Gestrin War

The Gestrin War, also called the Twenty Years' War, the Tethar War, or the Southern War was an armed conflict that lasted from 907 to 927, which was fought over control of southern Ovaicaea by the Empire of Gestrin against a coalition composed of Tethar, Mocryae, and the Empire of Ovaicaea. The war was the first major international conflict since the end of the Second Orc War in 842, and saw an enormous degree of destruction and death in southern Ovaicaea. It is estimated that as much as 60% of Tethar's population, and as much as 30% of Mocryae's population, died as a result of the war. Though many died in combat, the vast majority of deaths were through famine, disease, pillaging, and slavery.

The war ended with the partition of Tethar, most of which was annexed by Gestrin, as well as the cession of Crab Bay, the southwestern Mocryae peninsula, as well as most of Mocryae's territories in the Southern Isles. The rump states of Tethar and Mocryae joined the Empire as member estates.

Origins
The war has its origins in the complex geopolitics of Southern Ovaicaea, and the disruption to the political status quo driven by the emergence of the New Empire to the north in the aftermath of the Second Orc War. The preceding five centuries were characterized by intermittent warfare between a shifting series of alliances involving, at various points, the Gastrinian Empire, the Kingdom of Tethar, the Kingdom of Aendrilad, the Republic of Kaiser, the Republic of Mocryae, and the Crab Bay League. In the 8th century, these alliances shifted as the Kaiser region was conquered by Gestrin, and as Crab Bay voted to unify with Mocryae. In the late 9th century, Aendrilad was effectively knocked out of the war and isolated, leaving a shaky alliance between Tethar and Mocryae to oppose Gastrinian hegemony over the Southern Sea basin. By this time, the northern riverland states of Dunera and Serrino had been annexed to Mocryae, enriching the growing republic and expanding its mercantile interests.

By the early 10th century, Mocryae had become an integral trade partner of the New Empire, mainly via the imperial states of Eldunari and Visclovia, contributing to both overland and sea trade in grain, wine, gold, copper, silver, tin, coal, pottery, and timber. However, the economic balance of power within the republic had shifted sharply to the northern plantations and market cities, leaving the southern ports in a depressed state. This inflamed ethnic tensions between humans and desert elves and sea elves, and between the Salati and Mocrish human tribes. The Republic of Mocryae was on the edge of civil war, with the Crab Bay cities demanding greater representation and hiring privateers to disrupt rival trade fleets, and the Mocrish Senate attempting to enforce the northern trade rights and maintain peace through a highly-trained group of arcanist monks.

At the same time, a state of cold war had defined relations between Gestrin and Tethar after a truce in 889. Their soldiers were stationed at many forts and towns along the frontier, constantly watching each other and readying for any sign of attack. Both nations had come to propagandize widely on the odiousness of the other, despite a subtle reliance on each other for the slave trade. Nevertheless, tensions between the two nations were at the boiling point for some time. Gestrin had warred with Tethar in the past, and numerous incidents in the past twenty-five years between naval vessels over territorial waters had pushed them to the brink of war many times. Gestrin's expansionist ways favored gaining territory from Tethar, and they required only some small event as a pretext for a full-scale invasion. Tethar, likewise, saw Gestrin's presence on the mainland as an existential threat and desired to push them back to their island heartland once and for all.

On 11th Raintide 907, a diplomatic incident arose at the border of Tethar and Gestrin, where a band of Tethari scouts became lost, found themselves in Gastrinian territory, and plundered a village for food and water. When a Gastrinian patrol found the scene, they pursued and captured the Tethari soldiers. The Tethari commander, Mala Arhusya, demanded their release, and claimed that Gastrinian mages had deliberately created the situation through enchantment magic. Gestrin's military representative in the region, General Vitus Teos, claimed that the Tethari soldiers had, without provocation, marched into sovereign territory, raided a town, and killed its innocent inhabitants, and that it was Gestrin's duty to punish them as common criminals. Tethar issued an ultimatum, demanding the soldiers be remanded to them for punishment by their own commanders as soldier subject to a military court. When Gestrin responded by publicly executing the captives, the Queen of Tethar declared war.

First phase
Tethar launched an invasion of the Gestrinian borders in a coordinated series of raids. These lightning-quick attacks would disrupt communications and lines of supply, and overwhelm Gestrin's border troops such that the local commanders would not know where to send reinforcements to concentrate their forces. The initial shock of the attacks allowed Tethari war bands to capitalize on a breach in the frontier defenses, leading to rapid gains in the poorly-defended desert regions. However, the coastal forts were more resilient and the Tethari were ill-equipped for siege warfare. Over many months, this turned into a brutal slog with small amounts of territory changing hands frequently, villages being annihilated, and the conflicting armies engaging in a war of attrition. Gestrin gained the upper hand at sea rather quickly, holding dominance over the channel and neutralizing Tethar's meager navy. A blockade crippled the Tethari capital of Pearl Port, though Gestrin did not capitalize on this with an amphibious landing. This attrition war dragged on for three years, and Gestrin began to gain the upper hand, seizing a strip of coastland up to the Tethar River.

In 910, Mocryae joined the war on the side of Tethar, seeing an opportunity with Gestrin's fleet was tied up in the channel sea. The war committee of the Senate determined that Mocryae could readily retake territory across the Southern Sea in an island-hopping campaign, and escalated its naval war. Privateers had been engaged against Gastrinian merchants for years, but the tensions within Mocryae had seen privateer fleets fighting each other just as much as they fought the Gastrinian Navy. One incident several years before had seen a southern trading guild exert power through a privateer fleet to blockade a northern merchant hub, launching an invasion and holding the city leadership hostage. The incident was resolved through the quick intervention of the Arcanist Guild, but it shook the Republic to its core. Now, the Crab Bay states were forced to provide naval ships and to conscript thousands into the army as the Senate mobilized for a land war in support of Tethar. This exploded the simmering tensions between north and south, and the Bay Uprising began with draft riots and a widespread mutinee of southern fleets. Mocryae was forced to pivot most of its army into attempting to quash the separatists. Several city-states in Crab Bay allied with Gestrin and aided in plans for an invasion.

In 912, Gestrin landed thousands of soldiers in Crab Bay, seizing the region through a combination of fast-moving infantry, powerful storm mages, and an open attitude by the rebellious locals to accept new governance. A second front was difficult for Gestrin to manage, but harder still for Mocryae as the successful amphibious invasion had robbed them of their most prized port towns and devastated Mocryae's economy.

Second phase
Despite this success, The war ground to a stalemate for many years, as Gestrin's engineers and mages hurried to complete an earthworks project over a century in the making that could permanently connect Gestrin Isle to the mainland. Gastrinian earth mages and an army of slaves had dammed a portion of the Sound of Gestrin in the 850s, and had begun filling in the closed-off sea through a combination of earth excavated from the Aendril Mountains, and drainage at specially-built waterfalls. Strategic necessity had increased the pace of construction, and upon completion of the project in 917, the tide turned in Gestrin's favor. Land bridges and permanent causeways had been secured for years after the channel had been dammed, but now numerous roads would converge at the Tethar River. This funneled troops and resources from across the Gastrinian empire. Legions that had been slowly marching down the coast were able to rapidly advance, with a stream of reinforcements to secure rear positions. By year's end, the Tethari capital of Pearl Port was besieged by land. The siege would last almost four years. Legions from the far east were to be reassigned at the new front, enabling the Gastrinian vanguard to secure the coast all the way down to the Mocryae River, cutting off Tethar from supplies by sea.

Only then did the Empire of Ovaicaea become directly involved, dispatching its own legions to support the faltering forces of Mocryae and Tethar in late 918 by opening up a second front in the east near Lake Kaiser. However, the fragmented nature of the New Empire meant that precious few troops could be fielded. Princess Rowan herself led Imperial troops in battle after battle, but despite some victories it would not be enough. She could not be everywhere at once, and in most cases the supporting armies from the imperial states faltered in the face of the hobgoblin shock troops and the well-drilled legions of Gestrin. In early 920, she moved to reposition herself and the imperial legion in the thick of fighting in the western deserts, bringing with her a small contingent of Confessors, as well as the full strength of the Templar Order's army to relieve the siege at Pearl Port. The Confessors were there ostensibly to enhance discipline and keep order behind the lines, but some were sent on special missions behind enemy lines. Many suspected that the Abbey's exclave status within Tethar compelled the Confessor Order's involvement for political and material reasons, or to provide a pretext for the Templar army to march alongside the imperial legion. In any event, the Ovaicaean intervention would be at the worst possible time. In 920, the warzone would be struck with a devastating pandemic that would transform the course of the war.

Red Plague
Around early 920, an epidemic disease emerged in Tethar. The dwarven physician Emeric of Kolossen wrote the most extensive notes on the outbreak in his diary, which was published among academics in later years. Others, including elven cleric and Templar Lucan Xilocia, also bore witness to the epidemic. Emeric died in 921 after contracting the disease, having been in proximity to the afflicted.

Emeric described the disease, "The first signs are an elevated temperature, a violent cough, and uneasiness of stomach, followed by bleeding in the throat which causes a most odious breath. Red rashes and rosy spots appear on the face, which then spread across the body. Then, swelling occurs in the eyes, groin, neck, and limbs. Eventually, the swelling in the eyes makes the sufferer go blind. The swelling across the body turns into pustules and burst and bleed. These symptoms rapidly occur within a week of the fever, and the afflicted shortly thereafter enter a confused state of the intellect, become insensate, and fall into a sleep from which they will not wake."

Lord Commander Lucan's reports to the Templar Order describe similar symptoms, especially the bodily rashes, swelling, and bleeding, leading to delirium and coma. Lucan witnessed the effects of the disease when it ravaged Imperial and Tethari army camps, where it festered and spread in cramped and filthy conditions. He referred to it as the "Red Plague" or the "Red Death" due to the rose-colored rashes and spots it left on a victim's body, and the bleeding the victim experienced. Others came to simply call it the "Tethar Plague".

A rough approximation of the epidemic's course can be ascertained from the reports of witnesses. The disease seemed to enter into Tethar through Pearl Port, which fell under siege by Gestrin's legions. It spread from there along trade routes to other ports and cities in Tethar and Mocryae, as trade ships fled Pearl Port and broke the blockade. Conflicting reports suggest that it may have originated in Gastrinian army camps, and was spread either accidentally or deliberately to Pearl Port. At the time, many believed it was a magically-created disease or curse by Gestrin's war mages, a theory still supported by historian Adonato Arandil, though this explanation has declined in popularity. Reports by Gestrin's doctors, which were copied and smuggled north to Imperial scholars, indicate that it was carried first by Gastrinian legionaries who were transferred from the border with Aendrilad, meaning the disease may have originated in the eastern frontier.

From Pearl Port, it festered in cities and army camps, which had similarly cramped and unsanitary conditions. Lord Commander Xilocia remarked, "All through the encampment and trenches, some miasma befouled us and converted many of our soldiers into wheezing, bleeding, shambling, and mindless shadows of men. Death soon follows this noxious air. The sick spread this bad air by their foul-smelling breath and blood, which even carrion know, as they will not feast on the bodies of the dead but instead leave them to rot in the field."

As it spread, the Red Plague devastated entire communities and left thousands dead. Between 920 and 923, around one in every five persons in Tethar died of the Red Plague. Some cities saw far higher numbers, with around half of Pearl Port's population dying as a result of the disease and related effects such as starvation and secondary diseases. The coalition armies lost around a third of its manpower, severely damaging their ability to fight Gestrin's forces. The Gastrinian legions, having already suffered from the plague and survived, seemed immune to further complications and marched against Tethar with renewed vigor. Pearl Port surrendered in 921, and many towns and cities followed. Gestrin began emergency resupply and recovery efforts, providing fresh water, food, and medicine to surrendering cities.

The advance of Gestrin's troops spread the disease into the countryside of Tethar and Mocryae, which only increased the rumors of it being a magical curse. The decline in the working population led to failed harvests, and famine ensued. Weakened by hunger, many more fell to the plague. Templar clerics and Tethari shamans tried to respond, but it was to no avail. They were able to cure individuals and provide palliative care, but the disease spread too rapidly and too thoroughly to stem the tide of mass death. The plague spread to the frontiers of Visclovia, but was halted by Imperial legions torching afflicted villages and establishing a quarantine line defended by armed soldiers.

The initial wave of the plague receded by 922, but by that point the damage had been done and some three million people had died. The Red Plague would recur in parts of Tethar in 928 and then roughly every ten years before finally subsiding after the last known outbreak in 999, each time taking roughly a tenth of the people to the grave.

Final phase
Devastated by disease, allied forces withdrew across Old Tethar. Tethar's army retreated across the Mocryae River and the Tethar Mountains, and they struggled to hold the line against constant attack. Mocryae and Tethar were completely devastated, and the Imperial legions were fighting a losing battle. The New Empire had mobilized around thirty legions to engage in the intervention, but many fresh soldiers died of disease, and the imperial treasury was being drained by the expense of raising, training, and maintaining a large army for what was increasingly seen as a murky and ill-defined mission. At the same time, Gestrin's economy could not sustain such a massive, high-intensity conflict for much longer; it relied in extensive trade across the Southern Sea as well as overland. The war dragged on for several more years in an entrenched stalemate. The subsiding of the Red Plague's initial wave reinvigorated Mocryish defense, though many population centers were still devastated by the preceding years of mass death. Gastrinian lighting-war tactics would no longer serve them well.

Most of the fighting in the last six years of the war was conducted by sea, as Mocryae's navy consted Gastrinian control of the southern islands. Gestrin's war fleet won a crucial victory off the Bight of Eldun, facing off against numerically superior forces of both the Eldunari coastal fleet and Mocryae's navy. The Gastrinian fleet admiral made deft use of storm mages to create an effective environment for the battle, and then deployed smaller, swift ships to maneuver around his opponents, and launch quick strikes at close range. The Gastrinian fleet lose only a few ships, while their enemies were nearly cut in half, forcing them to flee to safer harbors. This enabled Gestrin and rebel Bay state privateers to blockade Mocryish cities on the western coast, further choking Mocryae's economy into submission. By 927, the Mocryish Senate demanded an end to the war, and sent diplomatic envoys to convince Tethar to surrender and the Empire to retreat.

Conclusion
In 927, a ceasefire was arranged and the ageing Empress Arya Andraste agreed to meet in a peace conference at the Confessor Abbey with the Queen Leonora of Gestrin, the Queen Madiya of Tethar, and Lord Protector Hanuval of Mocryae. The Empress did not wish to end her reign embroiled in war, and the Queen of Queens wanted to secure her empire's gains. Gestrin annexed the territory it controlled at the time of the peace.Tethar, reduced to a rump state and completely ravaged by the war, was admitted as a constituent country of the Empire of Ovaicaea. Mocryae remained independent, but lost all of Cape Crab to Gestrin and its merfolk clients. A decade later, reliant on the Empire for trade and wealth, it would petition to be admitted as a constituent country. Two years after the end of the war, Empress Andraste died and was succeeded by Princess Rowan, who took the Elven name Zallae, meaning "royal harmony" to signify a reign of peace that would follow this most devastating war.

All told, over 850,000 soldiers perished in the twenty years of war. The vast majority of military dead were through diseases such as the Red Plague, trench rot, malaria, and syphillis. Only around 200,000 soldiers on both sides of the conflict were killed in battle or died of wounds.

Some 4 million civilians died, mostly from the Red Plague, other wartime diseases, and mass famine.

The war saw the full military might of its major participants brought to bear. Tethar and Mocryae committed its entire armed forces in an act of total war in defense of their borders and interests, including gearing production and trade towards military supply, engaging in scorched-earth defense tactics, and conscripting thousands into its armies rather than relying solely on professional volunteers or tribal militias. Gestrin saw an unprecedented amount of military force arrayed for the invasion, drawing on troops from across its empire, ultimately almost all of its army at the time.