Battle of Hanzfal

Parancsnok Gyuta to four of his retainers, before defending the Pirosar retreat and perishing

### Location

On the Hanzfal mudflats, Barony of Hanzfal, northern Realm of Dapria

### Result

Coalition of Balsatra victory* Deaths of Parancsnok Gyuta and the frost wyvern Palzráyn
* Temporary rout of Pirosars from northern Dapria
* Siege of Mount Cazhem
* Minor Balsatran expeditions into the Pirosar Empire

Belligerents|  Pirosar Empire | Coalition of Balsatra* Erilanthan Empire
* ...

Strength| 40,000–43,000 men | 48,000–50,000 men* incl. 3,000 Almeningaran mercenaries

The **Battle of Hanzfal** (Pirosarian: *Hanzali csata*, Erilanthan: *Hansfel fanwir*) was fought on the 9th of Springtide, 1376 LE, during the closing years of the Age of Sorrow and as a part of the Erilanthan–Pirosar War. The powerful and nascent Pirosar Empire, led by the legendary Emperor Jutotzas, was gradually defeated upon the mudflats of Hanzfal by a large coalition of nations known as the Coalition of Balsatra, led by the ancient elven Erilanthan Empire and commanded by High Archon Varmaninde Laemthar in representation of Empress Aryssare III. Although losing the battle due to the inability to exploit its full cavalry potential upon the slurry terrain, only around five thousand Pirosars and auxiliaries were killed and three thousand captured by the Balsatran alliance versus the latter's casualties of nearly thirteen thousand men. Nevertheless, Pirosar forces also suffered the death of their most valuable weapon, the frost wyvern Palzráyn, in addition to the death of one of Jutotzas's highest ranking officers, Gyuta. Retreating under the orders of Emperor Jutotzas from the battlefield, the exit of the remnant Pirosar grand army from the battlefield to their makeshift fort at Mount Cazhem allowed a resistance against pursuit elven and human forces prior to evacuation into Pirosar-controlled Dapria, thus preventing a total collapse of Jutotzas's forces. The Emperor would continue his war against the Erilanthans after 1376 and decisively defeat the Erilanthan army at the Battle of Athenloc in 1380, opening the Erilanthan Empire to siege and eventually leading to the fall of the capital city of Erilantha in 1383.

The confrontation was one of the largest open-terrain battles fought on the continent of Isciterra during the Age of Sorrow, with its total combatants numbering ninety three thousand and only being dwarfed in size by the Battle of Mamilla during the collapse of the Svarupan Empire in 1252 LE, which involved one hundred and twenty thousand combatants. The Battle of Hanzfal has been heralded by various historical member nations of the Coalition of Balsatra, such as the modern Archate of Erilantha, as a defining moment in the resistance against the "southern barbarians" that the Pirosars had been stereotyped as. In Pirosar culture, however, the battle was noted as an importance to the viability of retreat in battle, and it is mentioned alongside the victories in Athenloc and Erilantha to the genius of Emperor Jutotzas.

## Historical background

### Rise of the Pirosar Empire

What would become the Pirosar Empire originated as the Grand Principality of Pirosaria, which was founded in 1044 LE under the leader of the old Pirosar tribal confederation, Apród I, after the Pirosars settled in the Orathil basin during the early 900s LE and obliterated the previous elven Orathilian Matriarchate. His descendants would later form the First Kingdom of Pirosaria under King Gyula I in 1107, and the rise of the Pirosar Empire would be in thanks to the ambitions and cunning of then-crowned King Jutotzas I, son of the late Apród IV who died in 1345. After the conquest of the Kingdom of Vruchia in 1351 LE in the War of the Three Kings and the rallying of Orcish tribes living within the autonomous province of Orkföld, Jutotzas would declare the first "**Empire of the Pirosars**" and begin his expansionist ambitions.

### Formation of the Coalition of Balsatra

The Empire of Erilantha, one of the strongest nations in northern Isciterra and by far the most prominent elven nation, was wary of the surge of Pirosar power that emanated from the Orathil basin. Almost four hundred years prior did swarms of Orathil elves flee for the Empire following the occupation of the basin and the destruction of the Orathilian Matriarchate by an alliance of Pirosar humans and orcish tribes, and Empress Aryssare III informed her vassals and advisors that such a nightmare should not befall such an ancient and mighty power.

After Jutotzas ended his campaigns against the Basanians at the southern end of the Benthic Sea, his warpath turned towards northern Isciterra – placing the Realm of Dapria, a majority-human vassal kingdom to the Erilanthan Empire, in the Pirosar's wake. The invasion of Dapria in 1371 signalled the start of the Erilanthan–Pirosar War and the occupation of southern *Daperland* under a Pirosar-backed pretender known as Reimar I.

Grand Archon Varmaninde Laemthar, the Erilanthan primary advisor and previous chief magistrate to Aryssare III's father, Aicaen, urged for approval from the Empress to pursue a formation of an alliance against the grave Pirosar threat.

### Battle of Tesern and Pirosar threat

Prior to the Battle of Hanzfal, the Pirosars and Erilanthans clashed at the city of Tesern in southern Dapria, in what would be known as the Battle of Tesern in early Winterend of 1376. Jutotzas's personal army, which numbered at this point around 35,000 strong, were able to route the forward legions of Vanquel Atheen Caemus who numbered 25,000 strong and were thus forced to abandon their defensive positions near Tesern, stranding and forcing the garrison of 7,000 Daprians to inevitably surrender. The Battle of Tesern rushed the formation of the Coalition of Balsatra, and several human and dwarf contingents from northwestern Isciterra began to arrive in the borderlands of the Empire of Erilantha to rendezvous with Laemthar's assembled armies as a means to force a direct confrontation with the Pirosar emperor before the situation further deteriorated.

## Opposing forces

Almost a hundred thousand men were involved in the Battle of Hanzfal, with historians often attributing their estimated values to standard Pirosar imperial military documents and Erilanthan archives that survived the Siege of Erilantha in addition to the Vasilian historian Androdamos of Cyclio.

The most commonly accepted values are that forty three thousand Pirosar troops were agglomerated by Emperor Jutotzas for confrontation of the Basaltran coalition army. The extra three thousand or so Pirosars present during the battle were most likely the direct retinue of Jutotzas and specifically his most prestigious units known as the *sas lovasság* (lit. **eagle cavalry**), but these numbers may have fluctuated depending on the Emperor's own dedication towards using the eagle cavalry as scouts and rear guardsmen. Around twenty five thousand of these men were some sort of infantry, with ten thousand being auxiliaries raised from the various occupied provinces of the Pirosar Empire and the rest being considered men-at-arms, archers, beast handlers, and weapon machine operators. The other twenty thousand composed the cavalry, ranging from the suicidal *hamisan esküvő* (lit. **Forsworn**) to regular Pirosar human, orc, and auxiliary horsemen. In the terms of special units, the Pirosars also brought the frost wyvern known as Palzráyn to the field, with multiple elven and human sources confirming and even depecting the wyvern in flight. It is purported by arcanologists that the wyvern was at least partially under the control of Jutotzas, but the rituals, incantations, spells, or other magickal methods that he would have used have been lost.

For the Basaltran coalition army, it is generally agreed that it amassed a total of 50,000 troops, with some historians being partial to 48,000 due to disputing Androdamos of Cyclio's references during this time period. Nevertheless, the bulk of this army was composed of Erilanthan high and wood elf bowmen, infantry, and cavalry. Five thousand troops originated from the remnants of King Wilhelm's Daprian contingents, and the army was bolstered by the presence of various human allies of the Erilanthans from northern Isciterra that brought their own infantry and cavalry forces.

## Course of the battle

### The Hanzfal funnel

Both the Pirosars and the Balsatran Coalition did not necessarily anticipate a direct confrontation of the Hanzfal mudflats, given the fact that they had the ability to cross upstream on the Broeck River. However, the rugged coastal geography of the Hanzfal barony effectively formed natural funnels that guided the bulks of each army onto such terrain and away from the town of Hanzfal that straddled the banks of the Broeck; apart from the flats, the hills and mountains of the barony were either inaccessible entirely to army formations or were too forested to provide any advantages in a confrontation that both sides' officers spurred.

Jutotzas elected to not fortify his army at Hanzfal due to his desire to instead penetrate deep into northern Dapria and ambush the coalition troops in a more favorable area. Similarly, Laemthar wished to fight the Pirosars in an area that would maximize the potency of his human allied cavalry and his high elf bowmen, thus needing a terrain that was not interrupted by infrastructure such as Hanzfal's walls or the Broeck. These two individual decisions lead Jutotzas to funnel his army north towards the mudflats as a means to transit the location and strike directly along the coast to the town of Allarbeck, while Laemthar marched on the flats in order to flank and blockade the Hanzfal barony's settlements from an expected general push by the Pirosars.

### Morning encounter

Scouting cavalry units from both sides encountered and fought one another on the dawn of the 9th of Springtide, 1376 upon the then-dry mudflats. Although the terrain at the time was still unfavorable to cavalry, the lack of any recent rains and the low flow of the Broeck River meant that it was circumstantially favorable for true confrontation. The Pirosars under Jutotzas moved the bulk of their forces from a series of camps and wooden forts built on and around Mount Cazhem down to the mudflats, with the Emperor keeping a contingent of his veteran troops at the forts in watch of any possible enemy flanking maneuvers. Similarly, Laemthar and his human allies mobilized and marched down towards the mudflats in tow, arranging his lines in defensive positions in anticipation of a Pirosar cavalry attack. Many veteran Pirosar soldiers and knights participated in the Ritual of Bleeding, leading to the death of several Daprian prisoners of war in sacrifice and the nullification of pain and the amplification of rage in many frontline troops.

### Battle begins: Pirosar mass approach, miscalculation, and panic

Jutotzas, arranging his army in the usual dart thrower-auxiliary-mainline-archer structure that he employed, marched his troops carefully across the dry mudflats. Seeing the slowness of his own forces through the muck and thus the vulnerability of his dart thrower forces, he recalled them behind the auxiliary line and bolstered his flanks with his cavalry regiments as the Pirosar army moved forth in one massive block with spanning cavalry "wings". In an attempt to force the coalition army to rout or to directly engage his line, Jutotzas called forth the frost wyvern Palzráyn and several aerial eagle-riders to harass the back line of the enemy. However, before this could fully take effect, Jutotzas's miscalculation of sending his army too forward unto the mudflats in addition to the arrival of a calamitous and thundering rain from the east beaches resulted in the ground of the flats turning to a slurry of mud and water. In a panic, the cavalry and infantry lines of the Pirosars attempted to turn back and reach the sandy banks of the flats, resulting in Laemthar using the situation to his advantage and ordering the coalition army's infantry to charge forward through the slickening mud and to rain arrows down upon the routing Pirosars. As many as two thousand Pirosars died or were injured and/or captured during these beginning moves; this prompted Jutotzas to act and prevent a total rout.

### Battle continues: Jutotzas prevents total collapse of Pirosar army

Jutotzas at once took to the field with a force of a thousand eagle cavalry, wading through the flats and recalling Palzráyn back to breathe down a hardened path for his division to ride upon, in addition to bolstering the rear of the Pirosar line and attempt to stop the rout. Many Pirosars and orcs heeded this signage, forcing various fleeing auxiliary contingents to either heed or be cut down by the foe that approached behind them. Jutotzas knew that his cavalry-oriented army would almost certainly falter under such conditions, and so he ordered his infantry lines to hold while the cavalry wings retreated to form a "channel" that the infantry could successfully evacuate through and back onto proper forested land. Using his archers and javelins as direct support to the retreat of his infantry in addition to the flight of Palzráyn, his infantry-versus-infantry battle resulted in the bulk of Pirosar and coalition casualties, as a front line of orcs and Pirosar zealots fought tooth-and-nail to allow for the retreat of Vruchian, Tsayanovan, Daprian, and other ethnic auxiliaries through the sludged flats.

### Battle ends: Pirosar defeat and evacuation

As the battle closed in a dark and stormy evening, a majority of Jutotzas's melee and ranged infantry were able to evacuate the mudflats with the cavalry retreating back in full after a bulk of these forces reached proper land. Many Pirosars and coalition troops alike, however, found themselves or their steeds stuck in the churning mud and water of the Hanzfal mudflats, leading to both a slow Balsatran pursuit and a slow Pirosar retreat. Palzráyn was killed during the battle by focused fire from Erilanthan bowmen over the course of the battle, leading to the wyvern's collapse unto the mudflats and the death of several Erilanthans and human allies from the crushing impact. Jutotzas apparently did not express any emotion as to the death of the wyvern, instead remaining stoic as he guided his defeated forces back to their forts on Mount Cazhem in anticipation of a massive coalition pursuit.

## Aftermath

### Casualties and prisoners of war

Androdamos of Cyclio, who was present on the Pirosar side of the conflict, estimates that around three thousand Pirosars were captured and as many as five thousand died in battle or to drowning in mud, in addition to the death of the frost wyvern Palzráyn. Erilanthan estimates contest this and say as many as ten thousand Pirosars were slain. For the Balsatran coalition, it is agreed that up to thirteen thousand men were killed due to their hasty rush to pursue and beat down the routed Pirosars and thus squeezed against bolstered Pirosar guardlines after Jutotzas fully took to the field.

### Pursuit and the Siege of Mount Cazhem

After Jutotzas and his generals called for a retreat from the Hanzfal mudflats, the remaining Pirosars conducted a forced march of nearly six miles throughout the evening and night of the 9th of Springtide, and reached their fortifications on Mount Cazhem on the early morning of the 10th. There, Jutotzas manned his forts with auxiliary and mainline Pirosar troops while he positioned his cavalry on the flanks of the fortifications, cloaked within the coverage of the Hanzfal barony's foilage. With the bulk of the coalition army in pursuit, this hasty recovery lead to the Siege of Mount Cazhem and Jutotzas's successful retreat from northern Daperland with the majority of his army intact.

## Legacy

### Pirosaria

In modern Pirosaria, the Battle of Hanzfal is considered at best bittersweet, and at worst a shameful display of the otherwise brilliant victory streak of Emperor Jutotzas. Even with his error in taking to the mudflats with his army against the Coalition of Balsatra, many Pirosarian historians and civilians alike nevertheless approve of his stifling of ambition and his steady retreat from the battlefield. The death of nearly thirteen thousand Balsatran coalition troops during their pursuit is also a testament to the Pirosars of the Empire's veteran forces.

### Erilantha, ...

In the nations that manned the Coalition of Balsatra (namely the Erilanthan Empire), the battle is commended as being a victory against the barbarity and expansion of the "Pirosar hordes" of lowly gob and man. Although the nations that descend from the human members of the Balsatran coalition do not view the racial aspect as being of particular importance, the Erilanthans in specific place importance on this battle as the struggle against Jutotzas's "unholy alliance between enslaved elf, orc, and mankind".