King Valtes Hapattonen

> "*When Valtes conquered Saamen, they called him an upstart bandit. When he took Rovahatti, they called him a warmonger. When he invaded Arisa and Dafelia, they called him a barbarian savage. When he was crowned in Mikelatti, they knelt and called him King.*"
> ― Gejio Felora, Elavitan historian
>
>

## King Valtes Hapattonen

### Occupation

Patriarch of House Hapattonen (219-169 BC)King of All Epsilucia (190-169 BC)

King Valtes of House Hapattonen was the founder of the Kingdom of Epsilucia and the first man to be declared King of All Epsilucia since the ancient mythical hero Kehi Pinkblood. He was renowned not only for his military achievements, but also the wisdom and moderation with which he ruled, and his reconstruction of the ruined great city of Mikelatti.

House Hapattonen historically was an extremely minor noble dynasty, ruling over a small collection of unremarkable lands in the east of Epsilucia which soon became heavily involved in trading with the Saverian colonies. The Hapattonens took a great interest in their ways, and Valtes was no exception. He was raised in the Elvetan religion, and he quickly learnt the Saverian language. The Elvish colonists who knew of him praised him as an example of a barbarian adopting civilised ways, but their tone soon changed once Valtes' ambitions revealed themselves.

## Military Campaigns

The bulk of the information about King Valtes comes from the Saverian historian Gejio Felora writing approximately a century after the events, who was a great admirer of Valtes - explicitly stating him to be a model king - and so it is possible that he embellished some details of Valtes' conquests and reign.

### Saamen

In 211BC, at the age of 29, King Valtes took his small armies and marched upon the lands of Saamen ruled over by House Kalematten, easily taking the Kalematten castle of Rusala as the house had been weakened by several years of internal fighting. He plundered the castle of its riches, taking some for himself, giving some to his soldiers and redistributing the rest amongst the impoverished peasants of Saamen so that they might rebuild from their civil wars. For this, he was labelled as a bandit and a pillager by many of his aristocratic neighbours, particularly as he had no real *casus belli* to invade the lands in the first place, but he won the admiration of the commoners.

In the following years, Valtes saw several rebellions from the aristocracy of Saamen, which were all rapidly crushed. Valtes' support amongst the commoners grew, and most of the soldiers who belonged to the armies of defeated nobles joined his side.

### Rovahatti

After establishing peace in Saamen in around 207BC, King Valtes assembled his armies and invaded the large interior region known as Rovahatti, renowned for its great production of lumber and iron. Rovahatti's difficult terrain would make this a challenging task, but Valtes did not shy away from the task. Once again, Valtes did not have a real *casus belli* for his invasion, drawing criticism and accusations of warmongering and bloodthirst from the nobles of surrounding realms.

In order to keep his armies content, Valtes had to acquire riches quickly. He took the castles of Rosti, Kahani and Helkin by assault, plundering their wealth when the nobles within refused to bend the knee. The next few castles he came upon surrendered without siege after hearing of the fate of the first three, desiring to keep their wealth. King Valtes' main opposition in Rovahatti was the dominant House Erikotten headed by King Miklas, who met Valtes in the field at the onset of winter. The exact location of the battle site is unknown, but it was known to be on a hill with a spring at its peak, sending several streams down the hillside - which could be several possible locations within Rovahatti. The armies of Valtes and Miklas clashed and were evenly matched, until Valtes found Miklas on the battlefield and challenged him to a duel. Miklas agreed, and the two fought hard until Valtes slashed through Miklas' leg, shattering the kneecap and tearing the tendons. Miklas conceded the duel and, after several minutes of chaos, managed to make his army lay down their weapons. Impressed by their honour, Valtes allowed Miklas and his soldiers to keep their weapons, and Valtes quickly took Miklas to a doctor. Miklas' leg had to be amputated below the knee, but he otherwise recovered within the week. The two men took the whole affair in light spirits and became friends over the recovery period.

Miklas proclaimed his fealty to King Valtes, acknowledging him as the superior warrior, and his subordinates followed suit. Miklas was allowed to retain his lands and was appointed as the ruler of all of Rovahatti in Valtes' name. The pacification of the remaining hostile lands continued until approximately 201 or 200 BC.

### Arisa

With most of what is now eastern Epsilucia as well as the bulk of the interior under his control, Valtes looked to the Elvish colonies. He knew that if he was to take them, he would have to do so rapidly, before aid arrived from Sevaliara to reinforce them. He would also have to take care to restrain his soldiers and present himself as a moderate ruler, so as to not invoke the wrath of the Elves. Valtes set his eyes upon the province of Arisa, the section of the Elvish colonies closest to his homeland, and began assembling his armies.

When exactly Valtes' invasion of Arisa began is unknown, but it was at some point between 200 and 190 BC, and it began at the dawn of summer. He organised a rather complex invasion plan, ordering his subordinates to go out and secure the towns and villages before returning to him as he made his way to the colonial capital of Adasé, where the bulk of the Arisan forces were located. Once his subordinates had returned and his force was reunited, Valtes surrounded and besieged Adasé. He successfully beat off several sallies, and sent undercover agents into the city to spread discontent, convincing the inhabitants that Valtes would be a just ruler and making them fear for a siege that continued into the winter. As the autumn leaves began to fall, Valtes called for a meeting with the city's governor, a man named Erifon. Valtes demanded that Erifon surrender, promising on his own blood that the city would not be plundered. When Erifon refused, several of the city's inhabitants attacked Erifon and stabbed him, and then the city gates were opened.

Upon hearing that Adasé had surrendered to Valtes, most of Arisa sent letters to the King, declaring their loyalty to him. Letters also went to Sevaliara, though, warning of Valtes' swift and sudden attack, and Sevaliara assembled a fleet to send reinforcements to the other section of their Epsilucian colony which still stood; Dafelia.

### Dafelia

King Valtes desired Dafelia not merely for its material value, but because it ruled over the ruins of the ancient great city of Mikelatti, a site of great ceremonial importance for the Epsilucians. King Valtes gathered his strength over the winter before invading Dafelia. This time, because of the Saverian reinforcements, a significant force stood in his way, and marched out to meet him. Rather than a siege, this campaign would hinge upon a battle.

Valtes and the Dafelian forces, which were led by General Luccarion, met along the river Kehiman near where the town of Amakken lies today. Upon seeing the Elvish army, Valtes turned his army to march to the bridge several miles downstream, but General Luccarion was impetuous and desired to not give Valtes the opportunity, instead attacking directly over a shallow point in the river. This attack quickly stuttered to a halt as Valtes used the crossing to form a choke-point, funnelling the enemy forces into a narrow front which they simply could not break. Luccarion was so focussed upon this attack that he failed to notice Valtes' cavalry heading to the bridge. Valtes held the crossing for several more hours until his cavalry arrived to attack Luccarion's flank, at which point Valtes ordered his forces to advance, pushing back the weary Elvish soldiers in the river. When they saw they were being attacked on two fronts, the Elves began to surrender, and those in the rear began to flee. Seeing that his defeat was inevitable, Luccarion ran from the battlefield and returned to Sevaliara, where he was executed for cowardice.

With the Dafelians defeated, Valtes marched upon the colonial capital of Neris and took it without a siege. He spent several months marching throughout the region to impose order and crush rebellion before setting his focus upon the ruins of Mikelatti. He cleared the old city of the bandit gang which inhabited it and imported labourers from across his realm to rework the ruins into new structures, beginning with a temple to the Gods. This temple took several years to complete, but when it was finished he invited all the nobles from his realm to the site. After sacrificing a white bull to the Gods by his own blade, Valtes was crowned by an Elvetan priest as King of All Epsilucia. Although the exact date is unknown, the commonly given date of his coronation is 190 BC, at the age of 50, simply because it could not have been later than this according to the historical record.

### Saverian Invasions and Further Unification

Across the next decade, King Valtes fended off three increasingly desperate attempts by the Saverians to reclaim their colonies. In the third, the Elves assembled all the battle-mages they had to spare and sent them to crush the magic-less Humans, but they had failed to notice that King Valtes, having won over the Elvish colonists in his realm, had assembled mages of his own. He baited the mages into attacks they thought were safe due to the apparent lack of magical opposition, but such attacks were in fact suicidal, and led to the slaughter of a great many mages and the surrender of the others. In one single campaign, Sevaliara lost approximately three-quarters of all the mages serving in its army, and after hearing of this they immediately sued for peace and recognised Valtes as the legitimate King of All Epsilucia.

The historians give less clarity on the further campaigns of Valtes, but they speak of a general trend towards absorbing more Epsilucian noble dynasties into the Kingdom of Epsilucia which continued until his death. Whether or not this was done by simple intimidation or military conflict is unclear, but if there was conflict it must not have been particularly costly on Valtes' part, as no great struggle - nor even any defeat - is mentioned in the historical account. Valtes continued to expand his realm and build up the city of Mikelatti until his death in the winter of 169BC, passing away in his sleep at the age of 71.