Second Duscadorian-Sevician War

The **Second Duscadorian-Sevician War** (691 - 697 A.S) was an offensive war launched by Duscador against the Empire of Sevicia in 691 A.S. The war lasted six years, and was the result of a campaign aimed at re-establishing Duscadorian hegemony in the land above the Neck and creating a northern Duscadorian state that extended as far north as the city of Adanaea. After months of back-and-forth posturing, war was officially declared by Duscador on the 13th of Mandera I, 691, with the Duchy of Seham (a close ally and tributary of Duscador) declaring war on Sevicia nine days later. The war lasted six years, until peace was finally signed and declared on the 21st of Mandera I, 697.

The second of three major wars between Sevicia and Duscador in just over 50 years, it proved a crucial turning point in military dominance in the region. Duscadorian attempts at a victory on land were thwarted by military incompetence and supply chain issues, which made progress incredibly slow, with campaigns planned to be take one or two months dragged out for three or four years. On the seas, Sevicia - who had suffered a humiliating naval defeat half a century earlier - proved equally successful. A decisive victory at the Battle of Cartesium routed the Duscadorian fleet and established Sevicia as the dominant naval power in the Lothor Sea region. It would mark a turning point in both the war and the military and political landscape of the contintent, with Duscadorian naval power waning for the first time in almost a century.

## Background

The first war between the two states had left Sevicia humiliated and Duscador as the key player in the region, but mismanagement and internal strife had weakened it noticeably by the end of the seventh century. The newly appointed Presidian of Duscador, Zephon, was elected in 690, and immediately set about arming Duscador for a military offensive. Pushed into accelerating the timeline by internal political pressures, Zephon called a council meeting on the 1st of Mandera I, 691. Council was convened that afternoon and was conclude a day later, with the council voting 68 to 52 in favour of military action.

Duscador officially declared war on Sevicia eleven days later on the 13th, and the Duchy of Seham, with whom Duscador had a close relation, joined just over a week later.

## Immediate problems

It was clear almost immediately that despite so much sabre-rattling, Duscador had been entirely unprepared for an offensive campaign. Military action did not begin for almost six months, with manpower and supply chain issues plaguing a disorganised and fractured army. The same was true on the waters, where the Duscadorian navy, a proud symbol of its naval hegemony, was ignored almost completely. The main Duscadorian army was led by generals Dior Hamilco and Miro, both of whom also fought in the third war nearly two decades later.

Things were not so disorganised in Sevicia. The newly appointed Imperator of Sevicia, Iestela Hart, had a reputation as a decisive and forward-thinking leader. Plans for a defensive campaign that spread across the southernmost border of Sevicia were drawn up almost immediately and supreme command of the army was given to Harold Byne, a veteran of more than three decades, who had proven his worth as a young leader in the Anaean Wars. Lower offices of command were given to generals Noam Enwood, Thorin Audell, and Geoffry Nant, while command of the reserve was given to Eris Farlan, known to many as the richest man in Sevicia. The Sevician navy, which had spent the better part of 50 years building in strength, was placed under the command of admirals Oren Kristiaccus, Gerant Tuso, and Miriam Thia.

By late in the year 691, Sevicia had assembled a land army of more than 100,000 men under the supreme oversight of Byne. Command was split five ways between Byne, Enwood, Farlan, Nant, and Audell, with young general Richard Pere holding the reserve, and was spread across the Sevician border line as far northwest as Fort August. The Sevician forces were prepared to dig in for an attack to come, but it never did, and the war passed into the year 692 without so much as a sword being swung.

## Success in the west

Early Duscadorian military progress was extremely slow, but tactically sound. The bulk of the offensive force, under Dior Hamilco and Miro, was dispatched northwest, ahead of the Candar Line and towards Forts August and Eanar, while the remainder headed east under the command of young general Mago Malcar, who had shown great promise as a leader of men. The strategy came as a surprise to the Sevician command, who had expected a more spread-out, shock-troop kind of campaign. On the 8th day of Mandera II, 692, the first major battle of the war was fought near the woodlands south of Fort August. The northern Sevician force under Geoffry Nant had expected to meet resistance numbering around 10,000 to 20,000; instead, the army under Dior Hamilco numbered more than double that.

In a battle that lasted three days, Duscadorian forces routed a Sevician army of more than 15,000 men. General Nant himself was struck during the battle and died of his wounds a few days later. The success, while decisive, proved ultimately fruitless; a lack of adequate resupply networks meant that Hamilco could not press the advantage, and instead was forced to wait out the warmer, more favourable part of the year in hostile territory.

## A lengthy stalemate

The war soon slowed to a glacial pace. The Sevician high command feared that any sort of counter-offensive would break discipline and severely damage the defensive position they had established, and the Duscadorian armies were locked in place by poor supply lines and a lack of any sort of competent command from the Duscadorian Council. Battles were fought throughout 693 and 694, mostly in minor skirmishes between Mago Malcar's forces and those of Richard Pere and Thorin Audell in the east, many of which resulted in long, drawn-out sieges, where soldiers were forced into dugout trenches for weeks or months on end.

While the battle on land turned into a nightmarish war of attrition, the battle on the seas took a drastic and important turn. On the 2nd day of Mandera III, 694, the two naval powers fought the Battle of Cartesium, the war's most defining conflict. Duscadorian admiral and war hero Arzhelico was defeated off the coast of the island of Rosh by a vast Sevician navy of over 350 ships under the command of grand admiral Oren Kristiaccus. The fleet, which had already been neglected for most of the war, was utterly destroyed, with Duscadorian admiral Corbal Hannoco losing his life in the melee. It proved the turning point for the war and for Duscadorian naval dominance of the region, which was greatly diminished following the battle.

## A war of attrition

A colder than usual Saturna in 694 brought about the worst stage of the war. More than 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 civilians perished in the extreme conditions, which included more than six feet of snowfall and temperatures that plummeted into the minuses for weeks on end. For much of late 694 and early to mid-695, the fighting was contained once again to small skirmishes, centred mainly around the encamped Duscadorian armies in the east and the far west near Fort August, with neither side gaining a lasting advantage. The Duchy of Seham, which up until that point had played no part in the war beyond offering the support of a thousand troops under commander Gerant Deray, signed a peace treaty with Sevicia in late 694, and withdrew from the war without ever fighting.

The next major development came in Mandera I, 695. Fearing that no end to the war was in sight, Dior Hamilco dispatched an army contingent of more than 10,000 men under the command of general Miro, with explicit instructions to head even further north, as far as Fort Eanar at the foot of the Eani Mountains. Hamilco's intention was to inflict panic among the Sevician forces and draw them out into a pitched battle which Duscador, with a numerical advantage, would handily win. The plan proved ultimately unsuccessful when the Sevician high command called the bluff and refused to make any sort of large-scale move, and Hamilco, aware that he and Miro did not have the resources for a prolonged siege of a defensive fortess like Fort Eanar, called the army back south.

The year of 695 to 696 was known as the Quiet Year, with one side unwilling to enter into a long siege in a foreign land and the other content to preserve the status quo. On the 8th of Saturna I, 696, after five years of fighting that was marked by long periods of attrition and miserable trench warfare, the Duscadorian army south of Fort August decamped and made south, heading for Mago Malcar and the eastern army. Sensing weakness, Sevician supreme commander Harold Byne ordered a combined offensive effort into Duscadorian territory. The two forces met at the Battle of Candar Glen on the 7th day of Saturna II, 696, with forces numbering more than 50,000 on both sides, making it the largest conflict of the war. After a day of heavy fighting, the Sevician forces under Byne, Noam Enwood, and Eris Farlan emerged ultimately victorious. Hamilco was forced to withdraw to the south, retreating along the defensive Candar Line and back into Duscadorian territory.

Attempts to make serious contact with the eastern army under Mago Malcar proved unsuccessful, and the Sevician high command ordered Byne to begin a full pursuit of the weakened Duscadorian forces. On the 2nd day of Saturna III, Hamilco received an envoy from the Council of Duscador informing him that there would be no chance of reinforcements and asking him to hold out as long as possible. Morale in the Duscadorian camp reached an all-time low when more than a thousand men deserted one night and never returned. Their troubles were confounded when, late in the month, a serious outbreak of the weeping terror left thousands sick and hundreds more dead. Hamilco made one last attempt at sending word to Mago Malcar in the northeast, which was returned two weeks later informing him that Malcar had been defeated in battle by a Sevician army south of Janna and had retreated.

The final major battle of the war was fought on the 15th of Tullena IV the following year (697), after months of posturing and cat-and-mouse on both sides. Fearing that any further attempt to flee would irreparably damage the morale of his men, Hamilco launched a final counter-offensive against the encroaching Sevician forces. He was soundly defeated at the Battle of Greenwater Lake, marking the end to the military portion of the war. Less than two months later, with Sevician forces advancing further southward, the Council of Duscador agreed to a peace treaty that would return more than 60 miles of land in northern Duscador to Sevicia, land that had been taken half a century earlier in the first war between the two.

## Aftermath

The loss was a catastrophic embarassment for Duscador, led by a colossal failure on the part of its high command and ruling Council, including its monarch Zephon, who had severely underestimated the requirements for a sustained offensive war effort. It also marked the first full-scale war to feature the use of powder-fuse cannons, which had been introduced 25 years earlier. Zephon was assassinated in office shortly after the war ended and his replacement, Aigo Tayne, immediately set about rebuilding Duscador's supply lines and military reinforcement capabilities, including a strengthening of what remained of the northern Candar Line.

The war marked a turning point of the balance of power in Truyea. Sevicia, which had been badly damaged by successive wars in the 650s and 660s, reclaimed its position as the continent's leading military power. In total, almost 300,000 casualties were tallied as a result of the war, including more than 25,000 civilians and 150,000 soldiers killed by either disease or exhaustion.

The events of the war are chronicled in the book *The Sevician-Duscador Wars,* published in 712 A.S by Duscadorian writer Zymon.

## See also

Duscadorian-Sevician Wars

Empire of Sevicia

Duscador