Siege of Hellen

The siege of Hellen was a two-decan conflict between the Seprum army and the Henesian city-state of Hellen that ended with a Seprum victory and the destruction of the city.

## Siege

The siege began Aelium 15, 62 PS when Seprum troops took control of the River Potamí, cutting off supplies to Hellen. Three days later, they also severed the trade route between Hellen and Tusei to the south. The city had no access to food and limited fresh water supplies.

Emperor Caeso originally had no interest in negotiating with the Hellens but his black hand Nautilus Canis suggested it might save many Seprum lives. Instead, during the meeting with King Memnon's general Aproclese, a spiromancer cast an old, overpowered rune, killing a dozen Seprum soldiers and injuring Nautilus. Enraged by the tactic, Emperor Caeso burned the fields around Hellen, ensuring the city would starve even if it never fell to Seprum soldiers.

Hoping to use magic to replenish diminishing water and food supplies, General Aproclese employed a unique strategy called stuffing, wherein Hellen natives filled the spiral with generally useless, easy-to-draw runes, so many that Seprum spiromancers could not quickly determine which were useless and which needed to be cast before they grew. This drew out the siege by making it near impossible for Seprum spiromancers to function.

Under constant fire from ballistae, the aristocratic families in Hellen, especially Acrux and Tauri, feared what would happen to them when the city eventually fell. They betrayed the king and flung open the gates to Hellen. In forty-eight hours, Seprum had control of the city, the last Henesian city to fall.

## Aftermath

### Prisoner Management

Emperor Caeso upheld Seprum battlefield tradition of dividing the captured population into four groups: allies, resistors, citizens, and examples. Allies were kept alive and often rewarded for their service with wealth, citizenship, and, in extreme cases, promotion of their ars to Alleta status, blessing all future children with lives of respect and importance. Resistors were killed, their ars status—commoner or Alleata—revoked so their children would be forced to earn their citizenship through indentured servitude, and if they had any land or property, it was confiscated and dolled out to Seprum leaders. Citizens neither helped nor hindered Seprum attacks—they were the farmers and laborers who could do nothing but obey. The men were recruited as indentured soldiers, the women as household servants or farmers, and the wifere as crafters, farmers, miners, or logisticians.

Examples were enemy leaders, traitors to the Seprum cause, or any opposition forces who behaved in an exceptionally cruel or unsportsmanlike fashion. Seprum leaders could not stand insult. These prisoners were taken alive when possible so they could be sent to the Grey Keep. Often, fingers, limbs, eyes, or important possessions were left in their home city where the public could see them (see Governor Ussan of the Second Spiral War). If enemy leaders were permitted to commit suicide, the Seprum Republic looked weak, and during the sacking of Hellen, Grey Hand Augusta and a team of dedicated spiromancers dedicated themselves to finding King Memnon and healing him from the poison he'd ingested. A separate team did the same for General Aproclese, and both were sent back to the Grey Keep, the king, blind, the general, one hand short. The senators were likewise sent to Augustus for prolonged deaths.

The real puzzle for Grey Hand Augusta was how to handle the pater of Acrux and mater of Tauri. They had betrayed their liege lord in support of the Seprum army. Betrayal was frowned upon in Seprum, cause for an agonizing death, but they had also ended the siege of Hellen. Augusta decided to kill the pater and mater, along with their partners, quickly and with minimal pain. Ars Acrux and Tauri were then raised to the level of Alleatan families.

### Destruction of Hellen

Hellen was the last Henesian city-state to fall. Emperor Caeso had no need of its land or trade routes and knew Lykos grew wary of the expanding Seprum Republic. To that end, he gave his soldiers a week to do as they wanted with the city. Ballistae tore down the walls, its senate building, its gardens, and its temples. Fires burned most of the residential buildings. Statues were toppled into the streets. The residents were shipped across Seprum to begin their indentured servitude, or to work as non-citizens in the shadows of the Seprum economy.

The fields, already destroyed, were set ablaze. For three days, the Seprum army feasted on the food and wine in Seprum, then retreated west. Emperor Caeso granted the land to the Lykan pharaoh via messenger. He would attack Lykos less than three years later.