Battle of Dulia (The Age of Quintius)

## The Battle of Dulia

The Battle of Dulia was an engagement fought between The Barbarian Emperor Quintius Barbacanous of The Barbacanous Empire and Emperor Julius Konstantinos of Teratime. The Battle started sometime in early 1038 A.T.F, and was the final battle amongst Quintius Barbacanous's campaigns to legitimize his rule as the "Barbarian Emperor".

## Prelude to The Battle

Conflict first began when Emperor Julius Konstantinos began a reconquest campaign to regain lost imperial territories. Hoping to capitalize on the chaos caused by the Romikkan Civil War and the Second Apocalypse, Julius saw his chance to secure the Imperial Throne for himself. For centuries his family line had ruled over Teratime, and while Teratime enjoyed far more autonomy than most imperial provinces, they too still bent the knee to the fledgeling Romikkan Empire. Emperor Julius Konstantinos would begin his reconquest campaigns by subduing Drazzan, a campaign that on its own would take nearly 14 years to fully complete. Even before Julius Konstantinos's campaign into Drazzan had began, another rising power had already been making its way to the center stage. By late 1009 A.T.F, the last remaining True Blooded Heir to the Romikkan Throne, Servil Servellius, had been killed at the Battle of The Red Pines by a Half Barbarian Half Romikkan, Self Proclaimed Emperor, Quintius Barborcanus.

Quintius Barborcanus was a name that was well known across Orbis. He had garnered a reputation for forcibly putting several rebellious legates in line and even defeated the last Romikkan Emperor in battle, but his greatest feat of all. Was his triumph over Sargoth in a one on one duel, something no mortal man had ever done. His quest to close the portals, pared with his inhuman ability to not only survive a one on one duel with Sargoth, but beat him, enshrined Quintius Barborcanus's name into legend. Quintius had been informed of Emperor Julius Konstantinos campaign into Drazzan years prior, but paid little care to the reports as Quintius was more focused on the Acrabians and the Imperial Rump States to his west. After his campaigns in Acrabia had been completed, Quintius began to take the reports of Konstantinos's campaign in Drazzan more seriously. And soon deduced that within a matter of years the young Emperor of Teratime would set his sights on the old Imperial Capital, Titus City.

In 1036 A.T.F Quintius Barborcanus would begin to call to arms his army, summoning his Lord and Marshalls to Gallius City. Quintius Barborcanus's Army possessed Early Era Orbisian Knights clad in heavy chainmail, infantry that were mixed with armored tribal warriors and ex-Romikkan Legionaries, and archers who were local hunters from the surrounding tribes. While Quintius began summoning his forces, Emperor Julius Konstantinos fielded a mixed army of both professional and conscripted soldiers. The bulk of Julius Konstantinos's army was made up of Teratime Legionary Marines, lightly armoured, well trained professional soldiers. They mirrored the look of Romikkan Legionaries, sporting the same swords, sheilds, and helmets. Where they differed was their use of scale armor rather than Imperial Chainmail. Julius's Army also possessed 20 catapults that had been constructed from several of his transport vessels, the remainder of his Army were Archers and Light Horse Archers from the Drazzanian Tribes he had subjugated, forcing their warriors into mandatory service. In total Quintius Barborcanus's numbered 34,000 strong and Julius Konstantinos's forces numbered 42,000.

## The False Duel

Both Armies met sometime in early 1038 A.T.F outside the small settlement of Dulia, a Romikkan Colony that was situated on the border between Drazzan and Central Orbis, directly west of Baatar. Upon arrival both armies set up camp within the flatland expanse of the Drazzanian Steppe. On the morning of the following day of their arrival, Julius Konstantinos dispatched messengers to Quintius Barborcanus requesting a duel between the two leaders. Quintius quickly accepted, and by noon Quintius rode to the agreed meeting grounds. Upon arrival he was surprised to see that he was met with a large man from Teratime, and not Julius Konstantinos. Quintius became infuriated upon realizing Julius himself would not be dueling him, nonetheless Quintius accepted the duel and easily bested Julius's stand in. In a rare display of mercy, Quintius spared the life of the man he defeated telling him "I did not come here kill pawns, i came to kill kings! Now run along, and prepare for battle!".

## The Clash of Two Romikkans

Quintius returned to his men who immediately let out a roaring cheer in support of their leader's victory. Julius, was not dismayed by this loss and proceeded to order his catapults to begin moving into position. Slowly Julius advanced his army towards Quintius's forces who were now only one mile away, with his Marines forming a shield wall in the frontlines, Drazzanian Horse Archers covering the right and left flanks, and the Drazzanian Archers accompanying the catapults slowly being pushed into range behind the Infantry. The dust from Julius's advance spurred Quintius to order his knights to the frontlines, while his mixed infantry fell in behind the Knights, and his Archers would also follow up the rear.

Quintius knew that he could not hold a defense stance in battle, if he did not break the Infantry and Scatter the Horse Archers. Then his forces would surely be bombarded into oblivion by both the Horse Archers and Catapults. Quintius's Heavy Horsemen took the brunt of the first initial contact between both forces, crashing head on into the shield wall. The Heavy Mailed Knights successfully inflicted large scale casualties on the Teratime Ranks, but soon the Knights Engaged in the melee were unable to exit the fray for a secondary charge. Quintius's had taken notice of this and ordered his army to increase its pace from a march to a sprint, Quintius's infantry forces took considerable casualties from the hail of Catapult shots being lobbed towards them.

However throughout the battle, it became quite clear the Drazzanian Archers and Horse Archers remained idle. So much so that the right and left flank of the Teratime Shield wall was no longer covered. Julius Konstantinos rode from one end of the battlefield to the other frantically ordering the Drazzanians to fire into the the ensuing melee, and for the right and left flanks to return to their position for a planned encirclement. These orders fell on deaf ears, and it soon became apparent Julius Konstantinos's conscripted subjects, had no desire to participate in this battle or follow his orders. Realizing a key component to his victory was no longer in his grasp, Julius and his personal guard began to ride for the coast, realizing if he were to remain in Drazzan after this defeat, it would seal his fate. Within mere minutes of his withdrawal the remainder of Konstantinos's troops began to panic and waiver, and within an hour of Konstantinos's abandonment of his forces, they began to route.

## Aftermath of The Battle

What followed was a slaughter, as Quintius Barborcanus ordered his men forward. The Drazzanian Archers and Horse Archers withdrew to the North of the battlefield, and Quintius explicitly order his men not to attack or follow the Drazzanians. Quintius forces chased the remainder of Julius's men back to their camp where they pillaged and ransacked the camp killing any survivors they came across. By the next morning it had been estimated that out of 42,000 men that Julius Konstantinos commanded, 16,000 of the Drazzanians withdrew, 15,794 men of Teratime had perished, while the remainder were captured. Of the 10,206 who were captured, at least 6,000+ were wounded in some way. Meanwhile Quintius's forces suffered 6,000 dead, and 8,000 wounded.

Quintius Barborcanus had emerged the victor once more, in the wake of his victory Quintius elected to not peruse Julius and his retinue. Some of Quintius's advisors and lords, namely Romulus Aquila, urged Quintius to advance on Drazzan and conquer what Julius had left behind. Quintius once again elected not to peruse the opportunity his victory had allocated, he believed that Drazzan simply wasn't worth the time or resources it would cost to effectively administer in his new empire. He was quoted as saying "The Empire before us crumbled from its own greed, and its constant lust to conquer lands that it could never truly control. We will not make the same mistake."

Quintius offered the prisoners a choice after the battle was over, those who wished to join his Empire would be permitted to do so. However those who did not chose to join him would have to pay a ransom for their freedom, or they would be executed on the spot. A majority of the captured prisoners decided to join Quintius's newly formed Empire while those who could pay for their freedom returned home. Within a week after the battle Quintius gathered the loot they had gained, and marched back to Titus City.

After The Battle of Dulia word reached Teratimes ruling council of what had transpired. The Ruling Council was a body made up of a series of powerful merchant families who held considerable sway over the political power structure of The Empire of Teratime, even being able to pass laws and enforce them. The Ruling Council chose to oust the disgraced Julius Konstantinos and the entire Konstantinos Family from the Imperial Throne. Starting with execution of Julius immediately upon his arrival back to Teratime in 1039 A.T.F for both his cowardice, and waste of Imperial Resources. The Ruling Council then initiated a hostile takeover of the Imperial Court, and ruled The Empire of Teratime as an oligarchy.