Mortian War

### Result

Ascaria secures domination over Nesaria, total destruction and subjugation of Mortia, genocide of Orcs

### Attackers

Kingdom of AscariaKingdom of Eshér (periodically)
Kingdom of Cortath and other Cortathian clans (aside from brief rebellion)
Various allied minor states, predominantly Elvic ones
Allied Vampire Bloodhomes
Dungorian Commonwealth (late in war)

### Defenders

Chiefdom of MortanaVarious allied or vassalised minor states, predominantly native Nesarian ones
Allied Vampire Bloodhomes

### Defender Losses

Approx. 190,000 over entire war (not including genocide)

### Civilian Casualties

Approx. 300,000Between 2 and 2.4 million killed in subsequent Mortian Genocide

The **Mortian War** (historically called the War Against the Orcs by Ascarian scholars) was the longest and proportionally bloodiest war ever fought in Nesaria. The war was waged between the Orcish Chiefdom of Mortana and the Kingdom of Ascaria, and the numerous allies and vassals of both sides. Although there was no official break in the war, there were several distinct periods of peace where little to no fighting took place. The war eventually led to the total defeat of Mortana, the ascendancy of Ascaria over Nesaria, and the genocidal slaughter of the majority of the Mortani Orcs.

King Hegaros declared war upon Mortana in Verasena 949 INC (July 551BC) with the stated aim of expelling Orcish settlers from the Mortian Borderlands and returning the Human population, though both sides were well aware that the struggle between them was not merely a territorial dispute, but rather an all-out fight for hegemony over Nesaria, where the only options were total victory or total destruction.

The war was notorious for great acts of cruelty and crimes against the rules of war on both sides. The debate over which side was morally "worse" continues to this day, and is highly distorted by millennia of propaganda. Pro-Ascarians typically argue that Mortana was more morally flawed because of its extensive use and expansion of slavery and the massacres it perpetuated against Elvic nobility, whereas pro-Mortians argue that the Mortani institution of slavery was more tame than most contemporary counterparts and that there is more evidence for violence against Mortian and Native civilians committed by Elvics than the other way around.

Throughout this article, the geography of Nesaria will be described in the manner in which Nesarians saw their country, and how they still continue to interpret it - that is on a south-up orientation, with south being "up", west being "right", east being "left" and north being "down". For example, Ascaria is spoken of as being "above" Mortana since it is further southwards, and on a south-oriented map appears above Mortana.

## Strategic Situation

At the onset of the war, each major power in Nesaria had their own distinct advantages, disadvantages and potential opportunities.

### Ascaria

At the beginning of the war, Ascaria was clearly the more powerful state on paper, with greater wealth, production capacity and manpower. The heartland of Ascaria itself was also practically impregnable, defended by the ancient Great Wall which made the capital of Capera effectively utterly immune to siege. However, the reality of the situation was not so positive.

Ascaria was indeed the largest and most powerful state in Nesaria at the time, but this power was tenuous and largely illusory; though it had successfully Elvicised many of its native subjects by the outbreak of the war, there was still a significant and dangerous minority of native nationalists within Ascarian borders, and virtually all of its vassal states in Cortath were extremely discontent with Ascarian rule and were constantly seeking opportunities for rebellion.

In addition, Ascarian governance outside of the heartland of Ascaria itself can be characterised as extremely decentralised, meaning that even though Ascaria had the advantage in numbers and resources, its use of them was highly inefficient. Similarly, though the famous professional Ascarian Warriors were highly disciplined and well-equipped soldiers, these were a minority that only formed the elite core of the army; contrary to popular belief, throughout all of the war the majority of the Ascarian military would be made up of peasant levies, though the proportion of professional mercenaries would steadily increase.

Though Ascaria's advantage in resources and manpower was not as great as it seemed on the surface, its advantage in financial wealth was certainly not superficial. However, this proved to be a double-edged sword. While it gave Ascaria the ability to field professional mercenaries, raise a large navy and bribe states to entice them into alliance, and also enabled them to rapidly recover from military setbacks, it also often provided the Ascarian rulers with a false sense of security. Early in the war, Ascaria believed that it had time on its side due to its substantial advantage in wealth, and so did not press the initiative as hard as hindsight dictates they could or should have. This turned out to be a grave error, as their relative inaction gave Mortana the freedom to rapidly expand.

Unlike Mortana, Ascaria had no coherent or consistent long-term strategy for victory in the war. The Kings often changed their mind about what strategy they wished to pursue, and each monarch had a different opinion as to how the war should be waged - in addition to fierce debates within the court over how to best conduct the war. In a somewhat ironic contrast to the popular stereotype of the intelligent Human and the brutish Orc, most historians characterise Mortani leadership as having a comprehensive understanding of the strategic situation and of their own strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, whereas by contrast the Ascarian leadership was often overconfident, arrogant and short-sighted, pursuing goals dictated more by honour and glory than actual effectiveness.

The general academic consensus is that the Ascarians were incapable of victory until the reign of King Faltas II because of his rejection of traditional military thought and his willingness to learn from his enemies. He did not believe Orcs to be backwards, brutish savages as most of his precedessors did, but instead believed them to be a monstrously evil yet highly effective and cunning foe, and accepted the embarrassing reality that earlier defeats were due to Ascarian arrogance and Mortani competence rather than simple bad luck.

### Mortana

Mortana was keenly aware that it was materially inferior to Ascaria at the onset of the war, but it was also keenly aware of the plentiful opportunities for expansion in the Lowerlands - meanwhile, Ascaria was prevented from expanding further. To their right, the Kingdom of Eshér blocked their downwards path into the Lowerlands; Ascaria opposed war with Eshér on moral and ideological grounds and instead sought them as an ally, but in all likelihood would have extreme difficulty militarily defeating them anyway. The only option for Ascarian expansion was a naval invasion over Lake Jerutina, which would force a direct confrontation with Mortana itself. Whilst Mortana was not certain in its ability to defeat Ascaria in the field on equal terms, they knew that starving out an Ascarian expedition which crossed Lake Jerutina to land in Zathola would be easy, since it would be a simple affair to cut off their supply lines and burn the countryside to deprive them of supplies.

With this taken into account, the Mortani strategy became clear. Whereas the Ascarian strategy was frequently in flux and changed with each new ruler, Mortani rulers all believed the original strategy set out by Chief Werak Drakelan at the onset of the war to be highly prudent and stuck with it through the entire conflict. Rather than attempting to break Ascaria through offensive operations, Mortana sought to contain Ascaria as much as possible whilst pursuing their own strategy of aggressive expansionism against third parties in the Lowerlands. Ascaria was materially superior at the onset of the war, but the total wealth contained in the Lowerlands was greater than that of the Upperlands - and if Mortana could come to control all of the Lowerlands, they would then have the capacity to truly outmatch Ascaria and attack their home soil.

To this end, Mortana began publicly positioning themselves as the defenders of native Nesaria against the Elvic invaders. They called upon natives under Elvic rule (especially Ascarian rule) to revolt, and enticed native states into submission by promising them protection and the destruction of their Elvic rivals. Mortana also took one factor into account that Ascaria, for most of the war, seemingly considered to be secondary; the Kingdom of Eshér. Chief Werak and his successors considered the appeasement of Eshér to be of critical importance. They knew that there was no chance Eshér would ever align with them against Ascaria, but the Mortani rulers generally believed that the single most important factor for long-term victory was preventing Eshér from entering the war on Ascaria's side.

### Eshér

The Kingdom of Eshér was the third major power of Nesaria at the outbreak of the war. Though they had been eclipsed by Ascaria long ago in terms of material power, they still commanded great respect amongst all the Elvic people, and they had absolute control over the only land route between the Upperlands and the Lowerlands. Their army, though numerically tiny compared to either Ascaria or Mortana, was still the strongest in all of Nesaria due to its high concentration of mages; both Ascaria and Mortana had very few mages, as they either had to rely on recruiting Elvish or Vampire mercenaries.

Few within Eshér desired war, and the bickering nobility finally found something to agree on as the vast majority of them advocated for neutrality. The small pro-war party was divided between the pro-Ascarians who believed that Mortana's rhetoric of native defence meant they eventually intended to destroy Eshér, and the pro-Mortanis who believed in making a treaty with Mortana to divide Dongris between them. The much larger neutral party did not believe that Mortana would ever attack Eshér despite their nationalist rhetoric - indeed, Eshér received many written assurances from Mortana that the Orcs truly desired eternal peace with them. Additionally, despite being far more sympathetic to Ascarian ideals, Eshérians generally did not see Ascarian victory as a good outcome, as it would erode the power of Eshér and lead Nesaria to be dominated by aggressive upstart Humans who seemed to believe they could do no wrong.

Eshér's foreign policy had always been much more pragmatic than that of Ascaria; despite being the originators of Elvic civilisation in Nesaria, they had little sentimental attachment to other Elvic people, and did not share Ascaria's grand dream of a fully "civilised" Nesaria. The Kings of Eshér, since their settlement, had never once waged a war of expansion; though they had indeed become involved in conflicts to secure their borders, they had never actually attempted to expand those borders. The cause of this was certainly not some noble desire for peace, but rather the extremely divisive state of internal Eshérian politics. Any territorial expansion, no matter how small, would have the powerful noble dynasties chomping at the bit to secure the new territory for themselves and deny it to any other dynasty, and they certainly did not desire the elevation of a new noble dynasty to rule newly conquered lands. Internal peace had always been the single most pressing concern to the Eshérian Kings, who had been unable to reduce the power of the nobles and instead were forced to appease and placate them.

The fact that the most powerful army in all of Nesaria had absolutely no interest in territorial expansion was comforting for Mortana, which desperately desired to prevent them from joining the war, but was disappointing and irritating to Ascaria, which had always genuinely believed that the father of Elvic civilisation in Nesaria would eagerly and instantly come to their aid against the Orcish menace. It was not until the Eshérian War of Succession that Eshér's strategy and foreign policy changed, as the Elosaria dynasty made an alliance with Ascaria, promising to join them in the war against the Orcs in return for helping them annihilate their rivals.

## Hegarosian Phase

The Hegarosian phase covers the period when Ascaria was ruled by King Hegaros. The term is also often used by historians to describe the build-up to the war during Hegaros's reign.

## First Faltassian Phase

The First Faltassian phase covers the period when Ascaria was ruled by King Faltas I.

## Seronian Phase

The Seronian phase covers the period when Ascaria was ruled by Queen Serona I, and also the few years between the reign of Faltas I and Serona in which Calia, Serona's mother, ruled as queen regent whilst Serona was still too young to rule.

## Second Faltassian Phase

The Second Faltassian phase covers the period when Ascaria was ruled by King Faltas II, and Mortana was ruled by the famous Chief Eddon Ralekan.

## Popular Perception

The fact that the debate over such an astoundingly ancient event continues to spark intense anger in the modern day is sometimes the subject of ridicule, but it must be remembered that the Mortian War was perhaps the single most crucial event in the political and cultural formation of Nesaria, and it forms a fundamental part of the national identities of both the Ascarians and Mortanis.

For centuries, the historical narrative of the war was governed by Ascarian historians, who went to great lengths to downplay the brutalities of the Ascarians and their allies and instead exaggerate the atrocities committed by the Mortani side, in an effort to justify the genocide of the Mortanis and the immense blood that Ascaria had sacrificed to achieve it. Opposition to this narrative was far from absent amongst Nesarian academics and educated folk in the following centuries - for example, Emperor Athdus III himself expressed admiration for the Mortanis in the war, and disgust with those who conducted the slaughter - but it was still the dominant narrative amongst the common populace.

This began to change in the latter half of the 19th century, when a flurry of Mortani historians published well-selling books which challenged the narrative, taking inspiration from then-recent discoveries of massive Orcish burial sites dating to the genocide. Most of these publications provided a well-balanced narrative, but - unsurprisingly - it was those which took the most radical stance that were most popular amongst the Orcs themselves. The best-selling work from the period in Mortana itself was *The Ascarians and Their Lies* by Kenedon Gahekan, published in 1871, which makes a number of unsubstantiated but nonetheless popularly accepted claims about the war to demonise the Ascarians and excuse or ignore the accusations made against the Mortanis. Despite the best efforts of subsequent historians - including many Mortanis - to debunk the more wild claims made by Gahekan, they continue to be popular.

*Thee Ascarians and Their Lies* was the first work from the period to be translated into English, published in New York in 1893. Whilst it went largely ignored in the rest of the Anglosphere, it became popular in the United States and led to a souring of the already very strained relations between the Nesarian Empire and the USA. *The Ascarians and Their Lies* was eventually cited by American pro-war campaigners as a reason to enter both the First and Second World Wars, though the book began to fall out of favour along with the significant rise in anti-war sentiment amongst the Americans, as the American death toll in its wars against the Empire began to skyrocket and the true extent of how thoroughly the book had been debunked became known.