Siege of Saviesa

> "*I tell you, sirs, this will be a bloody and brutal affair. Our defences are strong and our people brave, but the foe has numbers, supplies and time on his side. There is no glory to be won here, but it is nonetheless where we will destroy the enemy. We shall draw in their armies and break them, as surely as waves break upon rocks. Saviesa, gentlemen, is where we shall bleed the Imperial war machine white.*"
> ― General Madon Ricama addressing his subordinates at the onset of the siege
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> "*Damn those politicians calling for rebellion, damn those aristocrats slaughtering their own subjects, and damn the newspapers baying for blood - damn them all to hell. They were not there at Saviesa. They have not seen what a man can do to another man.*"
> ― Captain Kevas Lamahi, shortly after the siege
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## Siege of Saviesa

### Date

December 1841 to June 1846 (4 years, 6 months)

### Result

Loyalist tactical victoryRepublican strategic victory

### Attacker Strength

1841: Approx. 80,000, 200 guns1844: Approx. 120,000, 500 guns
1846: Approx. 240,000, 1000 guns

### Defender Strength

Approx. 15,000 garrisoned soldiers in 1841Militia estimated to peak at 100,000
Rumoured Dreadfolk allies

### Defender Losses

Near-total military losses0.7-1 million civilian casualties

The Siege of Saviesa was the prolonged siege of the heavily fortified Avamorican city of Saviesa during the Imperial Civil War, lasting from 1841 to 1846. It was the largest and longest siege ever waged in Inecuria between two mortal armies, but it was exceeded by the Defence of Atsaan, which was both on a greater scale and lasted three years longer.

Though the Imperial Army finally broke through into the city and proclaimed victory, the immense use of resources, manpower and time required to achieve this, as well as the extreme devastation to the city resulting in negligible material gains, means that most historians consider the siege to be a Republican strategic victory. The catastrophic losses incurred and the damage to the city permanently disgraced the Loyalist commander, Field Marshal Casrion vi Tirisana, meanwhile the Republican commander General Madon Ricama was immortalised as a martyr for giving his life in the final assault.

It is disputed whether the Republican high command intended to sacrifice Saviesa to strategically waste a vast quantity of Imperial resources and manpower, but this was certainly the opinion of General Madon Ricama, who believed it was his duty to tie up as many Loyalist soldiers as possible no matter the cost. He refused surrender under any circumstances and, eventually, had those who spoke openly of surrender in the city sentenced to death. Ricama believed that even if he lost the city, his mission would be a success if he wasted the Empire's resources - and, according to this metric, he was indeed victorious.

The brutality of the siege was also a propaganda success for the Republicans, though by the time the city actually fell, most sensible folk had ceased to support the Republican cause completely, as they were beginning to fully turn to sinister allies. The siege brought Saviesa, one of the largest and grandest cities of Avamorica which had already eclipsed the capital of Vala, down to a pile of rubble from which it never recovered. To this day, Saviesa is barely a tenth of its pre-siege size of 1.5 million.

## Casualties

The Siege of Saviesa was unquestionably the bloodiest event in the entirety of the Imperial Civil War. Military casualties over the four-and-a-half year operation are hard to count exactly, as records were not well-kept on either side, and it is an open secret that the Imperial administration destroyed or altered records to make it appear as if they had taken less casualties in the siege than they actually had - not to mention that most of Field Marshal vi Tirisana's reports typically included obviously untrue information which did not correlate with Republican records.

The losses on the Imperial side may have been anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 over the entire operation, at least a fifth of which were taken in the days during the final assault, and of the 15,000 professional soldiers on the Republican side it is estimated that a negligible amount came out alive. The Republicans also had a large cohort of militia fighting on their side, which may have numbered up to or in excess of 100,000. Imperial records make it very clear that there was no mercy given to those who took up arms against them in any capacity, and there are no reports of any great exodus of militiamen from Saviesa, meaning that the vast majority of them were likely slaughtered.

The years of artillery bombardment, food shortages, disease and the carnage of the final assault caused extreme casualties amongst the civilian population which shocked those on both sides. The pre-siege population of Saviesa is generally agreed upon to be somewhere in the region of 1.5 million, and the next formal census after the siege - conducted well after the war's end, in 1860 - recorded the population of Saviesa as 67,652. It is unclear just how much of this population loss was due to casualties in the siege and how much was due to refugees sneaking past the Loyalist lines and fleeing en masse after the siege was finally broken. There were reports of large numbers of refugees arriving at other towns and cities after the siege finally ended, but certainly not in large enough numbers to make up this gigantic population loss. Historians estimate that somewhere between 50% and 70% of the population loss of around 1.4 million was caused by the siege - in other words, roughy between 700,000 and 1 million. This figure is generally consistent with the reports of Loyalist officers, who were horrified at the sheer scale of the devastation when they discovered it, with one describing the city as "completely and utterly obliterated, as if the Gods themselves had condemned it to death".

## Republican Defence

The Republicans were able to mount an effective defence of the city for four and a half years due to their heavy fortifications and advanced, forward-thinking defensive tactics. The Republican leader, General Madon Ricama, is often praised by military historians for his tactical innovation, making use of multiple lines of trenches and walls for a defence-in-depth strategy. To add further protection to the defensive lines he created hidden pitfall traps, irregular holes and made the ground uneven to slow down infantry and make it essentially impossible for cavalry to advance. He also made extensive use of wooden stakes and barbed wire - both actual barbed metal wire and a primitive but effective imitation which had sharp pieces of metal, glass or ceramic tied to rope. General Ricama also frequently deployed explosives across the trenches, which were linked by a fuse to the previous line of defence, and which were detonated as soon as the forward line was taken and filled up with enemy soldiers. This would not only slaughter large numbers of attackers, but cause those coming to reinforce them to falter and often retreat, allowing the Republicans to retake the forward lines which had been lost.

General Ricama's clever defence was combined with the already highly formidable defences of Saviesa; the city was enclosed by a thick stone wall, lined with spikes and machicolations at the top to prevent the use of ladders, and angled to deflect cannonballs away rather than having to face their full force head-on. These walls were additionally protected by multiple lines of ditches, the innermost of which was filled with water to create a moat, which were traversed with collapsible bridges. Ironically, these defences were created several decades earlier by the Imperial administration, which used Saviesa as an experimenting ground for innovations in new defensive structures and built the mighty fortifications essentially to show off, not expecting them to actually see use. Instead they were used against the Empire in its bloodiest siege ever.

The Republicans were also helped by consistently awful weather throughout the siege; the 1840s were Avamorica's rainiest decade ever recorded, making the ground soft and difficult to traverse, and in the cold winter months this often turned to sleet or snow. There was so much rain that it was said the Republican defenders were capable of making entirely new moats from the waterlogged earth.