First battle of Ashuran

Erûs Abišĭras stood at the front of the force of 4,000, having been made commander after the nearly 60 year old Hur ĭna had been taken ill. The sun was low in the sky, and yet the bronze armour of his men shone as though they each had a small part of the it in them. At midday he would march for Ashuranushir and would return as either a hero or in a casket, only time would tell which was to happen.

At midday, when the civilians of Ashuran would be relaxing and hiding away from the fierce sun he began crossing the river son, leading a series of horsemen across first who scouted ahead to distract the assumed limited defensive forces ahead of the main force. Over the next hour all of Erûs’ men would be over, with their bombards being hauled by teams of slaves all the way to the city. At the city arrow fire had been going on for a while, with limited casualties on both sides, with the defenders suspecting their advisories where just desert savages from the north east so hadn’t bothered to call on their compatriots who rested unarmoured in their barracks. They would soon regret this as the standard of the Republic begun to appear over the horizon, then another and then a wall of men, each covered in light bronze armour with short swords and spears at their sides and a small hide shield to protect them selves.

Bells rung out over the city as men scrambled to man the walls with what ever they could grab at the time, mainly spears and bows, though arrows would prove hard to find. Erûs positioned his lines across from the gate of the city, having his men build small wooden barricaded to hide from arrow fire whilst the bombards where dragged to the front. A small army of people then started to load charges and then large boulders into the great cast behemoths before someone gave the order to fire. When they finally fired it was as though all the thunder in the world had just been released, with 5 of the 6 launching a massive barrage that tore down the sandstone walls as though they where paper, the 6th having split, ripping apart the left flank of the force and scattering bodies everywhere. With little time to get a grasp of this unexpected situation Erûs called out “Pah Urudik!”, “For Urudik” Before charging his war horse towards the wall, then followed by an echoing of this chant and all his army then following.

The fighting in the city was bloody and brutal, with it being reported as being more akin to a slave massacre than a battle, the limited defenders would be cut down where they stood and those who managed to escape and fight on being vastly outnumbered and out gunned. Many heros would make themselves known in this battle, such as Peth Kisur who was able to halt a cavalry attack single-handedly by littering the camels path with red hot coals. She would be killed when her shop was demolished by a series of shots from heavy cannons. Others where noted on their heroic actions trying to rescue civilians from the battle like the wealthy merchant Yarûd Nanukh who used his small river ships to get women and children over the river to the Kisurani port of Dashir. He was able to help over 2,000 people escape the battle before the battle moved to the riverside it became inaccessible by boat.

Eventually, though, resistance would fail and by the end of the week the city would under Urudik rule once again, with a huge victory under his belt Sabahras Yahatĭr would go on to be re-elected the next year and Erûs would ascend to the permanent commander of Urudiks armies after the untimely death of Hur ĭna, with the aim of becoming Sabahras one day.