The Selenite Wars

**The Selenite Wars** refer to a series of conflicts that took place from 331-362 A.B., lasting a total of 31 years. The article on Selenism covers the subject briefly, but this article will have a more detailed, thorough account of the wars.

## First War

**The Selenite wars** began in 331 A.B., when The Kingdom of Crestopolis invaded the Kingdom of Woctae, for both political and religious reasons. In response, the states of Cor Cardia, The Kingdom of Hyatin, and The Bluharan Confederacy (in addition to several other states), formed a political league called **The Selenite League**, and promptly declared war on Crestopolis, citing their attack on a fellow Selenite state, "a Nation of the Faith", according to the King of the Hyatin, in 332 A.B. as being an imperialistic move.

As the Hyatin and Bluharans had little to no naval prowess, the war would primarily be concerned between Crestopolis and Cor Cardia. Although Cor Cardia had lost virtually all of its overseas holdings, their navy was still quite strong and robust, easily comparable to Crestopolis' navy. Crestopolis would easily overwhelm Woctae's navy, and subsequently conquered the southern half of Luhan. Shifting focus further south, the Cardish and Crestopolian navies met near the northern tip of West Azurial (in Agave) in summer 332 A.D., called the Battle of Cfado, which remains as one of the largest naval battles in Flairian history. Although both sides incurred heavy losses, the Cardish navy was defeated and headed back to Ilmeridium for repairs over the autumn.

That same autumn, the Vasiliasa of the Fifth Azurite Vasigala suddenly died with no heir, and a succession crisis shortly ensued. Seeking an opportunity, the Crestopolian King, Pe'rofratas, sent his daughter with an army to take over the empire, and establish herself as vasiliassa. The army was quickly able to seize the capital of Adollis, and she was quickly coronated as Vasiliassa Razhatas II, taking an Azurite name and forming the Shamunewas Dynasty. Immediately afterwards though, insurgents (primarily backed by the Hyatin and Bluharans), rose up in the southern half of the Empire's contiguous holdings, and the Empire would be primarily engulfed in a civil war lasting for most of the Selenite Wars, and would be of little support to Crestopolis.

Regardless of this, Pe'rofratas was ambitious, and sought to knock The Hyatin out of the war. The Bluharans were distracted by an invasion from Amelia, which subsequently began the Peras' War, and as such would not be too involved. To the west, the Cardish army was both distracted by their naval loss and negligible in strength compared to what Crestopolis' could muster. Crestopolis outnumbered Hyatin and Cor Cardia combined in population, and then some, and would raise a larger army. Other various Kingdoms, such as the Kingdom of Khisbaldee, the Kingdom of Matria, and various Pyric-Nunnshirean states had sent small reinforcements to Hyatin, after it had become obvious Crestopolis would try to invade The Hyatin. An invasion of this sort would be undoubtedly brutal- The Hyatin had perhaps some of the roughest terrain known to man, and Crestopolis would be at a significant positional disadvantage. The Hyatin Capital, Purqaromei, was situated in a valley fairly deep within the Liquid Mountains.

Pe'rofratas amassed a great army, some 100,000 strong, to march deep into the Liquid Mountains in the spring of 333 A.B., They landed near modern-day Azurial and headed west into the mountains. Alas, once they entered Hyatin territory the march went awry. The Hyatin had prepared for an incoming invasion, and planned accordingly. They engaged in guerilla warfare tactics, combined with a territorial advantage and whittled down the invading army down significantly. Not only that, the invading army was having issues with maintaining supplies and resources, they had initially expected to survive off the land as much as possible, but the Hyatin countryside was far less forgiving than anticipated. Nonetheless, after several months of traversing the land, they arrived in the end of fall in 333 A.B., by now their army was some 25,000 strong, a quarter of what it initially was. The Hyatin army and the Crestopolian army met a few kilometers outside of the capital, and a battle ensued. The battle went on for several days, but the Hyatin were able to defeat the invasion force, killing thousands, and capturing almost all of the remaining forces. The battle of Purqaromei marked the end of the first series of wars in the Selenite Wars, as the Crestopolians spent several years dealing with internal struggles, as just a year later the Treaty of Lieterdore would significantly reshape the internal structure of Crestopolis.

## Second War

Following this defeat by Crestopolis, they would spend about 6 years rebuilding their forces. They had maintained complete naval dominance over Blue, and routinely harrassed the Cards' whenever they attempted to rebuild their navy. This time, they sought to knock out any forces remaining in Nerdensburg (Auuvsia, Matria). In this, they established the colony on the northern tip of modern day Auuvsia, called Qorcei in 339 AB. From there they would use this as a launch pad to their attacks in Auuvsia and Matria. The Kingdom of Khisbaldee had never participated much in the Selenite Wars' and had already ended its participation for now, and as such were not deemed a target by Crestopolis. Their main focuses would be the Kingdom of Matria, and Kingdom of Har in Matria.