Ceolhare Rebellion

**The** **Ceolhare Rebellion,** also known as **The Marshal Uprising** is an event that took place in the Earldom of Flynn between 1306 and 1308. This rebellion began shortly after the Barony of Ceolhare was awarded to Lord Baron Garret Roote with simple raids on the villages by small gangs of bandits and quickly erupted into a full fledged rebellion with the backing of several northern clans. This rebellion would be closely monitored and directed by Baron Rootes closest advisor, Marshal Ulrich of Yorik.

## Background

During the turbulent years of the Flynn Raids, many peasants and townsfolk were forced to displace during the raids to prevent being captured or killed. These same people were distraught to find out that the newly elected Lord Baron Roote did not help them in restoring their villages and towns. The small monastery village of Alfaro is a good example of this neglect as even 30 years after the Flynn Raids, the village remains abandoned and destroyed, with many of the original villagers including the confessor turned outlaw Vlasis Baroglou, still roaming the countryside.

The lack of care in the region, mostly thanks to the uncaring Lord Baron enraged one of his closest advisors, Ulrich, who wished nothing more than to take out the Lord Baron and take the crown for himself. Unfortunately for him, the title of Lord Baron was barred off from him, as his low-born status prevented any noble title being granted to him. Instead of murdering him and waiting for another Lord Baron to take his place, Ulrich decided to raise numbers of disgruntled peasant ruffians in the wild, by paying them a hefty bribe and giving them castle equipment stolen from Ceolhare, and cause more trouble for Lord Baron Roote in order to force him into helping the population.

After a few weeks without any action, Ulrich was forced to step up the crisis by hiring larger forces of outlaws and insurgents as well as support from the clans to form a rebel army that will be stationed in the Ceolhare countryside to pillage and raid nearby villages, with their first being the town of Kinshaw.

## Factions

### The Ceolhare Rebel Army

The rebel army, being led by Marshal Ulrich and a trio of subordinate commanders that act as the leading head officially, led an army with the strength of around 170 men initially. Most of these men were former serfs of nearby villages and clansmen from the Milk Snake clan, a troublesome savage clan that plagues the Ceolhare Barony, with the very rare few robber knights. Although many were simply in with the rebel army for the chaos and loot they receive from the fights, some were fighting in the army because they were tired of Lord Baron Roote's rule in the Ceolhare Barony, and the marshal promised a new, just rule if he were to take over the barony. Marshal Ulrich pulled this meagre army together which would only swell in numbers as this underground war would emerge into something more prominent and important in the Earldom of Flynn.

### The Earldom of Flynn

Although skeptical of the uprising at first, assuming it was just another bandit incursion that the militia's can handle, Lord Baron Garret Roote did not care to take this matter seriously. His antics were especially careless as he failed to notice how his close advisor, Ulrich was planning to revolt against him for most of the rebellion. Although the Earldom's strength was not present at the Barony, even most of the militia's have been taken to a conflict in the east against the Holy Empire of Visimar, the number of militia present in the Barony numbered around 100, with plenty of other militia's belonging to outlying village and town leaders. Although the illusion that Marshal Ulrich was in command of this small garrison force, the true nature of the leadership in this army fell onto the Baron's chancellor, who is incompetent in the military role.

## Events

As small-time raiding and robbing were in play early in 1306, nobody of note paid any mind to its grand nature. It was not until the sacking and occupation of Kinshaw in 1307 by a group of "outlaws" that attracted the attention of the Earl himself to kindly ask Baron Roote to intervene before the situation becomes more rampant.

### The Kinshaw Sack

Kinshaw has been known to be under constant attack during times of crisis in the Ceolhare Barony as many battles took place within the village itself in the past couple of decades. Recently however, a group of armed men, numbering in the dozens marched onto the still-recovering settlement of Kinshaw in the middle of the night to ransack and occupy the town. This sudden capture forced the Baron to take drastic measures as to not upset the Earl. After several gangs came up to take claim to the sacking of Kinshaw, Baron Roote hired a band of sellswords to go and deal with one of the biggest gangs in the area that directly threaten the town of Ceolhare, a band of clansmen and outlaws led by the infamous Draggor the Bear; the most dangerous culprit of the sacking.

### The Raid on Draggor's Camp

After the discovery of several criminal camps all around the Ceolhare barony, Baron Roote enlisted the help from several veteran sell-swords settling in the Ceolhare Tavern to hunt down the main culprit of the raid. After scouting the camp, the Baron took the camp by force with the strength of a dozen town militia as well as the sellswords which had scouted the camp earlier. The raid was a success, albeit with several losses, and allowed the Barony to gain insight on further plans on the region. This discovery not only made it easier for Barony soldiers to track and destroy camps, but it gave the idea that this raid was apart of a much bigger plan that could wipe out the entire barony in another war.

### The Recapture of Kinshaw

As the events at Draggor's Camp reached every part of the Barony, many rebel leaders who were already planning major moves into the barony begun mustering forces to capture other towns in the Barony. Their plans were stumped however as just in a few days, several disgruntled peasants as well as a few hired swords from the Kinshaw mercenary den rose against the defenders of Kinshaw in the night by slitting throats and trapping many in a barn. This sudden retaliation forced the underprepared rebel army to spring out and capture Kinshaw once again. However, as they were marching onto the field they noticed the Baron's army coming out to meet them. The Battle of Broken Men soon occurred with a seemingly even fight, as both sides had around the same number of men except the Baron's army had a substantial number of longbowmen which led to the demise of many rebels during the battle. Despite this however, the Baron's army were forced from the field after a surprising amount of Milksnake clansmen emerged from the nearby hills and drove the tired and weary soldiers off the field.

After the battle, and the capture of Baron Roote's chancellor, Ortwin, the village of Kinshaw was finally put to the torch and the entire settlement was razed. The defeat and razing shook the barony as nobody expected a fully organized rebellion was underway. This troubling news forced Baron Roote to return from his trip from Yorik at the head of the rest of the Baron's militia, hardened from a border conflict with the Elf Kingdom of Kunid.

### The Siege of Ceolhare

After the defeat of Ortwin at the battle outside Ceolhare, he was quickly hauled to the rebels camp where he was hanged, drawn and quartered in front of the rebel army. With the Ceolhare militia approaching the barony from the east, Marshal Ulrich and his depleted army took Ceolhare by storm after an infiltrator opened the gates. After taking the castle, Ulrich sacked the town beyond the walls, killing many of the townsmen who still lurked in Ceolhare, and prepared for a long siege. After the arrival of the army from the East, they quickly approached Ceolhare to besiege its walls, but before the army arrived at the town, they were ambushed by a group of rebel soldiers being led by a party of veteran sellswords. After the ambush, the army laid siege on Ceolhare with what remained of the decimated army.

The Siege lasted over 4 months with no clear winner until the commander of the Ceolhare army, Commander Manfred ordered an assault on the famished defenders. The determination of the rebel men, coupled with the assistance of a few sellswords, broke the siege and scattered the army across the barony.

### The Scourge of Ceolhare

Shortly after the Battle of Ceolhare, Baron Garret Roote managed to escape along with a select few sellswords he had hired to protect him and the rest of the Baron's militia fled to the Order of the Hen where Grand Master Richard Weis offered their support for another combined attack against the rebels.

Shortly after the destruction of Ceolhare after the lengthy siege and subsequent assault, the rebel army under Marshal Ulrich razed what remained of it and departed for Aletown, the Rebel's next target. After what had happened to Ceolhare, Earl (Name) was finally convinced that a military intervention with Flynn's depleted army would be needed to settle the rebellion and promised to send levies from the eastern baronies and the Yorik City Militia so long that Roote's forces would fight the rebels beforehand. Roote begrudgingly accepted the terms and marched towards Aletown, where its walled village was being breached by the rebel army, along with a large contingent of Milk Snakes and Dead Foot clansmen led by Pruvell the Chieftess of the Milk Snakes.

The Battle of Aletown would ultimately decide the fate of Roote's and Ulrich's forces as the outnumbered but highly armored and knightly core of Roote's army would face off against the much larger force of rebels; many of whom are simply bandits and peasant insurgents armed with farming implements and simple and looted chainmail armor. Bolstered by a sallying force of 60 militiaman from Aletown, Roote's force would be forced to withdraw as a wild charge by caterans by the two clans broke through the militia's battle line and flooded through to surround his force, but not without killing almost 300 rebels in the process. The Order of the Hen would also be destroyed as Grand Master Richard Weis and his senior knights were struck down in the intense fighting with the clansmen along with 50 of the 55 knights apart of the order.

The destruction of the Order of the Hen would throw the castle into disarray, forcing the servants and retainers of the castle's garrison to pack up and ask for service in other orders while the survivors of the battle would simply do the same or become hedge knights.

Marshal Ulrich would escape the battle, going north with a small contingent of rebel survivors and finally regroup with a small band of Visimarian paramilitii who were arriving from an expedition through the Dwarf Kingdoms of Nord at the behest of the Holy Empire. This revelation in Ceolhare would shock the entire Earldom as this would be the first example of Declaratio Fidei et Dominii being forced upon a kingdom in Clamund using a band of hired men to forcefully disrupt regions for conquest.

### Visimarian Intervention

With the intervention of Visimarian paramilitii assisting the rebel army, news quickly spread across Clamund of Visimar's involvement in the Earldom's rebellion which prompted outcry in Yorik to join the 3rd Lambertian-Visimarian War with most baronies in the east of Flynn to organize and mobilize into a fighting force.