The War Between Lords

The War Between Lords was a period in the Autumn Empire's history of near-constant civil war, social upheaval, and intrigue from 637-686.

The Civil War period was initiated by the death of Nobu Hoja, Lord of Hearthside, in 637 which collapsed the feudal system in the heart of the continent. Various warlords fought for control over Hearthside in the power vacuum, predominantly Lord Cole of Caldera and Lady Gardner of Ashwick. Lady Cindra Hoja, Lord Hoja's wife and successor in Hearthside, launched a war of political unification by force to defend her home until her death in 662. Their daughter, Aki, completed her campaign to unify the Western Land under one ruler and consolidated her rule with numerous influential reforms. The War Between Lords officially ended when Gardner loyalists were defeated at the Siege of Drakemont in 686.

## Summary

The Western Land had long been unoficially divided into three cultural regions - the farmlands to the North, the mountains and forest surrounding the Great Hearth, and the island of Caldera. Power coalesced into the major cities of these regions, Ashwick, Hearthside, and Caldera City, with lords rising to prominence in each. These city-states drew upon the manpower from smaller settlements and were constantly at odds over territory and resources with minor military skirmishes but rarely breaking out into full-on war.

That changed with the death of Nobu Hoja due to uncertain causes in 637, leaving behind his wife and daughter and a power vacuum in the highly coveted center of the continent and richest port city. The reigning Lady Gardner called upon her vassal cities to build the largest army ever assembled in the Western Land and marched on Hearthside. Lord Cole, not wanting to allow his rival an unchecked path to ruling the mainland, sent his fleets and armies northward. The Siege of Hearthside began in 638 with the two armies vying for control of the city.

Lady Cindra Hoja, the widow of the late Lord, valiantly fought back against the invaders. She had a new wall built around the northern farmland to keep her people fed throughout the seige. The Dragonpass to the south of the city was well fortified to keep the Cole forces at bay. The siege lasted for five years with the Hearthsiders relying on the crops grown in the siege farms and goods smuggled in through the port. Eventually, Lady Hoja managed to push back the Northern Alliance forces to Harvestport and the Cole forces to Lakewood, creating a buffer zone around Hearthside. The next twenty years became a war of attrition as the Hoja - now known as the Central Warlord - fought on two fronts. Lady Cindra managed to push the Southern Warlord all the way back to Caldera Island and the Northern Warlords to Ashwick and Drakemont, capturing Harvestport before tragedy struck.

History has lost how Lady Hoja was assassinated in her bed in 662. Tales tell of a mystery assassin but no patrols saw anyone enter or leave the city that night. The magical traps around the city were also not triggered. Upon the Central Warlord's death, her daughter Aki took up the mantle but struggled to keep her mother's holdings. Eventually, Hearthside was under threat from two sides once more.

Aki prayed to the chief deity of Hearthside, Bahamut the Platinum Dragon, and her prayers were answered. With the strength of the Lord of the North Wind on the side of the Central power, Aki crushed her adversaries. The Northern and Southern Warlords attempted to contact their own deities of the Autumnal Pantheon but their combined strength still faltered under the momentum Bahamut and the Central powers had amassed.

In 678, the island of Caldera capitulated to Hoja rule as Lord Cole surrendered. Lady Aki took the title of Empress of Autumn as the first ruler to hold sway over both Hearthside and Caldera and pushed north to unite the continent. The Northern Warlord, Lady Gardner, eventually fell back to the heavily fortified fortress of Drakemont. It took two years for the survivors to eventually surrender but they did so in the fall of 686.

## Fallout

Empress Aki banished worship of all other deities than Bahamut in an effort to unite the cultures of the Empire. Rather than chief deities to certain areas of the region, the Church of Bahamut became the only sanctioned religion. Aki assembled the Dragonguard, an elite force of Dragonborn knights, to find and imprison the other gods and goddesses so that they could not give aide to rebellions of which there were several attempts in the decades after the unification.

Power transferred peacefully to Aki's only daughter, Somi the First, who continued her mother's wishes in streamlining the culture of the Empire. For the peaceful resolution in the South, the Cole family were given more freedoms and places of power on Caldera, an island that had always felt disconnected from the mainland. In the North, however, the Gardner family continued to defy Imperial rule in several ways until finally Lady Candice Gardner took control of Ashwick in 912. The new Lady made peace with Somi the First, who allowed the northern cities to operate far more autonomously than they had previously. After Somi II took control and started to place the Nine Daughters of Autumn in positions of power, she promised not to impose on Ashwick or Harvestport. An unsteady peace still exists to this day.