13th Lysellic-Varrenescene War

### Outcome:

Decisive Lysellic victory, nigh-annihilation of Kerythàle, unification of the Lysellic Pakt.

Belligerents| **Lysellic Pact*** Lemetiate of Airolia
* Kingdom of Lensalia

Numbers| ~70,000 Lensalians* ~64,000 infantry
* ~5,000 archers
* ~1,000 cavalry

The **13th Lysellic-Varrenescene War** was a series of armed engagements between Airolia and its allies and the Kingdom of the Varrenes, which had nominal support from certain Katavian kingdoms to the north. As one of the bloodiest and by far the largest of the Lysellic-Varrenescene Wars, the 13th forced Airolia to change many of its prior stratagems to adapt to new tactics and technological advancements.

During the war, the previously-sprawling Varrenescene capital of Kerythàle was almost entirely destroyed during a series of successive battles, sieges, and counter-sieges, reducing its estimated population of 900,000 at the start of the war to 400,000 by 1400, and by 1430, zero. In the years following the war, the city of Aeiliam would be established further down-river and act as a military outpost and garrison city for the Airolian army.

## Background

Being the 14th in a series of wars between the Lysellic Pact and the Kingdom of the Varrenes in only 68 years, tensions remained at a boiling point between the opposing powers. With much of its army shattered from wars prior and the rest committed to garrisoning forced labor camps and preventing further slave uprisings, the Kingdom of the Varrenes was left more vulnerable than ever before.

Airolia, at the behest of many of its military leaders and notably the recently coronated King Androssen-Valentan Aldprinz, seeking to prove himself as a capable ruler despite his origin as a bastard, prepared its armies to march. The previous Varrenescene ruler, Queen Aelera Reyquinal, had died in the war prior, leaving bitter animosity towards the Airolians on the side of the Varrenescenes.

Airolia also largely blamed the interference of the Kingdom of the Varrenes for the Despot Onatis’ loss in the Great Sundering, asserting that had it not been for their resistance, a great pan-Liamist pan-Helinskan superstate could have been founded.

## Warfare

### Opening Skirmishes

The first battles of the war occurred along the River Lyannis, namely by the towns of Osyelluna and Hyncadi. These failed to achieve any significant gains for either side but served as an opportunity for Airolia and Lensalia to organize themselves and raid the Varrenescene periphery.

### First March on Kerythàle

*Main article: First March on Kerythàle*

Emboldened by the lack of resistance, Lysellic forces marched on the nearby Varrenescene capital of Kerythàle with the intent of breaking the city sans a siege. However, much of the local armies and levies had been garrisoned in or around the castle, hence the lack of resistance, and a Varrensecene armored cavalry charge broke the Lysellic assault before it had begun.

With an all-out assault out of the picture, the remaining Lysellic forces dug in for a traditional siege of the city, much to the dismay of Airolian commanders.

### Fording the River Lyannis

*Main articles: River Lyannis, Battle of Asathyr*

With supplies beginning to dwindle, the besieging forces dispatched roughly 30% of their armies under Lord-Protector Laurent-Benois de Alpêr to cross the River Lyannis Kerythàle was situated on and raid for supplies.

The new Laurentian army’s expedition began poorly. Many makeshift bridges constructed to ford the river collapsed with many men on them, reducing the combat capability of the forces. The undersupplied nature of the new force meant that they were unable to set up camp and rest their contingent, being entirely reliant on pillaging local farmland and villages. At the same time, Varrenescene armies mustered further inland were on a direct route to relieve the capital.

When the exhausted soldiers under Laurent-Benois met the fresh Varrenescene army under Aenwyn Aqeilos at the Battle of Asathyr, it was a decisive Lysellic defeat. Nearly the entire Laurentian army perished in the field and those that didn’t embarked on a pillaging retreat through the north of the country, intending to wrap around the River Lyannis to regroup with the remainder of the army as opposed to fording the river.

Hearing the news of the Laurentian army’s fate, the besieging forces around Kerythàle burned their camp and everything else in reach, then retreated to nearby Lensalian territory.

The defenders in Kerythàle, now no longer under siege, met with the Aqeliosi army and marched south to decisively crush the Lysellic forces before they had a chance to rearm. As they marched, the Varrenescene forces enslaved villages they came across and pillaged farmland.

Despite being outnumbered nearly 2:1, the Lysellic forces would achieve a costly victory at the Battle of Henriville by utilizing a feigned retreat of the Airolian forces, trapping the Varrenescene vanguard in a false pocket, and surrounding the army with Lysellic heavy cavalry.

With momentum returned to the Lysellic court, the armies set out several months later to restart the siege of Kerythàle.

### Second March on Kerythàle

*Main article: Battle of Little Kerythàle, Second March on Kerythàle, Ousting of Kerythàle*

After nearly a year under siege, the Kerythàlen defenders began to make more and more desperate sallies in a futile attempt to drive out the besieging forces. Another relief army mustered by the Varrenes had arrived some months prior, but was beaten in a light skirmish and opted to countersiege the Lysellic forces.

With Lysellic supplies running low and their position incredibly weak, the Lord-Protectors in command of the besieging army ordered a frontal assault on the city. With incredible losses, Kerythàle was taken by the Lysellic forces. Much of the city was destroyed in the fighting and the vindictive Lysellic bannermen began a sack of much of the city.

Sensing weakness and hearing of approaching enemy forces, the Varrenescene army, now commanded by King Maradiem IV of House Reyquinal, commenced an assault of their own only days later. The Lysellic defenders, exhausted, wounded, starving, and unfamiliar with the defenses were utterly overpowered by the new attackers. The second assault was nonetheless incredibly bloody and resulted in the total destruction of the Lysellic armies in the castle.

### Kerythàlen Sieges, Countersieges

The approaching army was in fact the remnants of the Laurentian army, having incited slave, ethnic, and religious revolts as they campaigned north, gaining some additional 6,000 men. Seeing Varrenescene banners over Kerythàle and unsure of their orders, Laurent-Benois initiated a siege of the city on his own volition, sending a carrier pigeon requesting orders to Vilden. News of Laurent’s survival and the continuation of the war reinvigorated the exhausted Lysellic nobility, who mustered the remainder of their men-at-arms and many of their levies, marching them north to reinforce the Laurentian forces.

#### Third March on Kerythàle

Having received orders to “take the city when ready”, Laurent-Benois gathered his forces and assaulted Kerythàle as had his predecessors after roughly two months of siege. The ensuing assault took the city, because the Varrenescene forces had retreated a majority of their forces through secret passageways to begin a countersiege of their own, leaving many of their elite forces to inflict losses on the Lysellic garrison through guerilla warfare.

Outnumbered, Laurent-Benois ordered his men to create a “wall of fire” as they made a fighting retreat out of the city, similar to what the Varrenescene had done during the Laurentian assault. The fire quickly engulfed Kerythàle, killing many, destroying most of the city proper, and forcing Laurent-Benois to send his men through the north gates. Seeing this, a Varrenescene lieutenant by the name of Charis II Keygeiros wheeled his heavy cavalry to the north gate of the castle, delaying the Lysellic retreat long enough for Varrenescene levies to surround them. Backed into a corner, the Laurentians smashed through the Varrenescene lines after giving a rousing speech to his men, inflicting an equally heavy amount of losses to the enemy as they did to the Laurentian forces but killing Charis II Keygeiros in the fighting and leaving the Varrenescene leadership incapable. With no orders given to the Varrenescene army to capitalize on the wounding of their enemies, the Laurentians were able to escape unmolested.

As Laurent-Benois marched southwards, his army ran into the incoming reinforcements who supplemented their losses and whose supplies refreshed the winded Lysellic forces. Thanks to Laurent-Benois’ raiding and freeing of slaves along the River Lyannis, much of the Varrenescene army was busy suppressing internal dissent and was unable to assist the defense of Kerythàle.

#### Final March on Kerythàle

The final march on Kerythàle in 1402 would spell the end of the already largely destroyed city. The defenders, mauled from the repeated attacks and starving from the intensive pillaging that had occurred during the war, initially desired a surrender when they heard of the approaching Lysellic army. However, when a diktat stating that any captured noblemen, generals, or other officers would be executed but the general soldiery unharmed, the leadership of the occupying forces decided to continue fighting.

When Laurent-Benois approached the city, he publicly made his proposition clear, causing mass desertion and even instances of insurrection within the Varrenescene forces. Airolia and Lensalia used this opportunity to march into the city, cutting down most of the disorganized Varrenescene forces and incorporating many of the deserters into their vanguard by threat of death. The remaining loyalist and traitor officers, including King Maradiem IV himself, were captured, executed, and hung from the few smoldering walls that remained.

### Western Push

With Kerythàle in ruins and the Royal Army annihilated, Laurent-Benois desired a great liberation of the enslaved within the Kingdom of the Varrenes. To both facilitate these wishes and his superiors’ wishes of a debilitated Varrenescene economy, he gathered his men, pressed many locals into service, and marched westwards across the River Lyannis. Roughly 14,000 slaves were freed by Lysellic forces, 6,000 of which joined the Lysellic advance. In 1404, after suffering a year of pillaging and decisive losses, the new Varrenescene Queen, Althidon II, issued notice of their surrender to the invading forces, officially ending the war.

## Aftermath

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Lysellic Pact opted to fully unify under the Lemetiate of Airolia to better centralize their economies, military, government, and foreign policy, with the reigning monarchs of all involved states given a seat on the Airolian Holy Council and many nobles given smaller titles or armies. In the Kingdom of the Varrenes, the intense economic and political destabilization paved the way for several large-scale, unsuccessful peasant and slave revolts, as well as the voluntary conversion of the vast majority of non-aristocratic Varrenescene to Liamism, seeing it as a righteous religion that was destined to free them from bondage.

The war is often considered one of Airolia’s greatest colonial accomplishments on Helinska, behind its intervention in the Great Sundering.