The Great Atamaran War

The Great Atamaran War
Small map of Atamara.
Date December 2010 - present Result Ongoing Territorial changes Substantial territorial changes; creation of Strombran, Minas Leon and Rieleston; destruction of Hammarsett, Carelia reduced to a city-state.
Combatants
Carelia Darka Caergoth Suville Eston Barony of Makar Hammarsett	Cagilan Empire Tara Talerium Coria Strombran
Commanders
Leta Kindon Nathan Simmons Kostaja Kosunen Cosula Kende Indirik Brakus Stien Stewart Beauchamp Caibre Eldrake Throin Stormbringer Kerwin Perth Luka Emarama Sordnaz Dagger Dane Crownguard Laszlo Geronus Eklavdra Harkonnen	Milan Prestongreen Enri Kinsey Ottar Perkeleet Pratt Kingstone Aldarion Tezokian Aragorn Kahn Saeculo Munro Ravendon Eirikr Merlin Silverfire
Armed Forces
ca. 50,000 total	ca. 50,000 total
Major Battles
Casualties
ca. 25,000 total	ca. 25,000 total

Background

After a long period of relative peace and stability on Atamara, several rulers began secret discussions upon changing the state of the continent irrevocably and forever. With the lofty ambition of loosening the hegemony of the Cagilan Empire and her satellites upon Atamara forever, a vast coalition of northern and southern Atamaran realms agreed to conduct war on the Cagilan Alliance. The northern realms would concentrate on occupying Coria, Tara and a portion of the Cagilan Empire's forces in the north. Meanwhile, the southern realms would concentrate exclusively on eroding the Cagilan Empire's position in the south.

Background (A Northern Perspective)

Coria started this war because they were bored. Eston was the only target they could convince their allies to attack. When the declaration of war came, Eston found itself alone. At the time, the General for the Barony of Makar (General Dane) tried very hard to convince Sordnaz to also attack Eston. In an effort to prevent the war, King Jean De Bardt and General Roland resigned their posts.

Balance of power in the South

Immediately prior to the foundation of the coalition, the southern realms were at war with one another, with Carelia defending herself against Caerogth and Suville. On the grounds of fighting against Carelia's welcoming in the Serpæntist diaspora, Caergoth had laid claim to the Carelian city of Ser'quea. After the abdication of King Bartho Baraedor and the succession of Queen Leta Kindon to the throne of Carelia, a method was sought to bring the conflict to a swift end, with Queen Leta believing Carelia's true enemies were in Cagil. A view shaped by Cagilan demands over Serpæntist worship in Carelia at a delicate point in the conflict with Caergoth.

Although strongly opposed by certain sections of the Carelian nobility, a secret agreement was forged between Carelia and her aggressors whereby war would be made against the Cagilan Empire. In return for helping Carelia to reclaim the historically important cities of Skalk and Nida, Queen Leta agreed a timetable to peacefully-cede the Carelian duchies of Ser'quea and Wayburg to Caergoth and Suville respectively. Whilst there was a great deal of disquiet about this in Carelia, this agreement successfully and ominously united the southern realms in one cause for the first time in a generation.

The southern realms would focus exclusively on depriving the Cagilan Empire of two of her major cities. If they were successful, the harrowing of the entirety of the Cagilan alliance was all but assured.

The War

The War in the North

The Northern realms, styling themselves the Northern Alliance, joined the war on Eston's side against Coria and the Cagilan Empire. Hammarsett and the Barony of Makar attacked Coria from the east while Eston focused on the territories around Barad Falas with Darka sending forces to both fronts. With Empire forces diverted to the southern front to respond to the unexpected attack from Carelia, Coria quickly began to lose ground despite the intervention of the Taran army. Their setbacks culminated in a successful assault by Darkan forces on Barad Falas itself. The city was pillaged. Even as Barad Falas burned however, Corian diplomats were working to make a separate peace with Eston. Finding itself in a war it did not want, Coria was able to obtain a treaty from Eston securing peace between their realms. The other Northern Alliance realms objected when they were informed, but Eston held to its intentions. The remaining Northern Alliance realms grudgingly agreed to honor the treaty.

With part of its southern border secure, Eston turned its focus to Talerium, which had been supporting Corian and Empire armies. This created a strategic dilemma for Darka, as their longstanding treaties with Talerium forbade them from invading Talerium's territory, leaving them with few points of access into Empire territory and preventing them from directly supporting Eston's efforts. Eston invaded Cantril, which set in motion a prolonged stalemate over the territories of Cantril and Nazamroth. The other Northern Alliance realms sent armies to the same narrow front and attempted raids into Cagilan territory while control of Cantril seesawed back and forth. With the Carelian front stabilized to a degree, a portion of the Empire's forces returned to the fray alongside the mighty Taran army. Between them and Talerium's army, they were able to keep Cantril in the balance and repulse Northern Alliance raiders with minimal damage to the Imperial economy.

With the situation on the southern front deteriorating, Northern Alliance leaders searched for a means to break the stalemate that was developing and exert more pressure on the Empire in order to shore up Carelia. Hammarsett, with the backing of Darka and the Barony of Makar, secured an alliance with Minas Ithil and reopened hostilities with Coria in order to divert the Taran army from protecting Empire territory. Hammarsett soon declared war on the entire Cagilan alliance. This opened a second front that saw repeated swings of momentum over a period of months while the situation in Cantril and Nazamroth degenerated into a true stalemate. Several large battles were fought over these territories, but neither side made meaningful gains. In the west, after a promising start for the Northern Alliance, the Taran army slowly exerted its superiority and was eventually able to help the Corians overrun Hammarsett and takeover or drive into anarchy most of Hammarsett's regions. They then began an invasion of Minas Ithil. By this time, Darka had been forced to turn its attention back to the western front by the arrival of the Empire's entire army in Cantril, the southern war being over at this point. Their withdrawal from the east accelerated the losses on that front.

It wasn't long before the eastern front of the war collapsed completely with the secession of Leohampton from Minas Ithil to form Minas Leon and Hammarsett's unconditional surrender to Coria. In the west, Eston also experienced rebellion in the form of the Duchy of Barad Riel seceding to form Rieleston. After some desperate but ultimately doomed efforts to fend off the Empire's armies, what was left of Eston proffered its unconditional surrender to the resurgent Cagilan Empire. Darka and the Barony are now alone in the war against a vengeful Empire and its allies.

The War in the South

At the start of the war, the southern realms seemed very much to catch the Cagilan Empire by surprise. Amidst the chaos of those early engagements, the city leaders of Skalk renounced the Cagilan Empire and elevated Dielo Filador, a minor noble of Carelia to the position of Duke of Skalk. This helped to drastically shift the balance in Carelia's favour as her entire strategy depended on gaining one or both of those cities quickly, so that when her allies went to refit, she could withstand Cagilan counter-attacks.

Paradoxically, Carelia's early successes are what helped to start driving apart the southern coalition. The acquisition of Skalk came earlier than expected and saw Caergoth pushing to be granted Ser'quea ahead of the mutually agreed timetable for region handoevers, based on Carelia's acquisition of comparable Cagilan territories. Carelia quickly acquiesced, but the seeds had been sown for a fatal sundering of the alliance. Suville grew jealous that Caergoth had received her just bounty for assistance against Cagil and demanded that Carelia handover the duchy of Wayburg despite Nida remaining in Cagilan hands. When Carelia refused, Suville renounced the conflict against the Cagilan Empire and declared war on Carelia instead.

The fracturing of the southern alliance against the Cagilan Empire was the catalyst that turned the southern conflict decisively in the Cagilan Empire's favour after several months of uneven stalemate.

Carelia

After Suville had turned against her, Carelia's war took an irretrievable turn for the worse. Although she retained Caergothian support, Carelia proved unable to stand firm against the assaults of two realms at polar extremes of her territory. Carelian farmland between Strombran and the cities of Skalk and Nida were routinely burnt to cinders. More and more often, Carelian regions fell into anarchy and Carelia began to retrieve less and less of that lost territory in the lulls when Cagilan troops went to refit.

To some extent, Carelia began to suffer through poor leadership. Queen Leta abdicated with exhaustion early in the conflict as Carelia first started to be driven back. Carelia's judge Malcolm Bedwyr, a strong supporter of Queen Leta's vision who had done everything to help put the southern coalition together gradually and unapologetically drifted into the background. Queen Leta's successor, King Nathan Simmons had a martial background, reigning as King and General of the realm. Early into his reign a substantial and influential collection of Carelian nobles did their best to encourage King Nathan to sue for peace before Carelia's position was completely eroded. They claimed that the Cagilan alliance had been truer to Carelia than than any of the southern realms had been and that Suville was a greater threat. To those calls King Nathan alleged that Prime Minister Milan Prestongreen, ruler of the Cagilan Empire, would not hear him, though direct contact with Cagilan sources claimed the reverse was true.

Efforts to reposition Carelia or to renounce the course she had taken all ended in failure. Instead, Carelia marched lock-step towards defeat and ruin, with the war against the Cagilan Empire eventually being concluded with the Treaty of Strombran. Most observers assumed the collapse of Carelia and the loss of the southern front would lead almost immediately to a similar collapse in the north and the Great Atamaran War would come to a premature end. Contrary to expectations however, the northern realms would continue the war long after attentions had turned away from the south.

Legacy

The Great Atamaran War helped to change the face of the continent irrevocably. In a great irony of history, the new realm of Strombran has almost completely supplanted the historic lands of Carelia, just as Carelia once supplanted the historic lands of Lamar. Magna Serpænsism, once one of the largest and most dominant faiths on Atamara finally limped towards dissolution as her last bastions in Carelia were lost. Suville, perhaps the closest spiritual successor to Abington in existence, was able to reunite the historic core of ancient Abington in a restoration of one of the most potent forces to have ever existed in Atamara.

External Links

• The Current War - A forum thread in excess of 100 pages discussing the Great Atamaran War across a period of two years!