offensive came to a halt.
==Aftermath==
The immediate consequences of the battle were that the siege of Aran was postponed, and the Oathbreakers gained the initiative in the rapidly-escalating war. However, they would prove unable to press that advantage. The Tālmoän northern army rapidly withdrew to a secure position and reunited with the southern half and fresh reinforcements, stabilising the Tāli position along the Szai frontier.
The senior commanders of the Tālmoän army were court-martialled, with a quintet of sarszā investigating the reasons for the defeat. Several were sentenced to the Supreme Redemptive Path and burned alive in front of their junior officers. Their successors were made to rub the hot ashes from the funeral pyres into their faces and forbidden to wash it off "until such time as the stain of this disgrace has been wiped from the face of the army".
They would take the first opportunity to do this. The new Tāli commanders moved swiftly to regain the initiative, and washed the ashes away  in a ritual bathing ceremony held after the Tālmoän triumph at the Veiaku Urusensé - the Battle of Lake Urusen. Shortly after that, the city of Aran was finally invested and the Siege of Aran began.
Category:Battles
Category:History
Category:Syan