| War with the Bull |
| Date |
RY761 AA to RY764 DF |
| Location |
Northeastern Threshold |
| Result |
Decisive victory for the Bull |
|
| Belligerents |
| Scarlet Empire (House Tepet), Linowan, Rokan-jin, Talinin. |
Icewalker Tribes, Halta, Ardeleth, Bloody River, Jarrith |
| Commanders |
| Tepet Arada 'the Wind Dancer' |
Bull of the North |
| Strength |
25,000 Realm Legionnaires
25,000 Realm Legion auxiliaries
30,000+ Linowan warriors
12,500+ Rokan-jin warriors
7,500+ Talinin warriors
700 Dragonblooded
'the Imperial Manse' (2 Sidereal Anathema) |
80,000+ Icewalker warriors
48,000 Haltan soldiers
6 Solar Anathema
30+ Dragonblooded |
| Casualties and losses |
40,000+ Realm Legionnaires & auxiliaries
18,000+ Linowan warriors
Entirety of the Rokan-jin and Talinin tribes
500 Dragonblooded
1 Sidereal Anathema |
50,000+ Icewalker warriors
24,000+ Haltan soldiers
Entire population of Fallen Lapis
30+ Dragonblooded |
|
Overview
The Realm campaign against the Anathema known as the Bull of the North stands as a turning point in the history of the Age of Sorrows: the Scarlet Empire threw its full might against a warlord of the Threshold and was not merely driven back but utterly annihilated. A Great House of the Dynasty fell from the heights of power to irrelevance. Destruction was deployed on a scale not seen since the Balorian Crusade.
RY761
Resplendent Air – The Anathema known as the Bull of the North, having emerged as war leader of the Icewalker barbarians, forms an alliance with Halta and launches attacks on the eastern tribes allied with the Realm: the Rokan-jin and Talinin. The Linowan enter the war in support of those tribes, but even combined their forces are ineffective.
RY762
Ascending Water – The Linowan request the aid of the Realm in their war against the Bull. The Empress grants the honour of conducting the campaign to a mighty force of five Legions: the 5th Imperial Legion, 9th Imperial Legion, 10th Imperial Legion, 11th Imperial Legion, and 25th Imperial Legion. There is great protest within the Dynasty, as over the past several decades those Legions had seen their ranks become dominated by Tepet officers, meaning the glory would belong to a single House. The Empress spoke of it as a reward for a century of Tepet ‘heroism and loyalty’.
Ascending Wood – Tepet forces arrive amongst the Linowan.
Resplendent Wood - Battle of Krellin Ford. First large-scale battle between the Bull and the Realm. Four Dragons of the 5th Legion under Tepet Arada defeat 5 dragons in service to the Bull, breaking their lines. In the following weeks, Realm troops score additional victories across the battle front, and Bull armies are forced into retreat. In the Realm, there is much celebration and an expectation of impending victory.
Descending Wood – Legion forces pursuing the retreating army of the Bull are met at the edge of the Haltan forest by fresh enemy forces including the Anathema sorceress Samea. The Tepet advance is halted, and clashes along the treeline prove inconclusive, though reports of victories and personal heroism continue to pour into the Isle.
A heated dispute over tactics between General Tepet Mallon of the 9th Legion and Dragonlord Tepet Ejava of the 5th Legion 1st Dragon sees the latter promoted to strategoi of the Vermillion Legion, in the far-off southwest Threshold.
Ascending Fire – Battle of the Ironthorn Forest. The 5th, 10th, and 25th Legions attack in full strength in an attempt to smash the forces of the Bull. The sorceress Samea is wounded, forcing a retreat, though casualties are high, including the 10th Legion’s entire warstrider complement. At the same time, a Wyld Hunt assaults the Bull of the North to prevent him from organizing his armies... the Bull slays all seven Immaculates forming the Hunt.
Resplendent Fire – General Mallon of the 9th Legion writes a letter to the Deliberative predicting the Bull’s head on parade in the Imperial City before the year is through.
RY763
Descending Air – The warstrider fang of the 5th Legion, widely considered the best in the Realm, is deployed to the North along with Legion reinforcements.
Ascending Water – A period of calm is broken when the Bull orders retaliation to punish the Realm’s allies. Demonic assaults bombard the cities of the Rokan-jin and Talinin for a day and a night with stones and boulders dropped from a great height, exterminating their populations... though their armies are saved by being in the field as auxiliaries to the Legions, without civilians the two tribes essentially cease to exist.
Reports of the genocide are suppressed in the Realm save for vague mentions of Anathema atrocities.
Resplendent Water – With regret, General Arada accedes to Sidereal suggestion for retaliation in kind, hopeful that this will cause both sides to cease such acts of mass destruction. The Bull-aligned city of Fallen Lapis is exterminated by Celestial magic, though only a small few in the whole of the Realm understand the source. The destruction is instead attributed to the Empress and the Imperial Manse. The Legions push the Bull’s armies back to the forest edge once more, but even in victory events have shaken morale, and the Talinin/Rokan-jin auxiliaries desert in droves or break formation to launch wasteful suicide attacks.
Ascending Wood – The nature of the war changes. The Legions secure victory in nearly every conventional battle, so the Bull ceases to engage in conventional battle entirely... guerrilla fighters spread across the countryside harrying supply lines, while demonic attacks pour in without end both day and night. Demons prove a tireless foe, while mortal soldiers ( even those of the mighty Realm) soon suffer as they are unable to find rest without demonic interruption.
Resplendent Wood – General Mallon, frustrated by a foe who fades away at the first sign of heavy battle, launches the Battle of the Redwoods, pushing deep into Halta at the head of the 9th Legion. With a massive gap left in Realm lines, guerrilla and demonic attacks increase tenfold, and six weeks later the survivors of the 9th stumble from the trees, two thirds of their number dead including their general.
Descending Earth – General Arada, now granted uncontested overall command, attempts to deploy the Legions to secure territory from enemy raiders. The Linowan prove culturally unable to assist, instead launching fruitless attacks into the Haltan forest to destroy redwood trees, expending strength needed elsewhere.
Ascending Fire - Patrols of mortal soldiers prove unable to survive encounters with demons, so Arada orders dragonblooded officers to lead patrols. Spread thinly, casualties amongst the Terrestrials skyrocket. A few whisper that the Wind Dancer's drinking is becoming increasingly heavy.
Calibration – The Scarlet Empress disappears.
RY764
Ascending Air - News reaching the Realm continues to tell of Legion victories in battle and the Bull’s inability to take the territory of the Realm’s allies, but as the year wears on rumours begin to spread as letters from soldiers reach families on the Isle, telling of the hardships and terrors the Legions suffer. Arada offers every Tepet who wents it a commission in the Legions under his command.
Ascending Wood – The Great Houses take direct control of the Legions. This is a devastating blow for House Tepet, as they already had nominal control of the five Legions in the North and the expense of the distant campaign moves from the Imperial purse to their own House coffers. House elders begin pressuring General Arada to withdraw back to the Isle so their troops might be ready for a civil war. The 9th Legion, too mauled to be of further use, is allowed to begin withdrawal back to Lord’s Crossing. Non-Tepet officers resign their commissions en-masse and leave the field to accept commissions offered in their new House Legions.
Resplendent Wood – General Arada requests aid from the 4th Imperial Legion to the west and the 23rd Imperial Legion to the southeast. Both refuse, and the rise of an Anathema at Madura blocks the closest line of retreat. He also requests the Immaculate Order dispatch a second Wyld Hunt against the Bull and his Anathema followers, but the Hunt will take time to prepare. Arada is left with no choice but to launch a lengthy withdrawal towards Greyfalls.
Ascending Fire - The Forsaken Heresy of RY764. At the Cloister of Wisdom on the Blessed Isle, an Anathema arises and escapes after she slays the 30 monks preparing to depart with the Wyld Hunt against the Bull. The Hunt scrambles to find new shikari for the task, but is forced to tell Arada that there is no hope of it arriving until some time into the coming year, too late to assist the retreat of the Tepet Legions. Some, particularly amongst House Tepet, begin questioning the Wyld Hunt due to the high number of casualties against an Anathema alone on the Blessed Isle... if the result was so poor there, what hope would the force have had against the powerful Bull of the North himself?
Descending Fire – Battle of Futile Blood. Unable to retreat to Greyfalls fast enough and losing men to harrasment by their pursuers, the Tepet Legions halt and make a final stand against the armies of the Bull, and are all-but wiped out. Arada resigns his commission and takes the vows of the Immaculate Order.
Aftermath
In the end, the campaign cost House Tepet dearly... of more than 25,000 Legionnaires, less than 5,000 returned home, where they have been organized into a single understrength Legion (the 9th). Worse, the campaign cost the lives of some five hundred Tepet Dragonblooded, and the wealth of artifacts they bore, including a total of fifteen warstriders.
