The Crown Wars began in 394 IE when the Merinallas and Chateiress families declared their secession from the Imperium. They claimed the traditional fiefs of their families and those of the Lairendel and Rofessalin bloodlines. This territory effectively covers the Imperial holdings on the continent of Kaliba. The new coalition of noble sylphs, calling themselves the ‘Anossan Empire,’ stormed the federal buildings and bases in their new kingdom. Their initial coup only failed in the port cities of Voshe Aidren and Torvel, both on the eastern coast. The local federal commander, Derryn Albus, quickly reinforced the surrounding area to establish a beachhead for reinforcements.
The federal military was slow to mobilize, however. Emperor Argus I spent precious months corralling squabbling commanders who had grown accustomed to police actions and peace. By the time the legions had assembled in Voshe Aidren, the Anossans had consolidated their territory and entrenched to a dangerous extent. Marshal Jeorg Mathius took command of the assembled forces in the spring of 395.
Jeorg Mathius employed the standard operating procedure of the time. Legions were deployed with artillery support and supplied by coach trains. SOP had been recently updated with the Derrivus Doctrine, which was largely tested against bandits and minor revolts. Under the Derrivus Doctrine, purpose-built war golems were embedded into traditional legion units and employed as phalanx anchors. In addition, strike airships accompanied larger units and acted as mobile artillery.
Marshal Mathius’s strategy was an abject failure. Imperial forces launched three major campaigns between 395 and 399. Each met with massive losses from interdiction and guerilla skirmish tactics. In response, Anossan forces pressed back and captured several outlying Imperial strongholds. After four years of open war, the combined might of the federal military had done nothing but give ground to the Anossans and lose an estimated 70,000 legionnaires.
The first turning point of the Crown Wars was the introduction of local meisylvan allies. Several meisylvan communities came forward to lend their aid to the Imperial occupation, including insurgents with experience against naisylvan authorities. The newfound wood sylph forces helped to slow attrition from the Anossan military. They also began training field commanders in counterguerilla tactics. This relieved the pressure on Imperial forces and gave them a much-needed opportunity to rearm and regroup.
Meanwhile, the political situation was shifting. Derryn Albus had gained a considerable amount of support in the Imperial senate due to his success repelling the initial Anossan coup. As Marshal Mathius’ campaigns failed, Albus began to leverage popular opinion in his favor. He was partially responsible for the meisylphs’ support and had been studying the ongoing issues with existing doctrine. Derryn Albus won the favor of the senate and ultimately the emperor with a proposal for an entirely new way of prosecuting the war.
The military’s supply of modern materiel, especially war golems and strike aircraft, had been heavily depleted by the ongoing war effort. Such purpose-built devices had been accumulated over thirty years of gradual buildup and could not be rapidly replaced. Instead, at Albus’ prompting, the senate purchased enormous numbers of existing commercial airships and labor golems. They also awarded huge production contracts to Bernet-Lassam Airfields and various golem shops to procure a river of low-cost devices. The renowned Dacker-class Transport owes its existence to these federal contracts, and a large measure of the existing Dacker-class vessels were originally produced for the Crown Wars.
Derryn Albus, now Marshal of the Imperial forces on Kaliba, rebuilt his forces. Instead of a few war golems embedded into existing legions, he built independent units of commercial golems. He set up a new airborne supply chain for these golem units and forward legionnaire units. Marshal Albus turned the meisylves’ attention to capturing Anossan weapons, which they did with particular gusto. By the winter of 400, a radically new sort of Imperial force was prepared to move.
Anossan forces were taken completely by surprise in the opening months of combat. Golem battalions, able to outmarch any traditional unit and supplied by a fleet of cheap transport aircraft, arrived too quickly for enemy forces to come to grips with them. Their rapid advance shattered the layered Anossan defenses. Even when the golem battalions could not be supplied by air, their ‘forage-ready’ equipment captured by meisylvan guerillas could be kept functional with supplies captured from Anossan territory. More traditional legions poured through behind the golems to capture and consolidate, protected from harassment by meisylvan irregulars.
By the spring, the separatists had partially come to grips with their new situation. ‘Fox hunter’ units started actively tracking meisylvan guerillas and cracking down on local wood sylph settlements. The skilled disruption mages, who had been so valuable as a distributed counter to strike aircraft and embedded golems, centralized. Disruption cover moved to focus on a few fortified locations, massing enough strength to counter golem assaults. However, this left many outposts and depots undefended. Marshal Albus’ forces continued to scoop up territory throughout the rest of the year, recapturing most of Aidren Province and pushing the Anossan lines back day by day.
The new campaign slowed during the winter of 401. Imperial forces were stretched thin and, as traditional legions became more significant again, winter warfare became a greater issue. The coalition Anossan government had begun to splinter under the pressure. As the cold set in, interdiction from Imperial action wore down the supplies and morale of the remaining forces even more. The Anossans had drawn back into three major redoubts – Anossus and Voshe Halm, held by Merinallas forces, and the Chateiress stronghold of Shaltae. From these fortresses, family leaders and College masters debated their next move as the days grew darker.
Unbeknownst to them, the Imperial leadership was going through similar debates. Although Marshal Albus had enjoyed success on the battlefield, the staggering cost of his strategy was taking a political toll. Powerful voices in the capital, particularly Senex Brennan Vaurus, were beginning to question whether crushing a few political upstarts was worth driving the Imperium into debt. These voices only grew louder when the war ground to a halt during winter and was slow to pick back up due to more costly reworking based on the results of the novel campaign.
Marshal Albus was undeterred. He redoubled his assault in early summer, raising pressure against the Anossans again. He began to incorporate rapid air strikes into his strategy as Anossan disruption support grew rarer, which initially proved extremely valuable. But Anossan forces were finally learning to match his moves. The fox hunters whittled away his counterinsurgent forces, leaving his overextended forces open to crippling interdiction again. The remaining naisylvan military units were now blooded against golem shock troops and were getting better at defeating them. Imperial progress slowed nearly to a halt, spending more lives in a bloody stalemate for months.
By the time 402 dawned, however, the Anossans were desperate. The Imperial forces were ragged, but the naisylphs had been besieged for too long to calmly face another winter. The Merinallas elders in Anossus and Voshe Halm began to advocate surrender. Chateiress opinion still trended toward prosecuting their revolt, but they were losing the debate. At last, at the threshold of a bitter winter, Anossan envoys traveled to Voshe Aidren under a flag of truce. They were welcomed by the representatives of a senate weary of war and holding ruinous bills of sale for materiel.
However, a shadowy faction within the Anossan government saw a chance to break the Imperials' weary spirit. They smuggled firebombs and toxic area denial weapons into Voshe Aidren with the delegation and detonated them in the docks. This did enormous damage to Imperial shipping, along with killing an enormous number of civilians. Documents recovered from the diplomats' effects indicate that the civilian deaths were an intentional collateral effect, calculated to convince the Imperials that the Anossans were more dedicated to the war. This event became known as the Burning of Voshe Aidren.
The terror attacks had the opposite effect to their intention. Peace talks were over, and the hesitant leadership in the Imperial capital was galvanized as never before. The Anossan government tried to deny responsibility for the attacks when the outcome became clear, but neither major family could present a united enough front to be believed by an emperor and senate with blood in their eyes. To this day, it is unclear exactly who launched the attacks.
Over the course of 402 and the winter of 403, a flood of materiel and troops ground the beleaguered and disunited Anossan forces to powder. Voshe Halm, home to most of the magearm facilities that produced the sorts of weapons used in the attack, was razed. Shaltae was captured after a brutal siege and the Chateiress elders were crucified. Finally, in the summer of 403, Anossus was captured by Imperial forces. The Crown Wars officially ended when the remaining Merinallas leadership surrendered, but pockets of resistance continued to harass Imperial interests for a decade before being ultimately rooted out. By the true end of the fighting, nearly a hundred thousand legionnaires and over a hundred fifty thousand Anossans had lost their lives.
Emperor Argus I installed human governors over the recaptured provinces, an unprecedented action that went largely unchallenged in the wake of the Burning of Voshe Aidren. Many meisylvan heroes were decorated and their peoples' situation improved dramatically. Even now, Anossus is a symbol of hope for the meisylvan communities elsewhere in the Imperium who still suffer under naisylvan dominance.
The federal military was slow to mobilize, however. Emperor Argus I spent precious months corralling squabbling commanders who had grown accustomed to police actions and peace. By the time the legions had assembled in Voshe Aidren, the Anossans had consolidated their territory and entrenched to a dangerous extent. Marshal Jeorg Mathius took command of the assembled forces in the spring of 395.
Jeorg Mathius employed the standard operating procedure of the time. Legions were deployed with artillery support and supplied by coach trains. SOP had been recently updated with the Derrivus Doctrine, which was largely tested against bandits and minor revolts. Under the Derrivus Doctrine, purpose-built war golems were embedded into traditional legion units and employed as phalanx anchors. In addition, strike airships accompanied larger units and acted as mobile artillery.
Marshal Mathius’s strategy was an abject failure. Imperial forces launched three major campaigns between 395 and 399. Each met with massive losses from interdiction and guerilla skirmish tactics. In response, Anossan forces pressed back and captured several outlying Imperial strongholds. After four years of open war, the combined might of the federal military had done nothing but give ground to the Anossans and lose an estimated 70,000 legionnaires.
The first turning point of the Crown Wars was the introduction of local meisylvan allies. Several meisylvan communities came forward to lend their aid to the Imperial occupation, including insurgents with experience against naisylvan authorities. The newfound wood sylph forces helped to slow attrition from the Anossan military. They also began training field commanders in counterguerilla tactics. This relieved the pressure on Imperial forces and gave them a much-needed opportunity to rearm and regroup.
Meanwhile, the political situation was shifting. Derryn Albus had gained a considerable amount of support in the Imperial senate due to his success repelling the initial Anossan coup. As Marshal Mathius’ campaigns failed, Albus began to leverage popular opinion in his favor. He was partially responsible for the meisylphs’ support and had been studying the ongoing issues with existing doctrine. Derryn Albus won the favor of the senate and ultimately the emperor with a proposal for an entirely new way of prosecuting the war.
The military’s supply of modern materiel, especially war golems and strike aircraft, had been heavily depleted by the ongoing war effort. Such purpose-built devices had been accumulated over thirty years of gradual buildup and could not be rapidly replaced. Instead, at Albus’ prompting, the senate purchased enormous numbers of existing commercial airships and labor golems. They also awarded huge production contracts to Bernet-Lassam Airfields and various golem shops to procure a river of low-cost devices. The renowned Dacker-class Transport owes its existence to these federal contracts, and a large measure of the existing Dacker-class vessels were originally produced for the Crown Wars.
Derryn Albus, now Marshal of the Imperial forces on Kaliba, rebuilt his forces. Instead of a few war golems embedded into existing legions, he built independent units of commercial golems. He set up a new airborne supply chain for these golem units and forward legionnaire units. Marshal Albus turned the meisylves’ attention to capturing Anossan weapons, which they did with particular gusto. By the winter of 400, a radically new sort of Imperial force was prepared to move.
Anossan forces were taken completely by surprise in the opening months of combat. Golem battalions, able to outmarch any traditional unit and supplied by a fleet of cheap transport aircraft, arrived too quickly for enemy forces to come to grips with them. Their rapid advance shattered the layered Anossan defenses. Even when the golem battalions could not be supplied by air, their ‘forage-ready’ equipment captured by meisylvan guerillas could be kept functional with supplies captured from Anossan territory. More traditional legions poured through behind the golems to capture and consolidate, protected from harassment by meisylvan irregulars.
By the spring, the separatists had partially come to grips with their new situation. ‘Fox hunter’ units started actively tracking meisylvan guerillas and cracking down on local wood sylph settlements. The skilled disruption mages, who had been so valuable as a distributed counter to strike aircraft and embedded golems, centralized. Disruption cover moved to focus on a few fortified locations, massing enough strength to counter golem assaults. However, this left many outposts and depots undefended. Marshal Albus’ forces continued to scoop up territory throughout the rest of the year, recapturing most of Aidren Province and pushing the Anossan lines back day by day.
The new campaign slowed during the winter of 401. Imperial forces were stretched thin and, as traditional legions became more significant again, winter warfare became a greater issue. The coalition Anossan government had begun to splinter under the pressure. As the cold set in, interdiction from Imperial action wore down the supplies and morale of the remaining forces even more. The Anossans had drawn back into three major redoubts – Anossus and Voshe Halm, held by Merinallas forces, and the Chateiress stronghold of Shaltae. From these fortresses, family leaders and College masters debated their next move as the days grew darker.
Unbeknownst to them, the Imperial leadership was going through similar debates. Although Marshal Albus had enjoyed success on the battlefield, the staggering cost of his strategy was taking a political toll. Powerful voices in the capital, particularly Senex Brennan Vaurus, were beginning to question whether crushing a few political upstarts was worth driving the Imperium into debt. These voices only grew louder when the war ground to a halt during winter and was slow to pick back up due to more costly reworking based on the results of the novel campaign.
Marshal Albus was undeterred. He redoubled his assault in early summer, raising pressure against the Anossans again. He began to incorporate rapid air strikes into his strategy as Anossan disruption support grew rarer, which initially proved extremely valuable. But Anossan forces were finally learning to match his moves. The fox hunters whittled away his counterinsurgent forces, leaving his overextended forces open to crippling interdiction again. The remaining naisylvan military units were now blooded against golem shock troops and were getting better at defeating them. Imperial progress slowed nearly to a halt, spending more lives in a bloody stalemate for months.
By the time 402 dawned, however, the Anossans were desperate. The Imperial forces were ragged, but the naisylphs had been besieged for too long to calmly face another winter. The Merinallas elders in Anossus and Voshe Halm began to advocate surrender. Chateiress opinion still trended toward prosecuting their revolt, but they were losing the debate. At last, at the threshold of a bitter winter, Anossan envoys traveled to Voshe Aidren under a flag of truce. They were welcomed by the representatives of a senate weary of war and holding ruinous bills of sale for materiel.
However, a shadowy faction within the Anossan government saw a chance to break the Imperials' weary spirit. They smuggled firebombs and toxic area denial weapons into Voshe Aidren with the delegation and detonated them in the docks. This did enormous damage to Imperial shipping, along with killing an enormous number of civilians. Documents recovered from the diplomats' effects indicate that the civilian deaths were an intentional collateral effect, calculated to convince the Imperials that the Anossans were more dedicated to the war. This event became known as the Burning of Voshe Aidren.
The terror attacks had the opposite effect to their intention. Peace talks were over, and the hesitant leadership in the Imperial capital was galvanized as never before. The Anossan government tried to deny responsibility for the attacks when the outcome became clear, but neither major family could present a united enough front to be believed by an emperor and senate with blood in their eyes. To this day, it is unclear exactly who launched the attacks.
Over the course of 402 and the winter of 403, a flood of materiel and troops ground the beleaguered and disunited Anossan forces to powder. Voshe Halm, home to most of the magearm facilities that produced the sorts of weapons used in the attack, was razed. Shaltae was captured after a brutal siege and the Chateiress elders were crucified. Finally, in the summer of 403, Anossus was captured by Imperial forces. The Crown Wars officially ended when the remaining Merinallas leadership surrendered, but pockets of resistance continued to harass Imperial interests for a decade before being ultimately rooted out. By the true end of the fighting, nearly a hundred thousand legionnaires and over a hundred fifty thousand Anossans had lost their lives.
Emperor Argus I installed human governors over the recaptured provinces, an unprecedented action that went largely unchallenged in the wake of the Burning of Voshe Aidren. Many meisylvan heroes were decorated and their peoples' situation improved dramatically. Even now, Anossus is a symbol of hope for the meisylvan communities elsewhere in the Imperium who still suffer under naisylvan dominance.