Sevician-Cyonian War

The **Sevician-Cyonian War** was a war fought in the third century A.S between the Empire of Sevicia (and its constituent kingdoms) and the Kingdom of Cyon, over hegemony of the centre of continental Truyea. The war, which lasted eight years between 235 and 243, financially and militarily ruined the already-fractured Kingdom of Cyon, which subsequently collapsed and was annexed by Sevicia. In the last month of 243, after Sevician forces had occupied the Cyonian capital of Arno, Cyon surrendered, at which point the last of the Barbo clan, who had ruled Cyon for more than 200 years, were summarily executed, signalling a symbolic end to Cyonian rule.

## Background

The kingdom of Cyon had ruled over the Middlelands region of continental Truyea for two centuries as a dominant power, winning successive wars against a number of smaller nations and realms to the immediate west. Under the Barbo clan, who had ruled since its founding, Cyon had enjoyed a period of brief stability in the late first century, until several internal crises threatened to break the kingdom apart.

By the beginning of the third century, Cyonian rule had splintered even further. A naturally diverse kingdom, it suffered from severe cultural setbacks; half of its population spoke Erenneese and half still spoke Old Tamerian. Compounding this was that Cyon's population was spread between many different ethnic groups and religions, none of whom seemed to be able to peacefully co-exist for long. Though it still remained the dominant state in the Middlelands, its influence was beginning to wane, and it was becoming harder and harder for the Barbo clan to maintain control of a once-glorious kingdom.

Meanwhile, in the east, Sevicia had enjoyed a decisive victory over the kingdom of the Shimmering Isles, led by arguably Sevicia's greatest ruler and certainly their finest military commander - Ascillion the Great. By 230, Ascillion had set his sights on the weakened kingdom of Cyon. Sensing vulnerability, he capitalised on an opportunity to strike while it was still possible. On the 15th of Mandera I, 235, Sevicia declared war. The Barbo clan, who had been preoccupied by other military matters in the east, were surprised by the sudden move, and scrambled to regain control of their kingdom.

## War

### Early war

The early years of the war were marked by small skirmishes and battles along the Middelands strip of land that extended from Lige in the north to Novo all the way on the southern cost. A number of minor battles, including the Battle of Highearth Castle in Mandera 236, left the Sevician army bloodied, but not defeated. It was clear to Ascillion that despite the problems plaguing the Cyonian system of rule, its kingdom was still vast, and the Sevician forces soon found themselves outnumbered.

Cyon was led by its matriarch and queen, Ryessa Barbo, her two siblings - sister Tesemone and brother Rohirio - and her young daughter, Thylea. At nineteen, Thylea had proven herself a smart, if somewhat brash, leader, a trait that showed itself at the Battle of Callian Falls, in early 237. Facing an army of 25,000 Sevicians, Thylea's superior force held its ground well for the first day of combat; the Cyonian troops, who favoured long, thrusting spears and smaller shields, found themselves at a natural tactical advantage over the rectangular shields and shorter stabbing swords of the Sevicians. These differences in armour and armament would prove key in the early parts of the war, where the Sevicians found themselves unable to properly handle a style of fighting they had never encountered before.

Battles like Callian Falls defined much of the years 237 and 238. Though the Sevicians made minor inroads, mainly concentrated around the northern cities and town, progress further south ground to a halt, with commanders Marcus Opono and Ernas Teray losing a string of minor battles that proved costly in the colder months. A severe outbreak of the weeping terror during the month of Saturna III in 238, made significantly worse by the bitterly cold weather and lack of proper medicine or rest, left more than 3000 Sevicians dead and many more seriously ill. The war effort looked bleak, and in the north, Ascillion - who still had not yet lost a pitched battle in his military career - realised that sort of victory would need to be decisive, and would need to come fast.

### Sevician success

The tide began to turn as early as the first half of the year 239. Though the harsh weathers of the long Saturna months had taken a severe toll on the Sevician forces, it had not gone by without incident or loss for the Cyonians either. Resupply issues and logistical hiccups meant that thousands, especially those in the southwestern regions near the cities of Newford and Henenbach, went without food for weeks on end. Cyon's issues went deeper than supply, too; in Tullena II, 239, a rebellion organised by Erenneese-speaking separatists broke out in the city of Dar Bora, which left thousands dead. Though the result would eventually be suppressed, it meant that the Barbo clan had to divert crucial resources and manpower to deal with it, which allowed the Sevicians to launch what Ascillion would later term the "turning point."

On the 16th of Tullena III, 239, Sevician forces marched north from the city of Highearth, crossed over the River Lowgreen, and pushed northwest towards Nacia. For more than a hundred years, Nacia had been Cyon's crown jewel of the north, a coastal city that served as a hub of trade and commerce for the Shimmering Sea region and was home to a great deal of wealth. The Sevician forces marching with Ascillion numbered some 60,000 in all, and the Cyonian response was swift and serious. On the 21st of Tullena IV, 239, Ascillion's army met a Cyonian force of more than 100,000 men six miles south of the city of Nacia, in what would become the most important battle of the entire war.

The Cyonians, led by Rohirio Barbo and Ismorgon of Argo, held both a numerical advantage and a strategic one. The superior range of their spears and their closely-packed formations meant that any sort of pitched combat with the Cyonian front line was futile at best. Indeed, in previous battles the Sevicians had been routed on numerous occasions by just such an encounter, and Ascillion himself had yet to fight any battle of significance in the war. But Nacia would prove Ascillion's genius as a commander yet again.

Ascillion recognised that while the Cyonians had the advantage of range, they lacked mobility. At Nacia, he massed his infantry in the centre to feint a pitched attack against the impenetrable Cyonian front line, and kept his large forces of both cavalry and skirmishes in reserve. Rohirio ordered the Cyonians to advance, eager to press the advantage, and quickly, but Ascillion - with the superior mobility and training of his troops - made a swift repositioning. He swung his cavalry out to the right flank, and assembled his skirmishers far along the left, so far that they seemed out of range of the enormous swell of Cyonian infantry. As the Cyonians advanced, the cavalry wheeled around from the right. Rohirio, having expected this, spread his line of infantry such that any sort of flank would prove uneffective as it would only exhaust the advancing Sevician troops first.

It was then that Ascillion's genius won the day. Using both his lighter and nimbler units and the mass of his infantry, he feinted a double envelopment. The Cyonian forces, already spread thin to defend against this exact sort of pincer movement, began to panic. Ascillion kept his cavalry on the flanks and gave the signal for his infantry to engage. This would prove crucial for the battle. The Cyonian line, which had been spread too thin in an effort to defend from a flank that had been a trick all along, began to buckle. Despite heavy Sevician losses, Ascillion pushed on, believing that a lack of discipline and training among the Cyonian troops and a fear of a flank that still might happen would win him the day. Fighting raged for most of the afternoon, in what would prove one of the bloodiest single days of conflict in the history of either nation.

By nightfall the Cyonian central line had collapsed and panic had spread. The Sevician cavalry, which had spent most of the day threatening to engage but had mainly stayed away from the superior range of the Cyonian spears, wheeled around to close in on the bulk of the infantry. At this point, order within the Cyonian army evaporated. Without a proper hold on his men, Rohirio could do nothing but watch. The Cyonians began to flee, with the faster Sevician cavalry picking off stragglers. Those that remained were either killed or captured. By the next morning, Ascillion had won his most impressive military victory. Two days later he marched into the city of Nacia unopposed, the first non-Cyonian monarch to do so in more than 200 years.

### Cyonian collapse

The war would last another four long years, but it was clear to all in both Sevicia and Cyon that the outcome was inevitable. Further battles in the west, including a string of victories by Ascillion, pushed the Sevician advantage. By early 242 the Sevicians, for the first time in the war, held numerical superiorty, and many among the Cyonian army were beginning to grow disillusioned with the idea of fighting for a kingdom that had never truly represented them in the first place. Between Tullena I and Mandera I, more than 50,000 Cyonians deserted the army, for which very few were ever punished. It was evident to all that the end was coming sooner rather than later.

### End of the war

The last major battle of the war was fought 20 miles outside the Cyonian capital of Arno, in the west, on the 3rd day of Tullena III, 243, in what would come to be known as the Battle of Arno Gate. The Sevicians, under Ascillion himself, numbered more than 50,000, as did the Cyonians. This time the battle would prove more straightforward, with Ascillion winning a decisive victory; the Sevicians, who had proven themselves significantly more adaptable over the course of the war, had no issue outmaneuvering and outsmarting the slower, lumbering Cyonian spearmen. Ascillion marched into the capital of Arno two weeks later, a pivotal moment of symbolism in the continent's history.

Despite pleas to flee the capital and seek sanctuary further west in Erenna, or across the Sunset Sea, the leading members of the House of Barbo remained, and after the Sevicians captured Arno they turned themselves over. Ryessa and Rohirio had expected clemency, but Ascillion proved less forgiving: instead, he had both Ryessa and Rohirio, as well as their sister Tesemone and Ryessa's daughter Thylea, strangled to death. It would mark the end of the Barbos, a clan that had ruled with supreme power for two centuries.

## Aftermath

The fall of Cyon proved a turning point in military hegemony over the continent. Though Sevicia had for centuries been a nation of great potential and enormous manpower, bitter in-fighting and incompetent rulers had stunted its growth. Under Ascillion, Sevicia enjoyed a period of unprecedented expansion, during which time it reached its greatest ever geographical extent and saw relative domestic harmony. Though Ascillon would pass away less than a decade later, Sevicia would remain the dominant power on the continent for a further 170 years, until the Middlelands War with Erenna saw the slow decline of both realms.

Much of the history of the war and Ascillion comes from Cyppian, a Sevician writer and historian, who chronicles the events in his seventeen-volume epic, *The Annals of Sevicia.*

## See also

The Empire of Sevicia

Ascillion the Great

The Kingdom of Cyon