| Battle of the Broken Smile |
| Date |
Late Shogunate |
| Location |
Southern Threshold |
| Result |
Victory for the Daimyo of Chiaroscuro |
|
| Belligerents |
| Chiaroscuro |
Verdant Spring |
| Commanders |
| Daimyo of Chiaroscuro |
Daimyo of Verdant Spring |
| Strength |
| Unknown, including at least 100 suits of Dragon Armour, 2 Soulbreaker Orbs, and one Thousand-Forged Dragon |
Unknown, including at least 50 Warbird skyships |
| Casualties and losses |
| Unknown, 2 Soulbreaker Orbs expended. |
Total |
|
Overview
The Battle of the Broken Smile was a conflict in the late Shogunate Era, between the daimyo of Chiaroscuro, a large coastal province, and the daimyo of Verdant Spring, a fertile inland province known for its extensive irrigation systems and squadrons of advanced magitech skyships.
Causes
The original cause of the conflict is unknown in the present age.
War
Historians have struggled to piece together the events of the Battle, which was not a single engagement but a series of escalating skirmishes. As was typical of warfare at the time, the armies of Verdant Spring attempted to disrupt enemy military movements and capture territory while keeping collateral damage minimal... the war cost Chiaorascuro military resources and men, but did little damage to the city itself. For reasons unknown, Chiaroscuro's daimyo pursued a far different course, one of total war. An order dating from the time has been recovered by archeologists, giving command to "break every soul in Verdant Spring, devour their dragon lines, and burn their fields until there remains nothing but sand.'
Aftermath
The outcome of the battle was the complete annihilation of Verdant Spring. In the years following the Battle, the city completely dissapears from all Shogunate records, and while its general location is known to present historians no ruins or weapons caches have been found, only empty desert riddled with a gridwork of sand-filled trenches that may once have been part of an irrigation system... the water source which might have supplied this system has vanished completely, and the surrounding area is utterly devoid of manses and demenses.
The only damage to Chiaroscuro itself came after the conflict, when a cabal of officers turned the army's weapons on the High Theatre of Vaulted Glass, destroying one of the most beautiful of the city's glass towers to slay their daimyo. Infighting following that coup saw the city's daimyo post empty for thirty years until one of the officers at last managed to slay his final rival and declare rulership.
