Chronological History Part 4, End of the Antaurus Empire to the Fall of Caldonacia

1152 Corruption at the highest levels in Caldonacia brought down this young nation. The popularity of the council had been tested two years previously when the popular hero Grenville D’Achier was jailed. Grenville gained fame and fortune, it was claimed, by defeating a whole mountainside of giants, and prevented a giant-kind invasion of the outlying areas of Caldonacia. He was accused of starting a bar-room brawl where four people had died, the chief prosecution evidence being the account of the bar owner. The council wanted to hang him at first, but they feared a backlash and rioting from the peasants, and so imprisoned him, they seemed unwilling to take difficult decisions.

One of Caldonacias less scrupulous merchants, Bruan Havers, saw an opportunity and rallied support for Grenville; he quickly became an outspoken critic of the council. He rode from town to town and city to city drumming up support from the peasants; he even hired a small team of Bards to help him pass on his message. He managed to falsify enough stories of the council’s activities that the peasants soon fell into line behind him. He was well supported politically when in Siphus (the fourth month) of this year; he took fifty armed men and burst into the council chambers. He killed all the councillors in cold blood, and spread more stories of council corruption and of a just end to their regime. There was no political opposition when Havers declared himself King Bruan of Caldonacia that same afternoon. The change in Caldonacia was immediate; the first step was the use of the military to quell any uprisings and opposition before it got out of hand, this Bruan did well. From there his ability as a leader meant he soon became a powerful dictator. Over the next thirty years, he proved himself to be a very capable and competent ruler. He used his ruthless soldiers to enforce order, and turned his lands into smallholdings and forced farmers and peasants to work the land. The lingering agricultural effects of the Great Disaster seemed to have been finally falling away, and a fresh approach to farming had meant that food production was now more than adequate for the population of the new country. Bruan's Caldonacia could now rival the south with in exports of cheap food to Ticetia.

1159 The price of grain had plummeted in Ticetia, following Caldonacias export policy. The Southern Kingdoms called for a meeting with the King of Caldonacia, but Bruan refused. In response, he demanded that the south get their exports out of his market. His hand had been played; he clearly wanted the trade with Ticetia for himself, and the way his farming policy was handled meant he could keep up supplies of very cheap grain for a long, long time. The military dictatorship in the Empire struggled to cope with this - they were not politicians, and were inflexible in their response. The governors in the south all wanted to resolve the issue but their ruling military council could not find a way, in the end farming in the Empire declined. The wasted food they were producing began to cause real hardship for many farmer.

1161 Within two years of the demands made by Bruan, the south had lost all ability to compete with him for Ticetias food market. In fact, the change was so whole that the south had just stopped producing huge quantities of food, the people had moved out of food and into new markets. Wizardry became popular in the south once again, all out of sight of the peasantry, of course, and the kingdoms explored new ways of generating revenue. Because of this fundamental change in the south, the price of grain in Ticetias markets rocketed. Only Caldonacia was now capable of supplying the food that the Ticetians had become used to enjoying, and they manipulated the price. Even Ticetia’s home-produced grain became very expensive. They had still not managed to produce enough food for their own people, and the situation was about to become critical.

1163 Famine started to take its toll in Ticetia, there was not enough money to buy Caldonacias food at the prices they were demanding, and Ticetians were beginning to starve. King Bruans response to Ticetia was to lay the "blame" upon his own traders, who he would then defend by saying they were only trying to make an honest living. At the same time he stepped in with gifts of food directly to the Ticetian ruling council to distribute as they wished. He now had what he was after all along| control of both Caldonacia and Ticetia.

1172 With the decline in farming in the Empire, the military rulers attempted to boost their combined farming output. This was no quick solution to this, there were many farms that had been stood dormant for ten years, and enticing people back into them was difficult. At the same time, they resumed a search for a more political leader. The generals had grown old and their replacements already looked more like politicians than military people. There was a genuine fear for the quality of the Imperial forces in the military Senate.

1173 This year saw a serious attempt on King Bruans life. His ruthless style of leadership, whilst proving difficult but popular with the peasants in his own country, did not keep his neighbours happy. He had a stranglehold over Ticetia; his military might was far greater, and he held control of their food supply. The Southern Kingdoms were too disunited to form any effective opponent, either in commerce or open war, and so they took the only other remaining course of action that they could see. They hired the services of Ticetias assassins, who had picked up a reputation in the underworld for being efficient and successful. The attempt on Bruans life was well planned and well executed, but it failed at the last hurdle. The King was to be murdered in his bed while asleep, but on the night in question, there was a fire at the palace in a completely unconnected incident, and the murderer was interrupted as he moved across Bruans bedchamber. He was involved in a fight with Bruans personal bodyguard, who had come to rouse the King and move him to safety. There was a short fight, and the assassin was killed without completing his task.

1174 In his wrath, King Bruan began an offensive against Ticetia. He had traced his assassin, and following a short series of diplomatic messages, which eventually ended with Ticetia being forced to accept responsibility for the assassination attempt. Caldonacia halved their free grain support to Ticetia to try and squeeze the nation and keep them weak. The Southern Kingdoms tried to intervene with grain from their own fields, but they were still struggling to increase their production, and Caldonacia successfully used its military might to close down trade routes between the south and the north, a feat made much easier by the declining quality of the Imperial army. The next twenty years saw the worst of conditions in Ticetia for 150 years as the population slowly starved.

1191 King Bruan died, and his throne was assumed by his son Bruan II. Bruan II had a slightly different outlook to his father; he was not an accomplished economist or a merchant, but he was an expert tactician, and delighted in military accomplishment. He overhauled the countries military structures, and left the economies of his country in the hands of the men his father had trained.

1193 The mining operations in Ticetia uncovered a buried castle and part of an old settlement. The ruins were pre-Disaster, and were unusual because of the size of the surviving structures. Many similar finds had been made, but this was larger than any to date. When the miners investigated the site, it became clear that the spirits of the former occupants were still hanging around, and several miners were killed. As the Ticetians were in the grip of famine, they were unable to investigate it at the time. The place was sealed up, and the dead left alone.

1200 Caldonacia tested their advancing military might by invading The Northern Isle. This outpost of the north had been first colonised at the same time as Caldonacia, but poor farming conditions had kept the population there small. It was not until the effects of The Great Disaster had receded enough for the farms to produce enough food that their population had begun to grow. Between the years 1130 and 1200, the number of people living on the isle had risen dramatically.

1206 The first prominent contact between the elves of the western forest and the Ticetians is recorded in this year. The elves began helping the human population overcome their farming difficulties by improving farming methods and tools. The elves also provided a safe trade route between Ticetia and the Southern Kingdoms through this difficult time. The Southern governors did not trust the elves, however, and relations were never good between them. It was at this time that Empire began to scour its own feudal ranks to find a suitable Imperial ruler. The governors knew that a war with the north was looming, and there was a need to return imperial forces to their previously high quality.

Caldonacia focussed more of its attention on the south now, thinking that they held power over Ticetia by controlling their food supply and kept in a continual state of weakness. They were also preoccupied by talks between the southern Kings, who were already preparing for a war from the north.

1207 A squad of Imperial troops were training in the mountains of the northern stretches of the former Empire, when they stumbled over part of an ancient realm now buried by the mountains. The remains included a small part of a town or city and the frontage to an ancient castle, the whole thing looked like it had recently been uncovered by an earthquake. The castle front was sealed with stonework and with warding magic, so the troops thought it best to investigate. The soldiers soon discovered who the owner was from the artefacts they found inside; it was the legendary Lich-King Petorus. His legend dates to long before The Great Disaster, and numerous versions of his chilling story exist. He was known to have enslaved his people with magic, and did deals with mighty dragons to satisfy his craving for more power, before he was finally confronted and dealt with by a brave group of Knights. No one knew the final end of the story, until now, when his castle was found, still sealed off. Having broken the seal on the castle and dug their way inside, the troops struggled to get out alive. It seems a presence still lurked in the (now) underground castle, and it had made short work of highly trained Imperial troops. The few survivors returned and warned the authorities of the problem, and dwarves were hired to seal off the underground area once more.

1211 Ten years of arguing, posturing and negotiation ended this year with a preparation for war from the southern Kingdoms. Caldonacia were clearly happy to continue intimidating the south by amassing forces in the wilderness between the two nations, and along their borders. The threat of invasion was much greater this year, as Caldonacia slowly advanced its front line southwards. The southern rulers were in a real fix. They had no choice; without properly organising their mutual defence they were doomed, so they took a huge step, abolishing their own military rule and handing power back to the politicians and feudal rulers. This restored the Empire that had been broken up some seventy years earlier, but this was the end of a process that had taken five years to set up. They appointed an Emperor who was initally little more than a puppet of the national governors who retained the real power, but at least now they were working towards a single goal. The Emperor closed the military senate, and re-opened the political chamber, once again asking the senior lords of each nation to submit their representatives; the newly formed chamber acted as an arbiter in their (many) disputes. They named this new Empire The Carrodian Empire, after this first Emperor, Lucian Carrod.

1213 The Empire had spent two years mustering and training its forces, and started using them in fast raids against Caldonacias front line positions. Caldonacia were reluctant to respond immediately; King Bruan II had spent a long time bringing his army together, and was determined to wait until Ticetia was at its weakest before making his strike against the south. Unfortunately the conditions for his attack never arose; Ticetia, with the help of the elves, was beginning to recover from the stranglehold which Caldonacia held over them. Bruan had begun to fret, war was looking inevitable, that he could not immobilise his troops as the south would invade, and he realised that he had delayed too long to keep the war short. He still had military superiority over the south, however, and finally decided the attack should begin while he still had the capacity to win. The war began in midsummer.

1214 and the war Mustering his army in eastern Caldonacia, Bruan intended to move southwards down the coast and into the territory controlled by the Empire. The Imperial troops, however, always knew they were going to be outnumbered, and tried to avoid big pitched battles with the advancing troops. Their tactic was to use small light units to attack the supply convoys of the invader, and this policy proved successful. The majority of the Imperial army was camped around Arbenfort, and patrolled a wide expanse of countryside north of the Arben Mountains. Unlike the Caldonacians, the Empire supplied its troops partly by sea; there was no Caldonacian navy to speak of, and the Empire used small sea trading vessels to run food supplies and reinforcements along the coast. There was no way the northern army could compete with this.

After the first year of the war, the Empire had started to produce some larger ships, and began using them to transport mounted troop units north of the main Caldonacian army, up the coastline to harass the supplies lines. This really hampered the progress of the invasion. The southern marches of Caldonacia were one hundred and thirty miles north of Arbenfort at this time. The Empire had once stretched north over much of this distance, but the troubles it had experienced over the previous two hundred years had left part of these lands abandoned and falling into to ruin.

1217 The war had dragged on and on, Caldonacias mighty army had pushed a long way into the Empires territory, but had slowed to a crawl in the last couple of years. It still suffered supply problems and was still suffering from the Empire using ships to move around. Caldonacia had started building ships of her own in an attempt to challenge this might, but had no experienced boat builders or sailors, and progress was slow. For the first time in over 1200 years magic was used on the battlefield, as Lucian Carrod fought to defend his homelands. This magic used by his army was mostly defensive, and little of it was used in a blatant or visible manner.

It had taken five years for Ticetia, working with the elves, to muster support for the Empire, but they marched troops to the conflict in the south late on in this year. Caldonacia had paid very little attention to events in Ticetia during this war, and the reinforcements took them by surprise. Half of Ticetias force was made up of elf warriors, most of whom wielded at least a little magic, and it was this power which tore through Caldonacias forces. On Escuada 19th 1217 the Ticetian force entered the war at The Battle of Shamrock Hill. The fight raged on for three days, the elf magic cutting off Caldonacias support for its front line. The conflict ended on 22nd Escuada with Caldonacia suing for peace. The elf magic had turned the war, and the front lines of both sides had surrendered to their power. It was only when the elves turned and threatened to take the whole of Caldonacia that the surrender was made.

The elves, who were now feared by all sides in the war, laid down guidelines for the takeover of Caldonacia by its enemies. They allowed Ticetia and the Empire to come to some arrangement over rule of the country, but they insisted that it remain an independent nation; they did not want Ticetia and the Empire starting a new war over who was to rule which part of this land. A new King was selected for Caldonacia, someone who was acceptable to both parties, and who was loyal to both; they chose Habrig Venet, who had been leading a successful resistance movement in Caldonacia for several years. From this point the elves had gained a reputation in the south of being warlike and dangerous, while in the north they were feared for the power they wielded, but were seen as just and fair. Contact between Ticetia and the elves fell off again after this small event, the elves quickly became bored of humans and their grim lifestyles.

Prev: Part 3: 1000 until the end of the Antaurus Empire
Next: Part 5: The Fall of Caldonacia to Unification

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