Sevician Conquest of the Shimmering Isles

The **Sevician Conquest of the Shimmering Isles** was an offensive invasion of the island kingdom of the Shimmering Isles by the Empire of Sevicia that lasted from 218 to 228 A.S. The war began under the reign of Sevician Imperator Ascillion the Great, who extended Sevicia's borders to their greatest ever extent early in the third century and is widely regarded as one of the great leaders of Sevician history. After a decade-long war of attrition, Sevicia ultimately emerged victorious, conquering more than half the island's area and dividing the island in two across a hundred-mile north-south divide.

## Background and war

When Ascillion the Great ascended to the Sevician throne in 214 A.S, it was clear his ambitions extended beyond the limits of Sevicia's military borders. His eyes were firmly set on the Shimmering Isles, which up until that point had been thought to be unconquerable owing to its isolation as an island kingdom.

Ascillion set out to prove the Senate wrong, who believed a costly war would end in failure within three years. In 218, Ascillion began a series of military reforms that would shape the future of Sevicia's military forever. Drafting fourteen brand new legions of salaried professionals rather than part-time nobles, Ascillion stationed his vast new force at Segendam, a settlement on the very western tip of the Cape of Sevicia.

On the 19th day of Mandera I, 218, the bill was passed by the Senate that confirmed a declaration of war against the Shimmering Isles. Ascillion's offense was swift and carefully planned. Less than two weeks later, legions number 50,000 soldiers boarded more than 300 twodecker and threedecker ships, sailed southwest from Segendam, and landed unopposed on the beaches outside the city of Bardenville. Within a day the city had fallen to the Sevician forces, who occupied it and the surrounding territory more than ten miles north. It appeared to Ascillion and his commanders that the Islanders had been entirely unprepared for any sort of actual offense, which was not far from the truth.

Defense of the kingdom was left with queen Nelinome. A young woman of only seventeen, Nelinome had no experience in combat or with leading soldiers, but a cabinet of strong advisors and veteran generals served alongside her. If the Sevician offense had been swifter, the reaction was even swifter. By mid-219, the Sevician army had conquered inland almost as far as the city of Etlos, but in their way stood an army that had swelled to more than 100,000 in less than a year.

The first battle came on the 15th of Mandera II, 219, just outside Etlos. Outnumbered two to one, a Sevician army of more than 15,000 under general Marcus Opono held off and ultimately defeated an Islander force. Three days later, the city fell in a similar fashion to Bardenville the year before.

The battle of Etlos proved in some ways a microcosm for the war; over the next few years, the disciplined, veteren Sevician forces would win pitched battle after pitched battle against superior numbers, many times led by Ascillion himself from the vanguard, but a lack of properly established supply lines and a local populace entirely unwilling to cooperate made long-term pursuit of the Islander forces almost impossible.

Compounding this was the weather, which the Sevicians had not been adequately prepared for. A generally mild climate, the island was plagued by bouts of extreme humidity and fog, which would fall intermittently, often for weeks at a time, across the vast inland marshes and swamps. Traversing this terrain became extremely difficult, and Ascillion was fully aware of it.

The war continuned on unabated. Islander casualties vastly outstripped those of the Sevicians, and by late 223 the Sevician advance had reaches as far north as the city of Etimon, but a continued lack of supplies and an inability to cope with the unbearable humidity and fog of the peat bogs meant that the fighting had devolved into guerilla warfare. Hit and run tactics by the Islanders left Sevician camps crippled, and raids were frequent. Ascillion, now aware that a long-term war of conquest on an island where naval resupplies were few and far between was ultimately a lost cause, devised a plan he believed would win the war in one swift blow.

A fleet of supply ships heading south for Bardenville in late 225 were rerouted west to reconvene with Sevician land forces not far from Etimon. When they arrived a force of no less than 30,000 - almost half the entire Sevician army - under the command of Marcus Opono, boarded the ships. They sailed north up the coastline, and on the 6th of Saturna III, 225, landed just outside the northern coastal city of Ieta. The city was captured and sacked just three days later, and its inhabitants fled or were murdered.

The move was one the Islander chain of command had not expected and it proved a major setback. Pushed from two sides, the Islanders began a scorched earth policy in 226, destroying settlements and burning crop fields to prevent a full-scale Sevician advance. The largest battle of the war came in mid-227, at the Battle of Mun Nava. Pinned against the river Mun Nava and with nowhere to go, a force of 25,000 led by Ascillion himself fought to a brutal victory against a force of more than 50,000 Islanders. It would again proved emblematic of the war - when Ascillion attempted to push the advantage weeks later, he found much of the northern land burned and the soil salted.

Peace came from the Sevician side on the 9th of Saturna I, 228, after more than six months of effective stalemating. By that point more than half of the island was under Sevician control, which remained Sevician in the peace treaty. Though ultimately a great success which earned Ascillion the adulation of the Senate, he himself left disappointed that the entire island had not been conquered.

## Aftermath

A number of legions were left on the island following the end of the war to attend to civil matters, while Ascillion and his commanders - including the war hero Marcus Opono - travelled back to the capital of Morosea. Sevicia remained a strong presence on the island for more than 200 years, though its rule was dominated by frequent rebellion and near-constant social and cultural dissidence. In the year 348, Sevician Imperator Manus V began a second offensive campaign aimed at uniting the island under one rule. It would swiftly prove disastrous, with Manus losing a decisive battle less than a year later, a battle that would see his legions destroyed and he himself killed. Manus V's body was never recovered, and legend claims the Islanders took his corpse as a trophy and had it embalmed.

The loss of 348 - 349 was catastrophic, and Sevician influence continued to crumble on the island. A costly and ultimately fruitless territory, plans were drawn up at the beginning of the fifth century to slowly begin the withdrawal process, which had provided no natural resources and little to no tax income. When Sevicia went to war with the Kingdom of Erenna in 415 A.S, the island was abandoned entirely, and Sevicia never again returned.

## Legacy

The first of two important wars for Sevicia in the third century - the other being the war against the Kingdom of Cyon - it defined the most dominant period of Sevicia's 700-year history. Ascillion and Marcus Opono returned home as heroes, and Ascillion remains one of the greatest Imperators to have ever ruled. After his death in 252, the city of Etlos was renamed Ascilliam in his honour - this was reverted when it fell back under the control of the Shimmering Isles in 416 A.S.

The history of the war, as well as the life and exploits of Ascillion the Great, is chronicled in Cyppian's historical epic, *The Annals of Sevicia,* in volumes four and five.

## See also

The Empire of Sevicia

Ascillion the Great

The Shimmering Isles