Great War

## The Great War

The **Great War** often referred to as *World War III* on Espa, was an extensive armed conflict on early modern Espa that dramatically altered the course of its history. The war as a whole lasted 22 years from 2167 to 2189 which ravaged on the planet Espa in the late 22th century CC.

It saw the the mobilization of over more than 80 million military personnel over the duration of the war, resulting in over 280 million casualties it remains the single deadliest war in Espan History.

Fighting was horrific, especially on the west front which saw usage of chemical weapons, such as poison gas and trench warfare in the dense jungles of the Anitalu forests of Mid-Western Sona.

## Prelude

By 2167 CC Espa was a place of Turmoil, the Expansion of Ihan created a hostile Theic environment, The sense of betrayal in the Daravians as well as the continuous occupation of northern Daravia also led to great foreign tension, Venzia suffered under multi-ethnic tension, the embracing ethnical policies they had led for centuries had not created the paradise it had expected. Calomir and Brezia which had been on good terms since the Weian Wars had formalized their relationship, the planet was about to face a titanic battle between all these giant powers.

In the prelude to this conflict on one side you had the Brezian led Western Alliance consistent of Brezia, Calomir, Daravia Chala, Amania, Beru and Ryokania which was opposed to the United Powers of The Erman Empire, Venzia, Garnia, the Karagul Republic and Doroan.
As tensions keep growing things turned into a question of who’d fire the first shot.

### Tenebrun Crisis

And that first shot arrived in the form of the Tenebrun Crisis between Brezia and Venzia about the island of Tenebrun was a vertile island in the north Lothalic Ocean, in 2165 the Republic of Venzia laid claim to the northern part of the Island which was already settled by Brezia, mediation by Sentri officials in 2166 resulted in nothing, in Eslodor 2167 the situation between Venzia and Brezia turned increasingly hostile as both nation send their navy to the far away island in what became know as the Tenebrun Crisis which eventually escalated into an armed naval incident between the 2 navies at Monhan's Deep resulting in the sinking of a Brezian cruiser with 123 casualties.

## The War

Immediately the war begun to spread across Sona like a virus, Calomir declared its support for Brezia on the 14th of Eslodor, offering Brezian troops passage to invade Venzia proper, this in turn threatened the Erman Empire which responded on the 2th of Perifor saying that it would declare war against any invading force into Venzia, this provided an ample excuse for the Daravian King Gulkhan to enforce his claim to the north and on the 5th of Perifor stroke a deal with Brezia to claim that land. Daravia had long since been supported in its claim by Brezia and Beru, which both declared they would protect its independence, and thus Beru joined the war against the Ermans on the 8th, which then led to Garnia -fearing an more powerful Beru to side with Venzia and declare war on Beru.

### Initial Stages and the Daravian Front

In just one month all of Sona was on fire, the Ermans with a deep hatred of the Daravs decided to swiftly strike them down to secure their Venzian supply lines and then strike north against Beru, on the first of Hannijor 2167 the Erman invasion of Daravia begun, however the invasion was slower than expected and a Brezian-Calomirian incursion into Venzia threatened to link of with the Daravs, however as the Venzians began to successfully halt this Buriman Offensive. Meaning that the Daravs would not get the assistance and the inevitable fall of Daravia could be assured. For now however the Daravs were able to halt the invasion on the shores of the river Luca exploiting the inability of Venzia to dedicate troops to their front.

### The Western Front

OP the Western Front after the Buriman Offensive had failed and the Calo-Brezian alliance was rapidly being pushed back across the Anitalu woods, Venzia at this point posed a serious risk of striking deep into the heartland of the alliance. At the start of 2168 they however were able to bog down the offensive in the dense jungles of Anitalu, where the front would remain mostly stationary throughout the remaining 22 years of the war.

### Beruvian Front

Further north Garnia had successfully adverted a Beruvian incursion, Beru was a lot less industrialized than the other Sonese nations and was proving now that’s numbers alone don’t win you the war, especially against a technologically superior enemy found in the Garnians which were starting to slowly push back the Beruvians.

### Colonial Fronts

While both these fronts became statics throughout 2168 to 2169 CC, the Colonial front was very different, Venzia rules a moderate colonial Empire, during the early 2170’s with the Anitalu front being an increasingly big strain on the western war machines, Brezia and Calomir decided it might curb the Venzian war effort by dismantling its Empire, Its colonial holdings in Aurul were swiftly conquered in the same year, however on Trobon, and South Vantamir expelling the Venzian forces proved more difficult and here to the effort bogged down, particularly in South Vantamir which did no border any allied colony no land assault could be made.
In 2171 however, Ihan, eager to secure more of the Theic islands joined the war on the allied side in trade for Brezian territory in the north Theic and Coros, in return for Ihanese naval power assisting in the dismantling of the Venzian Empire, with Ihanese assistance the colony of south Vantamir could finally be taken. The Ihanese however had little interest in territory this far off, and once the colony fell the following year handed it to the Brezians in exchanged for allied support to invade the rest of Altica, still held by Scanden. Which commenced in 2173 CC.

### Fall of Daravia

In 2173, Daravia had been under an insufferable siege for 6 years now, their geographical benefits ran out as they were strangled from supplies by the Ermans, desperate cries for allied help fell on deaf ears and as in late 2173 CC Venzia freed up troops to finish of the nation, the situation became hopeless for the Daravs, on the second of Miramar this invasion commenced and Weena fell to Erman belligerents which sacked the city, pillaging many of its artifacts and killing most of the adult male population. The rest of Daravia crumbled during the year of 2174 CC, however a fierce partisan force formed out of local militias continued to Resist the Ermans which were once again the masters of the Luca River Valley.

## Continuation

The Fall of Daravia shocked the western allies but at the moment engulfed in their own fronts there was nothing they could do, the only nation that was able to provide some support were the Beruvians sending supplies to the partisans in North Daravia.
Across the continent Ihan struggled to conquer Altica quickly, over a million troops had been dedicated but the terrain proved well defendable and progress was slow, it began to be clear that its conquest was not gonna be achieved shortly to the Ihanese Emperor.

On the Beruvian Front Garnia had steadily beaten back the Beruvians and with Erman troops now freed up from the conquest of Daravia Beru was in a dire situation.

Fortunately for the Beruvians they would get a much needed delay as in 2179 CC after the extremely rough and poor treatment of the Daravs by the Ermans the port city of Iswin in southern Daravia rose up against the Ermans, Organized by the Darav underground resistance under General Ludden.

Ludden had been in charge of the collapsing army in the south and had formed a formidable resistance cell, After 5 years of unspeakable brutality, the resistance had flared up into a full partisan war in the country, many of the members of these partisans had been armed with former army weapons, the city of Iswin was a vital port town at the Luca rivers lower Delta, and an important key in the Venzian-Erman supply routes, for this the Homeland resistance force decided to cut it off.

### Iswin Uprising

On the 4th of Kalidar 2 o’clock the Uprising begun sporadically, While initially successful in taking control of the cities power and water plants, airfields and several key facilities the uprising failed to secure the docks, most crucially though they failed to link up and the city was divided into several groups, and though there would be some coordination, many groups were now mostly fighting in their own wars.
On the 11th day of the uprising the Ermans retaliated harshly, going home by home, killing everyone, man, woman, elderly, children, withing 2 days 60,000 civilians had been murdered. Despite this the Resistance held strong.

As the city was continuously shelled by Erman fire and building by building was leveled no help arrived and as the uprising dragged out till the winter of 2179 CC, general Ludden was killed and the uprising began to collapse, the Ermans made it routine to take no prisoners and execute every person they captured, some cells which still had the man power such as those of Coda managed to break out of the city and live to fight another day. But as the last resistance stronghold fell on 8 Friafor 2179, the true horror of the Ermans was unleashed on the wasteland and building by building was systematically leveled.

To the outside world the true horrors of what transpired in Iswin wouldn’t be known until after the war.

The same year the conflicted escalated as Doroan declared war on Beraq after an espionage scandal opening a new front in the middle east. Beraq under prepared for engagements was slowly being pushed back.

### Battle of the Drevo

On the west front the allies are still locked in a bloody stalemate, with millions of casualties on both sides, but neither side can break the deadlock. The densely forested terrain makes for easy cover and the advantage is always with the defender.

The Iswin Uprising 2 years earlier however convinced the allies some effort had to be made to relieve the Daravians plans began for a massive offensive to break the stalemate in spring 2181 CC. Commencing on the first of Falidar 2181 CC the Battle of the Drevo would go down as among the single most deadliest battles in Espan history, the allies freed up roughly 3 million men to amount the offensive, but the terrain was easily defendable and the attack only gained about 20 kilometers before being halted at immense cost of life, over 2,200,000 had died over the 9 months the offensive lasted. Widely being branded as a grotesque military failure.

### Conclusion of the Theic Theather

In the east the Ihanese had begun to round up the last pockets of resistance in Altica, and by the end of the year had finished conquering the Island, forcing Scanden into a treaty and withdrawing from the war per 2183 CC.

### Beruvian Revolution

Further south the situation on the Beruvian front had become dire, bit by bit the Garnians had bushed the Beruvians back with many of the western Beruvian land now occupied food shortages began to become increasingly scares in Beru, and civilian unrests began to spark up against the monarchy.

In the final months of 2183 CC the last Venzian colony was taken as well, and any nation had noticeably fought itself to exhaustion, and it became increasingly a matter of who would collapse first. And the answer was Beru which was swept by massive food shortages during 2184 CC and on 6 Malinar 2184 CC thousands of women took to the streets of Terinad protesting food shortages, they were joined the next day by Students and Workers, troops ordered to stop the protests mutinied and joined the protesters instead.
The government had lost control of the Capital, the Emperor was told by his advisors that unless he abdicated the empire would crumble, and he did so on the 4th of Tunajor, bringing an end to almost 2000 years of Imperial rule in Beru. The Beruvian Revolution had been remarkable effective and bloodless.

However the Beruvians were unable to form a stable provisional government as the provisional government pledged to continue the war effort a deeply unpopular decision as the cause for the revolution had been the food shortages caused by the war, many Beruvians fiercely believed the war was the cause of their problems.

At the front army moral and discipline began to collapse completely, which the Garnians exploited and begun to march deeper into Beru, a socialist government was put into place but was resented by the military, army general Pilas pulled his forces back from the front and marched on Terinad, this attempted military coup was thwarted by even more radical communists under Leonas Vadriti, which were now hailed as saviors of the revolution, and able to consolidate their power over the capital. The only thing standing in Vadriti’s way of power now was the Provisional Government, so he couped it himself, which triggered a civil war so he made a peace treaty with Garnia to win popular support, this treaty saw the loss of much western territories. The Beruvian Civil War would drag on till the 2190’s.

### The Endfight

In 2185 Venzia and the Erman Empire stood all alone against the Calo-Brezian alliance, Venzia had held the Western frontline off for 18 years but without its colonial Empire had visible economic difficulty coping with the war. Slowly the western front began to move east...

In the Erman Empire these early warning signs were becoming quite clear, as they saw Beru collapse into anarchy to their north, and Venzia beginning to consider an armistice their forces were withdrawn to the Government General of Daravia. Where they found the Luca River Valley in the state of a war zone, many generals started to blame the Daravians for not submitting. With all these armies now stationed in Daravia, the Ermans for the first time had the power to do something drastic about the Daravs that had pestered and ruined their Empire for centuries, if and when the allied victory happened and the Daravs were to be liberated, surely the allies would pimp up their state at Erman advance. And in the Summer of 2186 CC in a response to the uncontrollable partisan war in Daravia, the Governor made the decision to mass deport the Daravs out of the Luca Valley to the eastern woods of their Empire.

Lists were made of Darav officials, camps established, soldiers were given orders, militias were armed, and camps build for the order of extermination.
When the order was given the 13th of Olomor 2187 CC, Darav officials were arrested and shot, Darav civilians were deported to the eastern woods in forced marches, nearly 3,5 million Daravians were killed during these death marches, succumbing to thirst, hunger and disease.

The genocide in the end did not help the Ermans change the tide of the war and as Venzia signed an armistice the following year the powerblock collapsed, the Brezians marched into Daravia in Asterbor 2189 CC to find the utter devastation left behind by the occupation force. With the fate of the Empire in their hands and the evidence at their feet, the Empire was promptly disbanded by the Treaty of Cicabara later that year which brought the war to an official close and established the First Daravian Republic.

## Aftermath

The Great War had claimed over 70 million lives and brought unspeakable destruction across Sona, in the wake of the fighting expansionist nations like Ihan had found ample excuse to expand, and the political climate would remain highly volatile in the years following the war.

## See Also

* World War I
* World War II
* World War IV
* World War V