Ruinous Advance

== Overview ==
The Ruinous Advance comprised The Fellowship's efforts to reach the Capital by battling through Ephellindron in the Uprootings. The advance was incredibly bloody, with either side suffering great casualties. Despite the resounding success of the New Frontier Stratagem, the Night of Blood had significantly set back the Fellowship's plans to quickly pounce through Ephellindron to the Capital. This was because they had anticipated that with the Dynasty recouperating from the New Frontier Stratagem, needing time to plan, the only resistance they would face would be from the Ephellindronian loyalists themselves. However, the huge causalities of the Night of Blood in Dronphelle necessitated a period to recover from their losses, a period which the loyalists used to organise a devastatingly rigorous defence in the Ephellindronian countryside, fortifying its towns and villages. By the time the Fellowship had reached the walls of the Capital, the advance had taken nearly 3 months to complete and cost many lives. During the first two thirds of this time, a meagre 25 miles of progress had been made owing to the highly organised loyalists led by Harolde Silversmith. However, following the Battle of Castle Silversmith, an unprepared dynasty led a far less formidable resistance in the remaining 55 miles to the Capital, taking only one month to cover, delayed only by a failed attempt to exercise leverage through instigating a short-lived massacre in Mhordyn.
== Sequence of events ==
=== Strategic edge established by Harolde Silversmith's loyalist forces ===
Harolde Silversmith, as Duke of Ephellindron, was regarded as a strategic genius and, as such, had anticipated much of the Fellowship's incoming decisions. He alerted his command to likely strategies and had key positions fortified, drawing up intricate plans to catch them off balance and hold them back for the king, Barren II Grenthyx. Silversmith was entrusted to this task by Barren and the rest of his Council (to which Silversmith belonged) due to both his expertise allied with the fact that Ephellindron represented the last obstacle between the Fellowship and the Capital whose breach was unacceptable at any cost to the Grenthyx Dynasty. With Ephellindronian Loylaists equipped with high morale thanks to the Duke, and positions fortified, Ephellindron was ready to resist the Fellowship with the intention of pushing them back shortly thereafter.
=== Initial struggle ===
After heavy losses during the Night of Blood, the Fellowship launched a disparate and ill-prepared offensive immediately, resulting in a localised re-defintion of the notion of 'victory' in the Fellowship stronghold of Dronphelle with it now amounting to a few feet of progress. Fellowship morale became extremely low, both within its infantry ranks but also its leadership, resulting in an early physical split. Forkoux Fyth and his close ally, Tíras Theôs, were seldom seen anywhere near the front lines where they could usually at the very least be found in relative proximity. Instead, they secreted themselves in Dronphelle Castle, attempting to draw up a strategy to avoid outright disaster. This (intentionally) distanced them from Airibi I Root, Lythe Armitage and to a lesser extent, Wilddar Braitbirn. In the former 2 cases, they could instead be found relishing in their newfound independence from what they saw to be the meddling of Forkoux, Tíras and Manton Fisher. As a result, the punishingly formidable loyalist forces who resisted any Fellowship advances were aided in their efforts by mismanagement and disarray in a series of folly, haphazardly arranged attacks spearheaded primarily by the Borrosians and Contrans. Such was the disorganised nature of the Fellowship that by the 18th of September, a whole week following the commencement of the advance, no extra feet beside an abandoned mill on the outskirts of Dronphelle had been gained. By this point, what had previously amounted to low morale among the Fellowship's forces began to transform into tension between each kingdom's divisions. Relatively trivial features of the conflict, such as mild insubordination or perceived stubbornness between each kingdom's forces were liable to spark a more serious shattering of order for the Fellowship, spurred on by brewing reservations regarding the feelings of certain kingdoms (expressed by their leaders) about the state of the advance. 
=== The Advance on Praier ===
The Assault on Praier was one such event of structural calamity, arguably costing the Fellowship the most casualties of any single event in the ruinous advance. Following one whole month of little success, the Fellowship neared the strategically vital village of Praier, a mile or so from the seat of House Silversmith, Castle Silversmith. Having made barely 20 miles of progress in the entire month, Lythe Armitage and Airibi Root, who assumed command of all forces involved in the offensive, being the only Fellowship leaders there, were determined to capture the stronghold after the slow progress. However, attempt after attempt to capture the vital loyalist hub failed, resulting in a rapidly diminishing force through countless deaths. At the beginning of October, after 3 weeks of slow, bloody progress, tensions and resentment finally climaxed when a division of Helmont's Gryhskor Guild defiantly refused a senior Contran figure's order for all Fellowship divines in the area to try for another push - to be obeyed by all. This was seemingly on the grounds that their loyalty lay with Patriarch Forkoux Fyth, whose last word was to defend their current position until further notice. The assault failed, with nearly all Borrosian, Llanoreidic and Contran divions perishing. A messy court martial affair ensued, with senior figures in each Gryhskor Guild division present being demanded to select 3 randomly selected people from them on the charge of cowardice, led primarily by Contra's disgruntled head of retalitary force, Teagus Nora. Hearing of the calamitous affair, Forkoux Fyth insisted he personally defend the accused at the resultant trial in Dronphelle. Much to his chagrin, resentment and shallow feelings of revenge had bottled to result in a highly corrupt trial. In what could have been a pre-determined outcome, the three selected individuals were to be executed, in the words of the jury, (The Borrows' Ronder Bridger, Llanoreid's Alfret Codding and Teagus Nora herself) 'to set an example'. The dire situation left Forkoux at his second lowest point in the conflict and Tíras, always planning in seclusion, at his most isolated - though worse was soon to follow. 
=== Forkoux and Glossop kidnapped ===
Forkoux reached his lowest point of the war thus far. With the Fellowship dispersed, Harolde Silversmith, as leader of the Ephellindronian Loyalists, planned his next move after hearing word of the in-fighting which surrounded the Praier affair. He wished to exploit the Patriarch and lure him away from the rest of the Fellowship, ultimately, with the intention of finally recruiting him to the loyalist side, intending to break him. Indeed, Harolde acted swiftly: shortly after the Assault on Praier, Harolde requested permission to proceed with a plan to capture Forkoux and torment him into joining him, or as he saw it, prove that he was correct about the Helmontan Patriarch. Though bemused by such a request, Barren was only interested in removing Forkoux out of the equation, seeing his absence as a clear precondition to the ending of the conflict. As such, he granted Silversmith permission, and sure enough, a letter inviting Forkoux and one other to a discreet barn some miles south of Dronphelle was sent bearing the King's insignia. This ploy was to trick the already vulnerable Forkoux, desperate for any glimmer of hope in the situation he found himself and his kingdom in, into believing the the letter to be a sincere appeal to begin a period of supposed 'negotiations'.
Naturally, this was but a pretence, as Forkoux and his General, Glossop Eckashel, would realise when, upon their arrival to the barn, they were surrounded and captured to be taken to Castle Silversmith to the south and behind enemy lines. Fyth and Eckashel were sent to different parts of the Castle by Silversmith, with Forkoux free to leave at any point he wished (though this would be incredibly unwise) in a comfortable chamber, and Eckashel in a more secure cell below the Castle. That evening, with Forkoux wallowing over his emotions in his cell at a new low point, Eckashel sighted an opportunity to escape the cell. He had known Harolde had underestimated him by putting him in a barely-secure cell - he had viewed his inclusion in the letter as only a means to further attract Forkoux and failed to consider his fortitude or resourcefulness and only his potential as leverage or as a source of information. Once Eckashel had easily destroyed the bars with his sheer strength and quietly subdued the nearby guard, he made his way out. Soon after that same evening, Eckashel reached Praier a mile to the north of the Castle, and knew he could be useful and scout the city for weak-points. He managed to acquire valuable information regarding what locations were guarded when and the most vulnerable time to attack by the next day, and when he returned to the Fellowship, he informed them of this and of Forkoux's capture. Moreover, Tíras was drawn out of his seclusion and arranged the emergency meeting between all key leaders of the Fellowship in the Castle on the 16th of October, the day following Eckashel's return. The rest of the Fellowship were shocked by the news in the emergency meeting, even Wilddar Braitbirn - known for his reticence in expressing his emotions. The following day was dedicated to coalescing all the Fellowship's forces, with a mixture of Tíras' new plan and ability to unify the forces affording them exceptional morale, with the two aims of securing Praier, and then Castle Silversmith to retrieve Forkoux. 
Meanwhile, concurrently to the Fellowship's miraculous sudden unity, Silversmith was mentally degrading Forkoux to finalise his plan. He spoke of the Fyth's birth-right on his 'winning side', being of House Euphratuman. Harolde even summoned Oliviaria Euphratuman, the mother of Forkoux, to the throne room of the Castle with them. There, Silversmith abruptly murdered the pleading Oliviaria, wanting Forkoux to stop the fighting - once again exploiting his knowledge of Forkoux's thought process. In essence, he knew Forkoux was at such a low point that even the worst event could not elicit a strong emotion in his degraded state, a fact which he knew would shock Forkoux and cause him to resent himself even more, seeing himself as desensitised and questioning his own humanity. In this moment of exquisite pain, Forkoux seemingly and absentmindedly agreed to join with Harolde. However, this was not to last.
=== The Battle of Castle Silversmith and Death of Harolde ===
On the 19th of October (the following day), when Forkoux was summoned yet again to what Harolde anticipated was to be the beginning of a period of negotiations of his entry to their side, but was surprised when Forkoux proclaimed that he had not meant what he said; that he knew Harolde’s game, he exploited him and his mother to his cruel ends, and that however great his reversions against the Fellowship, he knew he had to look beyond his own material anguish to fight against the evil he saw Harolde to command. Fundamentally, Harolde had been wrong, it was he who had the checkmate over Harolde, and not the other way around as Harolde had presumed. Harolde was stunned at this, being the first time he had known himself to be wrong, for he was wrong by his own standards. Because Silversmith thought himself to be always right (inclusive of his standards), he had been incorrect. This loop utterly destroyed Harolde, for Forkoux knew he had not accounted for something he simply knew of not: a sense of the right, of kinship, of compassion and of love for human life. 
Meanwhile, the Fellowship had agreed upon a plan to intercept Praier at an unguarded point - a time slot provided by General Eckashel where guards were retrieving vital supplies arriving via the close-by Oppidan River. In the early hours of the 18th of October, the Fellowship struck, united under Tíras leadership, a new plan. Indeed, the day before, they had acknowledged that though they differed on their personal opinions of Forkoux, they could all concede that he seemed indispensable to their common aims, and that without him they could not wish to succeed. The town is completely secured by midnight, with even the Ephellindronian Loyalists forced to either surrender or retreat to Castle Silversmith. They had displayed fortitude but where unprepared and outmatched with the Fellowship's surprise attack and sheer number of its forces - a feat the Archon of Mhordyn had achieved in spite of its fragmentation mere days prior. 
The following day was also the day of the Battle of Castle Silversmith, with the Fellowship encountering only moderate resistance due to the few remaining Loyalists at hand to protect the Castle. The Fellowship forces' morale remained extremely high; especially now that they were tantalisingly close to securing their target. This only reassured Forkoux of his decision, as what he saw to be his worst enemies mere days earlier had now united to retrieve him. He enjoyed a brief moment of salutations to the forces which now occupied the castle and soon members of the Fellowship themselves, all, much to Forkoux’s amazement, happy to see him after being united under a common cause. Now in the main entrance, Harolde was placed at the centre. Forkoux explained that he saw Harolde’s quarrel with the Fellowship to be business only between the two of them, and declared him his responsibility to see justice brought to. In the instant he looked back to the others however, from behind, a crazed, rabid loyalist prisoner broke free of those holding him behind Harolde, and plunged a dagger concealed in his boot into his back thrice, screaming manically. Forkoux rushed to Harolde, slipping in his haste as he did. He fell to the floor and held the now dying Harolde in his arms, looking into his eyes in the centre monolithic entrance hall, surrounded by shocked onlookers. As the assailant was restrained, and as Forkoux yelled in horror, Harolde, in his dying breaths, explained that he saw that he was defeated in one respect but that there were forces whose workings Forkoux had no grasp of, and that he would take comfort in dying in his very arms knowing something vital that he knew not. That night, Forkoux built a pyre and burned the concealed body in a private location with the two of them, giving Forkoux much to ponder while the other Fellowship leaders, particularly Lythe Armitage and Airibi I Root, celebrated in Castle Silversmith at their victory. 
=== Staggering Advances ===
Following the resounding victory, the Fellowship held another meeting, this time in the newly claimed Castle Silversmith. Its leaders and advisors sat and agreed a plan of action. To their surprise, Forkoux attended despite the exhausting few days he had, appearing in a lighter mood. Once again, they united in their desire to see the route to the Capital cleared swiftly. It was here where Forkoux explained the plan when they reached the Capital: to wait for two weeks on on side, with the C'thardji on the other led by Ch'mazi who would arrive from the south. Lythe Armitage, Airibi Root and Wilddar Braitbirn reluctantly agreed, if only to appear somewhat polite to the Helmontan patriarch in view of recent events. In reality, they had reservations regarding the plan. Fyth explained that the wait was to cause fear in the occupying Grenthyx forces, sowing doubt and resulting in as many surrenders as possible and thus the fewest casualties by the time they would attack the city. Nonetheless, the immediate plan to move through the remainder of Ephellindron was actualised. The move, to act fast and hard, was intended to make as much progress as possible before the Dynasty could summon too many reinforcements. In a confused state following the death of Harolde, many of their forces remained in the Capital for some time in this period, a reuslt of poor and impulsive decision making in the highest levels.
Indeed, by the middle of November, the Fellowship had progressed south owing to a combination of most loyalist forces in Ephellindron being defeated and key information being extracted from those imprisoned thanks to Glossop Eckashel, who had been entrusted with overseeing the prisoners. After just over a further week worth of progress, in late November, the Fellowship were so close to the outermost walls of the Capital that they were ahead of their schedule. Meanwhile, Grenthyx Generals began to grow anxious and desperately saw the need to draw up a plan. Though their reinforcements had arrived and slowed progress, they could not hold back their advance indefinitely. Back at the Royal Palace in the Capital, upon receiving word that with the reinforcements they spared who were not stationed at the proportionately over-defended Capital, little hope existed that they could keep the Fellowship at bay for much longer. 
=== Trouble in Nearby Mhordyn ===
Their plan was to establish leverage over the ever-advancing group, desperate to keep them away from the Capital. Hastily agreeing, King Barren II authorised an operation to send a battalion through a weakly-guarded segment of the sturdy Preôs line, break through and begin to slaughter the Mhordynian population in the area, forcing the Fellowship to halt if they wished for the killing to stop. Notorious Opian eccentric and Lord of Halloran Island, Pyter Hiedlande, was desperately temporarily called away from the ongoing Opian Advancement to supply the Dynasty immediately with an experimental powder-based explosive weapon - the first of its kind. Hiedlande, who had been researching and developing such possibilities, quickly made his way to the Capital, allowing the weapon to be used to easily open a remarkable path through the Preôs line with a battalion consisting mostly of redirected forces previously resisting the Fellowship in Ephellindron. In addition to Hiedlande, the Dynasty had also enlisted the assistance of the fearsome General Seiį of Cúrovi to head the operation.
News of the beginning of a massacre soon reached the ears of the Fellowship, who heeded the demands of a letter declaring the Dynasty's terms to cease the massacre distributed to them by Seiį's close Rovi representative, The Shadowy Delegate. All the Fellowship were saddened at the very least of the developing crisis in the east of Mhordyn Seiį and the battalion were perpetuating. However, Airbi, Lythe and Wilddar concurred with their councils (particularly Ronder Bridger, Cesil Burnwyn, Alfret Codding and Teagus Nora) that it would be foolish to falter for too long when they were so close to the Capital, and that the sacrifice of the innocents being slaughtered in Mhordyn would be for a noble cause. Rejecting this was Tíras and Forkoux and their respective councils, prominently including a livid Manton Fisher. In view of the fact that Fisher's parents resided in the affected area of eastern Mhordyn, and that he and his wife, the now frightened Moira Fisher, had married there, he was adamant that the only moral course of action was to find an alternative route which avoided the bloodshed. When questioned on the specifics of this however, the typically brute Fisher suggested with many expletives that he cared not what a group of amoralistic warmongers thought when it came to not only the lives of his family, but of his people too - a sentiment deeply respected by the Theôs Archon. 
Though Forkoux too was deeply affected by the prospect of many innocents dying, he had quickly taken to preparing for what he knew he now had to do. The very evening of the day the Fellowship had received the Shadowy Delegate's eponymous warning to the group, and in the midst of his grieving allies' conversations, Forkoux had planned to ride his steed, Elisis into danger and risking his own life, to deliver a message to the mightiest family in the east of Mhordyn and strongest allies of Tíras, House Veiôs of Dùnhal. He knew, though, that Tíras would be consulted for the plan, which he explained later in the evening. His allies were all sceptical, however he explained that if he could alert them to the need for all those loyal to every Mhordyn house still standing, he could buy precious time through opening up negotiations with the Dynasty's battalion on a faux-surrender. Once in place, the Dynasty, by borrowing from the tactics of Harolde earlier in the Ruinous Advance, would be lulled into a false sense of security with a pretence of negotiated surrender. This would then allow time for a small amount of forces from the Fellowship to rendezvous at Dùnhal Castle, crossing Ephellindron, but also for those houses loyal to the Archon to rally with them, ready to launch a decisive counter-attack. With the plan in place, the rest of the Fellowship were alerted to the plan the next day; an aspect of management in their ranks those unsympathetic to what they perceived to be sentimental drivel of their rivals resented. However, seeing the plan's supposedly quick nature attracted them, for it represented a suitably fast period of time in which they presumed that their view, to press on, would be vindicated and the proponents of the current plan embarrassed. Airibi and Lythe, liking nothing more than the prospect of returning to good progress and embarrassing Fyth at the same time, agreed to let the others have their fun and attempt the plan.
That evening, on the 23rd of November, Forkoux rode at considerable speed on Elisis, arriving at Dùnhal by the next day. Once there, he relayed a plea from Tíras, an impassioned but brief summation of their desperate situation. Lord Artair Veiôs immediately sent out riders to distribute the message to the other houses of Mhordyn, while Fyth thanked them for their hospitality and left to begin the faux negotiations with the Shadowy Delegate, who had been sent notice of Fyth's arrival. This marked his first engagement with anyone in the Fellowship. Though disgusted by his evil presence, ordinarily a mechanism of intimidation, Fyth began the talks and thus the vital period of stalling, using verbose language and adding carefully worded complexities to the proceedings. By the end of the day, Forkoux had delayed talks so that they could resume the following day, allowing Tíras to lead a selection of Mhordyn's forces and Glossop Eckashel leading some Gryhskor forces to cross from Ephellindron to Dùnhal under the cover of darkness - aided by the fact that the negotiations had paused the widespread massacre. This had also allowed time for the other houses of Mhordyn to begin to arrive with their loyalists in response to the massacre, news they were all unanimously disgusted at, willing to sacrifice all to protect the vulnerable in the area. Tíras, now a triumphant Archon who had unified these houses, was poised to lead them into battle among the likes of Jaymes Saeôs. 
As negotiations resumed the following day, an increasingly suspicious and impatient Shadowy Delegate made Forkoux ever-more acutely aware of the increasing danger he was in by delaying further. However, the onslaught of forces to rival the battalion of Dynasty soldiers soon arrived, prompting Forkoux to attempt to make an escape during a conveniently timed break in the talks. Fyth mounted his Horse and escaped, but was pursued by the Delegate, also on horseback, flanked by 4 dynasty riders. Eckashel noted Fyth's nearby position, heading to the ensuing battle, and dismounted his own horse to allow him to use it after seeing that Forkoux's beloved steed, Elisis, had fallen and been killed by one of the skilled Dynasty riders. Due to being shot by an arrow, the Patriarch of Helmont still had a small lead over the incoming agitators. The most physically dangerous situation he had ever been in, he ran at the greatest speed his legs would carry him to the midst of the nearby battle where he was just able to mount Eckashel's steed. Fortunately, Gryhskor Guild members had prevented the Delegate and his riders from nearing Forkoux some time earlier without his knowledge. With Forkoux fleeing to the safety of Dùnhal away from the battle with multiple members of the Gryhskor Guild for protection, the battle was soon over and riders sent to the rest of the Fellowship signalling for them to assist in driving the stragglers out of Mhordyn. Agreeing with surprise, Airibi, Lythe and Wilddar recieved word later that day and caught stragglers to the south attempting to fortify two villages. They prevented this by the end of the day and sent them into retreat, either back to the Capital or into the Chaestlands to the south. Though Forkoux was left deeply saddened by the loss of his steed, the mood was jovial that they had prevented the massacre and Forkoux congratulated for his remarkable stalling to allow them to convene, with a degree of reluctant praise coming from the other members of the Fellowship.
However, the joy was short-lived for the Patriarch's high aide and his wife. On their way back, paying a visit to his parents' cottage, Manton discovered that it had been too late to save them from their fates. Moira joined him in grieving their loss, bringing the reality of the conflict to the forefront for her for the first time. Forkoux comforted the both of them on the way back to their position in Ephellindron, soon ready to press on. Indeed, shortly thereafter, and much to Airibi, Lythe and Wilddar's satisfaction, progress was made once more in the few remaining miles left to the walls of the Capital. 5 days after the Fellowship reconvened, on the 2nd of December, this goal was reached, thereby ending the Ruinous Advance - by far the bloodiest and most costly period which the Uprootings saw. 
Category:Events