Wars of Alexios Megas

Belligerents|  Despotate of Ionia | Ionians:* Licean Kingdom
* Eleosi Kingdom
* Nyreumian Kingdom
* Atysid Kingdom
* Archipelagic Ionians

 Astavaran Principalities* Vestenland
* Vledder
* Vaubach
* Haaken
* Kamst
* Haar

The **Wars of Alexios Megas**, also called the **Megasian** **Wars**, were a series of campaigns and conquests by Despot Alexios I of Ionia from 740 to 783. They began with battles against the petty kingdoms of Licea, Nyreumia, and Eleos, before expanding in scope to a war of subjugation that swept across all of Central Helinska and beyond.

## Timeline

### Beginnings

Duke Alexios of Viltauri set out to establish a vast realm for himself in 740. He declared war the Liceans, who promptly raised an army and recruited a force of Red Kokines while marching to meet Alexios. The Ionians smashed into the Liceans, inflicting severe casualties and causing the Red Kokines to break ranks and start fighting for Alexios. After the battle, Alexios conquered the Licean capital of Gart, giving it to the Red Kokines, naming it *Retgart* for this reason. The chieftain of the Red Kokines was made the first Duke of Licea, swearing allegiance to Alexios.

After acquiring this powerful new tributary, Alexios decided to proclaim himself "Despot of Ionia", claiming sovereignty over all the Ionian people. He was formally crowned in Viltauri in the spring of 741. In response to this shocking change in the Central Helinskan balance of power, the Ionian kings of Nyreumia and Eleos formed an alliance against Alexios and mustered their armies. The two great forces clashed in the early summer months, with Alexios repeatedly inflicting crushing defeats on his numerically superior, but poorly organized opponents. By the end of the year 741, Nyreumia and Eleos had been made into vassal duchies of the nascent Despotate of Ionia. But Alexios was not done campaigning. He spent the winter of 741-42 fighting the White Kokines and conquering the entirety of Southern Central Helinska. While he was doing this, he sent one of his most trusted generals, Atys, to conquer the "barbarians" known as the archipelagic Ionians. These people practiced vastly different cultural rituals from the continental Ionians and were looked upon with disgust. Atys was brutal in his war of subjugation, crushing all resistance by the end of the year 742. He remained in the archipelago to govern it in Alexios's stead.

As the spring of 742 gave way to summer, Alexios had carved out a sizeable realm for himself. His despotic system of government was more organized and centralized than the peoples of Central Helinska had seen in living memory. As it grew, so did his ambition.

### Expansion up north

The White Kokines refused to yield or be made his vassals in the same way the Red Kokines had; and thus, they were hunted down and eradicated by Alexios at the battle of Katas in mid-742. This cleared the path to the Archedon Mountains and further conquests. Wasting no time, the Despot rallied his armies and marched north against the Kanorians, subjugating various petty chieftains and killing any who dared resist. Local collaborators were made dukes and were allowed to keep their cultural practices in exchange for their allegiance - setting a long-lasting precedent in Ionian despotic law. Alexios was also said to have hated orcs, destroying their small mountain communities whenever he got the chance. This is said to be the reason for why Kokinos has no native orc populations. He treated elves with some respect, however, and often enlisted them into his armies.

After seizing much Kanorian land, Alexios was met with troubling news - his general, Atys, had been getting far too independent in his archipelago off the south of Ionia. Alexios demanded Atys return to Viltauri and was refused. At this point, the rogue general severed all ties with Despot Alexios and declared himself an independent ruler, establishing the Atysid Kingdom. Alexios was forced to wheel his army around and march south. He heavily assaulted Atys's island nation in early 743, meeting his former friend in battle several times. The archipelago was eventually reconquered and Alexios personally executed Atys. However, this war had allowed Alexios's recent conquests in Kanoria to degrade - chieftains who had been recently made dukes were reasserting their autonomy while their Despot was away in the south. Alexios marched north again, massacring local lords who had been deemed too rebellious, before sweeping through the rest of the Kanorian Mountains. There was reportedly fierce guerilla warfare from the locals from 743-46, which required Alexios's personal attention to manage. Some Kanorians also fled eastward out of their ancient homelands to avoid Alexios, displacing native Cislaronian communities and beginning a long tradition of Kanorian settlement in the Laron Basin.

### War against Dirk

While Alexios was busy fighting the Kanorians, a neighboring Astavaran lord in the west - Dirk the Bold - had managed to unite some of the Astavaran Principalities (Vledder, Vestenland, and Vaubach) in an alliance against the expanding Despotate. This union mustered a large army and marched into the Kanorian lands in hopes of trapping Alexios north of the Archedons. They engaged in several small battles, which encouraged other Astavaran lords from Haaken, Haar, and other towns to join the army. They were even supported by some Kanorian chieftains by means of a marriage alliance. A decisive battle between the Astavaran and Ionian armies seemed inevitable, and one did eventually occur - the Battle of Weltzbäden, in which Alexios personally led a force of Ionian mages against Astavaran *Doodswacht*. The fighting was bloody, but it resulted in an Ionian victory, shattering Prince Dirk's Astavaran alliance and forcing him to flee back to his stronghold at Vledder. Alexios quickly seized all of Weltzbäden before driving into the Astavaran lands in the early 750s. Most of the veteran princes had been slain at Weltzbäden, but those who remained alive where in no position to resist. They were quickly made vassals of the Despotate of Ionia, though not as "dukes" - they were allowed to retain their "princely" titles in exchange for the liquidation of most of their autonomy. Prince Dirk himself fled northwest into the Sorons Mountains, organizing armies of Gresic marauders to harass the Ionian border until his death decades later. It is said that this is where the Gresian Death Guard originated. For his stubborn resistance against Ionia, Prince Dirk became icon in Astavara, so much so that, a few generations later, the prince of Vestenland would eventually rename his territory "Dirksland".

Attempting to drive directly west in 755, it is said that Alexios was stopped by a wall of mountains taller than any he had ever seen. He decided that a protracted campaign in such inhospitable terrain would be unwise and decided to reroute his army. This was later believed by Liamist Laberi to have been a form of sacred protection from the Allethaes.

Alexios drove southwest, conquering numerous Adelan city-states from 755-64 and orchestrating a migration of Ionian citizens into their lands. His aim was to establish Ionian communities all along the southern coast of Helinska. The remaining unconquered cities were forced to pay heavy tribute to Alexios in exchange for their continued sovereignty. The expansion of Ionian rule into the Adelan lands prompted an invasion by the southern Kingdom of Al-Anshan, who heavily assaulted the city of Mistad in 764. Alexios entrusted the conduct of the war to his general Sebastianus.

Meanwhile, Dirk the Bold's constant guerrilla warfare along Ionia's northwestern border, operating out of the Sorons Mountains within the Laberic Kingdom of Ilher, frustrated Alexios. was used as a pretext for the Despot to launch a large invasion of the Kingdom of Ilher along its lowland roads in 764. Alexios suffered heavy casualties on the march, as the lowland roads of Ilher were already notorious for banditry, but Dirk's harrassment campaign only multiplied the chaos. Avoiding a pitched battle, the Ilherians gave ground until being surrounded at the northern stronghold of Valcola, at which point they realized the war was unwinnable and chose to give up Dirk in exchange for peace. However, Dirk managed to escape with a large party of Gresic warriors, which enraged Alexios. He forced the Kingdom of Ilher to enter a one-sided tribute agreement with Ionia before withdrawing his army in 767.

### Eastward expansion

In 768, Sebastianus scored a decisive victory against the forces of Al-Anshan, but was unable to capitalize on it. He required the personal intervention of Alexios to drive the enemy back across the border. They sued for peace in a matter of weeks. While here, Alexios also sent a punitive expedition against the Norrans, a wealthy seafaring people who had been funding Al-Anshan's war against Ionia.

Alexios returned to his court in Viltauri, assisting in the education of his young son Alexios II. While here, he began making plans to sweep westward across Helinska, expanding his domain even further. The size of Alexios's empire was already unprecedented, but he wanted to shed the light of Ionian ingenuity across more lands.

In 770, Alexios marshaled his largest army yet, with Ionian, Kokinan, Adelan, Kanorian, and even some Astavaran troops at his disposal. He marched toward the Laron in 771, conquering what he called the Cislaronians. He also encountered numerous Kanorian villages, which were established by refugees fleeing his campaign against the Kanorians decades prior. These villages were awarded to his most loyal Kanorian dukes as a way of retaining their favor. Alexios continued the campaign, defeating a large army of Quesi warriors at the Battle of Oranbat, which led to his total subjugation of the Quesi region. After accomplishing this, he set his sights southward, clashing with the Katavian peoples for a while before deciding there was not much to be gained in the desert. Instead of attacking them, he decided to send envoys south and make the Katavians pay tribute in order to fund a large scale crossing of the Laron River. However, Alexios came down with a deathly illness, which delayed his crossing until 774. While camped out with his army in Cislaronia, Alexios received word that a large northern entity known as the Holy Monarchy of the First Son had formed from Caesaropapist political infrastructure and was explicitly designed to combat his growing influence. He told his top generals that after the Laron was pacified he intended to march north against the Holy Monarchy.

In the spring of 774, Alexios had largely recovered from his illness and marched his massive army across the Laron. In a campaign more violent than any he had ever carried out, Ionian troops razed Translaronian (pre-Jabeyracki) villages to the ground and slaughtered civilians in hopes of bringing the east to heel. They were also resisted by a confederation of Ucklivian towns, but Alexios crushed this alliance in 776. By 779, Alexios had conquered most of what he called Translaronia and acquired the submission of its local lords, making them *de jure* Ionian dukes or tributaries, but the peasantry continued to resist his army's presence. He was compelled to stay in Hespor and manage the army's response to continued peasant defiance. The occupation ate up considerable resources and cultural hostilities only mounted between the Ionian army commanders and their alleged allies, the Translaronian dukes who had sworn fealty to Alexios. Except for a few punitive raids to silence the lords of Jazberk, the Ionian army was mostly turned inward now, aimed at suppressing their new subjects.

The situation was worsened by Alexios's deteriorating health. He was gripped by a recurrence of his hereditary illness in 784 and quickly expired. This ended the period known as the *Wars of Alexios* *Megas*, and immediately kicked off the Great Laronian Revolt.

## Unconfirmed conquests

In addition to these conquests, there are numerous legends and theories of Alexios' other conquests that are less credible.

#### Repelling the yellow demons

Murals and texts found in the Wonderworld Ruins speak of a "great warrior with power bestowed by the gods" who "repelled the yellow demons" that emerged in a "deadly cataclysm". Many believe that the "yellow demons" were Patuljacs, and some have even attributed the "great warrior" as being Alexios himself. If this is true, Alexios would have repelled a large Patuljac surfacing during the early 8th century, when he was still ruler of Viltauri