War of Thorns

The **War of Thorns** was a war between the pagan people of Gilneas versus the Empire of Arathor. Rallying under the Wicker King, the people of the Ashen Coast that had been slowly losing their land to Arathorian settlers struck out in a bloody conflict that lasted fifty years. During this time, the families of the Cobals and Stantons briefly ended their blood feud to fight alongside the Arathorian Legion.

## History

Three hundred years before the war, a city was founded within the southeast region that would eventually become the Reach within the forest. By manipulating nature, the pagan Old Ways followers of Gilneas were able to craft a city hidden within the forest. This city became a refuge for the slowly dwindling people of Gilneas who were losing their homes to the continued influx of Arathorian settlers seeking to colonize in the mineral rich region of Gilneas. Though at first it was simply settlement, the ever growing numbers of incoming peoples eventually began to push control of regions into foreign hands, as these non-natives developed enough communities that the pagan natives had no chance of opposing when decisions came with the land. While the Ashen Coast was mostly spared from this due to their lack of a proper land route to the rest of Gilneas, the families of the Cobals and Stantons had dominated the region that would become the Bite and had warred for hundreds of years. This blood feud had eventually pulled in the various pagan peoples who were coerced one way or the other, through riches, land and other such things, into their war. After several hundred years of this, the Pagans began to replace most of the small armies of the two families and blood was being spilled over a cause that was not their own. In time, what was typically small skirmishes that resulted in several lives being lost, turned into clan versus clan warfare with much larger armies that rose the death toll far beyond what it had been in ages past.

With the death count rising and the various fringe regions of Gilneas slowly being taken from the natives by ambitious settlers, the people of the city of Wickenden sent out a call for those who had had enough to rally to their city. Under the banner of a man known only as the Wicker King, the pagans invaded the lands of the Bite and conquered Karnsburg and Cobal's Hold. Enslaving the families of the Cobals and Stantons, the Wickers began to lash out across Gilneas, attacking and destroying various attempts at settlement within Gilneas. Though their cause was initially seen as self righteous, the Wicker King slowly began to become more and more cruel as time went on. Conquering the Ashen Coast was not enough, rather they marched and pillaged any settlement in their path, eventually conquering most of Gilneas using nature magic and mastery over the native animals of the region. They proclaimed that the Empire had over stepped its boundaries within Gilneas, and that by aggressively settling in their land they were oppressing the native people that were also part of the empire.

Unwilling to lose a piece of the Empire, Emperor Thorin the Second sent out one of the commanders of the Arathorian Legion, commander Demeric Jaxon. Marching with the legion, the Arathorians clashed with the druidic wickers across the borders of Gilneas. After several battles with the Wickers, Commander Demeric realized that the Wicker armies were primarily made up of slaves that had been taken, and through subterfuge Jaxon was able to contact the heads of the Cobal and Stanton family back in the Ashen Coast. As a mockery, the two families were made to serve the Wicker King as his personal slaves, and as such had access to the king that others did not. In a bloody uprising, the slave armies of the Wickers rebelled and attempted to murder the king. The king was mortally wounded by the Cobals and Stantons and was believed to have perished somewhere within the Northgate Woods. It was not until two months later, an amalgamation of thorns, roots and man had returned. Atop his head where there once sat a gnarled crown, the thorns now stretched into his arms and legs, the thorns weaving through his body. This creature was revealed to be the Wicker King, who had survived by way of some unknown magic that turned his body half thorns and half man. As time went on, many stated the thorns seemed to dominate his body, making it near impossible to tell he was even part man.

The wickers continued to lose ground against the Arathorians until the capture of Commander Jaxon. Brought before the cliffs of the Reach, Commander Jaxon was impaled through the back by a large spiked root before being sent into the waters below. His armies continued to fight in his name and his son, a lieutenant, eventually led a charge that broke through the Wicker's lines and captured their king. Locking himself within a barrier of roots, the Wicker King mocked his captors as they were unable to get through to execute him. Ultimately, the barrier was set ablaze and the Wicker King was burnt along with it, screaming within a cage of his own making. Following the king's death, the Wickers retreated back into Wickenden, which was ordered to be subjugated as well. Unfortunately for the legion, the city was never found within the many woods of Gilneas and was ultimately dismissed.

## Aftermath

In the aftermath of the War of Thorns, an animosity grew between the pagan people of Gilneas and the Arathorian settlers. Over time this was healed, though within the Ashen Coast the families of Cobal and Stanton were fond of enslaving the native pagans to fight in their renewed blood feud. Wickenden was never found and the Wickers' movement slowly died back down into a bloody chapter of Gilneas' history.