Thysian Conflict

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Complete massacre of large Thysian fleet

House Dragomyr
Aegor IV Dragomyr

Massacre of the Thysian Fleet

**The Thysian Conflict** was a two-battle war between the city-state of Thysia and the Kingdom of Andoras. The war resulted in the death of Aeramor I Dragomárus, and the destruction of a small Andorasi fleet, on July 23rd, 320 AC. Aeramor's son Aeganar retaliated by using his dragon, Vhalax, and torching the entire fleet to a crisp with all men left to die nearly three weeks later on August 9th of the same year. It is often cited as the first of many reasons Aeganar IV went mad, despite that after inheriting the crown the day after he returned from the massacre, his first five years were called the greatest of his reign.

## Background

Prior to this encounter, Andoras had few problems with any of the city-states save for Thysia itself due to its stance on slavery and the demand of euralaya, but diplomatic relations with Thysia had been kindled during the reign of Aeramor Dragomárus. In 318 AC, he had managed to secure a lofty trade route between the White Sea that was rather devoid of piracy due to the extensive patrolling of the waters, and upon hearing that the sanctity of the route was breached once, Aeramor demanded to see for himself, and soon began to find pride in his work of sailing himself to do the work, something that would leave a lasting impression on the young Helman Stone II, who had just graduated naval academy at the time. This would ultimately be his demise. The key reason for securing the trade route was to transport the euralaya spice, something that was in high demand for its exotic effects on food and the fact that it could only grow in a few places in the world -- Thysia being one of them. Using the threat of superior military power, magistrates and market officials on the Andorasi side began to extort more spice than what it was supposed to be paid for, and the Thysian market began to be exploited.

Thysia soon became annoyed and even violent in reaction to Andorasi ships arriving at their ports. The general consensus of the Thysian government was that Andoras was demanding far too much of the spice, even for their standards, and threatened to open fire on the next Andorasi ship that came through. Because of the deep internal corruption within the commercial side of government in Andoras, word of this never reached Aeramor. Once the Thysians stayed true to their word and sank a transport ship entering Thysia's port, Aeramor was simply informed that the Thysians had openly declared war because of a lack of money being paid to them for their spice. Their plans were to raid them for all the money they could plunder, and leave Andoras "A burning heap visible from the other side of the pond", as one unnamed courtier put it.

None of this was true, and slander had played a big part in the conflict's beginning. Aeramor, shocked at Thysia's decision, was forced to sail to the White Sea and engage the Thysians head-on to defend his nation. It was not meant to be a military encounter, but rather a period of negotiation, which is why he brought a small fleet, that was armed if necessary. Most saw it daft for a city-state to declare war on the entire Kingdom alone, and urged Aeramor not to take their declaration of war too seriously.

Thysia, however, held no mercy and began to attack relentlessly once the Andorasi came into view, with the small fleet being torn to pieces by cannonfire and from batteries on the shore. The Andorasi had no time to even retaliate, and were literally massacred as one ship went down after another. The Thysians, it should be noted, are pioneers in cannonfire; ironically, their primitive form of artillery was powered by a condensed form of the euralaya that they were so tenaciously after.

One particular ship, the Drowned Duchess of House Dayton fame, was present, and began to retreat as soon as the artillery began firing. They were able to witness the whole ordeal from a few miles away, and the blaze from the burning fleet lit up the entire shorefront of Thysia, which was visible from quite a distance due to this. Aeramor definitely died in the massacre, although no one can confidently say how. Sailors on the Drowned Duchess give several different stories, though one in particular is generally agreed with; while ascending the stairs of his personal ship's deck to get to the main deck and view the Thysian fleet, the mast of his ship was struck, and fell. It crushed him and several behind him, leaving the rest of the men on the ship demoralized and vulnerable. The once-unmarred reign of Aeramor was now brought to an abrupt, bloody end.

The 'war' began, even though no further conflict between the two nations were held until just seventeen days later, when Aeramor's son and now the new king of Andoras, Aeganar IV Dragomárus, flew his father's dragon Vhalax to burn the entire Thysian fleet. An unanimous surrender was declared on Thysia's side, but Thysia and the Kingdom of Andoras never traded with one another again, except during the latter end of the Tentative Years, when the Lavosi Mandate was abolished and Aeganar went to seek out mercenaries to fight in the imminent Civil War. Relations are still tense to this day between Thysia and the independent Lord Paramounts.