Telesian War

The Telesian War was a conflict between the Plainspeople and several human realms occurring during the late 7th Century. It resulted in a Pyrrhic victory for humanity and the formation of the Dianfirric states of Eurygia and, more recently, Frankvisk.

## Background

The presence of the Plainspeople on the coast of the Ursyan Sea had been seen as a great risk for centuries - if they managed to contact the Town-on-the-Water or the Fjordmen, it could spell the end for humanity as the People cooperated.

However, while this problem was well-circulated in the upper echelons of society, it was viewed with a certain degree of dismissal. The scholars of the human world pressed the nobles to intervene, but the noblemen would not be so easily convinced to throw themselves into a meat-grinder.

The scholars' chance came during the late 7th Century. The Tyrant Eurygios of Cyclos, while otherwise sound, was prone to bouts of insanity. During one of these attacks, he claimed the supreme god Ekdos had appeared before him and ordered that the city of Telesis be retaken.

These claims were widespread and common at the time, but it was rare for such a high-born figure to issue one, and the city of Telesis - abandoned since the Great Gap - was right in the middle of the Plainspeople's hold on the coast.

The scholars amplified and pressed this claim. They made sure it was heard, and appealed to the religious sides of the noblemen. While some of these nobles no doubt knew they were being manipulated, they were at risk of being outed as heathens if they refused the call to arms. The nation of Cyclos was rallied to the banners, and in 683, with the backing of the neighbouring Kingdom of Carusia, the gates of war were opened.

## Opening Stages

A small expedition led by Strategos Enceladas of Demelca landed in the realm of the Plainspeople in June 683. They initially caught the Plainspeople by surprise, defeating them at the Battle of Gatara and the Battle of Thessenios. However, no support was forthcoming, and Enceladas' column was forced to retreat to Cyclos in September of the same year.

The next year, Enceladas led a larger expedition. This time the Plainspeople were ready for them, and Enceladas lost badly at the Battle of Byzesos. His expedition headed east, taking refuge in the human Kingdom of Radynkia, which until now had been watching the proceedings with bemusement.

Radynkia officially worshipped the traditional Rydrovian Pantheon, but had a large Ekdianist minority on the coast, and when they heard firsthand of Eurygios' vision this minority was radicalised. Pressure was put on the Radynkian Diet, and in December 684 Radynkia pledged its support to the cause.

The campaign of 685 led to the first capture of Telesis in July. Shortly afterwards, a Plainspeople relief column recaptured the city and dispersed the human forces - while the Cyclosians and Radynkians retreated to the northeast, the Carusian Strategos Vaserias of Geloudon led his men south after the city was taken. This led to disaster when the Plainspeople pursued the Carusians and obliterated the force at the Battle of Helacia. This marked the end of Carusian involvement in the war.

## Ghornish Involvement

After Helacia, the Cyclosians travelled back home to take part in the harvest, while the Radynkians did the same. There was no campaign in 686, and the 687 expedition led by the Radynkian Ksiaz Gintaras Sarnecki was weak at best. Human forces made it halfway to Telesis before being turned back at the Battle of Pharigus.

By this time, news of the conflict had filtered down to the great nation of Ghorny. While the republican government was uninterested in conflict and, like Radynkia, had been looking on in bemusement, the Czars of the seven Ghornish Stranyas were more warlike and, after decades of peace, wanted a change to wet their blades.

The Czars of the Stranyas of Belgodonsk, Korokhovo and Timapol gave the Telesian alliance an offer of assistance in February of 688. The beleaguered Cyclosians saw this offer as too good to be true, and delayed a response by several months to test the Ghornish offer. When the Ghornish did not waver in their repeated offer in May, the alliance accepted the offer.

The Stranya of Belgodonsk reached the alliance first - being largely composed of cavalry, the mounted portion had forged ahead and left its infantry with the slower Korokhovan and Timapolian armies. The combined armies of Cyclos, Radynkia and Belgodonsk marched forth in June 688. They captured Telesis with ease and pressed their advantage, pushing the Plainspeople back as far as the foothills of the Zapardian Mountains.

The involvement of the professional armies of Ghorny meant a great deal with regard to the war effort - these professional forces could be left to hold captured territory over the autumn and winter rather than being sent home to gather the harvest.

By the campaign season of 690, a large Plainspeople force had amassed near the Zapardians. When the forces of Cyclos and Radynkia returned to the field, the Belgodonskoy cavalry cut the Plainspeople's supply lines and forced them into the mountains. With Timapol's citizen-cavalry patrolling the foothills, this Plainspeople army did not emerge from the mountains again - they either travelled west along the spine of the range and rejoined their own realm from there, or crossed straight through and into Svinnya or Korletsvoy. If the latter, this army may be the one defeated by the Korletsians in 693.

## Endgame

By now the stage was set for a relative peace. The Plainspeople, with the loss of this army, was less able to contest the capture of Telesis. A series of forts left over from before the Gap were recommissioned as border forts running from the Ursyan Sea to the Zapardian Mountains, and these were then bolstered by the construction of two dozen new emplacements at the cost of the Tyrant of Cyclos.

The agreement of Cyclos, Radynkia and Ghorny was that the newly-conquered lands - dubbed Eurygia - would become a Dianfirric state - like the Dhum Teic or Karnavorsk, they would be settled both by willing pioneers and forced resettlement, and would serve to support the international force of volunteers manning the network of border forts.

For the first ten years after the second capture of Telesis, the Stranya of Korokhovo left half its army to assist in the establishment and defence of Eurygia, as well as a third of the Belgodonskoy expedition. Tyrant Eurygios rooted through his court for architects, engineers, merchants and tradesmen to turn Telesis from a ghost town back into a functioning city.

## Frankvisk

By the 730's, Eurygia had become a fully-functioning nation. Governed by the Order of the Silver Rope, it maintained friendly diplomatic relations with its liberators, and its border forts were still mainly manned by a mixture of Cyclosians, Rydrovians and Varslavlians.

Recruitment for the forts was going so well, in fact, that the nation was running out of billets. In 735, the Silver Rope's Grandmaster Vytauta Syoboridin remarked that, due to the now-tradition of the Belgodonskoy garrison patrolling outside the border, the Plainspeople had been pushed back further. In fact, with every patrol the Plainspeople slunk further back into their realm.

The very next year, the Order began to plan. By 740, Eurygia was beginning to gain international support for an invasion further west. This would later become the Vytautan War.