Mennos van Dire

**Eye of Olia Expedition**

* Battle of Bror River

**Borian War**

* Liberation of Midlands
* Siege of Levinburg
* Siege of Charlington
* Battle of Eion Valley

**Scouring of Ili-Fien**

* Battle of Trident River

**Fortudatum Crusade**

* Siege of Froth
* Battle of Riodina
* Fight of Hälfelägel
* Battle of Iorisa

**Steel War**

* Second Battle of Steel Fort

**War of the Birds**

**Mennos van Dire** (often Mennor) is the Count of Tadaheim and a notable military commander in the Kingdom of Workhold. Mennos is also referred to as one of the *Hawks of Jiri*, a nickname granted to those most loyal and capable of King Jiri's subjects. Mennos is also the Master-Legionary, the chief-commander, of Legio Ardostum often known as the Ardians. The most vicious infantry army ever known in Edelmaa and Olia.

He was born in Leowell in the Kingdom of Workhold to a small merchant family. Though small, the van Dires were quite rich and Mennos's father, Blau was able to afford education for his eldest son. Mennos soon aspired to become a warrior and he began to be tutored by former military man Damian Speck.

Mennos partook in the Hopfisch Rebellion (year 279) as a young boy and earned great respect. After that he was promoted to the rank of Captain and quickly after that to Section Commander. By 290, Mennos had become a favored officer in the Army of King Jiri, henceforth Mennos was picked to join Jiri in the Eye of Olia Expedition.

In Olia Mennos proved his military excellence further in his first own battle, the Battle of Bror River where he managed to destroy a larger and mounted opposing force. This paved way for Mennos's preference in infantry tactics instead of cavalry.

Following the Olia expedition Mennos served in the bloody Borian War, where Mennos commanded the Liberation of Midlands as well as the Siege of Levinburg. During this time Mennos recruited the Tadaheim Troops which would eventually become the fearsome Legio Ardostum.

Mennos's part in the great Battle of Eion Valley was vital, as he is credited (alongside David Lange) with destroying the Corps of Paul Royar and the enemy reinforcing KOMS knights.

Succeeding his successes in the Olia and Borian campaigns, King Jiri had begun to favor Mennos as a military commander. Mennos became one of the *Hawks of Jiri* alongside Hamina Beyard and Lothbrok Voorst. Mennos was granted peerage as the Count of Tadaheim, restoring the van Dire house's nobility. Lastly Mennos was also promoted to the highest military rank in Edelmaa, Tyran, a feat only very few have achieved.

As Tyran, Mennos partook in: the Scouring of Ili-Fien where he managed to rescue the initially failed Edelmaa invasion, Fortudatum Crusade where Mennos won the decisive Battle of Riodina, and the Second Battle of Steel Fort where Mennos defeated the armies of Lukyan 'Lucky' Marsius.

Mennos's battle record, as of now, remains clean with zero defeats.

## Origin

Mennos was born in the city of Leowell to the Van Dire family. The Van Dires has been notable barons in the Kingdom of Workhold, however when Blau van Dire chose to align the Van Dire family with the Royalists of House Niskain in the Edelmaa Great War, the new usuper King, Jiri Baathúr, stripped the Van Dire family from their barony, leaving them titleless.

Mennos's father, Gelbrand was a rich merchant and was ready to pay for Mennos's education. Early on Mennos sought to become a knight and became the pupil of Damian Speck, a veteran of the Great War. Damian however never knighted Mennos, as Damian himself died when Mennos was 15.

## Hopfisch Rebellion

In the summer of 279, the Hopfisch Rebellion and the first chance for Mennos to prove himself. Mennos joined the Sandarmes, the military regiment of his home city of Leowell. There he was assigned to join Sir San Cyr in the last ditch desperate defence against the main banner army of Grimas Hopfisch on a small hill fort. Mennos, even though young and inexperienced though he was going to die in his first battle, especially since he didn't know who San Cyr was. In the Battle of Sanfort Hill Mennos was deployed inside the hill fort to command the cannon battery on the battlements. This task was too much for Mennos who was just now experiencing combat for the first time and as such it was quite impressive when Mennos actually managed to score a hit against a rebel regiment.

The battle ended up being a defeat, but General San Cyr managed to breakthrough the rebel centre and tear it open enough for his men to withdraw. This impressed Mennos and made San Cyr a paragon for him principally in the art of infantry warfare.

Mennos furthers served in the Sandarmes, fighting in the Siege of Maakor. During the siege, Mennos partook in the 14th July Action, when the castle garrison sallied out to wreak chaos in the besiegers camp. In the raid, Mennos captured Arnyld Debassier, one of the important military commanders of the rebellion. Mennos together with Cruonius Sevestas and few riders took Arnyld and rode straight to King Jiri to whom Mennos presented his gift. The King was impressed and Mennos was promoted to Captain. Following this Mennos participated in the latter battles of the rebellion assigned to the Army under the command of King Jiri.

## Eye of Olia Expedition

For the first three years Mennos served as the main organizer of Jiri's armies whilst Lannes Hay worked as the personal adjutant of Jiri and Willreck Rögna had been given his own army to command. Mennos felt slightly betrayed being handed the weakest position. When the army of Jiri advanced to capture the Castle of Bror, Mennos was finally given an opportunity to lead a unit into battle. Mennos commanded his small army section in association with the larger section of Lannes Hay and together they captured Bror in an assault which costed them very little lives.

Mennos was then given the castle under his own command as well as an army. Jiri gave orders to Mennos to only advance further into Franzian territory, if Mennos sees it practicable.

### Battles against Franzland

Mennos held the castle for four months, until his counterpart Willreck Rögna decided to push into the city of Eskalt. Mennos decided to join the push and marched his army east as well, trying to flank Eskalt from the south. He made contact with a Nudist Tribe and befriended them in exchange for food. Before long Mennos stumbled upon the Franzian army near the Bror River. He was in a pinch. His military attaché, Paul Commodus advised him to use the Nudists to their advantage which Mennos did. Mennos lured the enemy to attack using the nudists as bait. This caught on and the enemy mindlessly charged the poorly equipped nudist troops. In a moment Mennos's troops ambushed the enemy from all sides. This was a brilliant victory in the face of defeat and when outnumbered. After this Mennos moved to Eskalt.

In Eskalt, Mennos crushed the enemy army via infiltrating the settlement and opening the gates from within. In Eskalt he found his counterpart Willreck imprisoned. This raised Mennos's hubris as he was clearly the superior commander. A month after Eskalt, after receiving news of a foreign invasion upon Workhold, Mennos and the rest of the Royal Army embarked to Edelmaa.

## Borian War

When King Jiri's army landed in Edelmaa, Mennos was given 1/3 of Jiri's army and was ordered to reconquer the Midland region. Mennos obliged and began the brutal and ferocious Liberation of Midlands, which would become the most infamous part of Mennos's military record. The Midlands region would also begin to resent Mennos and the entire Van Dire family as a result.

During the Liberation, Mennos relieved the Lohensloss Castle from a siege, rescuing Duke Diarmud Baathúr who would join Mennos's army. After capturing Lohensloss, Mennos acquried news of Willreck's death at the Battle of Olav. This opened Mennos's southern flank open and forced Mennos to withdraw to the southern main road of Edelmaa in order to stop the Borian advance into his or Jiri's army's rear. Mennos moved his army to the city of Einez where he remained for the latter half of spring and early summer.

### David's mishaps

David Lange, a sellsword personally recruited by Mennos from the city of Dives, had become one of the advisers of Mennos. Mennos knew that the Borian force that was stationed at Olav Castle was around the size of his army, so Mennos sent David to levy troops from the nearby cities. David recruited 6000 men from Tadaheim and then decided to return. David brought his massive force of 6000 men to Einez and immediately began to receive backlash from Mennos. Mennos wished to send the troops back, as he couldn't supply this massive force, but the troops began to ravage Einez as they had joined the army believing they would receive food. This riot lasted for 5 days until a new campaign was plotted. Mennos gave 3 000 men from the newly recruited force to David. Mennos intrigued, that he could sent David on a suicide mission to try and capture Olav Castle and get rid of the useless 3 000 men at the same time. Mennos himself kept the rest 3 000 men, which later became the Tadaheim Troops and even further on, the Legio Ardostum.

### Hadia and Levinburg

Mennos himself marched to Hadia and remained there until his army was checked pure of the Plague that had began to ravage the southern lands of Edelmaa. After spending a fortnight in Hadid, he merged with the force of Conraquis Baathúr and Diarmud Baathúr and advanced to besiege Levinburg. Mennos's armies marched through Scale Manor, where Mennos would befriend Rexton Scale.

Mennos then united with King Jiri's force. Together they began the Siege of Charlington.

### Charlington

Charlington proved to be a much tougher nut to crack. The garrison was much larger than the ones of Levinburg so an assault was out of the question. By this point, Mennos's army was in very poor condition. They were starving. However, as Mennos's food supplies arrived from Dives the complete opposite happened. The troops began to feast like no tomorrow. Soon many of the men were satisfied and left, and the majority that remained became unfit for combat. They were incredibly gluttonous and ate entire caravans full of food. Rexton and Mennos were beyond furious and began to drill the troops. But the troops were rebellious and most wayward. Rexton began to threaten the troops and Mennos encouraged this. Not soon after, the foreign mercenaries from Olia began to compete with the Tadaheim Troops over the food wagons. An insurrection followed which is known as the Cookie Wagon Rebellion. King Jiri sent the Steel Order Knights to put down the rebellion. This was the turning point for the Tadaheim Troops and after this they were very disciplined and loyal under Mennos.

When an assault on the city was finally decided, the Tadaheim Troops went in first and began to go insane. Mass rape and pillaging swarmed over the city. This was horrifying to all, and Jiri ordered to send the Steel Order Knights once again to kill the unruly Tadaheim Troops. Mennos was once again furious, but he was stubborn. He wanted to see his own personal regiment to rise in glory, so he disciplined them harder. By the time the Eion Valley campaign was planned out, the Tadaheim Troops had become pretty fit and they chose the title "Knights of Justice" as their regimental name. King Jiri however, never even thought about knighting the rapists. To all other regiments the Tadaheim Troops were known as either the "Tadaheim Pillagers".

### Eion Valley campaign

Mennos was chosen to be one of the commanders of the Royal Army left flank for the upcoming campaign. Mennos was somewhat upset at the fact that he was not chosen to be the overall commander. He thought that his achievements were not recognized.

Early on in the campaign, the two opposing armies, the Royal Army and the Borian Army, met at a hilly part of the Eion Valley. There the Battle of Eion Valley was to be fought. Mennos personally commanded his Tadaheim Troopers in the frontline. After a brief exchange of the archers, Mennos charged his opposing unit, Paul Royar's Borian warriors. Rexton Scale dueled Royar whilst Mennos led his men. When Rexton managed to slay Paul, Mennos' unit began to rout the Borians. Around this time, David Lange, who had infiltrated the Borian Army, attacked the Borian troops from within. Together with Mennos, they managed to completely encircle and destroy the routing troops.

Succeeding this the dreaded KOMS reinforcements of Boria appeared. This was horrible news, especially for Mennos, because the KOMS charged exactly into the Tadaheim Troops. Eventually the KOMS was outnumbered and encircled, Mennos did the impossible, he defeated the unstoppable KOMS. This earned Mennos the honorific, Hawk of Jiri.

## Ante Fortudatum

After the Borian War, Mennos was ennobled the Count of Tadaheim.

   Mennos became colleagues with the respected Hamina Beyard and Mennos's new rival Sir Lothbrok Voorst. Mennos' anger against Lothbrok was increased by the fact that Lothbrok was an actual knight whilst he was not.

The three of them became the three of the most influential figures in Workhold. All of them established their own personal Elite Legions of soldiers. Mennos created the Legio Ardostum out of the veterans of the Tadaheim Troops. The most impressive soldiers of the Tadaheim Troops were promoted to lead the Ardian Legion. These were; Finlexas, Bannestan Hope, and Cruonius Sevestas who had in fact been part of Mennos's army during the Eye of Olia Expedition. The base of the Legio Ardostum became the Adlersschanze a castle inside Tadaheim.

In 300, Mennos partook in the Scouring of Ili-Fien, but was once again robbed of the position of Supreme Commander as that role was given to Duke Leondras Baathúr. Leondras led the Royal Army in the Battle of Trident River which resulted in defeat. Mennos was very bitter of this defeat, as he knew he would have easily won the battle had he been in command. Mennos commanded the rest of the campaign and defeated the Fiannese.

In 308, a messenger from Alarass requested Mennos to send reinforcements for the Ceneprian Army against the Kingdom of Caenor. Mennos was excited, but Warmaster Lannes Hay forbid Mennos from personally leaving Edelmaa to join the Ceneprian Army, as Lannes was planning the Fortudatum Crusade and Mennos was to play a key role in it. Mennos obliged and instead sent his First Captain Finlexas to join the Oblikrom Expedition.

## Fortudatum Crusade

Mennos was in a significant role during the Fortduatum Crusade, as the Royal Army decided to split into two; the Western adn Eastern Army and Mennos became the Prime Commander of the Eastern Army.

Mennos brought an entourage of brilliant military minds with him; Paul Commodus, Bannestan Hope, Cruonius Sevestas and Clemant Agian. Mennos captured the castle of Froth easily during the Siege of Froth and pressed onward to crush the Vangad-Shei army in the Battle of Riodina. Riodina was the largest battle of the crusade and the most successful one earning Mennos more renown. In Riodina, Mennos made a worrying observation. There were men of the Second Ceneprian Army fighting for the Vangad-Shei. Mennos and Paul quickly deduced that Nüyan Jamur Emetur, brother of King Jiri, had betrayed them and was probably slaughtering Mennos's men at the Oblikrom expedition.

Continuing on Mennos stumbled upon Melkon Baathúr, who had become an Amagad Prince. The Fight of Hälfelägel ensued, during which Paul Commodus and Clemant Agian died, but the Amagad Prince was subdued when Bannestan Hope drew the accursed sword Celestilia and became Khrag Blackmind. After the devastation Mennos's army suffered at Hälfelägel, Mennos determined to withdraw and end the crusade from his part.

Mennos marched back south to the city of Iorisa in order to hold the city until the Western Army under the command of Solomon Tyrus would return. At Iorisa however, men of the Northern Army of Workhold tried to apprehend Mennos and his army including Prince Diarmud. Mennos and Diarmud refused, but this served only to spark hostility in the soldiers. The soldiers attacked Mennos's army and though Mennos had more men, his men were devastated and in poor condition. If not for Olanius Dante and the Couriers, Mennos and all men in the Eastern Army would have probably died. This became known as the Battle of Iorisa.

When Solomon arrived at Iorisa, a war council began where information was shared. Mennos learned that the Northern Army under the command of Henrivier Nizenkampf was in open revolt against the King and that Solomon had lost his army during the Massacre of Eientei. Mennos shared that Jamur Emetur had betrayed them in the War of the Oblikrom and had sent men to assist Azrael. All of this was worrying, especially because it was all happening at once. Diarmud, the highest ranking official in the meeting, ordered Mennos to destroy the Steel Order which was in conflict with the King Cult inside their Kingdom's territory. Mennos immediately took this task upon him and marched south to prepare an attack on the Steel Order.

## Steel War

Mennos's preparations against the Steel Order began with securing more troops under him. He sent delegates to Samuel Berghof, Grisweld Mittelhoss, Phasib Atlas and the Couriers. Mennos managed to form a fearsome army and for the first time held full command over the campaign. Mennos agreed to fight a pitched battle with the Steel Order main representative, Lukyan 'Lucky' Marsius who would become Mennos's main opponent in the battle.

In January 309, Mennos formed his army and fought the Second Battle of Steel Fort in which he destroyed more than half of the Steel Order army whilst he suffered 1/3 casualties. Though a victory, Mennos lost the 'war' so to speak as the Steel Knights had captured Olanius Dante, one of Mennos's main commanders and one of the most important Courier commanders alive. This meant that the Steel Knights held a great leverage in negotiations. Mennos was forced to concede to the Steel Order demands to flee to the Kingdom of Olav. To Mennos the battle was also not a satisfying victory as he had lost 1/3 of his men, the greatest casualties to him yet. Mennos admitted that Lukyan had been his most skillful opponent that far.