The Perthic Wars

The **Perthic Wars** were a series of conflicts that took place between the years 206 NCE and 131 NCE, with the primary belligerents being the Dinamid Republic and the Caliphate of Perth. In total, there would be two official "Perthic Wars", with five other conflicts being directly caused by and tied into these engagements: The First Conquest of Prace, the Second Conquest of Prace, The Truceless War, The Dinamid War of Realms, and the Seldarine's War.

## Background

###  Dinamid expansion

The Dinamid Republic, even from its roots, was heavily reliant on expansion and the enslavement of indigenous peoples, notably of Arcadia and later Tyrrhos. Dinam had successfully established numerous land routes that allowed for a bountiful slave trade of former Sasceri populations and other slaves to be moved throughout their holdings in Arborea as long ago as the establishing of the Republic two centuries before. Though most cities in modern-day Cascadia and Tyrrhos were Perthic, numerous coastal Dinamid settlements in this area were thriving hubs of commerce. The Dinamid settlements were built close to Perthic cities, as the Perths would only meet Dinamians outside their walls. Dinamians also needed harbors along the routes that led to the Baerisian Islands, another important source of trade.

Many of these coastal cities were located in northern Tyrrhos and two in southern Cascadia. These cities enslaved Arcadian tribes like the Omerads. This group comprised some three-quarters of the slave population in these cities. The Omerads were a fairly recent admixture of the wood elves and giants, and were in general seen as beastly barbaric types. Their traditions of polyamory and ritual use of mind-altering herbs was also a point of derision by the Dinamid patricians. The Omerads' own slaves were often mutilated in various ways, including being blinded and castrated, feeding further into the perception of a brutal savage. Said Edica, much later,

> Their bright green eyes and dark grey skin, not to mention the protrusions from their jaw nor their stature, give them the appearance of *elefantis* in the form of a man. They are, without a doubt, the children of giants, yet what little they have done with it suggests they are ill-equipped for a common life in cities. They make for useful slaves, but must be regarded as dangerous as the *elefantis* they resemble.
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The slave labor was necessary for the Dinamians to manage their farms and cities. From 278 NCE to 262 NCE, the Epicurean King Tyranno the Great waged a bloody war against both Dinam and Perth, whom the two empires defeated together in the Epicurean War. During the war, Perth's navy was able to keep King Tyranno at bay, as well as selling slaves to the Dinamid Republic to keep their supply chain from suffering, as more of their young male population was enlisted and killed. Even in the decades following the war, Dinam was in desperate need of commodities and slaves to pay back Perth, leading to multiple slave-gathering campaigns in Arcadia. In a vicious cycle, the wealth found in their Arcadian conquests attracted young men of working age to enlist, leading to a greater need for slaves.

#### Dinamians in Arcadia

At the time, Arcadiawas a primary source for Omerad slaves. The grassy plateaus were notably flat, making it a suitable space for the Omerads' nomadic lifestyle. However, it was also rich in natural resources, with former Sasceri ruins ripe for plundering and wild horse herds roaming the plains. The Dinamid Republic launched a campaign early in the Fourth Era into Arcadia to drive out or otherwise enslave the Omerads harassing their military. However, Arcadia easily strained supply lines, and combating the pastoral-nomads required a significant number of Dinamid legions to contribute.

In 235 NCE, the Omerads pillaged many Dinamid trade routes and towns in retaliation, with concerted efforts toward Perth holdings in Nebopolis. At this time, the Dinamid Republic had already dedicated more than half of their legions to securing these trade routes*.* Even still, they dedicated more of their military to protect interests in Espios, in Tyrrhos, which drew away from their larger, more populous territories in Arborea.

#### The Broken Fetters Rebellions

Sometime in the Third Era, circa 214 NCE, a number of slave revolts cost the Dinamid Republic all of its Arcadian, Tyrrhosi, and Cascadian territory (with the notable exception of their political influence in Espios). Each of these revolts, dubbed the Broken Fetters Rebellions, replaced the city's authority figures with cohorts of the rebellion, and ensued thousands of executions of former patricians, as well as the theft of their property and the taking of their wives and families. The Dinamid Republic, entangled with Omerads in central Arcadia, was facing a potential two-front war. They only spared a minuscule force, which was too poorly outfitted to handle the insurrections. Though speculation persists that the Perths had directly caused or otherwise supported the revolts, they have no clear motive at this time, thus it is unclear what exactly led to the Broken Fetters Rebellions. Ultimately, all five cities would remain in Omerad hands: Chella, Thagaste, Mephole, Netar, and Dæira (anglicized as Dayera).

The tumultuous years that followed were instigated by conflicts within the cities, chiefly the Omerads expelling or executing all Dinamians occupying the cities. The violence was much the same in each city, with indiscriminate killings of any man assumed to be Dinamian, and the taking of their wives and children as slaves. Kaiser Lupo Sirsus, enraged, withdrew all Dinamid legions from Arcadia, mustered a siege force of at least 40 catapaults, and had them rendezvous outside of the largest of the now-Omerad cities, Dayera. However, the siege of Dayera lasted mere weeks before the legions were routed in 213 NCE. The cities were already lost in the eyes of the Senate.

The Perths, though widespread, wealthy, and having a strong navy, were fearful of the Omerad slaves they had revolting and doing much the same. At the time, the Perths relied on their slave labor as the exclusive body of their military. In anticipation of a revolt, the *caliph* Haslen the Proud declared that one *creotas*, a newly minted iron currency, were backed by a single Omerad slave each held in Perepolis. This makes it the only currency in history to be backed by literal human capital. He also issued a temporary merchant's guild to allow slaveowners to sell their slaves to the *caliph* in exchange for one *creotas*.

Many wealthy Perths, fearing the revolt of their own slaves, sold their Omerad slaves to the *caliph*. Over 60,000 slaves were sold to the Perthic Caliphate. The vast majority of the Omerad and all of the non-Omerad slaves were used to bolster existing military garrisons outside the city. However, a number of the Omerads were freed and expelled from Perth territory. This was extremely unpopular among the lower caste Perths, who saw Haslen the Proud's attempts to snub a potential revolt as actually feeding the possibility of an Omerad invasion.

### Founding of Lonen

In the former Dinamid townships, former slaves vied for power and organized into loose tribes until an Omerad magician, Syphepex, managed to secure a position as *bolyer*, roughly translated as "lord", and became the undisputed master of Dayera at the beginning of 212 NCE. Dayera bandits plundered multiple Perthic trade routes and began to cripple the already hemorrhaging caliphate, whose trade with Dinam had all but been entirely cut off. Some sources believe that the caliph Haslen the Proud learned of Syphepex around this time by finding a bag of bronze coins minted with the bandit king's face and name. However, it is also just as likely that Syphepex sent an envoy to Perepolis to make himself known to the caliph and organize a summit.

The caliph sent an Omerad messenger to parley with the *bolyer* after he learned Thagaste was under his control in addition to Dayera. In response, Syphepex himself traveled to Perepolis to meet with Haslen the Proud. Both were currently faced with existential threats: Syphepex knew his rule would be short-lived if he did not organize Dayera into a proper government and protect himself from usurpers. Haslen the Proud also recognized that the proximity of the Omerads to his economically hobbled and poorly defended caliphate was going to be the end of the Perths. The two rulers signed, in blood, the Pact of Lonencourt: the Perths would govern the Omerads as an emirate called Lonen, making Syphepex an emir and helping him to besiege the remaining unincorporated townships. In return, Syphepex would uphold his position as an emir, and utilize the Lonen military for the interests of the Perthic Caliphate. By 210 NCE, the Emirate of Lonen was in control of all five cities that revolted.

It was around this time that Perth would also organize an invasion of Cisteria, now having a practical army. The elven region was rich in natural resources, and the possibility of another elf confederation like that of the Epicurean War would put the caliphate in a precarious and vulnerable position, especially if Dinam retaliated for the Pact of Lonencourt. Haslen the Proud would later seal certain artifacts taken during this time away during the Diet of Cannor.

Syphepex, after learning of his lieutenant Narginon's defeat in *Madelia* in the ensuing First Perthic War, negotiated a partial withdrawal of Lonenite forces from Tethryndor.

## The First Perthic War

### The Copiatus blockade

The Dinamid Republic was reasonably outraged by the Pact of Lonencourt. The Dinamians managed to retreat their Arcadian armies into Arborea, and the Kaiser Pyrrian Copiatus expressed his intent to take back the new emirate from Perth's hands. The city of Dayera, now called Lonencourt, was the closest city to Perepolis and its largest township, and also the one they sought to return as quickly as possible. The former Kaiser Leonas formed a significant portion of the remaining Dinamid army from the failed sieges at the onset of the slave revolts into four legions totaling 30,000, and organized a fleet of 200 ships to bring the legions to Cascadia.

For reasons unbeknownst to modern scholars, only 40 of those ships made it to Cascadia. The others had sunk in the southern Strait of Espios, and records indicate "adverse weather" being the cause. Many theories have come forward, some more fantastic than others. While natural events seems the most mundane, the mythical "Sea Folk" or perhaps some belated curse were also cited as causes.

The Dinamians formed a naval blockade with their remaining vessels outside of Perepolis in 209 NCE. The decision to blockade Perepolis directly was a controversial one, and not supported by the Senate. It was only on the orders of Kaiser Pyrrian Copiatus, grandfather of Vulpes Copiatus, that the original target, Lonencourt, be left until after the surrender of the Perths.

The Perths had a superior navy, in both numbers and in design. Their vessels were outfitted with large naval rams that were capable of sinking most vessels with one blow, and they had eight ships for every one that the DInamians had. In addition, the Dinamians had little to no experience at sea, with most of their vessels resembling fishing vessels and not suited against Perthic triremes, and the Republic had yet to ever engage with an enemy fleet at sea, much less launch a naval blockade.

The initial engagement went quite poorly, and Perepolis was able to rebuff the naval blockade, inflicting heavy losses on the Dinamid fleet. Copiatus, after his ship was scuttled, boarded and commandeered the Perthic vessel whom had rammed him, which he sailed with back to Dinam. Copiatus was chastised, tried, and forced to run the gauntlet, where he died. Despite this, the captured ship proved invaluable, and would became the model for a future Dinamid fleet. In Copiatus' place, Kaiser Claudius Leonas was re-instated.

### Invasion of *Madelia*

Haslen the Proud, wanting to seize the opportunity to invade a relatively defenseless Dinam, had the Lonen emir Syphepex send 26,000 Omerad warriors to stake a foothold through Bastria, intending to create pressure inland. Syphepex sent a *bolyer*, Narginon, to assault the northern territory of *Madelia*. Though Syphepex wanted to send at least 50,000 of his emirate's enlisted warriors, as well as construct advanced siege towers and catapults, Perth was occupied with funding an invasion of Tethryndor, and were utilizing a majority of Lonen's army for that purpose.

This invasion was comprised of the sieges of several cities, including Nocinae and Matriba. After a short assault of the port city of Perguntum, along the Dancers river, the city became overrun with Lonenites and provided a port in which Lonen could supply its armies. This sent Dinam into a panic. A majority of the Dinamid army was devastated, and Omerad warriors were occupying Bastrian heartland. The population voted the Kaiser out of office at the end of 209 NCE and replaced him with Kaiser Claudius Apiero.

In early 208 NCE, Kaiser Apiero gathered several volunteer legions totaling 25,000 men, all green, and built 140 ships in Perthic style. He also contracted the deployment of 120 griffins from the Orphans mountain range. The riders of such beasts were from the region of *Madelia.*

#### Lonenite Relations with *Madelia*

Matriba opened its gates shortly after it was besieged, as the magistrate wanted to ally with Lonen and free Matriba from Dinam. The magistrate, however, could not come to an agreement with Narginon over the use of Omerad slaves, nor the deployment of griffins. Though the circumstances are unclear, there was apparently indiscretion and a possible assault of a Madelian woman by several Lonenite warriors. The magistrate, in a rather heated discussion with Narginon, told him to withdraw his garrisoned army until the political situation was resolved, as elections were coming soon. Furious and not willing to relent his foothold, Narginon had the magistrate crucified, which beset most of *Madelia* against the Lonenites.

Though the Madelians had long been hostile towards Dinam and were among the least loyal of their territories, they were able to bolster Dinamid legions with a detachment griffin riders, as well as supply chains. *Madelia* was typically well-fortified and well-defended by their griffins riders, though the Mantadine Conspiracy had reduced the number of griffin riders from the region six years prior. This left *Madelia* with a small detachment of loyalist griffin riders wholly incapable of the defense of an entire polity.

#### Naval superiority in the Dancers

Though it becomes much more pronounced later in the First Perthic War, naval combat was sparse in the onset of the invasion of *Madelia*. The rivers collectively known as the Dancers were the site of most of these naval battles, and the two initial supply freights were not properly defended to handle the newly appointed Kaiser's ships and the 1,000 men who attacked the supply fleets in January 209 NCE. The next fleet would be better defended, with 40 warships accompanying the cargo vessels in February 209 NCE. This fleet destroyed 30 of the Dinamid warships while en route to Perguntum. However, this would be the only supplies delivered until June 208 NCE due to Perth's war with the elves.

About 50 warships accompanied the next supply fleet to Perguntum. However, the supply fleets were boarded, pillaged, and the crew tossed overboard in what became known as the June Boarding Party. The Dinamians had entered and captured the city earlier that month, and fooled the supply feet into entering their harbor completely surrounded. The warships rammed and destroyed much of the harbor, rendering it inert, though this resulted in the execution of the captains upon their return. The next supply fleet would be sent to Matriba one month later, however a storm off the coast of Gantelusia sank most of the fleet and forced their return. There would be no other naval battles north of Cascadia during the First Perthic War.

#### Siege of Perguntum

The *bolyer* Narginon's strategy was straightforward. The Lonenites besieged and captured Perguntum in short time, as it was a coastal city and was ill-defended immediately following the failed blockade of Perepolis. The Lonenites used Perguntum as a conduit to pour their military deeper inland and north. Although a city to the south, Argane, was also a target, Narginon was convinced spreading Lonenite armies deep into Dinam would allow them to fortify more easily.

Apiero divided his army into two, sending his Legate Agrippo Regilisis to stop the siege of Argane to the south, and himself trying to "cut off the head of the snake," by retaking Perguntum. They marched north in April 208 NCE.

In the Siege of Perguntum, Apiero catapulted flaming bitumen and ash every night into Perguntum, targeting the areas near the gatehouses and watchtowers. Four days into the siege, Lonenites in Perguntum sent messengers to ask Matriba and Argane for reinforcements. However, Argane by this time had already been reclaimed by the Legate, and the messenger was killed. The messenger to Matriba would take eight days to reach the city.

The Lonenites were inexperienced with a proper siege, and failed to properly defend the gatehouses. Apiero coated the entire city with ash, and then dispatched a legion to take the gatehouse on the western side of the city without resistance. It would be only two weeks before the legion broke down the gate and stormed into Perguntum, killed 4,000 Lonenites and captured another 2,000.

#### Battle of Ispizo

The Legate was sent to the town of Ispizo with 8,000 soldiers, while the Kaiser's legions totaling 14,000 would dispel the sieges in the smaller cities to the south and to the west. Ispizo was buried in the hills between Nocinae and Matriba, the northenmost cities in *Madelia*, and would offer a hidden vantage point to fortify and coordinate. The Kaiser's responsibility was to secure their flanks with his massive army and sweep away the Lonens in the south.

The distribution of cavalry was somewhat lopsided, as well as the griffin riders; the Legate retained nearly all of the griffin riders with him into Ispizo, where it was believed they would perform better in the hills. In contrast, the more open and flat areas to the south lended themselves better to cavalry, so the Legate only brought 500 cavalry with him north.

When the messenger from Perguntum arrived in Matriba in June 208 NCE, the Lonenites in Matriba were able to send their entire force of 5,000 Lonenites, including Narginon, to assist Perguntum. Narginon also sent word to the forces outside Nocinae to regroup with him in Ispizo. Roughly twenty percent of this army was cavalry.

The Matriban detachment incidentally met Legate Regilisis and his legions in Ispizo, which they had taken only days before. In the Battle of Ispizo, the Lonenite warriors managed to route the legions west thanks to a well-executed encirclement by Narginon, and the failure of Regilisis to utilize his griffin riders in the tightly packed town. The Lonenites pursued Legate Regilisis into the Madelian highlands, south of the Orphans, into June 208 NCE.

#### Pursuit into Dobralaeu

Regilisis sent a griffin rider to inform Kaiser Apiero of the rout. Regilisis intended to retreat into the hills and confront the Lonenites on preferable ground. Upon learning he was routed, Apiero had his legions travel nearly 16 hours every day to rendezvous with the Legate in Ispizo.

After some number of days and a proper regroup, Regilisis had his legion stop just south of the town of Dobralaeu, which had apparently been razed. They regrouped for several hours before reconnaissance found the advancing Narginon and his routing force. The Legate had his infantry form up into a phalanx-like formation in the low road, which was muddy and damp from summer rain. The cavalry and griffins were hidden behind hills near their formation.

In the Battle of Dobralaeu, Narginon led a cavalry charge to break the formation, and while the right wing easily pushed through, the griffins were able to quickly sideswipe the charging cavalry, and force those not eaten to be routed south into the hills. The massive line of Lonenite infantry was able to push the forces back, until the second charge, that of cavalry, flanked their infantry in a hammer and anvil maneuver. Regilisis rode his horse with the cavalry, firing missiles into the mass of infantry, and had his magus Boriel of Yandro guide his shots. One arrow found its mark in Narginon's neck, killing him. When the griffins returned, they dived and attacked individuals, further creating panic in the already surrounded force.

The combination of confusion, mud, and panic allowed the Dinamid legion to gain the upper hand and drove the Lonenites back into the cavalry to their rear, until the Lonenites finally began to rout. Over 3,000 of them were taken captive.

#### Aftermath

The Legate's legion regrouped with Apiero near Dobralaeu and returned to Ispizo. The reformed legion would later capture the advancing force from Nocinae, which they outnumbered nine to one. They had a hobbled Lonenite show them the decapitated head of Narginon, and explain in their language that over 5,000 of them were taken captive, and they would be spared if they surrendered. The total captured reached about 10,000.

Dinamid Republic historian Antarch said on the Madelian sieges,

> Though the Lonenites had the upper hand in terms of numbers, preparation, and position, Narginon's plan was overly ambitious. The Lonenite's lack of experience in proper siegecraft was compounded by the Lonenite army being far too spread out to effectively besiege the Madelian cities. Though they had experience in insurgency, those Omerads had incorrectly correlated the ability to topple a government with the art of the siege. Narginon also failed to ally with Matriba and possibly all of *Madelia* when given an opportunity, which would have been valuable given that being so close to the capital meant that the response time from Dinam would be swift. The Lonenites also relied too heavily on cavalry. Although the Omerads had a history of using cavalry in Arcadia, they had no such experience since being enslaved. This was also worsened by a lack of strong supply lines to support their cavalry. Overall, the invasion of *Madelia* was poorly managed, and would have needed at least another six months of preparation and better leadership to be effective.
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### Animosity with Lonen

A single Dinamid ship, the *Trazas*, was sent to Perepolis. Famously, the ambassador of Dinam dropped the head of Narginon by Haslen the Proud's feet and stated, "Ten thousand more heads are within my cloak, and I shall roll them across the floor if it is your will that I do so." Many scholars believe this was an empty threat, as it was far more likely the Dinamians would sell the captives into slavery than outright kill them. Nevertheless, the captives were sold to Perth in exchange for 120 ships and the trade of 3,000 Dinamian soldiers that Perth had kept captive.

Haslen the Proud, as well as most of his magi, were more concerned with the progress of their Invasion of southeast Tethryndor than the little threat they foresaw with Dinam. Syphepex saw otherwise, seeing the mismanagement of the Madelian invasion as exclusively the fault of the Perths, who had failed to provide a proper navy nor enough supplies to support the invasion Syphepex wanted. Syphepex negotiated a partial withdrawal with Haslen the Proud after the capture of the Tethryndor capitol. From this point until the end of the First Perthic War, Syphepex would lead the Lonenite army.

This army was reformed and specifically drilled to face the Dinamians. According to the historian Antarch, this army was composed of 50,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry It was almost entirely comprised of Omerads, though there were quite a few enslaved Perths who made up the army.

### Building a Dinamid navy

At the beginning of the First Pethic War, Dinam had virtually no experience in naval warfare, whereas Perth had a great deal of experience on the seas thanks to their sea-based trade and the Epicurean War. Nevertheless, the growing Dinamid Republic soon understood the importance of control over the Tomyrian in the outcome of the conflict. While they had built a significant number of ships on their own, the addition of 120 ships from the Perepolis harbor was a massive boon to the Dinamid navy. By the end of the First Perthic War, all of the ships in the Dinamid fleet would be based on the original design taken by Copiatus.

#### Formulation of *taal balsamum*

The precursor to alchemist's fire was the Dinamid *taal balsamum*, which is colloquially known as "Burning Balsam." Derived from the terebinth tree, this solution is an alchemical solvent that produces a noxious gas that stings the eyes, nose, and lungs. It is also exceptionally flammable, with a single spark causing objects saturated with *taal balsamum* to instantly catch alight. It was developed by Thessoledes sometime in late 208 NCE and was first used at the Battle of Laughing Rock in 207 NCE.

The use of this weapon would turn the tide in favor of the Dinamid Republic. Perthic Vessels were often made of black pine harvested from Tyrrhos. Black pine is among the lightest of woods, and it is also one of the most flammable woods. The use of *taal balsamum* would devastate more ships in Perth's navy than any other weapon.

### Battle of Phlegethon

In late 208 NCE, Dinam besieged Phlegethon, an operation that involved the entire volunteer army, which lasted well into 207 NCE. The garrison of Phlegethon managed to call for reinforcements, and the Perthic relief army destroyed the Dinamid supply base at Yavar thirty miles southwest. With supplies from the nearby island cut, the Dinamians were now besieged and constructed a line of contravallation. After a few skirmishes, disease struck the Dinamid army while supplies in Phlegethon were running low, and both sides saw an open battle as preferable to the current situation. Although the Dinamians won a clear victory over the Perthic relief force at the Battle of Phlegethon, the Perthic army defending the city managed to escape. Phlegethon, now lacking any real defenses, fell easily to the Dinamians, who then sacked the city and enslaved the populace.

### Battle of Laughing Rock

The Dinamid fleet under the command of Kaiser Claudius Apiero engaged the Lonenites under Syphepex in 207 NCE, off the coast of Laughing Rock a mere eighty miles west of Perepolis. Antarch states that the Lonenites had 130 ships and that the Dinamians had between 90 and 100 ships. The Lonenites anticipated victory, due to their superior numbers and experience at sea.
The *taal balsamum* was very successful, being launched from a fixed catapult from the front of the ships, and caused 30 of the Lonenite vessels to have to be scuttled in the initial state of the battle. In order to avoid the Burning Balsam*,* the Lonenites were forced to navigate around them and approach the Dinamid vessels from behind, or from the side. The catapults were still usually still able to pivot and launch *taal balsamum* at the ships. After an additional 20 of Perth's ships had been scuttled from fire, Syphepex retreated with his surviving ships, leaving Apiero with a clear victory.

Instead of pursuing the remaining Lonenites, Apiero sailed to Laughing Rock and was able to establish a fortified outpost on the Cascadian just west of Lonencourt, giving him an exceptional foothold to launch attacks on Lonen and Perth.

#### Lonen's counter-attack

The Dinamid advance now continued east from Laughing Rock towards Lonencourt to begin a naval assault. To do so, they had to expose their northern-facing flank toward Buriat, a bight littered with large, treacherous rock formations.
The Dinamians were defeated there by the Lonenites under Syphepex in a surprise attack. The Dinamid fleet had little opportunity to maneuver, and attacks from their flanks were considerably more successful than the Battle of Laughing Rock. Syphepex routed the Dinamid fleet throughout the night, sinking ships that lagged behind, until the Dinamid fleet made it to Laughing Rock, where Syphepex pulled back and sailed north for Neuphany, seeking to gain a naval advantage to the east.

The Dinamid Republic would spend several years fortifying their foothold in Laughing Rock, with Apiero not wishing to repeat the same mistakes of Copiatus years prior. However, his strategy allowed Perthic footholds elsewhere, namely the eastern coast of Tyrrhos, which drew the Kaiser away from Laughing Rock, leaving Legate Regilisis in command until his return in 205 NCE.

### Battles in Tyrrhos

Syphepex launched multiple attacks to take eastern Tyrrhos for the Perths, who had only a marginal influence on that coast. The Lonenites initially launched a failed campaign in *Tiberia*, repelled by the wood elves, and settled for landing on *Aramea* and staking a foothold there. Lonen's forces encountered resistance mostly from the native wildlife. However, the Lonenites had many thousands of years of experience fighting the wood elves, and effectively ended their dominance *Tiberia* at the Battle of Galvanis in 206 NCE. Syphepex would fortify his position and prepare for a future invasion of *Aurellia*.

#### Battle of Boar's Head

Several months later, Kaiser Claudius Apiero arrived and occupied Castergate in Tyrrhos, on the Crusader's Cape. Fearing his plans were to be foiled by Apiero, Syphepex sailed around the formation on southern Tyrrhos known as Boar's Head, just north of Castergate, and were met by Castergate's fleet. Though they gained the upper hand initially with the destruction of 20 of the Kaiser's 60 or so ships, Syphepex retreated once catapults began raining burning balsam onto his fleet. It is generally considered a Dinamid victory, though at a cost. It is where the term "Pyrrhic victory" was coined, as Apiero used it to describe the battle in light of Legate Pyrrhian Copiatus blockading Perepolis.

Though the battle was successful, Apiero understood the disadvantage he had with little opportunity to rebuild a fleet in Tyrrhos, as well as the potential to be marooned on the hellish island should his fleet be eliminated. The Kaiser retreated soon after the Battle of Boar's Head.

#### Invasion of *Aurellia*

Syphepex was able to conquer *Aurellia* the following year, sometime in either late 206 NCE or early 205 NCE. Once the wood elves surrendered to the Lonenites, Syphepex installed a Lonenite provincial governor and left to return to Lonencourt. Details are much unknown, as no records exist on the side of the Lonenites, but it is clear it remained in their hands for centuries thereafter.

### Invasion of Espios

Sometime in 205 NCE, Dinam attempted the second large scale land operation of the war. Seeking a swifter end to the war than a long siege or blockade would provide, Dinam decided to officially invade the holy city of Espios and usurp Perth's supremacy in Tyrrhos, consequently forcing Perth to accept its terms.

#### Battle of the Red Cape

In order to initiate its invasion of Espios, the Dinamid Republic constructed a major fleet, comprising transports for the army and its equipment, and warships for protection. Perth and Lonen attempted to intervene with a fleet of 350 ships crewed entirely by Lonenites, but were defeated in the Battle of the Red Cape.

The Red Cape, the cape on which Perepolis is built, is a holy location for the Perths, and provided ample cover for a hidden fleet of Dinamians to strike the Lonenites from their flank. Floating mines of burning balsam were cast into the water and caught Perth's ships alight, forcing the remaining fleet to retreat while being continuously rammed by Dinamians, resulting in perhaps the worst naval loss for the Lonenites in the entire war.

#### Siege of Espios

    As a result of the battle, the Dinamid army, commanded by Legate Regilisis, landed in Espios after ravaging the northern Tyrrhosi countryside. The Siege of Espios was a brutal show of force, forcing Perth to sue for peace. According to Antarch, the blockade of the ports of Espios were also compounded by merchants and travelers being wiped out by Madelian griffin raids. Fires were started in granaries by launching flaming bitumen into the city's walls, and soon the city was desperate for food, with many of the poorer citizens in the city's southern side and displaced farmers being forced to kill and eat their own children.

Most profoundly, the political puppets for Dinam were able to divide the city by promoting the concept of *pivenispel*, the belief that the wood elves have the true claim to Espios, not any other race and especially not the Perths. This worked to effectively topple the city's government and caused a minor civil war that put a noblewoman elf named Ishtar VI as its Wayfinder.

#### First Battle of Espios

Zanthipe, the late Narginon's opposite and the primary consort of Syphepex, traveled to Lonencourt in place of Syphepex to reorganize its army. Zanthipe defeated the Dinamid army and captured Legate Regilisis at the First Battle of Espios, and then managed to cut off what remained of the Dinamid army from its base by re-establishing Perthic naval supremacy.

Syphepex returned from Neuphany sometime in mid-205 NCE, and ransomed Legate Regilisis for the withdrawal of Dinam from Espios. Quite famously, Regilisis told Kaiser Apiero in the letter sent to their camp in Laughing Rock, "Don't agree to any terms for my return. If I should die in place of my legions, so it shall be."

Kaiser Apiero refused the terms of the ransom, and the Legate was killed, his body never found nor returned. Syphepex and Zanthipe together led a force of nearly the entire Perthic fleet, 400 ships, to Espios and intended to relieve it from the siege.

#### Second Battle of Espios

Syphepex was by this time familiar with the recurring tactic of Dinamians burning his ships with *taal balsamum*, and organized his fleet in a tight line hugging the shore of Tyrrhos. They also retrofitted the Perthic ships to appear like Dinamid ships, as if it were a relief force. The Lonenites crewing the ships also wore armor that was stylized to appear like a Dinamian legionnaire's. This tactic proved devastating, as the Dinamid fleet was confused and did not attack until the fleet was right on top of them.

The battle was wholly one-sided, and the Dinamid fleet withdrew what few ships were left after the attack. In all, Dinam lost over 200 ships, with the returning vessels from Espios numbering in the single digits. Lonen lost around 50 ships, but it's unclear as Antarch gives no specifics.

#### Relieving the Siege

One of the ships destroyed during the battle was the one containing Zanthipe, whose body was not recovered. Additionally, Espios was despoiled and racked by internal conflict, starvation, and violence. Though the Lonenites, including Syphepex, were obligated to not enter Espios, the Perths who did enter and return from it described it in detail to the emir. Syphepex was outraged at what had been done to the city, and blamed both the Dinamid Republic and the nobility of Perepolis for allowing this to occur.

### Apiero's Blockade

Meanwhile, the remainder of the Dinamid fleet under Kaiser Apiero had blockaded Lonencourt in Syphepex's absence. Apiero had intercepted a royal escort vessel bound for Perepolis that alerted him to the presence of Haslen the Proud's son, Hasdrobris. The caliph's son, only in his teens, was in Lonencourt was likely in an extended stay in Lonencourt to rule Lonen while Syphepex was gone given the presence of consorts on the vessel. As a result, Apiero had his legions storm Lonencourt and capture Hasdrobris, who was brought into the Kaiser's custody.

Apiero sent a messenger to Perepolis, informing them that Hasdrobris had been taken captive. Haslen the Proud was enraged, and in notably said by the ambassador, "For every finger you take from me, two will be taken from your son." Haslen the Proud agreed to discuss peace. By the time Syphepex would arrive in Perepolis with news of victory, Haslen the Proud will have already signed the Treaty Most Foul.

### Aftermath

Dinam won the First Perthic War in less than five years of conflict and in the end became the dominant naval power in the world. In the aftermath of the war, both states were financially and demographically exhausted. Tyrrhos remained in Lonenite hands and Cascadia remained Perthic, but they had to pay a high war indemnity. The Dinamid Republic's victory was greatly influenced by its persistence. Moreover, the Dinamid Republic's ability to attract private investments in the war effort to fund ships and crews was one of the deciding factors of the war, particularly when contrasted with the Perthic nobility's apparent unwillingness to risk their fortunes
for the common war effort.

#### Casualties

The exact number of casualties on each side is difficult to determine, due to bias in the historical sources. According to sources, excluding land warfare casualties:

* Dinam lost 700 ships, in part to bad weather, with an unknown number of crew deaths.
* Perth lost 500 ships with an unknown number of crew deaths.
* Lonen lost at least 80,000 soldiers and an unknown number of citizens

Although uncertain, the casualties were heavy for both sides. Antarch commented that the war was, at the time, the most destructive in terms of casualties in the history of warfare, including the conquests of Nebonyses the Great. Analyzing the data from the Dinamid census of the Fourth Era, it was noted that during the conflict Dinam lost about 50,000 men. This excludes auxiliary troops and every other man in the army without citizen status, who would be outside the head count.

#### Peace terms

The terms of the Treaty Most Foul (ironically coined by Dinam, not Perth), designed by the Dinamid Republic, were particularly heavy for Perth, which had lost bargaining power following the capture of Hasdrobris. Accordingly, Perth agreed to:

* have Hasdrobris remain in Dinamid custody as a ward of *Madelia*;
* forgiveness of all debts that the Dinamid Republic owes;
* withdraw from Prace entirely;
* transfer control of Lonencourt to the Dinamid Republic;
* forfeit control of the Lonencourt to Dinam;
* evacuate Espios and refrain from political ambitions or support in the city;
* pay a 150,000 pounds of silver indemnity in fifty annual installments, plus an additional indemnity of 50,000 pounds immediately;
* and the inclusion of multiple clauses that outlined how neither side can recruit soldiers from each other's territories and that neither side's allies can be used to instigate conflict with the other.

#### Reasons for sparing Lonen

Though the chief historian on this war, Antarch, had little to say on the reasons why the Dinamid Republic did not dissolve Lonen and retrieve its individual cities, enslave the Omerad populations again, or at least force a retreat out of Tyrrhos, Pereglius offers an explanation in *Fates of the Greater Yuron*:

> In a sense, he [Claudius Apiero] already saw the populations of Lonen as enslaved, and a valuable asset to Dinam [...] Their emirate was filled with the sound of beating drums and able-bodied men, capable soldiers bred for war. For the Senate and for Kaiser Apiero, a more powerful message than executing hundreds of thousands of rebellious slaves was to make them useful in conquest.
>
>

In contrast to Pereglius, Spilon the Elder pontificates,

> The Senate at this stage in the Dinamid Republic was not filled with the cantankerous reactionaries we see in the century preceding the Castigation of Espios. Rather, these Senators were pragmatists first and foremost. These Omerad slaves had revolted not once, but twice, and now had a decade of experience in combat against Dinamians. They would be of little use if enslaved again, only bringing rebels and murderers into the folds of homes once again. It too would be nigh impossible to use them as soldiers effectively, considering their animosity for Dinam and her values [...] Despite this, the Omerads of Lonen had one effective use, as a tax base. A man sold once is a commodity, but a man sold one thousand times a citizen.
>
>

## Interval between the Perthic Wars

### Instigation of Three Conflicts

According to Qemuel, there had been several trade agreements between the Dinamid Republic and Perth. When the two made peace in 205 NCE, the Dinamians secured the release of all 8,000 prisoners of war without ransom and, furthermore, received a considerable amount of silver as a war indemnity. However, Perth refused to deliver the 14,000 Dinamid deserters serving among their troops. A first issue for dispute was that the initial treaty, agreed upon by the emir Syphepex and Kaiser Claudius Apiero, had a clause stipulating that the Dinamid popular assembly had to accept the treaty in order for it to be valid. The assembly not only rejected the treaty, but increased the indemnity Perth had to pay.

#### Second Conquest of Prace

Around this time in 204 NCE, a coalition of Hellastians was forming under a King Tenemo, a descendent of King Tyranno the Great who styled himself in a similar fashion. After the Dinamid Republic demanded that Perth withdraw from the region of Cisteria to prevent them from supporting or enabling such a despot, Tenemo seized the opportunity to launch an attack on the Baerisian Islands, who sent their first ever ambassadors to both Perepolis and Lenorum suing for support. Perth had little in the way of options, at this point being nearly insolvent. The Dinamid Republic, on the other hand, had no such problem and launched an assault on Prace in 198 NCE, so beginning Second Conquest of Prace. This would mainly be fought by the Baerisian natives on behalf of Dinam under a contingent of Dinamid legions. Smaller territories were taken slowly throughout the Second Perthic War, and it was not until Tenemo declared himself an ally to Perth that it scaled into a greater diplomatic mission.

#### The Truceless War

At this time, Perth had a liquidity problem and attempted to gain financial help from Espios, a mutual ally of both the Dinamid Republic and Perth, but failed. Perth began to sell off Omerad soldiers, including former Lonenites, into slavery to pay their debts. Betrayed, the Emirate of Lonen sprang into disarray, and many Lonenite populations invaded key Perthic cities including Perepolis. During this war, the Dinamid Republic actually aided the caliphate, although traders from Dinam seem to have done business with the insurgents. Some of them were caught and punished by Perth, aggravating the political climate, which had started to improve in recognition of the old alliance and treaties.

Once Syphepex joined and led a force that eventually pacified the Emirate of Lonen, Dinam issued a proclamation that Haslen the Proud's son, Hasdrobris, would be released upon the sitting *caliph*'s death, as a renegotiation of the terms that otherwise would have kept him as a ward indefinitely. When Haslen the Proud died of natural causes in 164 NCE, Hasdrobris returned and was given the title, "The Carnal," in traditional Perthic style. He ruled as *caliph* until 131 NCE.

#### Annexation of Tyrrhos

During the uprising in Cascadia, the Omerad troops in Tyrrhos toppled Perthic rule and briefly established their own, but were expelled by a native uprising. After securing aid from the Dinamid Republic, the exiled Lonenites then regained authority on the island. For several years, a brutal campaign was fought to quell the insurgent natives. They would ultimately rise again in support of Perth during the Second Perthic War.

Eventually, the Dinamians annexed Tyrrhos by revisiting the terms of the treaty that ended the First Perthic War. As Perth was under siege and engaged in a difficult civil war, they grudgingly accepted the loss of the island and the subsequent Dinamid conditions for ongoing peace, which also increased the war indemnity levied against Perth. This eventually plunged relations between the two powers to a new low point.

### Syphepex in Kasmir

After Perth emerged victorious from the Truceless War, there were two opposing factions: the reformist party was led by Syphepex, while the other more conservative, faction was represented by Haslen the Proud and the old Perthic aristocracy. Syphepex had led the initial Perthic peace negotiations and was blamed for the clause that allowed the Dinamid popular assembly to increase the war indemnity and annex Tyrrhos, and his do-nothing attitude during the early stages of the Truceless War resulted in irreparable losses. However, his superlative generalship was instrumental in enabling Perth to ultimately quell the Lonenite uprising. Ironically, Syphepex had fought against many of the same mercenary troops he had fought a decade earlier, and also trained in the years that followed.

Syphepex ultimately left Cascadia, most likely in exile, for Laconia, which was filled with a native population of cursed dragon-men. Syphepex captured the rich silver mines and subdued the natives, who fortified his army with levies of native troops.

The Kasmirian conquest was begun by Syphepex and one of his consorts, Talimina the Wicked, who ruled relatively independently of Perth, and signed the Silver Treaty with the Dinamid Republic.

At this point, the details are unclear, but it is known that a Diet of Dakar was held by Syphepex, the Diet of Wine. The knowledge of such a ritual was likely taken from Perepolis by Syphepex before his exile, perhaps even as far back as the end of the First Perthic War in 205 NCE. Regardless, it would be his consort Talimina the Wicked who would bear the fruits of the DIet of Wine, the Oinoloth known later as Attacus Rex.

Syphepex died in battle against an unknown tribe in 175 NCE. Around this time, Talimina the Wicked became the Perthic commander of Kasmir. She maintained this post for some twelve years until 163 NCE.

#### Preparing for Invasion

The Dinamians became aware of a burgeoning alliance between Perth and the exiled dragon-men of southern Laconia. The latter were amassing forces, fully integrated with Omerads under Talimina the Wicked. Thus, the Dinamians preemptively invaded the northern Laconian region of *Brumadoria* in 172 NCE. Talimina the Wicked was killed by wild griffins in 163 NCE, bringing Attaca to the fore. It seems that, having apparently dealt with the threat of an invasion of Dragon-men, and with Syphepex long dead, the Dinamians lulled themselves into a false sense of security. Thus, Attaca took the Dinamians by surprise a mere two years later by merely reviving and adapting the original invasion plan, declaring himself Attacus Rex and mustering forces.

The output of the Kasmirian silver mines allowed for the financing of a standing army and the payment of the war indemnity to the Dinamid Republic, even allowing them to pay it off in its entirety by the year 168 NCE, thirteen years early. The mines also served as a tool for political influence.

In 158 NCE, Attaca attacked the town of Espanto in *Galleria*, which stood under the special protection of the Dinamid Republic. According to historical tradition, Attaca had been made to swear by his father to always be at war with the Dinamid Republic, and to hold no friend in Perth. He certainly did not take a conciliatory attitude when the Dinamians berated him for crossing the Silver River west, which Perth was bound by treaty not to cross. Attacus Rex did not cross the Silver River, as Espanto is well east of the river in arms. In addition, Espanto provoked the attack by attacking neighboring Dragon-men tribes who were Perthic protectorates. They asked Perth to hand Attacus Rex over, and when the caliphate refused, the Dinamid Republic declared war on Perth for a second time.

#### The Attacan Empire

The 'Attacan Empire' consisted of the Pethic territories in Kasmir. According to Qemuel, it can be described as a private military-economic hegemony backed by Perth. These shared the profits of the silver mines in northern Kasmir with Syphepex and his family. The Attacan Empire, though mostly Dragon-men, was strongly influenced by the Emirate of Lonen. Contrary to Perth, it minted silver coins in its short time of existence.

The empire in spirit belonged to the dragon Kulshedrex for a period of several years while Attaca's brother, Galthazar I, crossed the Orphans mountain range. The empire officially collapsed after Kulshedrex was killed by Brutus Mandus Draco in 136 NCE, and Asipolis was taken shortly afterwards.

## Onset of the Second Perthic War (158 NCE – 151 NCE)

### Perthic strategy and aims

The
 highest priority in Perthic strategy was to keep the war away from
 Perth's agricultural heartland in Cascadia and Tyrrhos, and protect the property of
 the wealthy Perthic landowners who controlled its politics.
 Most had been children during the horrific sieges of the Truceless War, so the aristocracy had no interest in repeating the brutal conflicts that brought destruction to their economic capabilities. Hasdrobris the Carnal in particular wanted to keep Dinam far from Perepolis, after having been their ward for decades. Kasmir mines and sources of manpower comprised the second pillar of
the Perthic power base and their protection was essential to
maintaining Perth's status as an independent continental great power.

Attaca's invasion of human territory in Bastria forced the Dinamians to abandon their intended invasion of Cascadia and de-prioritize the reinforcement of Dinamid armies in Kasmir. Most Dinamid troops during the war fought in Arborea,
which became the main theater of the war as a result of Attaca's
offensive.
 Cascadia remained undisturbed by a Dinamid invasion army until 134 NCE, and Kasmir was contested until the very end of the war in 131 NCE. The continuation of Perthic rule in Cascadia, Tyrrhos, and
 Kasmir enabled it to mobilize more armies and fleets. This further emboldened attempts to secure islands off the coast in *Pramidia* and *Sardonia* in 151 NCE and 138 NCE, and another attempt to reinforce Attacus Rex with a contingent led by Galthazar I in 134 NCE.

To win the war, Attacus Rex sought to build up a united front of the northern dragon-men tribes and rebelliois Dinamid city states
 to encircle Lenorum and confine it to its peninsula, where it would pose a
 lesser threat to Perth's power-political freedom of action. A Perthic protectorate over Arborea and Bastria would be created, enforced by the presence of Perthic soldier-colonists and the Perthic annexation of parts of Arborea. This would act as a check on Dinamid revanchism. The archipelago regions of *Sardonia* and *Pramidia* were also to be regained for Perth by sending
expeditionary forces and allying with anti-Dinamid rebels on both island chains.

### Attacus Rex takes the initiative

Attacus Rex
 won fame for trekking across the Orphans mountain range with a massive army and a number of beasts and giants. His
surprise tactics and brilliant strategies put Dinam against the ropes.

Among the tribes Attacus Rex is recognized for conquering, he is also credited for subduing the fire giants of *Capria*, the two crescent-shaped isles off Kasmir's northern coast. After defeating the fire giant Jarl in single combat and taking the Jarl's wife as a consort, the fire giants recognized Attacus Rex as the new regional power, and the finest warriors were chosen to form an auxiliary relief force to their flank as they marched south.

The Attacan army in Kasmir, excluding the forces in Cascadia, according to Qemuel, totaled:

* 21 fire giants, including two dreadnaughts
* 60,000 dragon-men infantry
* 30,000 Omerad infantry
* 5,000 cambinoid infantry
* 10,000 horse cavalry
* 1,000 worg cavalry
* 38 war elephants

Thus, it was one of the largest armies in antiquity to ever be assembled, and equal in
numbers to any that the Dinamians had yet fielded. However, it critically lacked the rhinoceros cavalry that Omerads were most known for.

Attacus Rex departed with
this army from Asipolis west along the northern border in May or June of 158 NCE. At the Spoiled River, he split the army into three columns and subdued the local dragon-men tribes within weeks, but with severe losses. Once west of Espanto, he left a
detachment of 11,000 dragon-men troops, who showed reluctance to leave
their homeland, as a garrison for the newly conquered region north of the Silver River.

Attacus Rex reportedly entered *Galleria*, the region between the Orphans and Spoiled River (at this time and also later known as the Ebriot), with 65,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry in all. He also lost one fire giant in the battles with the dragon-men. He took his army west through the Orphans, avoiding the possibility of encountering Dinamid legions. Negotiations with the tribes of the foothills helped him to move unmolested except for the Battle of Sumter's Crossing, where a human city-state near Alton's Pass was defeated with minimal losses among the Attacan army.

In the meantime, a Dinamid fleet with an invasion force was underway circling the continent to confront Kasmir at its coast. Its commanders, the Kaiser Malicas Taritus and the Legate Vulpes Copiatus, knew that Attaca had crossed the Ebriot, but were surprised by the Attacan army's absence on the east coast where they had landed.

A scouting party of 100 griffin riders were sent to discover the whereabouts of the enemy.
 These eventually defeated a rear flank of 250 worg cavalry and chased them back to their main camp in western *Galleria*. Thus, with knowledge
of the location of the enemy, the Dinamians marched across the river, ready for
battle. Attacus Rex evaded this force and by an unknown route reached the Dunlance in modern-day Acharon at the foot of the Orphans in autumn.
 Plague created by Attacus Rex in the Spoiled River left the scouting party and advance parties dead after their short-lived victory. As a result, the Kaiser and Legate were both stranded in Kasmir for months as they carefully charted around the Spoiled River to avoid plague.

Attaca also received messengers from multiple Madelian cities, notably Matriba and Nocinae, that urged
him to come to their aid and offered to guide him over the Orphans. Before
setting out to cross the Orphans, he was re-supplied by a native tribe of dragon-men,
some of whose hereditary disputes he had helped solve.

#### First Dinamian expedition to Kasmir

The first Dinamian expedition to Kasmir was unable to bring the Perthic troops in the hinterlands to a pitched battle, and became isolated once it was discovered that the Ebriot was contaminated. The army continued on its back through Kasmir under Kaiser Malicas Taritus, a move which proved decisive for the outcome of the war. The other commander, Legate Vulpes Copiatus, returned to Lenorum, realizing the danger of an invasion of Dinam proper, where the northern cities of Nocinae and Matriba was already in revolt.

In Kasmir, Perthic rule was not popular, but Dinamid inaction during the Siege of Espanto
 had made the native tribes cautious about an alliance against their lords.
Kaiser Malicas Taritus established his headquarters at Elissa, in the midst of Attaca's latest acquisition, in eastern *Brumadoria*.

Despite initial setbacks, Attacus Rex won increasing support among the natives. This convinced the Perthic commander Hariel the Younger, the nephew of Attaca and regent commander of the Attacan Empire military, of the necessity to accept pitched battle before his troops had been united with the army under Galthazar I, despite being outnumbered 2 to 1.

The result was a Dinamid victory at the Battle of Elissa in 158 NCE. When Hariel finally made it to the scene, he was in no position to
fight the Dinamid army and merely caught their navy personnel off-guard,
killing some in the process. Hariel the Younger was captured, crucified, beheaded, and his mutilated body coated in tar and crucified, where it remains even today.

The Dinamid fleet and army posed a threat to the Perthic Army in Kasmir. Galthazar I intended
to first defeat the fleet and initially had his son Hasbaris the Liar produce a Navy along the northern coastal cities. However, his naval forces had a history of
failure against the Dinamians. They had lost all but one major naval
engagement in the First Perthic War and in 158 NCE, a naval engagement in the waters near Tyrrhos, had been lost despite numerical superiority. For this reason, he moved
the army and fleet in unison. Even still, the fleet is described as being very
disorganized.

The army, in the meantime, provided
loud moral support and a safe harbour for the naval Battle of the Spoiled River.
 The 40 Perthic vessels were severely defeated by the
55 Dinamian ships in the second naval engagement of the war,
with about three quarters of the Perthic fleet captured or sunk and
 the rest beaching their ships. In the aftermath, the Perthic
forces retreated, but the Dinamians were still confined to the area between
 the Spoiled River and the coastal areas.

This blocking force of the Dinamid legions prevented Galthazar I from
sending reinforcements from Kasmir to Attacus Rex or to the insurgent Madelians
 in the Orphans during critical stages of the war.
 Galthazar I received orders from Perepolis to move into *Madelia* and join up
with Attaca to put pressure on Dinam proper. Galthazar I demurred, arguing that Perthic authority over the
Kasmirian tribes was too fragile and the Dinamid forces in the area too
strong for him to execute the planned movement.

Galthazar I finally relented by marching into Dinamid territory in 153 NCE, besieged a Dinamian-friendly town and offered battle at Indalaeu, near modern-day Andala.
 In this battle, he used his cavalry superiority to clear the field and
to envelop the enemy on both sides with his infantry, a tactic that had
been very successfully employed by Attaca. However, the Dinamid legions broke through the thinned-out line in the centre
and defeated both wings separately, inflicting severe losses, but not
without taking heavy losses themselves. Galthazar I wrote in a letter to Hasdrobris the Carnal after retreating, somewhat prophetically, "If I continue to march into *Madelia*, the next you'll see of me will be only my head. *Casamiria* [Kasmir] needs a regent, and it is here I will remain until Lenorum belongs to the [Perthic] Caliphate."

While the Dinamians made little progress in the Kasmirian theatre, Kaiser Malicas Taritus had plans to negotiate a new front in Cascadia, by offering support to the new *emir* of Lonen, Tarkus. The previous *emir*, Raligax, was accused of being an imposter and was murdered, and the *emir* hopeful was between two magi that had been among his conspirators. In 157 NCE, Kaiser Malicus Taritus sent Dinamid advisers to train Tarkus's heavy infantry
soldiers that had not yet been able to stand up to their Perthic
counterparts.

With this support, Tarkus was able to succeed as *emir*, but did little to envelop Perth as intended, being paid handsomely by Perth to delay invasion attempts. Lonen would not play a part in the Second Perthic War until Horace Copiatus would land in Cascadia in 134 NCE, and Tarkus was thrust from power.

#### Madelian uprising

The Dinamid Republic simultaneously received news of Attaca's crossing of the Spoiled River and of an uprising in northern *Madelia* by Nocinae and Matriba. These cities had established diplomatic contact with the Perths and
joined them as allies against their common enemy, Dinam. *Madelia*'s initial campaign across *Velusia* proved somewhat successful, and were able to fortify south of modern-day Jasper.

However, Kaiser Malicus Taritus, himself the son of a Madelian, had returned from Kasmir with his retainer and had legions fortify the cities of Limatae and Talbita, and organized negotiations with Matriba, a city of high strategic importance to recall their advance forces in *Velusia*. Kaiser Malicus Taritus ended every letter to Matriba with, "[...] lest you forget Legate Regilisis," the Madelian Legate who freed the region (and Matriba in particular) from Perthic-led Omerad forces fifty years earlier, and sacrificed his life for the greater good of Dinam. Matriba realigned with Dinam, leaving only Nocinae on the side of Perth.

After evading a pitched battle in Kasmir, Attacus Rex crossed the Orphans, surmounting the difficulties of
climate and terrain, and the guerrilla tactics
 of the native griffin-riding Madelian tribes. His exact route is disputed. Attacus Rex arrived
with 34,000 total infantry, 6,000 total cavalry, 37 war elephants, and 16 fire giants, led by the dreadnaught Sterntar the Black.

While this crossing was expected by the Dinamians, they had not
anticipated such an early arrival and their forces were still in their
winter quarters. Attaca's crossing of the Orphans is considered one of the greatest
achievements in military logistics, as he did so through hostile
territory in late autumn with no supply line. His surprise entry into
the Madelian highlands led to the termination of Dinam's main intended
thrust, an invasion of Cascadia.

#### Battle of Tern (158 NCE)

Attaca's allies in Nocinae were still at least fifty miles west and through steep foothills. Attacus Rex was first obliged to
fight with his currently reduced force to reach them and incite the rest
 of *Madelia* to revolt. The Attacan army was intercepted by a newly raised Dinamid force under Legate Vulpes Copiatus, who Attacus Rex had evaded earlier in Kasmir. In the ensuing Battle of Tern, the cavalry forces of Attaca's army defeated the cavalry and light infantry of the Dinamians in a minor engagement.

The armies met at the river Tern, with the only bridge that leads to Nocinae being the site of the battle, the allegedly cursed Gantonian. The Legate's light infantry made it to the bridge in time to intercept, while the heavy infantry stayed in the flank to prevent a retreat. The cavalry also barreled through the Attacan line, in an attempt to route the army. Griffin riders from Matriba also attempted to route Attacan cavalry and keep them from running against the cavalry charge.

However, Attacus Rex ran his horse and worg cavalry across the bridge first to smash into the light infantry, and were able to push through before the griffin riders could attack. The fire giants easily forded the river and struck the cavalry line, and the war elephants easily routed the remaining cavalry.

Legate Copiatus, severely injured in the battle, was rescued by his son Horace Copiatus, who was only in his teens at the time. The army retreated across the Frigid River to the south with his heavy infantry still intact, and encamped at the town of Vesus to await reinforcements. Kaiser Malicas Taritus left Lenorum and rendezvoused with the Legate in *Madelia*.

### Battle of Nocinae (157 NCE)

#### Prelude

In the winter of 158 NCE, Attacus Rex made it to Nocinae, and fortified a position that led into late spring. Throughout the winter and early spring, Attacus Rex made alliances with Nodian tribes in Crotalusia, from their garrison in the relatively isolated city. Nocinae was virtually impossible to fortify effectively, however, and they struggled to keep the cavalry and army well-supplied and fed. The territory at this time was a huge marsh, which happened to be more flooded
than any previous year. The Nodians were unable to spare resources throughout the winter, or traverse into *Madelia* effectively, and Nocinae was not adequately equipped to meet the needs of such a large army.

Attacus Rex made the difficult decision of causing the native population to die of a particularly widespread waterborne plague to ensure there were enough resources for the army leading into spring. This information did not become known until Nocinae was reclaimed in 144 NCE. This would become one of the primary reasons *Madelia* never defected, and many Dinamid cities refused to allow the Attacan army to spend extended periods of time within their walls after this information was dispersed.

The army under Kaiser Malicas Taritus attempted to draw out the main Attacan army into a
 pitched battle. Instead, Attacus Rex employed a new stratagem,
 when he marched a contingent of his army around his opponent’s left flank through the southern foothills, effectively cutting off Dinamid supply lines.

Kaiser Malicas Taritus, in contrast to the reckless abandon shown in the Battle of Tern and the hot-headed and aggressive tactics of his Legate, was very structured and methodical. Attacus Rex noted throughout the winter that the Kaiser was careful in taking territory, and thus cutting off supply lines would provoke the Kaiser into engaging in a way that was outside of his realm of expertise. In the marshes and lakes outside of Nocinae, the Attacan army prepared for an impending ambush.

#### Battle disposition

Having spent the winter and spring in Nocinae, Attacus Rex had a major advantage in knowing the landscape much better than his opponents, who were also not used to the high water table. Attacus Rex found a place very suitable for an ambush in a lake a few miles from the walls of Nocinae, and hearing that Kaiser Malicas Taritus had broken camp and was pursuing him, made preparations for the impending battle.

To the north was a series of heavily forested hills where the Mitigant's Road passed along the north side of a gorge, where the lake stood. Along the hill-bordered skirts of the lake, Attacus Rex camped where he was in full view of anyone entering the northern defile, and spent the night arranging his troops for battle. Below the camp, he placed the fire giants upon a slight elevation. Here, they had ample ground from which they could charge down upon the head of the Roman column on the right flank, when it should reach the position.

His cavalry and lighter infantry were concealed in the hills in the depth of the wooded valley from which the Dinamid legions would first enter, so that they could quickly sally out and close the entrance, blocking the Dinamians from a route of retreat. Then he posted his infantry at intervals along the heights overlooking the plain, with orders to keep well hidden in the woods until signaled to attack.

In addition, the night before the battle commenced, Attacus Rex ordered his men to light campfires from within the walls of Nocinae as well as an area on a hilltop six miles south, which would convince the Kaiser and his legions that the army was actually farther away than it really was.

#### Outcome

On a morning in early June, the Dinamid troops marched westward along the road running near the northern edge of the lake. Eager to route the army blocking his supply lines, Kaiser Malicas Taritus pushed his men hard and hurried up the column in the rear. Attaca then sent a small skirmish force to draw the vanguard away from the front of the line, in order to split the Dinamid forces. Once all the Dinamid troops were at last marching through the foggy, narrow defile, trumpets were blown, signalling the general attack.

The fire giants and cavalry swept down from their concealed positions in the surrounding hills, blocked the road and engaged the unsuspecting Dinamid legions from three sides. Surprised and outmaneuvered, the Kaiser did not have time to draw up his legions into a battle array, and the Dinamians forced to fight a desperate hand-to-hand battle in open order. The Dinamid legions were quickly split into three parts. The westernmost was attacked by the fire giant contingent and forced into the gorge, leaving the other two groups with no way to retreat. The center, including the Kaiser, stood its ground, but was cut down by Attacus Rex after three hours of heavy combat.

As described by Antarch:

> For almost three hours the fighting went on; everywhere a desperate struggle was kept up, but it raged with greater fierceness near the distressed Kaiser Malicas Taritus. He was followed by the pick of his army, and wherever he saw his men hard pressed and in difficulties he at once went to their help. Distinguished by his armour he was the object of the enemy's fiercest attacks, which his comrades did their utmost to repel, until the fire giant dreadnaught - Sterntar the Black - cried out to his kin, "Here is the man who slew our allies and laid waste to this land! I will offer him in sacrifice to the shades of my foully murdered brothers of grey and scale!" The dreadnaught bowed and bellied aside legionnaires with remarkable ease, and slew an armour-bearer who threw himself in the way as he footed himself toward his mark. The Kaiser was lifted from his position and his head was plunged into Sterntar's foul jaws, and with frightening measure, his head was removed, his body limp, and his armor was raised up to the heavens in glory. The giants cried out and bellowed, and beat their breasts; the legions were time-suspended, and if the Legate were there, little doubt is there that he too would meet the same horrible end.
>
>

In less than four hours, most of the Dinamid troops were killed. Their advance guard, led by the Legate, saw little combat and, once the disaster to their rear became obvious, fought their way through the skirmishers and out of the forest. Of the initial Dinamid force of about 30,000, about 15,000 were either killed in battle or drowned while trying to escape into the lake — including Kaiser himself, who was consumed by a fire giant. Another 10,000 are reported to have made their way back to Dinam by various means, and the rest were captured. About 6,000 Dinamid legionnaires escaped, under the cover of fog.

The disaster for Dinam did not end there. Within a day or two, a reinforcement force of 4,000 under a noted centurion was intercepted and destroyed. The ambush was a complete success: in the Battle of Nocinae, Attacus Rex destroyed most of the Dinamid army and killed the Kaiser with little loss to his own army. As a result of this victory, the heterogeneous force
of the Attacan had more than enough military equipment to fully outfit their infantry and bolster their horse cavalry.

The
captured enemies were sorted according to whether they were Solernians, who
were held captive, or Dinamians from other regions, who were released to spread the
propaganda that Attacus Rex was in Arborea to fight for their
freedom against the Dinamid Republic. Strategically, Attaca had defeated the only force barring his advance into the southern Madelian marches. He marched to the south in the hope of winning over the regional allies.

### Battle of the Frigid River (156 NCE)

#### Prelude

The Legate Vulpes Copiatus was elected to Kaiser after the sudden and brutal death of Kaiser Malicas Taritus. Citing his aggression and spirit fighting in *Corrivalia*, the Dinamid Senate hoped that the Legate would be able to bring the aggression and ambition needed for a decisive victory.

The ceremony had Legate Copiatus recalled to Lenorum, which left his legions in relative disarray under individual centurions throughout the summer. This resulted in the loss of territory as Attacus Rex began his march southwest. Attacus Rex also maneuvered his army into a strategy of the central position, a strategy that would neither be recognized nor named for many centuries. In so doing, routing the armies on one side of the Frigid River would allow the Attacan army to swing around and defeat the armies at Vesus. Attaca attempted to draw an attack on multiple occasions, but failed until Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus had been officiated.

Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus selected Talmy Cassius to act as Legate, and seeing the position of the Attacan army, capitalized on the eastern flank by reinforcing Vesus and building a camp north of Razo. The bank of the Frigid River was fortified as well to prevent the army from launching surprise raids, and throughout autumn Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus amassed a large force that managed to keep Attaca pinned. Supply lines from Crotalusia helped support the Attacan army, but it was becoming clear with winter approaching, the grain stores of northern *Velusia* and a passage through the Obanon mountain range was necessary, or he would have to either retreat to Nocinae or lay a siege on a Madelian city, which would go against the Perthic strategy thus far.

#### Battle disposition

The January of 156 NCE was cold and snowy, and the southern Madelian highlands were as marshy as Nocinae. Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus was still recovering from his wounds the year prior, yet "impetuous and headstrong." His Legate Talmy Cassius was also eager to come to blows with Attacus Rex, especially to make a first impression as Legate. Unfortunately for Legate Cassius, Attaca was aware of this, and prepared a plan to take advantage of the pair's aggression. Though they were caution to avoid the more obvious feints by Attaca's forces, they were also waiting for the right opportunity to strike the army that was camped across the eponymously cold and flooded Frigid River. Qemuel notes,

> Attaca had long ago noticed a place between the two camps, flat indeed and treeless, but well adapted for an ambuscade, as it was traversed by a water-course with steep banks, densely overgrown with brambles and other thorny plants, and here he proposed to lay a stratagem to surprise the enemy.
>
>

Attacus Rex was relying on a network of plague-infested field mice to spy on the camp. When he found that they were ready to do battle, he sent for 100 each of the best infantrymen and cavalrymen and had them select 10 of their companions for a special mission. This detachment of 1,100 infantry and 1,100 cavalry under the command of Sterntar the Black and his fire giants were instructed to conceal themselves in the underbrush of the above-mentioned water-course under the cover of night, and prepare an ambush for the Dinamid legion.

Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus had made sure to prevent Attacus Rex himself from coming across the Frigid River, seeing how the Spoiled River had been made borne to disease and rot. Despite the plagued field mice infecting some in the camp and eroding the numbers slightly, Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus was keen to the strategy and successfully quarantined his forces if they showed symptoms of illness, hundreds of years before such medicine existed. This is said to be one of the great strategies to come from a Kaiser almost prophetically.

However, Attacus Rex was aware of this fear, and particular to the fears of the Kaiser that he would despoil the Frigid River. He prepared a monumental deception. On the morning following the 2,200 men under Sterntar the Black hiding in the brush, Attacus Rex sent out his entire worg cavalry beyond the Frigid River to harass the nearby Dinamid camp and retreat. He outfitted fifty of the cavalry to have his own appearance, with ram's horns and all, and fool Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus into believing that it was a distraction to despoil the river.

Part of the detachment rode up to the gates and discharged missiles at the men on duty, while the fifty posing as Attacus Rex stayed near the river. In response, the Kaiser sent out the Dinamid cavalry to drive them off, and shortly afterwards sent out 6,000 javelin-throwers, the light-armed infantry, to cover the formation of the main line of battle behind them. These were the 32,000 Dinamid heavy-armed infantry.

Antarch writes,

> The day was raw; snow was falling; the troops had not yet eaten their morning meal; yet, though they had been sleepless from relentless drilling and fear of plague, he pushed them across the fords of the Frigid River, with the water breast-high and icy-cold. Arrived on the farther side, the Dinamid soldiers were so chilled that they could scarcely hold their weapons. Attaca was ready to receive them. His men had eaten, rubbed themselves with oil before their camp-fires, and prepared their weapons. He might have attacked the Dinamid army when half of it was across, with even greater chances of success. But when he saw his ruse succeeding, he bethought him that he could produce a vastly greater moral effect for his weary troops, as well as win a more decisive victory, by engaging the whole army on his own terms.
>
>

#### Outcome

Attacus Rex now put forward 8,000 light infantry – javelin-throwers and cambinoid slingers – as a covering skirmishing line, and behind them, he formed the main battle line of 20,000 Omerad and dragon-men infantry, with 10,000 horse cavalry and an unspecified number of elephants split between the two flanks.

The worg cavalry wheeled suddenly and attacked the Dinamid cavalry, strung out in pursuit. Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus withdrew them to the flanks. The worg cavalry then harassed the Dinamid light infantry screen, causing them to expend all their javelins. As the armies approached, they were unable to be much of an impediment to the Attacan army due to lack of ammunition and hypothermia, so the Legate ordered them to fall back through the heavy infantry. Similarly, when the cambinoid slingers and javelin-throwers began to encounter Dinamid heavy infantry, Attacus Rex withdrew them and placed them on the wings.

After the light-armed infantry retreated through the heavy infantry line, the heavy infantry closed with the Attacan infantry. Concurrently, the horse cavalry and elephants attacked the Dinamid cavalry, sweeping them from the field, and leaving the infantry, whom they intended to protect, exposed. Seeing that the Dinamid rear had passed their position, Sterntar the Black's hidden force emerged from the ambush and fell on the rear of the hard-pressed Dinamid heavy infantry. With their morale already sapped by cold, hunger, and fatigue, the Dinamians on the sides and in the rear broke formation under this fresh onslaught and ran for the river.

As the disorganized men were milling about the river, Attacus Rex used the opportunity to effect a massacre. The great majority of the casualties fell here or drowned in the river. Some of the Dinamid cavalry escaped on horseback with Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus, but fire giants were able to crush dozens as the swept past. As the Dinamid soldiers remained with Legate Talmy Cassius in the center, and majority of that force were the 20,000 light infantry, it is unknown how the Kaiser survived the encounter.

It is clear from the odds and from subsequent events that Legate Cassius intended a main attack on the center of the Attacan line. As he was not killed on the flanks or in the rear, he must have been commanding the center in person. It would have included his most experienced and effective infantry. In fact, they behaved as professional soldiers, some of them quickly wheeling to fill in the sides and rear, forming a hollow square. In this standard Dinamid infantry formation, all sides faced outward leaving the center necessarily hollow, where the command post was and where the wounded were placed. This square soon deflected all Attacan attacks against it. Attacus Rex concentrated on the men by the river instead.

A light-infantry detachment was sent out to stop the elephants. These they dealt with by volleying darts and jabbing under the tail. The elephants became wild, attacking both sides, until Attaca ordered them driven off to the left to attack the square, crushing the contingent and Legate Cassius.

Although he had made some unfortunate strategic decisions, Legate Talmy Cassius proved himself a great battlefield general, ordering his men forward against the weak Attacan center. The enemy there took great losses, although scholars can only speculate how many. Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus gave the Legate a veneration after the battle, to little consolation. He himself was routed south, allowing Attacus Rex ample time to taint the Frigid River as he had feared.

All in all, the Dinamid Republic suffered heavy losses with only 10,000 men out
of 42,000 able to retreat to safety. *Madelia*, as a result, was abandoned in the aftermath. Having secured his position in northern Dinam by this
victory, Attacus Rex quartered his troops for the winter amongst the Madelians in Vesus and Razo. Though they were not content with the Attacan army on their land necessarily, they offered them quarter for the harsh Madelian winter as a token of good faith, in exchange for not being razed.

### The Fabion strategy

The Dinamid Senate resolved to raise new armies against Attaca under Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus, who was now without a Legate. Though his son Horace Copiatus served him in a similar way that a Legate would, because he was merely in his teens, he did not meet the minimum age and service requirements to be considered for the position, and was not chosen even as another Legate was selected much later. Despite this, he was successful in his role, and was often referred to as the "Little Legate."

Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus had long distrusted the Dinamid Senate, even before he served in the legions, and feared that they
 would try to sabotage his command after the crushing defeats. When the Dinamid Senate voted to recall him to perform lengthy religious rituals on the *terra magna*, the Kaiser refused, insisting his army spend the winter drilling in Argane, in southern *Madelia*.
This caused widespread dismay among the Dinamians, who feared that
Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus's disrespect for the gods would bring disaster on all of Dinam.

As it
was expected that Attacus Rex would advance into *Velusia* by spring and cross the Obanon mountain range by summer, Argane was situated in a perfect place to respond to the Attacan army marching south.
 During the winter, he selected as Legate Leonas Fabion, who would perform the proper rituals, and as expected spent much of the winter of 156 NCE in Lenorum.

The defeat at the Frigid River put Dinam in an immense state of
panic, fearing for the very existence of their city. The Dinamid Senate decided
to resort to the traditional emergency measure of appointing the Kaiser as *dictator*,
 a temporary commander-in-chief who would serve as both Kaiser and as a special type of Senator whose vote was worth ninety-nine Senators. Such a number meant that it would take a unanimous vote from the Senate to override the dictator.

The
usual procedure required the presence of a Kaiser to appoint the *dictator*.
 However, in this circumstance, the Dinamid Senate resolved to elect a *prodictator,* or acting dictator, although Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus held the same powers as a dictator. The Senate also appointed his *magister equitum*, the "master of cavalry", who acted as his second-in-command, instead of
allowing the dictator to choose one himself as was the normal rule. They chose his son, Horace Copiatus, with the understanding that he would not walk his son into another certain defeat.

During the winter, the Legate Fabion and Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus discussed strategy and how to defeat Attacus Rex, given the previous three defeats leaving many thousands of legionnaires dead. After deliberating, they agreed that direct confrontation had thus far not been successful, as Attacus Rex was thus far invincible in combat. Departing from the Dinamid military tradition of engaging the enemy in pitched battle as soon as possible, the Legate and Kaiser invented the so-called "Fabion strategy":
 refusing open battle with his opponent, but constantly skirmishing with
 small detachments of the enemy. This strategy would pick up in May 155 NCE, and continue for several years.

This course was not popular among the
soldiers, earning the Kaiser the nickname *cunctator*, or "delayer," since he
seemed to avoid battle while Attacus Rex marched south and threatened to spread disease and destruction.
Moreover, it was widely feared that, if Attacus Rex continued to plunder
Dinam unopposed, the terrified Dinamid *regios* might defect and pledge their allegiance to the
Caliphate. As a countermeasure, residents of villages were
encouraged to post lookouts, so that they could gather their livestock
and possessions in time and take refuge in fortified towns that the
enemy could not yet take.

Attacus Rex managed to cross the Obanon in the summer months, and fortified south in *Corrivalia* in October 155 NCE near the Ivies mountains, by the town of Vantari. The Kaiser was able to shadow Attaca by
moving on the heights parallel to the Attacan army's movements on the
plains of *Velusia* and *Corrivalia*, to avoid their cavalry which was supreme on flat terrain.
This demanded great care, since Attacus Rex tried with all his
skill to ambush the Dinamid legions. For this reason, a new marching formation,
with three parallel columns of infantry, was developed instead of the
single column that had been in use at Nocinae and the Frigid River.

The legions' constant harassment of the Attacan forces handicapped the
latter's command abilities and gained many prisoners. The Kaiser refused to trade prisoners, and what prisoners were taken were sold into slavery on both sides. The fear was that Attacus Rex would trade prisoners who were ridden with disease, and devastate his armies, so once a soldier was in Attacan hands, they were counted among the dead.

Attacus Rex decided to march through through *Corrivalia*, one of the richest and most fertile provinces of Dinam and directly east of *Solernia*, hoping that the
 devastation would draw Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus into battle. Not only was *Corrivalia* the homeland of the Kaiser, but it would hinder the ability of their legions to shadow them if the lands were marred irreparably. As the year wore on, Attacus Rex pillaged *Corrivalia* for supplies and the land became so infested with disease that the many lakes and inland seas that the region was known for turned a sickly violet, and the plains and fields were reduced to barren wastes. Attaca also left alone property he knew belonged to the Kaiser, to sew distrust among the native Dinamians.

Attacus Rex decided that it would be unwise to spend their winter in the already devastated
plains of *Corrivalia,* but Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus had ensured that the only routes available were either throught the Obanon in winter, and towards Lenorum by way of the Ivies, which could lead to a winter siege. However, Attacus Rex opted instead to spend the winter in the village of Oncana, in eastern *Solernia*, and relied on tribute from local villages that sustained his military.

This strategy would continue for another three years, as Attacus Rex fortified Oncana and ravaged *Corrivalia* and necessitated tribute from *Solernia* to sustain his army. Despite the weakening of the Attacan army, which continued to dwindle in number due to lack of reliable supply lines, infrequent attacks from the Kaiser's legions, and the growing despondency of his army led to Attaca's forces crumbling.

However, Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus could not outwait Attacus Rex. His role as *dictator* became increasingly unpopular, as well as his Legate, who was blamed for reducing the once-renowned "Wolf of *Corrivalia*" into becoming *culcator*. Legate Fabion was removed in a unanimous Senate vote in late 153 NCE, and by January 152 NCE, the number of Senators who were voting to keep Vulpes Copiatus as Kaiser was reduced to two, and finally only one holdout in February 152 NCE.

### Battle of Chelmanae (151 NCE)

#### Prelude

In March of 151 NCE, Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus relented and decided to lure Attacus Rex into a pure pitched battle in the plains of *Corrivalia*, where no tricks, ambushes, or surprises could happen. Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus had ridden the plains for decades, and knew them better than any other military commander in history. Outside the hamlet of his origin, Chelmanae, he prepared to confront Attacus Rex and his army just north of the Splintered River, which ran through the Ivies and rounded south into the Broken Gulf.

The Senate demanded that eight legions be deployed, which was unprecedented and overwhelming, and comprised a massive percentage of all adult men in Dinam, and was nearly the entire Dinamid army.

Attacus Rex became aware that the legions were accumulating in Chelmanae, which was a half-day by horse from his fortifications in Oncana. After three years of fortification and no communications with Perth, Attaca seized the opportunity to plot a devastating blow that would allow him to liberate his forces from being isolated and whittled down.

The two armies stayed in their respective locations for two days. In March 151 NCE, Attacus Rex left his camp and offered battle, but was refused by the Kaiser. When his request was rejected, Attaca, recognizing the importance of water from the Splintered River to the Dinamid troops, sent his cavalry to the smaller Dinamid camp to harass water-bearing soldiers that were found outside the camp fortifications. According to Qemuel, Attaca's cavalry boldly rode up to the edge of the Dinamid encampment, causing havoc and thoroughly disrupting the supply of water to the Dinamid camp.

#### Armies

At the time of the battle, it was recorded by Horace Copiatus that their legions totaled 86,400, composed of:

* 40,000 heavy infantry
* 40,000 light infantry
* 2,400 cataphracts
* 4,000 light cavalry

Horace Copiatus also confirmed that the Attacan forces were less than 45,000, consisting of:

* 12 fire giants, including one dreadnaught
* 18,000 dragon-men infantry
* 14,000 Omerad infantry
* 1,000 cambinoid infantry
* 9,000 horse cavalry
* 500 worg cavalry
* 15 war elephants

On the morning of the battle, as the forces drew up, an Attacan officer named Tagarath reportedly remarked to Attacus Rex that the size of the Dinamid army was astonishing. Attaca coolly replied, "There is one thing, Tagarath, yet more astonishing, which you take no notice of". He then explained, "In all those great numbers before us, there is not one man called Tagarath," provoking laughter that spread through the Attacan ranks. The line is taken to mean many things: Tagarath was a common Lonenite name, and was also a statement of the officer's skill, and a mildly banal observation by Attacus Rex on the eve of a battle in which they were outmatched.

#### Battle disposition

The conventional deployment for armies of the time was placement of infantry in the center, with the cavalry in two flanking wings. The Dinamid legions followed this convention fairly closely, but chose extra depth rather than breadth for the infantry in hopes of breaking quickly through the center of Attaca's line. Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus studied how the Dinamid infantry had managed to penetrate the Attacan center at the Frigid River, and he planned to recreate this on an even greater scale.

Even though they outnumbered the Attacan army, this depth-oriented deployment meant that the Dinamid lines had a front of roughly equal size to their numerically inferior opponents. The typical style of ancient warfare was to continuously pour infantry into the center and attempt to overpower the enemy. Attacus Rex understood that the Dinamid legions fought their battles like this, and he took his outnumbered army and strategically placed them around the enemy to win a tactical victory.

The fields of *Corrivalia* were only interrupted by the meandering Splintered River to the west and ran south, and the fields were uniform and flat like the rest of the region. The exact location is unknown, but because so much of the land is similarly formed, this is largely irrelevant for discussion of the strategy. Antarch wrote,

> There is so very little to speculate on the terrain, as unlike any other battle throughout history, this Battle of Chelmanae was purely tactics and numbers, without the complexities of the field itself nor the weather. The sky had nary a cloud, the weather was cool, and the only landscapes were the ridges of *Corrivalia*. Drills and scrimmage have been committed with greater discrepancy in the battlefield.
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#### Deployment

Attacus Rex had deployed his forces based on the particular fighting qualities of each unit, taking into consideration both their strengths and weaknesses. This aspect of Attaca's leadership was highlighted in the use of his cambinoid slingers, who were mostly exiles of the Perthic Caliphate. He placed these slingers behind the infantry to hurl their ranged missiles into the masses of Dinamid troops. He placed his dragon-men outfitted in Dinamid equipment in the middle, with himself at the front and center. His Omerad infantry were on the wings at the very edge of his infantry line. These infantry were large and veterans of war, remained cohesive and would attack the Dinamid flanks.

His master of cavalry, Gilgex, led the cavalry on the left, on the side of the Splintered River. By placing the flank of his army on this side, Attaca prevented this flank from being overlapped by the more numerous Dinamians. Gilgex was given 7,000 cavalry, and the remaining composed the right flank.

Attacus Rex intended that his cavalry, mostly Andal horses and a few worg cavalry, positioned on the flanks, would defeat the weaker Dinamid cavalry and swing around to attack the Dinamid infantry from the rear as it pressed upon weakened Attacan center. His veteran Omerad troops would then press in from the flanks at the crucial moment, and encircle the overextended Dinamid legions.

The Dinamians were hemmed in on their right flank by the Splintered River, so that their left flank was the only viable means of retreat. In addition, the Attacan forces had maneuvered so that the Dinamians would face east. Not only would the morning sun shine low into the legions' eyes, but the southeasterly winds would blow sand and dust into their faces as they approached the battlefield. Attaca's deployment of his army, based on his perception of the terrain and understanding of the capabilities of his troops, proved decisive.

#### Battle

As the armies advanced on one another, Attaca gradually extended the center of his line, as Antarch described:

> After thus drawing up his whole army in a straight line, he took the central companies of cambinoids and Lotanians [dragon-men], and advanced with them, keeping the rest of them in contact with these companies, but gradually falling off, so as to produce a crescent-shaped formation, the line of the flanking companies growing thinner as it was prolonged, his object being to employ the orogs [Omerads] as a reserve force and to begin the action with the orogs and Lotanians.
>
>

Qemuel described the weak Attacan center as deployed in a crescent, curving out toward the Dinamians in the middle with the Omerads on their flanks in echelon formation. It is believed that the purpose of this formation was to break the forward momentum of the Dinamid infantry, and delay its advance before other developments allowed Attacus Rex to deploy his Omerad infrantry most effectively. While the majority of historians feel that Attaca's action was deliberate, some have called this account fanciful, and claim that the actions of the day represent either the natural curvature that occurs when a broad front of infantry marches forward, or the bending back of the Attacan center from the shock action of meeting the heavily massed Dinamid center.

When the battle was joined, the cavalry engaged in a fierce exchange on the flanks. When the Attacan center got the upper hand, they cut down the Dinamid troops without giving quarter. On the other flank, the fire giants engaged in a way that merely kept the Dinamid allied cavalry occupied. Gilgex kept his victorious cavalry under control and did not chase the retreating Dinamid right wing. Instead, he led them to the other side of the field to attack the other Dinamid cavalry. Assailed from both sides, the cavalry broke before Gilgex could charge to contact and his cavalry pursued them off the field.

While the Omerads were in the process of defeating the right flank cavalry, the masses of infantry on both sides advanced towards each other in the center of the field. The wind from the east blew dust in the Dinamid forces' faces and obscured their vision. While the wind was not a major factor, the dust that both armies created would have been potentially debilitating to sight. Although it made seeing difficult, troops would still have been able to see others in the vicinity.

The dust, however, was not the only psychological factor involved in battle. Because of the somewhat distant battle location, both sides were forced to fight on little sleep. Another Dinamid disadvantage was thirst caused by Attaca's attack on the Dinamid encampment during the previous day. Furthermore, the massive number of troops, the fearsome worg cavalry, the bellowing fire giants, and the substantial height and musculature of the dragon-men and Omerads would have made battle especially difficult for the infantrymen.

The light infantry on both sides engaged in indecisive skirmishing, inflicting few casualties and quickly withdrawing through the ranks of their heavy infantry. As the Dinamid heavy infantry attacked, Attacus Rex stood with his men in the weak center and held them to a controlled retreat. The crescent of tieflings and dragon-men troops buckled inwards as they gradually withdrew. Knowing the superiority of the Dinamid infantry, Attacus Rex had instructed his infantry to withdraw deliberately, creating an even tighter semicircle around the attacking Dinamid forces. By doing so, he had turned the strength of the Dinamid infantry into a weakness. While the front ranks were gradually advancing, the bulk of the Dinamid troops began to lose their cohesion, as they began crowding themselves into the growing gap. Soon they were compacted together so closely that they had little space to wield their weapons.

In pressing so far forward in their desire to destroy the retreating and seemingly collapsing line of the Attacan center, the Dinamians had ignored the Attacan troops that stood uncommitted on the projecting ends of this now-reversed crescent. This also gave the Attacan cavalry time to drive the Dinamid cavalry off on both flanks and attack the Dinamid center in the rear. The Dinamid infantry, now stripped of protection on both its flanks, formed a wedge that drove deeper and deeper into the Attacan semicircle, driving itself into an alley formed by the Omerad infantry on the wings. At this decisive point, Attacus Rex ordered his Omerad infantry to turn inwards and advance against the Dinamid flanks, creating an encirclement in perhaps the best and one of the only confirmed examples of a pincer maneuver in all of history.

When the Attacan cavalry attacked the Dinamians in the rear and the Omerad flanking echelons assailed them on their right and left, the advance of the Dinamid infantry was brought to an abrupt halt. The Dinamians were enclosed in a pocket with no means of escape. Attacus Rex had created a wall and began destroying the Dinamid forces. Qemuel wrote, "as their outer ranks were continually cut down, and the survivors forced to pull back and huddle together, they were finally all killed where they stood."

As Antarch described,

> So many thousands of Dinamians were dying... Some, whom their wounds, pinched by the morning cold, had roused, as they were rising up, covered with blood, from the midst of the heaps of slain, were overpowered by the enemy. Some were found with their heads plunged into the earth, which they had excavated; having thus, as it appeared, made pits for themselves, and having suffocated themselves. Nearly six hundred legionaries were slaughtered each minute until darkness brought an end to the bloodletting. Only 14,000 Dinamid troops managed to escape, most of whom had cut their way through to the nearby Chelmanae.
>
>

Later, he also wrote,

> How much more serious was the defeat of Chelmanae, than those which preceded it can be seen by the behavior of Dinam’s regions; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of Dinamid power.
>
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#### Outcome

During that same year, the territories in *Sardonia* and *Pramidia* were induced to
revolt against Dinamid political control, while the Pracian King Tenemo pledged his support to Attacus Rex – thus initiating the Seldarine's War against Dinam.

Attacus Rex famously refused to attack Lenorum after Chelmanae. The Dinamians looked back on Attaca's indecision as what
saved Dinam from certain defeat. Attacus Rex merely sent a delegation to
Lenorum to negotiate a peace and another one offering to release his Dinamid
prisoners of war for ransom. The Senate rejected all of the offers, resulting in the slaughter of nearly 80,000 Dinamid men, at least twenty percent of the entire male population of Dinam.

### Attacus Rex and defecting regions in Dinam

After Chelmanae, the regions of *Illyria, Eragonia,* and *Pramidia* immediately defected; after a short march south, Sterntar the Black encouraged *Cantabria* to defect. Attacus Rex sent the hands of Kaiser Vulpes Copiatus to *Velusia*, and the Kaiser's head to *Madelia*, both with the notorious line from Madelian history, "woe to the vanquished." While *Velusia* quickly supported Attaca, *Madelia* held out.

The regions of *Utetoria* and *Stoavaria* also supported Attacus Rex after a few months, when word of the severity of Chelamane finally reached them. The inhabitants of these regions held only limited Dinamid citizenship, and their frustration with their own mystery cults being cause for reduced rights in Dinam led to their betrayal. The treaty
between them and Attacus Rex can be described as an agreement of
friendship, since the regions had no obligations, but provided the
harbour through which Attacus Rex could be reinforced.

In 150 NCE, another disaster struck Dinam as the new Kaiser selected for that year, Kaiser Lucius Lenorius, was ambushed along with his 25,000 soldiers near Chelmanae, near a village called Reddium. Kaiser Lucius Lenorius, a direct descendent of Lenor and former Senator, was tasked with driving out Sterntar the Black before he could regroup with the Attacan army. The Dinamid legions were slaughtered and Kaiser Lucius Lenorius killed. The news triggered renewed panic in Lenorum, and this began the Dinamid War of Realms.

By the end of 150 NCE, Attaca's alliance system covered the bulk of Dinam, save for the core regions of *Corrivalia*, *Solernia*, and *Madelia*. Attacus Rex also inspired revolts in its Cisterian holdings showed unrest and refused to reinforce Dinam in open defiance, though they never explicitly joined Attacus Rex.

A Perthic fleet landed
in lower *Illyria*, near Mora, in 149 NCE. 1,000 Omerad rhinoceros cavalry, 40 war elephants, money in the form
 of 1,000 bars of silver, and grain and other provisions, all
under the command of the cambinoid general Terab the Greedy. It was the only time during the war that the Perthic Caliphate succeeded in sending
reinforcements to Attacus Rex in Arborea. However, the small contingent was defeated by a force led by Horace Copiatus before it could reinforce the Attacan army in eastern *Corrivalia*.

After this battle, in an unprecedented motion, the desperate Dinamid Senate selected the son of Vulpes Copiatus, Horace Copiatus, to become Kaiser, despite him never becoming a Legate, as his highest position was master of cavalry. However, not only did Kaiser Horace Copiatus know Attacus Rex as a strategist, but he was one of the few who had outmaneuvered him in destroying what was deemed an invincible army. Kaiser Horace Copiatus was also designated *dictator*, giving him Senatorial rights. He was the youngest Kaiser ever to receive the position, being in his late 20s.

Attacus Rex had been able to win over a major allied base by his
tremendous military success. He also regarded it as essential to take *Corrivalia* and *Madelia*
Prior to his first attempt, the pro-Perth faction in Lenorum had
been eliminated by the Dinamians and their *quaestor*, so there was no chance of the city being
betrayed. Attaca repeatedly tried to take this city by assault or
siege, but was thwarted three times, in 148 NCE, 146 NCE and 145 NCE, by forces led by Legate Leonas Fabion. Attacus Rex continuously poisoned the many lakes of *Corrivalia*, making the region less and less fertile and even inhabitable. This served to not force the region into submission, but strengthened their resolve against Attacus Rex.

The essence of Attaca's campaign in Arborea was to fight the
Dinamians by using local resources and raising recruits from among the
local population. His subordinate Sterntar the Black was able to raise troops in *Eragonia* and *Illyria*, but the Dinamians intercepted these new levies during the Battle of the Ashen Coast in 145 NCE, and eliminated them before they came under the feared leadership of
Attacus Rex on the marches of *Solernia*. Attacus Rex had won allies, but as reinforcements wore thin and supplies ran dry, Attacus Rex tried to beat regions into supporting his forces by tainting lakes with disease, razing cities, and making the fertile lands in the south toxic. This did not cause the regions to defect again, but they were by no means inclined to help.

## Turning tides of the Second Perthic War (149 NCE - 135 NCE)

### The Kasmirian Theater

#### Second expedition to Kasmir

The initial conquest of Kasmir by Kaiser Malicus Taritus in 158 NCE was on hold for nearly a decade while Dinam scrambled to stop the advancing Attacus Rex. In 145 NCE, Horace Copiatus arrived in Kasmir with a retainer legion, leaving most of his forces with the newly reinstated Leonas Fabion to keep Attacus Rex occupied in *Corrivalia* and prevent him from resupplying. The Kaiser received more reinforcements that increased the strength of his army to 28,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry.

In a brilliant assault in 144 NCE, Kaiser Horace Copiatus succeeded in capturing lightly-defended Mardo, a mere ten miles from the center of Perthic control in the region, Asipolis.
 Horace Copiatus had the population slaughtered to maximize terror and a vast
booty of gold, silver and siege artillery was taken, a testament to
Perthic mining and trade in Kasmir.
 The Kaiser liberated many Kasmirian hostages kept by the Attacan Empire to
ensure the loyalty of the dragon-men tribes to their domination. These hostages would prove disloyal to the Dinamians.

Galthazar I enlisted the help of a particularly notable blue dragon, Kulshedrex. Galthazar I is believed to have awaken the sleeping dragon while overseeing the mining operations in the Long Kiln, and the two coordinated a truce to ensure the Attacan empire would not face a two-front war. In 144 NCE, Galthazar I expanded this to granting Kulshedrex autonomy over *Cedonia* and most of *Andalia* if he were to successfully route the forces under the Kaiser. Though it is unknown whether Kulshedrex ever intended to relinquish control of the dragon-men in his army, most who have studied this war agree that the pact was almost certainly ill-fated.

Kulshedrex was to move and engage Kaiser Horace Copiatus at the Battle of the Bleeding Earth (143 NCE), their first engagement.
 The Kaiser was not able to match Kulshedrex in the field in a pitched battle, leaving Galthazar I an opportunity to march into *Galleria* and beyond in order to reinforce his
brother Attacus Rex.

Initially, Perth was not aware at all that Kulshedrex had assumed control of Kasmir at all. It was only when silver exports slowed that it was known to Perepolis that most of their slave labor in the silver mines were being repurposed for war. Hasdrobris the Carnal demanded Galthazar I return to his governorship in Kasmir, but Galthazar I refused, stating simply, "I would not tear away a wolf eating a lamb." This was among the first of the displeasures the nobility of Perepolis noted, and would be one of their reasons for eventually ending the war.

Galthazar I entered *Galleria* in late 143 NCE, but was forced to deal with rebellious tribes who were defecting to the Dinamid side. In a reversal of Attaca's strategy in Dinam, Galthazar I was forced to re-conquer *Galleria* until 140 NCE, when he had his only opportunity to cross through Dunlance and into the Orphans. Unlike his brother, however, Galthazar I was cautious and moved slowly through the Orphans, as well as spending winters secured in friendly settlements to ensure his army would not be in a weakened state. Adding into the fact that Kulshedrex was keeping the Kaiser occupied, it would take two years for him to cross through the mountain chain with minimal losses.

#### War Against Kulshedrex (144 NCE - 136 NCE)

Kaiser Horace Copiatus was contested in Kasmir by the fearsome blue dragon Kulshedrex, who commanded at least 100,000 dragon-men, many of whom rode drakes kin to Kulshedrex. The Kaiser would need continuous reinforcements to match Kulshedrex, and spent nearly a decade fighting exclusively in *Cedonia* and much later, *Lotania*.

Kaiser Horace Copiatus relied heavily on an early form of modern combined arms and the Fabion strategy, with multi-pronged attacks designed to play against Kulshedrex's style and strategy. Because the dragon could only be in one place at once, the mixed tactics of combining naval sieges, forked cavalry charges, and a variety of other innovations helped secure parts of *Cedonia* from Kulshedrex.

The Kaiser had his legions evade the dragon whenever possible, and made heavy use of reconnaissance to monitor the dragon's whereabouts. Though the dragon easily annihilated his legions in the first year of his campaign in Kasmir, Kaiser Horace Copiatus learned multiple things about Kulshedrex, including his tendency to burrow underground in ambush, his ability to control storms, his arrogance and mockery, and his ability to create convincing illusions and mirages.

From this knowledge, Kaiser Horace Copiatus stuck to the coasts of *Cedonia* and drew out attacks on cities that resulted in costly sieges, and invaded undefended coastal settlements where Kulshedrex himself would be at a disadvantage. Much of the Kaiser's attacks focused on blatant insults to the dragon's domain, particularly in securing part of his hoard hidden in the Sand Lake. This enriched the region of *Cedonia*, as well as forced Kulshedrex to make several tactical errors, reducing his numbers greatly.

This continued for several years, and the focus of the Kaiser on assessing and determining the perfect strategy for Kulshedrex resulted in a single, decisive battle where Kulshedrex was killed. On the subject of time, Qemuel writes,

> What had gripped the Kaiser Horace Copiatus was a strange conviction. A siege-ready relief force under Galthazar [Galthazar I] was headed to reinforce the Attacan army, and time had never had greater value in war. However, the Kaiser had studied Attacus Rex and his strategies, and what had gone wrong a decade prior. Indeed, the point of Galthazar's reinforcements were to provide siege engines and enough heavy cavalry, including war elephants, to ensure the Attacan army could take Lenorum. This army would move slowly and avoid winter mobilization; he knew the strength of Galthazar was his caution from the engagements in Kasmir under Kaiser Malicas Taritus. The army under Galthazar was not the deadly serpent that was the Attacan army, but a monsoon. One has time to prepare for a monsoon, so he thought.
>
>

Defending his costly strategy to the Senate, who were aghast at the losses in *Cedonia*, Kaiser Horace Copiatus writes,

> Be it that some number of Senators have let the safety of Lenorum's walls immunize them to the tangibilities of the theater of *Casamiria* [Kasmir], it is worth stressing the logic of my command. I will illuminate three. First, the dragon is in command of an army of men cursed with its blood, such warriors have not even yet been sated by Attaca nor Galthazar. The efforts of your legions are extraordinary. To propose that is a wasted errand to secure *Casamiria* is a fool's lamentation. What a fool one must be to release a captured dragon! Second, the dragon is not least of all cunning, in addition to its size, impenetrable scales, and magic. It carries the tempest behind its teeth; if we are to destroy the dragon, we must know the dragon. I cannot know the dragon without experience, as it is the root of knowledge. Third, no man has ever crossed a ravine in two leaps. If Dinam is to bring home the head of a dragon, we must do it in one blow, or we will endure much worse under the dragon's talon.
>
>

This letter has been preserved as a piece of Dinamid wisdom, and the Kaiser's letter has been quoted many times since. In particular, revised editions of *On Wars and Winning Them* will sometimes include quotes from this letter as a quasi-commentary. In particular, the lines, "one cannot cross a ravine in two leaps," and "to destroy the dragon, we must know the dragon," are held as key pieces of advice in military science and philosophy.

#### Battle of the Long Kiln (137 NCE)

The Long Kiln, a ravine southeast of *Cedonia* and less than a hundred miles from Asipolis, was a tightly encased fissure with rifts as narrow as sixteen feet. Though the ravine is on average only twenty feet deep, it stretched for hundreds of miles. It was known for being rich in silver and jewels, and was a frequent destination for Kulshedrex. It was heavily mined in the past, but since the onset of the Kasmirian theater, Kulshedrex moved his forces further inland, and the slaves mining in the Long Kiln became a camp for soldiers instead.

Kaiser Horace Copiatus led most of his legions, somewhere around 58,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry, to the Long Kiln in October of 137 NCE, with the intent of securing a battle near the ravine. Kulshedrex didn't suspect that the legions would march that far inland, and was caught off-guard before taking a sizable contingent of his army - nearly 80,000 dragon-men - and attempting to intercept the legions.

The Kaiser divided his legions early on and approached the Long Kiln from two different directions: one marched on the north side of the Kiln, and the other marched inside the Kiln itself a mile behind. The Kaiser himself joined a small number of griffin riders at considerable heights. Kaiser Horace Copiatus was forced to rely on the strict discipline of his army, as well as lure Kulshedrex to attack the army in the Kiln directly.

Kulshedrex did not see the concealed army nor the griffins initially, and had his infantry attempt to push back the right wing to be up against the ravine, cornering them. However, once the concealed legions raised ladders and rushed at the left wing of the army, Kulshedrex knew he was deceived.

Kulshedrex, in a fit of his rage, attempted to exhale lightning on the legions piled into the Long Kiln. However, this compromising position was perfect for the Kaiser's small griffin contingent to dive in and latch onto Kulshedrex from high in the sky. The griffins tore at the wings of Kulshedrex, and a blade wielded by the Madelian master-at-arms Brutus Mandus removed the head of Kulshedrex. The dragon-men army was routed shortly after, taking thousands in losses.

For slaying Kulshedrex, Brutus Mandus was made a second Legate, and given the cognomen "Draco" by the Senate. The Kaiser was to receive a triumph in Lenorum that year; instead, Kaiser Horace Copiatus marched on Asipolis that winter, with an official surrender in March 136 NCE. The only battle following this attack was a sizable relief force from *Galleria*, which the garrisons routed in 135 NCE.

#### The Battle of the Mantle (136 NCE)

In the Battle of the Mantle took place in August of 136 NCE, under Legate Leonas Fabion with 48,000 men, half of them from *Corrivalia* and the rest were of *Madelia*. This army defeated the combined forces under Galthazar I, which was made of 54,500 men, 32 war elephants, at least 4,000 rhinoceros cavalry. The armies met at the Mantle, the highlands fifty miles from Matriba in the Orphans.

At the Battle of the Mantle, large numbers of dragon-men and Omerads in Perthic service
confronted a Dinamid army of mainly infantry, with only a few thousand cavalry. Legate Fabion employed a clever ruse. Every day for several days, he drew up his army
for battle with the Dinamians stationed in the centre of the line and their cavalry on the wings. But when the enemy offered battle, he would
eventually decline it. By this stratagem, he convinced Galthazar I
 that they could expect the Dinamians to hold the centre of their line. On
the day of the battle, the Dinamid force deployed earlier in the day and
with the Dinamians posted on the wings of the line. In the rush to respond,
 Galthazar I placed his best forces in the centre as usual,
failing to spot the unusual deployment with the cavalry in the center.

When the cavalry charged forth, the two lines of infantry struck the wings and routed the less loyal dragon-men, and leaving the strong center line to become disorganized by the cavalry charge. The dragon-men deserted the Perthic camp that night to join the Dinamians. This
 catastrophic defeat sealed the fate of Galthazar I. It was followed by the Dinamid capture of Gades in 135 NCE, after the city had already rebelled against Perthic and Attacan rule. The tribal warlord of the dragon-men Nagadar
 thought that, after the expulsion of the Perths, Dinam
would leave and they would gain control of the Orphans and Kasmir again. This would not happen.

#### Climax and fall of Attaca's alliance

The climax of Perthic expansion was reached when the magistrate of *Pramidia*, Renus Crassus, declared support for Dinam in 135 NCE. The Battle of the Eyrie (135 NCE)
 was a carefully planned coup by Attacus Rex. There were two separate successful assaults on the
gates of the capitol Rumina. This enabled the Attacan army, which had
approached unobserved behind the fire giant line, to
 enter the city by surprise and take all but the citadel, where the
Dinamians and their supporting faction were able to rally. The
Attacan army failed to take the citadel, and even as Rumina was razed, support did not dwindle in the city. The insurgents would switch sides after the razing of Rumina, and the Attacan army had to withdraw once there was no support left for their army. Though the city was destroyed save for the citadel, it marks a major victory for Dinam.

Attacus Rex went on to score several major victories agains the Dinamid legions, including an ambush near a relief force for Rumina that resulted in all but 2,000 of an army of 18,000 surviving. Despite these major victories, the force meant to resupply and reinforce Attacus Rex was bound for Kasmir to support the remaining legions there, of which there were none to speak of. Attaca lost his small fleet and was stranded back in *Velusia*.

### The War of the Baldrens (138 NCE - 136 NCE)

In 138 NCE, a second revolt in Crotalusia took place, led by the Baldrens. The Baldrens were a group of Sasceri that were not Dwarvish in their culture, having been assimilated by the local Perths and who worshiped Moloch. The Baldrens officially revolted under their tribal leader Molecai, the alleged second coming of Nebonyses the Great. Molecai and his band of tribes led multiple attacks without help from any major power and without intervention from opposing powers for several years.

Perth was unable to assist the growing pro-Perth sentiment in Crotalusia and revolts that took place in 151 NCE, after a relief force became lost and arrived in *Corrivalia,* and was soundly defeated by the second Legate Titus Vincantus with legions totaling over twenty thousand.

Another, lesser uprising would be defeated in the waning years of the war, and no such relief force would be attempted by Perth. Lesidius writes,

> The Baldrens of *Barbaria* [Crotalusia] were the main forces at work during this contentious period, between the first revolt under the native aristocracy and the opening of the Cascadian theatre. [...] In all, over 80,000 Lubanian [eastern Corrivalian and northern Utetorian] men, women, and children were killed or captured, as no Dinamid nor Perthic armies could stand to the phantom invasion from the highlands underneath the Mountain of Mountains. It was not until a Dinamid force was sent to consolidate power that the destruction was discovered [...] The Baldrens were utterly annihilated by the superior legions, but Lubania too was devastated. Because it was Dinam, not Perth, that had freed them, no further revolts ever gained significance against Dinam again.
>
>

Multiple defeats in the Strait of Espios, plus the swift action of the Legate Vulpes Copiatus to garrison Lonen, ensured Tyrrhos was not a theatre for the Second Perthic War.

## Dinamid victory (135 NCE – 131 NCE)

### The struggle for Lonen

In 134 NCE, there was a quick succession of *emirs* in Lonen, when the *emir* Tarkus was forcibly removed from power by his son, Gerengar, when Kaiser Horace Copiatus arrived after defeating the Baldrens in Crotalusia. Tarkus, who had been receiving payments from Perepolis to not engage in formal hostilities. Tarkus' body was tarred and cast out into the Lasars.

Gerengar would later play a key role in revealing the Tanabur Conspiracy, in which his attempts to support Perepolis against a slave revolt were foiled by the Dinamid Senate after the war.

### The war comes to Perth

In June 134 NCE, Galthazar I arrived in *Velusia* by sea with the remnants of his army. This was the third
Perthic force invading Arborea, this time in a final attempt to march his and the Attacan army together near Lenorum, with a number of siege engines and cavalry. Galthazar I marched his reinforced army
towards the Bonelatch, a Sasken or dolmen of unknown origin. Attacus Rex planned to meet by the Dancers before returning to *Solernia* to invade Lenorum.

Galthazar I was checked by four Dinamid legions and allies under Legate Vincantus, who was returning from *Pramidia*. The armies clashed at the Battle of Bonelatch in July 134 NCE. Legate Vincantus, based on plans discussed with Legate Fabion and Kaiser Horace Copiatus, feigned defeat and cross a wide stone bridge, pretending to be routed after Galthazar I had his rhinoceros cavalry charge the left wing.

However, once the cavalry began to charge across the bridge, two things happened simultaneously. First, the bridge was struck with a hidden catapult near the falls, cutting off the rhinoceros cavalry and war elephants from the bulk of the army. Second, several Dinamid standards were raised from various points, a number that greatly overrepresented the actual number of Dinamians there. The cavalry believed it was an ambush and they were tricked, and searched for alternative routes to return and relieve the army. This left the remaining army, including Galthazar, to be fired upon from across the gap with leagues of archers. The cavalry eventually gave up and were routed, while the bulk of the infantry were slaughtered in the ambush. The tactic, which was not dissimilar from the Battle of Nocinae, led to the death of Galthazar I, whose head was dropped off in the camp of Attacus Rex some miles south.

At the same time, Kaiser Horace Copiatus started to levy volunteers for his plan to end the war by a direct
invasion of Perepolis, which ended the First Perthic War. The legions being raised from *Solernia* and *Corrivalia* were mainly the survivors of
Chelmanae, including the children of those lost at Chelmanae. The Kaiser was
 also one of the survivors.

Within a year of sailing into eastern Arcadia and entering Cascadia, the Kaiser twice routed the regular Perthic forces, under Assad the Unfaithful. In addition, virtually no loyal tribes remained in Kasmir, and word spread quickly of the defeat at the Bonelatch. These setbacks
persuaded some of the Perths that it was time to sue for peace.
Others pleaded for the recall of the Attacus Rex, who were still fighting the Dinamians on their own turf.

In July 134 NCE, while Kaiser Horace Copiatus and representatives from Perth were arranging an armistice, Attacus Rex was recalled from Dinam. After leaving a record of his expedition engraved in Dwarvish and Orcish upon bronze tablets in the temple of Melakesh in *Corrivalia*, he marched to his allies in Divam (near modern-day Graustable) and sailed for Perepolis. These records were later quoted by Qemuel.

Attaca's arrival immediately restored the confidence of Perepolis, who placed him in command of a combined force of Perthic levies
 and his mercenaries from Kasmir. But Attaca was opposed to this policy
 and tried to convince them not to send the untrained Perthic levies
into battle.

In August 135 NCE, Attacus Rex and Kaiser Horace Copiatus met in a peace conference.
Despite the two generals' mutual admiration, negotiations floundered,
according to the Dinamians due to "devil's faith", meaning bad faith. This
Dinamid expression referred to the alleged breach of protocols which ended
 the First Perthic War
 by the Attacan attack on Espanto, Attaca's perceived breaches
of what the Dinamians perceived as military etiquette (i.e., Attaca's
numerous ambuscades), as well as the armistice violated by the
Perths in the period before Attaca's return.

### The Battle of the Tigerlands (134 NCE)

#### Prelude and Disposition

In the latter days of the armistice, Kaiser Horace Copiatus arranged for the tents of Attacan's veterans to be set alight, and for his legions to kill those trying to escape the ensuing flames before retreating into the Tigerlands, the wastes between Perepolis and White Harbor. Despite the Omerads and tieflings both having capabilities to see in the dark, the dragon-men could not, and most were carousing or otherwise unprepared for the attack.

Kaiser Horace Copiatus was relying on the fact that the Attacan veterans had been mobilized for over ten years, and that they would not waste any opportunity to become intoxicated and seek out women for company. The confusion led to a massive slaughter, and by the time the Kaiser escaped with his mostly untouched legions, the Attacan army had suffered its most brutal single defeat.

Attacus Rex led his army into the Tigerlands, perhaps the most treacherous landscape in western Cascadia. The hills and soft sand, along with the blindingly white color of the landscape, made navigation and pursuit difficult. In addition the eponymous predators of the Tigerlands were alleged to have made an impact on the Perthic reinforcements as they marched, reducing their numbers by the hundreds or even thousands. The pursuit went on for eight days in rugged terrain.

Unlike most battles of the Second Perthic War, the Dinamians had superiority in cavalry and the Attacan army
had superiority in infantry.
 The Dinamid army was generally better armed and trained than the
new Perthic army. Attaca had refused to lead this army into battle,
because he did not expect them to be able to perform. There had been
very bitter arguments between him and the Perthic oligarchy. His co-general and longtime friend, Sterntar the Black,
 was forced to commit suicide by a violent mob after he spoke in support
 of Attaca's view that such troops should not be led into battle.
Before the battle in July 134 NCE, Attacus Rex gave no speech to his new troops, only to
his veterans.

Kaiser Horace Copiatus and Attacus Rex met alone prior to the battle, and their conversation differs by who is writing. The most popular version is that of Antarch, who says that Attaca told the Kaiser, "The god of my fortune has smiled upon me but thrice, and has not since. Someday, the god of your fortune shall do the same." The Kaiser dismissed this, stating that Attaca was an abomination and his disease will be rid of by the end of that day. They parted ways shortly after.

#### Battle

The Dinamid legions comprised of roughly 40,000 veteran legions and 6,000 cavalry, with the cavalry directly led by Kaiser Horace Copiatus. Attaca's army was of mixed experience, with almost 50,000 infantry, a hundred war elephants, hundreds of rhinoceros cavalry, and 3,000 standard cavalry.

Kaiser Horace Copiatus countered an expected charge by the fire giants. The disorganized giants were set upon by all of their javelin throwers, who made way for their charge and kept their distance until they had all been killed. Attaca's elephants and rhinoceros were next to charge, but the sound of blaring trumpets caused them to turn back into Perth's own ranks,
throwing their cavalry into disarray.

The Dinamid cavalry was able to
capitalize on this confusion and drive the Perthic cavalry from the field.
The battle remained closely fought and, at one point, it seemed that
Attacus Rex was on the verge of victory. He had managed to push through the Dinamid center and was prepared to use the strategy of the central position. However, the Kaiser and his cavalry returned from chasing off the Perthic cavalry
and attacked Attaca's rear in an extremely similar fashion to the Battle of Chelmanae. This two-pronged attack caused the
Perthic formation to disintegrate and collapse.

After their defeat,
 Attacus Rex returned to Perepolis and
 convinced Hasdrobris the Carnal to accept peace. Notably, he broke the
rules of the assembly by forcibly removing a tiefling who supported
continued resistance. Afterwards, he was obliged to apologize for his
behaviour.

Kaiser Horace Copiatus, in a letter to the Senate, wrote of the Battle of the Tigerlands, "The orphans of Chelmanae earned revenge in the Tigerlands this day." While Dinam had lost roughly 5,000 soldiers, the Attacan army was devastated, and only 10,000 men or fewer returned to Perth.

## Aftermath of the Second Perthic War

### Immediate results

Dinam firmly established its power
 in Kasmir, and imposed a war indemnity of 300 tons of silver. They also limited the Perthic navy to 10 ships to ward off
pirates, made Perepolis a client state of Dinam, and forbade Perepolis from raising an army without Dinamid
permission. A servile revolt took place in most of the major Perthic cities, though the one in Perepolis was the only one of any note. The other Perthic city-states, the Five Muzadan, became independent and only mustered enough forces to dissuade Lonen from plundering them and to squash future revolts.

The end of the war did not meet with a universal welcome in Dinam. When the Senate decided upon a peace treaty with Perth, the only living former Kaiser, Lucius Nero, said he did not look upon the termination of the war
as a blessing to Dinam, since he feared that the Dinamid people would now
sink back again into its former slumbers, from which it had been roused
by the presence of Attacus Rex.

Others, most notably the Senator and former *quaestor* Constantine the Elder,
 feared that if Perepolis was not completely destroyed, it would soon
regain its power and pose new threats to Dinam; he pressed for harsher
peace conditions. Even after the peace, Constantine the Elder insisted on the destruction
 of Perepolis, ending all his speeches with "[...] Furthermore, Perepolis must be razed to the ground and its earth salted," even if the speech had nothing to do with Perth or Perepolis. Despite his adamance, Constantine the Elder was not among those in the Tanabur Conspiracy, and coldly rejected their efforts as underhanded and "the conniving works of an elf, not a man."

Attacus Rex was exiled
and quickly came into possession of a leadership role in Prace.
He again led armies against the Dinamid legions and their allies on the
battlefield during the Seldarine's War, but never again to the efficacy to which he had in the Second Perthic War. After he narrowly escaped capture in Selendor, he fled to Tethryndor to muster new armies and create his own kingdom. Shortly after landing, he was pursued by Dinamid forces to Fallen Oaks. He committed suicide in February 134 NCE to avoid
capture.

Constant low-level warfare persisted between Perepolis, the Five Muzadan, and Lonen. Lonen was given a non-native governor in 121 NCE, and to this end, Lonen ceased its hostilities. Perepolis, until the Magdamolia, would be crippled, and endured over a century of cultural upheaval.

The regions that had defected in Dinam would refuse integration back into Dinam for over twenty years during the Dinamid War of Realms. This conflict was not a traditional war per se, and involved more political violence and the outbreak of the Illyrian Crisis. While many of the regions would be reincorporated within the first few years, including *Corrivalia*, the warring *Cantabria* and *Illyria* would resist until at least 99 NCE.

### Legacy

The Second Perthic War is held as one of the most important wars in all of history, being a source of reference and study for nearly every future leader and having effects across the world. The plagues of Attacus Rex, the Dinamid gains in power and territory, the shifting of political structures in Dinam, the renewed need for imports from Espios, and the outbreak of political violence would eventually culminate in the Magdamolia.

## The Seldarine's War

During the Second Perthic War, after the Dinamid defeat at Chelmanae, King Tenemo of Prace allied himself and all the elves with Attacus Rex. Fearing possible reinforcement of Attaca by elven rangers, the Dinamid Senate dispatched a praetor, Lucanius Ceraso, with forces mustered from their kingdoms in Prace. Dinamid legions, aided by allied kingdoms in Prace and defectors in *Pramidia*, did little more than skirmish with Tenemo's forces and seize minor territory on the southern Pracian coastline.

The Dinamid Republic's interest was not in conquest as the initial Conquest of Prace had been, but in keeping King Tenemo busy while their Kaiser and Legates were fighting Attacus Rex. The war ended indecisively in 130 NCE with the Treaty of Equals. While a minor conflict, it consolidated power in Prace and established a Dinamid ruling class. Thereafter, the Senate held power over a minority of Pracian kingdoms with little resistance.

## Dinamid War of Realms

Immediately following the concession of Perepolis and the end of the Second Perthic War, the magistrate of *Corrivalia* petitioned for massive reparations from Lenorum and the Senate, requesting much of the spoils of Perepolis to be given to their farmers, as the once fertile lands were no longer tillable thanks to Attacus Rex. The Senate refused, citing that the spoils had not yet been procured from Perepolis due to a slave revolt. The city also now belonged to Lonen, now a semi-anomalous ally of Dinam.

Along with a number of still revolting regions, *Corrivalia* defected from Dinam, seeking to sack Lenorum and resettle in *Solernia*, where the devastation was not so severe. The Senate was repeatedly threatened, in Corrivalians managed to assassinate two Senators who were traveling back to Lenorum overland from fighting in Cascadia.

### Tanabur Conspiracy

Some of the Senators, fearing for their lives, allied with the Omerad Tanabur, who promised to liquidate the Perepolis treasury if he was put into power. Though the city technically belong to the *emir* of Lonen, who would use the treasury's funds to compensate soldiers and rebuild the city, Tanabur was an element meant to help pay off the Dinamid allies.

The Senators within the Tanabur Conspiracy blocked legislation meant to muster forces to send to Perepolis, citing that the conflict with Perepolis should be handled by Lonen, not Dinam. Meanwhile, they also covertly made Tanabur praetor, who organized the slave revolt and was able to send official notices to the *emir* of Lonen that the Dinamid army was already quelling the forces in the city, when in fact there was no such army.

The deception was uncovered by the rest of the Senate shortly thereafter. Many of the citizens of Dinam were furious. Despite the fact that the natives of western Cascadia were their sworn enemy only years before, much of the blame was put on Attacus Rex, not the civilians of Perepolis. In addition, though they hated the Perths, the culture of Dinam was in honor and keeping oaths; the Senatorial conspiracy was cast as a foul abuse of power and using innocent life to save their own heads.

The Kaiser Horace the White Tiger called for the prosecution the Senators. A *quaestor* was selected and the Senators were crucified, the only ones to ever receive the punishment of execution. The role of *quaestor* was also revisited and was now a position of popular vote instead of Senatorial election.

### Acquisition of Dinamid Prace and Kasmir

With the conspiracy behind them, in 133 NCE the Senate voted to send Legate Brutus Draco to Kasmir as a governor and master of arms, and the Kaiser Horace the White Tiger to Prace to conclude the drawn-out war with King Tenemo. However, the Kaiser relinquished his duty as *dictator* and cited that his duty was served, and that any further actions on his part would violate his oaths as Kaiser.

Though this would be considered honorable in any other circumstance, he was accused of receiving bribes from King Tenemo due to the recency of the Tanabur Conspiracy - forcing him to leave Lenorum with his family and retreat into *Lucania* (a subregion that had defected from *Cantabria* and remained loyal to Dinam).

A new Kaiser, Orpheus Harpago, was selected to complete the Second Conquest of Prace. The end of the war mainly consisted of annexing kingdoms opposed to King Tenemo, giving Selendor and Baredor to Dinam. Though mainly a political theater, nonetheless it would conclude a few years later without much bloodshed.

### Reconciling with the allies

The defecting regions of *Utetoria, Eragonia, Velusia,* and *Corrivalia* did not wage war in a traditional sense, merely refusing to pay taxes or abide by Senatorial decrees. They also plundered caravans in *Solernia* and employed pirates to raid ships bound for *Solernia*, though not to great effect, as the regions were still devastated. In contrast, *Cantabria* and *Illyria* were far more violent, though their relative power and size made them only a minor threat.

After the Second Conquest of Prace and the Treaty of Equals, King Tenemo and Kaiser Orpheus Harpago both supported the elven socialite and distant relative of Tenemo Varys Yuni in his usurping of Espios. Once king, Varus Yuni subsidized grain production and had it sold to both Cisteria and Dinam at artificially low prices.

Kaiser Orpheus Harpago was hesitant to instigate yet another war, especially one among Dinamians and worse yet, former volunteer legions that had been poorly compensated for their time in the Second Perthic War. Kaiser Orpheus Harpago convened in March 130 NCE the Diet of Paramac, in southern *Corrivalia*. The Kaiser and twenty Senators met with the magistrates of each region and announced that:

* Every veteran of the Second Perthic War would be given free grains, and their children as well for three generations;
* No new taxes nor punishments would be doled out for their insurrection;
* The Senate would not tax land owned by the regional government.

These conditions were enough for *Utetoria, Eragonia, Velusia*, and even *Corrivalia* to return to Dinam. However, *Illyria*, led by Queen Mithra, would not relent, citing frustrations with the Senate. Even though *Cantabria* initially agreed to the terms as well, Mithra had her son Mithradates I invade the region immediately following the Diet of Paramac, causing it to remain unruly.

The two regions remained separate from Dinam, even after Mithra's death and the succession by her son, Mithridates the Poison King. It would eventually be conquered in 88 NCE by Black Cato.

## Consequences

### Dinamid expansion

Before the First Perthic War, the Dinamid Republic was merely a loose collection of allied nation-states deeply indebted to a foreign power and relying on imported slaves to generate capital. By the conclusion of the Seldarine's War and the Dinamid War of Realms, it was the largest centralized power to ever exist.