Wood War

The **Wood War** was a prolonged conflict between the Theysmarel and the newly independent Republic of Avamorica. It was not so much a traditional war as a state of open hostility; large-scale military manoeuvres were rare, and the fighting mostly consisted of raids, skirmishes and ambushes.

The conflict began due to Avamorica abandoning the old Saverian treaty with the Theysmarel, which prohibited any logging or hunting within the sacred interior of Thewyn Forest but permitted it on the outskirts. Avamorica permitted and encouraged logging expeditions beyond the border, and the Theysmarel quickly retaliated with extreme violence. The first engagement of the war happened in approximately 178 BC, when a Theysmar hunting party massacred a logging expedition and burnt down their camp. There were some children present at the camp, and these were the only ones who were spared; they were gathered and taken to the nearby monastery at Selida to be left in the care of the nuns.

The Avamorican Senate sent multiple expeditions into Thewyn Forest, all of which failed to achieve any real gains; though some managed to inflict heavy losses upon the Theysmarel, every attempt to establish a logging camp was a failure, and there were few survivors. The Theysmarel also made some raids into Avamorica, slaughtering and burning villages near the forest - though never touching monasteries, and making some effort to deliver children who survived their raids to the monasteries. Many Avamoricans accused the monks and nuns of co-operating with the Theysmarel, which they vehemently denied.

Though the Theysmarel clearly had a rule against killing children, it was not always upheld - though whether this was due to the cruelty of rogue actors or due to simple accident remains unclear and controversial, and the reliability of sources that assert the Theysmarel murdered children is often questioned. The Avamoricans had no such rule, almost always murdering Theysmar children they found. The Theysmar rule against violating monasteries, on the other hand, was clearly always enforced as there was never a record of one being targeted by a Theysmar raid. Only monasteries were exempt from violence; ordinary temples were frequently plundered and burned, though the priests themselves were only rarely killed.

it is still unknown why the Theysmarel avoided attacking monasteries. It may have been that the Theysmarel favoured the monasteries because they had strongly spoken out against breaking the treaty, though it is unclear how the Theysmarel would have actually known this, given their lack of contact with the outside world. The mainstream consensus amongst historians is that the Theysmarel considered the monks and nuns as the only truly peaceful outsiders and so they considered them "innocents" alongside children - though this is ultimately just speculation.

Both sides increased their cruelty towards one another as the conflict progressed. Both the Avamoricans and Theysmarel made a habit of mutilating corpses and torturing prisoners to death, and the Theysmarel took on a particular fondness for impaling Avamorican soldiers. There were also reports of Theysmar women being made into sex slaves - though the Republic of Avamorica did not abandon their old colonial overlord's hatred of slavery, and punished the enslavement of Theysmarel with death.

The Avamorican Senate eventually recognised the impossibility of victory, and came to terms with the Theysmarel in 85BC to re-establish the old Saverian treaty. The Avamoricans were probably not aware at this stage that the Theysmarel were close to collapse and could not keep up the fight against the Avamoricans much longer, for the war with Avamorica had drawn scarce manpower away from the eternal struggle against the Festerkin, who had been making great gains. The disaster of the Festerkin breaching the sacred interior was only barely avoided by making peace with Avamorica.