Cahal

Emperor of Auria from 354-362PE. The second of Garath's sons to sit the throne. As the twisted machinations of the Behind the Throne Conflict had led to the death of his elder brother and sister. Cahal wanted to be seen as the victor of the conflict but many seemed to think he had survived due more to the wisdom and strength of those around him and that he himself was simply lucky to be alive.s A lesser son of greater sires.

To counter this Cahal chose to use the border and trade incidents, manufactured in the Behind the Throne conflict to destablise the kingdom, as an excuse to engage in expansionism hoping to be successful as a conqueror in the style of his father. Having served as a naval commander in some of his father's campaigns Cahal thought the sea would be the domain of his success. He even had some statues of himself commissioned with the legend 'The Great Admiral' written on them.

358PE: Aurian naval forces were extended into the Blackened Sea and Cahal claimed the sea belonged to the Empire by right of conquest.

358-360PE: Aurian forces landed on the western islands off the coast of Auria and Saracan. They were able to take the settlements on the islands though at surprisingly high cost. The Empire then held the islands under occupation against a sustained resistance. This conflict however did not end in lear victory, the islands had no unified political leadership who could officially surrender to the Empire and the locals fought on in sustained guerrilla fighting and internal raids. In the end various factors started to break the Imperial hold. These factors included: The distance from the Empire, the effort to blockade Northport, the lack of resupply routes, Cahal and his commanders' misunderstandings of the true challenges of marine warfare and the unexpected vehemence of the islanders resistance. So this effort was brought to ruin. It later became known as the Island Failure.

359PE: Due to Cahal's claim over the Blackened Sea, the Empire began to blockade the halfling city of Northport. Northport was an independent city-state with the vast majority of its population being halflings but many being elves, dwarves and humans as well. The Empire insisted that tariffs be paid by any non-imperial ship travelling through 'their' waters with any goods and utterly prohibited any 'foreign' warships travelling through 'imperial' waters. This claim was never recognised by Northport and many blockade runners chanced the blockade and several were successful however it resulted in bloody fighting on the shores, decks and eventually led to a strike at Northport itself.

360PE: As the island occupation ends Cahal redoubled his efforts against Northport claiming that had been his own real objective in the whole endeavor and the islands had merely been distracting his forces. The blood of both sides flowed freely in several seaborne skirmishes but the same problems the Empire had experienced in the Island Failure reared their heads in this campaign. Worse the Empire never occupied Northport itself leaving Cahal little to show for his expensive efforts in the north.

361PE: Cahal signed an order for a landward strike at Northport. Troops were landed from the fleet in the Blackened Sea and approached the city by land whilst several ships made a direct attack on the harbours. The Empire wanted Northport as a vassal and their own key port in the north so they did not want to damage the city heavily using siege engines or intense magic. The attack was a disaster for imperial forces. The three wizards called the Hollow Wind Cabal caused absolute devastation in the battle and the halflings display hitherto unseen heavy weapons on the harbour walls and use them to destroy the incoming ships. These weapons were designed, constructed and manned by dwarvern allies. In the battle elves, humans, dwarves and halflings fight together and it becomes clear that many have travelled from around Saracan to assist Northport even though they are not technically in the Woodguard, Barkarin, Dusken alliance.

362PE: Imperial withdrawal begins from all landward sites north of the border. Though they retain a presence in the Blackened Sea the blockade of Northport is lifted. The Empire reamins in open hostilities with the islanders and the Northporters. If their warships come across any of these vessels they would take and loot them or even sink them with impunity. Still the adventure had clearly failed and these events would be known in Imperial Histories as the Northport Failure. Cahal himself died later that year due to an infection in his gut.