Battle of Red Reach

### Location

Lorenan's Reach, to the northeast of the site of the previous Battle of Rosefield.

### Result

* Lencori victory.
* The Small Kingdom is freed from Gawedi rule and put under Lorenan's protection.
* The Gawedi Invasions of Lencenor come to an end, with the Alenics being driven back to Vertesk.

Belligerents| * High Kingdom of Lencenor
* Kingdom of Rubyhold
* Small Kingdom

Commanders and Leaders| * High King Lorenan the Great
* King of the Entebics
* King Fizwick I Allspark
* King of the Tretunics
* King of the Sormanni
* Bolin Stonearm
* Prince Alenn Gawe

Casualties|  | * Prince Ulric the Eagle
* Prince Alenn Gawe (due to wounds received during the battle)

The **Battle of Red Reach** was the clash that marked the end of the Lencori Warlord Period. The amalgamation of Lencori armies led by their new High King, Lorenan the Great, met the last invading army of the Gawedi Kingdom in the fields north of the Ruby Mountains which would later be known as Lorenan's Reach and the Duchy of Rosefield/Laseán

## Prelude

With the Gawedi warlords being expelled from Lencenor itself after the Battle of Rosefield in 525, Lorenan and his combined host returned south to Lorentei, where the Lorenti king was crowned High King of Lencenor with the support of the kings of the Sormanni, Entebic, Iochander and Tretunic kingdoms and the blessing of the Dwarven King of Rubyhold, who presented the masterwork that is the Ruby Crown as a gift to the new High King. The Lencori celebrated, but all knew that the region wasn't safe yet.

### Preparations

With the remaining Gawedi warlord scattered around the Small Kingdom, King Godrac II Gawe saw an opportunity to absorb them into his growing realm and finally break the Lencori resistance. To this end, he gathered a great host and placed it under the command of his firstborn and favourite son: the famed Prince Ulric Gawe, called "The Eagle" by his men after his bravery and the coat of arms of his family. Prince Godryc Gawe, his middle brother, was initially chosen as second-in-command of the Gawedi host, but his untimely death led to the younger brother, Alenn Gawe, to go with Ulric instead of staying in Vertesk. And so, in the late spring of 529, they left Vertesk and headed southwest.

High King Lorenan received word of this great Gawedi host from the remaining Lencori tribes in the Lorentish Approach, and wasted no time in meaningless discussion. He sent messages for all kings who owed him allegiance to gather their men and left Lorentei on the 10th of Suren, riding southwest.

Thus began Lorenan's Ride, as the High King rode far and wide with his famed rose banner. His vassals on the lower Bloodwine were the first to meet him, Rubenti petty kings that had submitted to the High King in the past years, and they refused to follow his call only for their will to be overruled by their own subjects, who joined Lorenan en masse. Still riding southwest, he met both the Sormanni and Entebic kings at New Adea, where his infant son Caylen met his would-be wife Herlinda for the first time as their parents affirmed their alliance. With the Entebics on his side and the Sormanni loyal, the High King rode east. He hoped to meet the Tretunic king and, gods willing, convince the king of Carneter to join the struggle, but he found both rulers in a serious feud over the lands taken by Carneter during the years following the fall of the Lencori Empire. Unable to deal between the kings and with time as his enemy, Lorenan left the West Dameshead with the loyalty of the Tretunics, while the Carnetoris fortified their northern borders and rejected the notion of a High King ruling over the Carnetoris dynasty.

With the might of all loyal soldiers south of the Ruby mountains, the combined Lencori army began its march north in late Teysuren as Lorenan and a portion of his Lorentish cavalry rode to the northwest, crossing the Ruby Pass and going around the Redwood. They arrived at the Iochander court in Roynoms, where two whole days of negotiations were held before the High King secured the Iochander troops. On his way back east he secured an alliance with the Halfling prince of Roysfort and finally met his united Lencori army at Rosefield, near the place where he had beaten the Gawedi four years prior.

Studying the area, the Lencori built a series of fortified camps next to the Southroy river, where they met an army of dwarves from Rubyhold led by General Bolin Stonearm and a number of Halfling troops coming from Roysfort, honouring their new alliance and the call to arms.

The Gawedi host spent the summer subjugating the Gawedi warlords in the Small Kingdom, and finally approached the Lencori positions in mid Bloomsend. After a week of movements, the two armies faced each other in the fields next to the Southroy.

## The Battle

With the Southroy river protecting the Gawedi right flank and the Lencori left flank, the order of battle was simple: infantry in the center and cavalry in the only available flank.

Both armies clashed in the open field, and it was in one of these clashes when Lorenan himself took command of the infantry at the center, leading from the front. Prince Alenn Gawe saw his personal banner (the Lorentis Rose) and challenged him to single combat right there amongst the corpses of Dwarves, Halflings and Men. Both men duelled until Lorenan, ten years older than the young prince, got a hit in. There was a commotion in the Gawedi host, and Prince Ulric himself surged forward and pushed his brother away forcefully, taking his place in the duel. Both Ulric and Lorenan were famed leaders of men and of a similar age, but in the end the High King bested his foe with a precise sword thrust to his neck. Morale amidst the Gawedi plummeted, and they broke with the next cavalry charge.

The day was won, and the invasion was over.

## Aftermath

High King Lorenan returned the body of Prince Ulric to the retreating Gawedi, who were sent on a long and ruinous march back towards Vertesk while escorted by Lorentish cavalry all the way to the Lorentish Approach, later called by Gawedi historians the March of the Broken Eagle. Wounded, tired and without any good will from the local populations, they suffered from a general lack of supplies even with the Lencori troops giving them food. Prince Alenn himself is said to have fallen deep into depression, blaming himself for the death of his older brother, and he succumbed to his wounds a week after the battle was over.

With this victory the rule of Lorenan was secured for the rest of his life, with him achieving his modern image of father of the Lorentish and ancestor of the Kingdom of Lorent, while the death of the Gawedi princes forced king Godrac II to legitimize his bastard son Godrac as heir, with the weak succession being the last nail in the coffin of the Gawedi invasions of Lencenor.