War of the White Rose

The War of the White Rose was a battle between three factions that took place during A3Y288, starting early during First Light and finally concluding near the end of Winter. The battle took place within the corrupted forests of Tasmir. Today, it's an event most dare not speak of, due to the final outcome of the bloodshed.

## Prelude

During Winter of A3Y287, the year before the start of the war, a group of scouts part of the Dunhaven military travelled into Tasmir looking to investigate rumours of a Tasmian tribal chief uniting the region's tribes to form some kind of united army. Fearing an attack, the scouts were sent out to spy on the tribes, figure out the reason behind the chief's uniting, and find out why the tribes were joining him so willingly when in the past they had mostly kept themselves separated. The party of scouts was captured a few days later by members of the Hendal tribe. The Hendalim were a strong tribe of herbalists and warriors that were at the time resisting the Mirakki presence in their lands. The Hendalim suspected the scouts of being Mirakki, and as such, refused to let them go for several weeks.

It wasn't long after the scouts' capture that the chief they were sent to spy on arrived in the Hendalim encampment looking to add them to his ranks. After some negotiation and several more days, the chief's promises caused the Hendalim to join the chief's so-called united Rahir tribe. Not long after uniting the Hendalim to his side, the chief received word of the captured scouts from the north. With his knowledge of the human lands to the north and east of Tasmir, he devised a plot with the Hendalim. After several tribes had witnessed it, rumours had spread throughout Tasmir, telling of the Hendalim possessing some kind of artefact that was able to heal wounds that would otherwise kill a man, and even bring the dead back to life.

The Hendalim proved most of the rumours true when they showed the Rahirim to the small clearing sitting at the center of a lake. They had called it Da Hini (The Garden). At the center of the clearing, a beautiful white rose glowed with a bright aura. The Hendalim had discovered the flower several years ago, and had been using it ever since, bringing wounded, sick and fallen tribesmembers to the flower. The Rahir chief wished to see it with his own eyes, and slid a knife across his arm. To his utter disbelief, the wound closed itself only seconds later.

With the knowledge of the White Rose, the Rahir chief planned to use it to finally eradicate the Mirakki threat from their home, for corrupting and warping it. Knowing a simple attack against the Mirakki would fail, even with all the tribes he had united, he planned to have the situation resolve itself. On the first day of First Light, when the forest would bloom and be at its strongest, he would cause a war to break out within Tasmir, to greatly anger the forest and have the Mirakki and their Dovarian masters succumb to the environment and their enemies.

The chief showed the effects of the healing flower to the Hendal tribe's captured scouts in great detail, killing many Rahirim and reviving them in its aura in front of their eyes. The chief lied to the scouts, telling them that the united Rahir tribe would use the flower as a weapon to become an immortal army and destroy both the kingdom of Tinumen and the Dovarian empire, killing every innocent citizen in their way. Meanwhile, the converted members of the Hendal tribe captured several unaware Dovarian Sentinels, who would also be taken to Da Hini to witness the same thing.

Near the end of Winter, the scouts and Sentinels were sent back to their homes by the Rahirim, to 'warn their leaders of the destruction they were about to face'.

It wasn't long until word of the "White Rose" and the impending Rahirim invasion reached the cities, and eventually, the ears of Queen Nila Pyrifica and Emperor Farlang Sivrall. Queen Nila sent out a heavily guarded caravan towards Empirion, bearing only a letter with the royal seal. She hoped that despite the unstable relations between Tinumen and the empire, she could persuade Farlang to work with her to stop the Rahirim's plans. She waited for long, but never received an answer from the emperor, making her suspicious of his motives towards the fabled White Rose. Scouts were sent into Tasmir once again, with an army of Tinumene soldiers following close behind, ready to act if necessary. The scouts found encampments of soldiers bearing Empirion colours and banners, and managed to capture and return several of the soldiers for questioning. Rumours had spread among the soldiers that they were in Tasmir to retrieve a magical flower, and that Farlang himself would be present on the battlefield to claim it. The queen was quickly informed, but she was hesitant to do anything with the Mirakki order present in the forests.

The Rahirim chief suspected that the Empirion soldiers were coming to retrieve the White Rose, after hearing of their emperor's presence. His intention was to have the Tinumene army battle their enemies for the flower, but he soon realised that the threat of the Mirakki was too great for them to act. To stir things up, Rahirim warriors raided one of the empire's smaller encampments at night, killing each and every man inside, including a Mirakki that was residing in the camp. They left behind markings that would point to the Tinumene soldiers as the culprits.

## The War

The Rahirim's plan worked, and soon rogue parties of Empirion soldiers began assaults on Tinumene camps just outside of Tasmir. Both Queen Nila and Emperor Farlang responded to the happenings by declaring war and officially allowing their armies to attack and kill their enemies. The killing of the Mirakki also urged Farlang to issue another order, demanding that the valuable members of the Mirakki return to their university at once, save for a select few less powerful Mirakki that would aid the army in Tasmir.

The recalling of the Mirakki angered the Rahirim greatly. Although it had been their goal all along, they knew that the order would return as soon as the war was over, as the tribes of Tasmir alone were never enough of a threat to keep the Mirakki away. Only the few Mirakki that remained in the forests would be killed, while the rest of the order hid in their university. Now, the Rahir chief had caused a war between two powerful nations in his land, with no reward in sight for Tasmir itself.

The Rahirim's focus shifted to driving the soldiers back out of their home, and keeping the White Rose out of their reach. Both the queen and emperor realised that the flower would be the key to winning the war, and perhaps many wars to come. Even if it didn't possess any true powers, claiming the White Rose would cripple the enemy's morale and frighten them. However, First Light had begun to revitalise the warped forests after its rest during Winter.

Both armies pushed further into Tasmir, meeting with the full force of the dangerous land. The damage to the environment and the blood spilled on both sides angered the forest, and hundreds were slain by nature itself, drowning in the earth, being swung into the distance by violent roots, and getting consumed by the beasts lurking in the waters. Entire parties became lost among the maze of plants and trees, many deserting their fellow soldiers. Some were driven into madness by the constant death around them, eventually turning on their comrades in a fit of rage. It is rumoured that when the danger became too great, Emperor Farlang left his soldiers behind and returned to Empirion, placing his trust in his generals to return with the White Rose. This caused despair among the Empirion soldiers, urging many to rebel against their commanders and leave their loyalties to the empire behind.

Meanwhile, the Rahirim and many smaller Tasmian tribes became victims of the war. Men, women and children were killed by the disorganised soldiers, causing the Rahirim to finally start their war against the two armies. The tribes killed every man they could find that didn't belong in Tasmir, further weakening both sides. The queen and emperor's armies soon realised that they were no longer fighting for their ruler or their land. Instead, they were now fighting only for their lives, stuck in the hellish forests of Tasmir, with only few people trying to re-unite the soldiers under their banner to win the war.

While Queen Nila continued to look for ways to fix the situation within Tasmir, Emperor Farlang grew impatient. He decided to dismiss the war, labeling the men he had sent into Tasmir as unruly traitors and wild beasts. He chose to believe now that the White Rose was nothing but a story that had grown out of control, and officially exiled the soldiers in Tasmir. As his final act concerning the war, he sent a small army led by commander Lethard Brine to guard the Tasmian border and ensure none of the exiles returned to the empire.

Soldiers on both sides were desperate, lost or banished from their home, stuck in a place that would claim their lives sooner or later. The stories of the White Rose's healing and reviving powers gave many hope to see their fallen comrades returned, and as such, the remnants of both armies had begun travelling towards the area where the rose would likely be found, most groups carrying the bodies of their deceased comrades with them. The soldiers met at the center of Tasmir, where a large lake held the island where the White Rose had grown.

A party of Rahirim led by their chief had arrived on the island before their enemies to guard it. Regardless, with no other option, many soldiers constructed makeshift boats and began rowing through the lake, racing to reach the White Rose before anyone else. Dozens of men were shot down by archers scattered all across the lake, and eventually, only a few boats reached the island, where the dying soldiers fought the Rahirim and eachother with the last of their strength. The Rahirim chief was slain in the fight, and only a small group of men remained, wounded and close to death.

For several hours, the group attempted to use the White Rose to heal their wounds and bring back their fallen comrades, but to no avail. The glowing aura of the White Rose had faded, and it soon wilted and died. The dead remained dead, the wounded succumbed to their pain, and the sick forever fell to sleep. The White Rose had lost its fabled power, and all the ruthless bloodshed within Tasmir proved to be for naught.

With that, the War of the White Rose had finally ended.

## Aftermath

### Tasmir

The violence and bloodshed of the war had angered the forests of Tasmir, and its corruption shifted parts of the land inexplicably, leaving behind natural, grueling memorials to the war.

A large lake in the eastern forests of Tasmir was used during the war by Empirion soldiers who had begun to lose their mind, to drown themselves in. Hundreds of men had jumped into the lake and never resurfaced, their remains still lying on the bottom of the lake to this day. The Mirakki corruption of the forest is believed to be the cause of the lake's new properties. With all the death under the surface, the lake changed, its waters becoming pitch-black and a thick fog hovering over it. The corruption spread further away from the lake over the years, carrying ghostly whispers on the winds that caused anything they reached to wilt and die. This effect created the dreaded Whisperwood, where not even the natives of Tasmir dare venture to today. It's believed that the spirits of the drowned soldiers now haunt this dying, ever expanding part of the forest.

Another area that suffered a magical change after the war was Da Hini, the garden where the White Rose had grown. After the rose had wilted, shortly after new, blood-red roses grew in its place, as if the forest had intended to create an everlasting memorial to the bloodshed that had happened within Tasmir. The remaining Rahirim built a shrine near the roses that would honour their fallen chief.

### Rahirim

After the war and the death of their leader, the Rahir tribe was broken and weak. The Rahirim were scattered, and soon the members would return to their old tribes, going back to separation from the others. The Rahirim had failed in their mission to banish the Mirakki order from their lands, and eventually only few remained, who continued fighting in the name of their dead chief, to little avail. The Mirakki returned to Tasmir one by one, deeming it once again safe to practice their experiments within the forests. A new order was issued by Farlang Sivrall, marking the tribes of Tasmir as enemies of the empire and allowing the Mirakki to kill them on sight.

### Remnants

Many soldiers remained in Tasmir after the war, being exiled or simply unable to find their way back home. Most chose to abandon their previous loyalties and established tribes to learn to live in the Tasmian forests. The largest, most notable of these tribes would become known as the Newbrood.

Other soldiers who had been largely driven into insanity by the end of the war were rumoured to have disappeared into the far eastern parts of Tasmir, following an entity who they began to worship as a god. This being's name was Katorax, and an ominous temple was later constructed by the soldiers to honour it. These insane, violent people became known as the Harbingers to the other tribes. Little is known about their so-called god to this day.

### Dovarian Empire & Tinumen

For both Tinumen and the empire, the war had been quite a drain on resources. Most citizens detested their rulers for sending the soldiers into Tasmir for a pointless war over a fable.

The cruel treatment of the soldiers in Tasmir by Emperor Farlang marked the end of his tyrannical reign. For most citizens of Empirion it was the last straw, and many finally began to see him for the cruel man he was. Commander Lethard Brine, one of Farlang's most trusted soldiers who had been sent to guard the Tasmian border against exiles, later seized this opportunity to begin an uprising against Farlang, which proved succesful. Two seasons after the war had ended, Emperor Farlang was slain by the sword of Lethard Brine, who then proceeded to hand the throne of the empire over to his brother, Jorlanis Brine, who later appointed Lethard as a general in the Empirion army. These events would become known as the Brine Uprising.

In Tinumen, Queen Nila managed to uphold her position, promising her people to make up for the mistake that was the War of the White Rose. She did not keep her word, however, as parts of the kingdom slowly descended further into poverty under her rule, namely the province of Dunmellow, where the corruption of Tasmir had spread north into their once fertile farmlands, leaving the province with little to trade or eat.