Great War - Enter the Ashed

The People of Ash had spent the first half of the war selling their mercenaries to the highest bidder. They'd become wealthy off this trade, in addition to the production of weapons and armor. However as the chaos of the Great War hit a crescendo the Ashed found themselves in a conundrum. The nations were running out of wealth, and even those with it were indisposed to hire mercenaries. The balance of their world was beginning to swing and change.

The Syndicate had been eliminated. The Broken Kingdom was embroiled in a multi-front war and was on the verge of collapsing, many of their people trapped inside their mighty fortresses. The Kushanese were fighting on two fronts, at their wall and in the Circle against the Goran. The Circle, already bled by the Tallet was weathering hammer blows from the Goran. The fall of the eastern block seemed inevitable, and once they went it would be a matter of time before the Tallet and Goran fought for supremacy with the Ashed caught in the middle. Under this development, the Ashed entered the war never claiming intent to destroy any faction, but to preserve those that teetered.

## The Ashed and the Goran

The Ashed Forces arrived in the Circle in good order. Representing perhaps a third of what could be fielded by the city-states, the heavy formations of infantry proved to be exactly what the ranged weaponry dependent forces needed against the Goran. The Ashed turned into the wall on which the waves of Goran broke, at times atop literal walls. This allowed the Circle and Kushanese to bring the massive barrages of ranged weaponry to bear behind the safety of Ashed steel. The Goran advancement buckled under these losses and ground to a halt. The Kushanese however were under strict orders not to launch offensive actions, as the Phoenix still hoped to find a peaceful solution and thus the Goran remained without being pushed back.

The Goran were rather outraged, their advancement in the west stopped by the combined force and the southern army unable to breach the Kushanese wall despite bleeding the defenders heavily. Accepting that victory would come more slowly now, the Goran withdrew some of their numbers from the west and much of who remained from the south, then combined it with their youngest, freshest warriors and hurled the force to their east with many of the siege engines that had been meant for Kushan. The Ashed had not expected the Goran to opt into a three-fronted war and thus the maneuver took the westernmost city-states by surprise. The Goran war machine churned through a series of victories before the Ashed forces could redeploy to their western cities that were still standing. The defensible cities, independent reinforcements, and Ashed mobilization eventually ground the Goran to a halt in the east as well. The Goran found themselves unable to advance any front, and settled into a holding motion to buy time for further warriors to come of age.

## The Ashed and the Tallet

The Tallet Emperor took note of the Ashed's entry into the war. He took note again when the Ashed had to weaken their eastern border to stop the Goran entering from the west. With the Broken Kingdom's forces for the greater part forced into their fortresses, the faction that had seemed such a behemoth at the start of the conflict seemed to be on the ropes for now. Deciding that such an easy opportunity to add the hardy People of Ash to the Tallet Empire would not arise again new orders were issued. Troops were redeployed from the Tallet interior to join some of the forces withdrawing from the Broken Kingdoms. Those remaining in the Kingdom were advised to wrap up the warfare, as no further reinforcements would be forthcoming.

These reallocated forces and their war machines crashed into the Ashed eastern borders without warning, much like the Goran before them. This time however without the Tallet were greeted by a surprise; the cities buckled but held. Under the duress from the Goran, the Phoenix had again sent massive number of peasant archer levies to the Ashed city-states as she had done in the north. These archers, while not highly trained, proved to be a tipping point to the balance, allowing the cities to hold as they fired from the mighty walls.

## Fallout

The Goran found themselves in an unwinnable three-fronted combat despite their early gains. The Tallet, suffering an unfortunate twist of fate, found themselves embroiled in sieges on two fronts and unable to close either war. The Ashed found themselves in a three-fronted war against two enemies, essentially boxing in the Goran from the east and the west. The Ashed themselves now boxed in by the Goran in the west and the Tallet in the east. Kushan was now likewise balancing the scales on three separate fronts. The war was at a stalemate, but the killing had finally slowed and the fall of nations had been halted by the Ashed's entry.