Wars of Thesodius I

Background
The Berskins had entered Westreach in SA 295 after

The Berskin's steady rise to supremacy in Westreach was abruptly ended by the Successors War. Though the Berskins emerged victorious from the conflict, the cost in resources and men was such that Berskin hedgemony in Northern Westreach had begun to crumble. Efforts to restore Berskin suzeranity in Langcaste and parts of Trafehaken were failures, and in SA 329 a confederation of northern warlords broke away to form the Domain of Cainraine. A severe economic depression struck simultaneously, as the government reconstruction programs which had allowed supported the economy were not maintained.

This period of Berskin decline was worsened by the SA 331 death of King Harris I Halmar, which split the Halmarian Kingdom.

Though Berskin control over the Middefold had been nominally secured by the Calamannic War of SA 316, effective authority in the plains north of Haleston was held by local warlords co-opted by King Harris I. They administered taxes and issued decrees with little interference from the Berskins. Harris's grip on his northern subjects loosened following the draining Successors War, and a confederation of northern warlords broke away in late SA 327 to form the Domain of Cainraine. They convened a formal administrative body at Cainraine and for

Recovery of Trafehaken and the Northern Plains
In response to what they perceived as a resurgent Berskin threat, the Langcastian-Trafehakian city-states formed the Second League in SA 332 under the leadership of Protector Wylam Gent of Cragtown. The next year, after his demand for resumed tribute was rejected by the League, Thesodius I raised an army and crossed the Oxus, laying siege to Burgain. The resulting three-year war consisted entirely of raids and sieges, with few field battles; Burgain fell in late October of SA 333 after a protracted siege, Herrendram was stormed in early SA 334, and Cragtown was sacked and razed in August of SA 334. This type of attritional, resource-draining war clearly favored the Berskins, and by SA 335 the League had submitted to Thesodius I, becoming clients of the revived Halmarian Empire. There would continue to be sporadic revolts for the remainder of Thesodius's reign, but they were all suppressed.

Simoultaneous to his campaigns against the Second League, Thesodius I also began efforts to recover Berskin hedgemony in the Northern Middefold, where it had gradually eroded during the later years of his father's reign. During the decline of Berskin authority, King Harris I had delegated northern authority to a group of local warlords, allowing them to form the Feudatory of Cainraine. Thesodius demanded that the warlords renounce their sovereignty and, when these demands were refused, marched the bulk of his field army to Haleston. Two Berskin columns struck out across the Northern plains in early SA 335, pillaging towns and closing on the feudatorite capital of Cainraine. The campaign stalled, however, once the formidable Cainraine castle was besieged; tough resistance from the garrison and an outbreak of smallpox in Berskin ranks forced Thesodius I to abort the campaign and retire to Haleston.

The war resumed the following year, however, as Thesodius marched a large army against Cainraine. The Northern warlords raised their own field army and met the Berskins near Damouth, where they were routed. The destruction of the Northern field army effectively ended the war as the remaining Northern warlords either submitted or fled. The Northern plains were occupied by the Berskins and a regional occupational government was established in Cainraine until the region was reintegrated into the Kingdom in SA 338. The conquest of the Domain of Cainraine put the Berskins in direct contact with the Deurvings, another burgeoning tribal empire which had begun to project it's power against it's' neighbors.

Annexation of the Berskantar
The Northern Berskin kings had long sought to extend influence over their southern kin who had settled on the Rottmotte in SA 300. The Southern Berskins had formed their own tribal confederation in the power vacuum that followed the death of Julian Saric, occupying much of the former hald of Rottfold and convening a body of chieftans in Rottgut. They had a dynamic, unstable relationship with the powerful northern dynasty, at once rejecting but depending on Halmarian power to resist invasion. This relationship was best demonstrated in SA 324, when an army of Rhugen tribesmen invaded the Berskantar but was routed by Halmarian intervention. Beginning in SA 324, the Berskantar assumed status as a Berskin client, participating in the Successors War as an ally of King Harris I. Much like many of the other Halmarian clients, however, the Berskantar broke-away as King Harris I became unable to continue asserting his hegemony, enjoying a brief but prosperous period of autonomy.

Relations with the re-stabilized Halmarian Kingdom were renewed in SA 334, when King Delric Hanlaw's daughter Diana was betrothed to King Thesodius I. This development took place across a backdrop of escalating political and religious tensions in the Berskantar between a faction of Armantist converts who supported closer relations with the Halmarians and Prince Conred's faction of pagans, who rejected the authority of Thesodius. The elderly Delric died in SA 336, and Diana's half-brother Conred immediately moved to seize the throne. Threatened by Conred's succession, a number of Berskantar nobles invited Thesodius to march south with an army and wrest the crown. Despite only having just completed his conquest of the Northern plains, Thesodius, seeing an opportunity to finally reunite the Berskin kingdoms, accepted and hurriedly marched south with his army.

After a rapid buildup, Thesodius I and his uncle Mortimas crossed into the Berskantar in July of SA 337, scattering Conred's dispersed forces and occupying Rottgut. Conred, however, recovered his strength from the Rottmotte's southern bank and had soon begun staging guerrilla raids across the river. Conred's army retired to winter quarters in early December, but Thesodius, in a brilliant campaign that demonstrated the superiority of the Berskin military system, unexpectedly crossed the frozen Rottmotte with a large column. The Berskantars were driven from their winter quarters and relentlessly pursued for two months, by the end of which Conred had been killed and his army had been broken. After slaughtering the remaining pagan tribes in a brutal spring campaign, Thesodius was formally crowned King of the Berskins on December 21st, formally unifying the two Berskin peoples.

First and Second Rhugen Campaigns
Starting in SA 340, Thesodius I was engaged in almost constant warfare against his southern Rhugen neighbors, fighting a total of three major campaigns against them. Though he never succeeded in completely subjecting the war-like Rhugen tribes, they were repeatedly reduced to vassal status and their sphere of influence was ultimately curtailed.

The Rhugens had been reunified in SA 336 by chieftan Randall Keylar after over a decade of civil war. Randall's tenuous rule lasted for four years before he died and his widowed Queen Themelda assumed control over the kingdom as High Queen. Political stability was shaken, however, and during an SA 340 banquet Themelda and much of her court were murdered by the faction of Vance Cailian, who promptly proclaimed himself King. The Queen's brother appealed to Thesodius for aid in regaining his throne, providing the casus belli for Thesodius's first campaign against the Rhugens, which began in SA 340 under the pretext of restoring the Keylar dynasty. Thesodius had longed coveted the Rhuge's territory and sought to re-convert the tribes to Armantism in the hopes of extending his own sphere of influence further south.

A small Berskin expedition was sent south by Thesodius in SA 340, capturing Heel and then seizing Huegonoin in a surprise winter attack. Berskin fortunes reversed in spring, however; the garrison of Heel was ejected by a general rising of the populace, and King Vance I finally marched north with an army, laying siege to Huegonoin and prompting Thesodius to directly intervene. Huegonoin was relieved and Vance was pursued deep into the Rhuge before winter whether forced Thesodius to quarter his army at Vernal. Seeing an opportunity, Vance attacked the Berksin encampment in late December but was defeated and killed. Randall Keylar's brother-in-law was installed on the vacant Rhugen throne as a Bearskin satellite and the remaining Rhugen tribes reluctantly swore fealty. Armantist 'missions' were also established across the country to begin converting the tribes before the Berskin armies withdrew in mid-SA 342

Burghers Revolt & Third Rhugen Campaign
Upon returning home in October of SA 342, Thesodius oversaw the completion of his long-sought military reforms and began the construction of the Roselaw Palace. As opposed to the traditional allottment system that had prevailed under his predecessors, Thesodius organized the Berskin army into three 'banner armies' each with individual roles. Rather then being distinct field armies, the 'banner armies' operated as divisions of the royal army: the Black Banner Army, comprised entirely of Berskins, acted as the standing army and was the elite. The Yellow Banner Army included large numbers of Westreachians and followed the traditional alottement system wherein it was divided into 'garrisons' where troops were given parcles of land. The Green Banner Army served as a reserve force of levies whose primary functions was to police the Kingdom.

After a brief period of peace, Thesodius returned to the field in SA 343 to surpress a renewed revolt by the burghers of Southern Trafehaken. Within two months, the city-states of the southern coast had been overrun and subjagated, their burghers executed, in a campaign testament to the sophistication of Berskin siege techniques and organization.

While Thesodius completed his second round of campaigns against the Trafehakian city-states, the Rhugen tribes of the Vescerin and the Eruli erupted in revolt under the Viscerin chieftain Chigarus, sacking several towns and driving King Carles into exile. The razing of several Armantist churches and the murder of hundreds of missionaries provoked the Grand Arch into proclaiming a divine wind against the rebel tribes, forcing Thesodius to prepare a second expedition into the region as viser of the Church. This developement complicated what had previously been a political conflict, giving it secretariat overtones and resulting in more determined resistance to Berskin rule. Marching south with an army of 30,000, Thesodius began a punitive campaign against the Rhugen tribes, driving them from the capital and besieging their strongholds of Vicar and Charades. The fall of Charidus after three months of bitter fighting broke the intial revolt as the rebel forces dissapated and Chigarus fled to his wife's Ganeish homeland.

Invasion of Chambrante
Rather then return home after over a year of constant campaigning, Thesodius re-directed his army and crossed the Cuttmotte into the Kingdom of Chambrante, a wealthy Flatlander successor state that continued to resist submission to the Berskins. The Berskins fell on the small but prosperous kingdom in the summer of SA 344, laying siege to Chambrante and sacking the port of Forcourt. After a thunderous bombardment by the Berskins veteran artillery train, King Brendan Tyter submitted outside of Chambrante's battered walls in late August, concluding the campaign and extending Thesodius's dominion all the way to the mouth of the Redmotte.

While returning to Haleston with his army in November of SA 344, Thesodius stopped in Harerok to pay homage to Grand Arch Tyrus. In recognition of his efforts against the Rhugens, Tyrus unexpectedly coronated Thesodius Emperor, reviving the title after over forty years and legitimzing the Empire that Thesodius had carved out in Northern Westreach

Fourth and Fifth Rhugen Campaigns
Starting in SA 344, the Berskins attempted to maintain a standing-army in the Rhuge as they sought to convert the tribes to Armantism and extend Berskin Common Law over the region. This policy of centralization precipitated renewed resistance from the tribes, who, led by Chigarus, revolted once again in mid-SA 345 and overran the Gerogmevn tribe, which had recently converted to Armantism. The tribal forts of Genreld and Vicar both fell to protracted Berskin sieges in SA 346, but the annihilation of a Berskin army at Arenbeld by Chigarus prompted Thesodius's return to the region with a large army.

In retaliation for the defeat at Arenbeld, Thesodius vigorously campaigned against Chigarus for seven months, pursuing him through the winter and dismantling his southern strongholds. In order to suppress Paleanists in the country, Thesodius installed blood courts which persecuted suspected dissidents, executing over 4,500 Rhugens over some two years. Fierce fighting continued into SA 349 as the Berskins were unable to decisively defeat the Rhugen on the field: Chigarus led a successful ambush of a Berskin column at the Passes in August of SA 347, but by the end of the year his main army was once again on the run. The constant pressure applied by the Berskins gradually degraded the rebel armies, so that by early SA 348 they were undersupplied and in retreat. The rebels narrowly escaped being trapped in Charidus in December of SA 348, but four months later they were finally forced to fight a field battle at Mercnol, where they were decisively defeated. Chigarus was captured in the battle and publicly beheaded in Huegonoin several months later. The death of Chigarus and the destruction of his army signaled the effective end of organized Rhugen resistance to Berskin rule, though the cost in resources and lives that the expeditions exacted prevented Thesodius from fully conquering the Rhugen tribes.

Revolt of SA 351 and Sixth Rhugen Campaign
Thesodius would mount one final campaign in the Rhuge in SA 352 in an effort to consalidate the rule of his vassal Carles I. After returning home from the region in late SA 349, he was forced to contend with a rebellion by a group of Berskin nobles in the Aranieul valley. Thesodius's response was unexpectedly swift and decisive, and by the summer of SA 351 the rebellion had been quelled, the participants beheaded. This revolt represented the last instance of organized aristocratic resistance to Halmarian rule: Thesodius exploited the revolt to finally strip the nobility of their remaining privileges, reducing them to provincial governors subordinate to royal rule.

A band of Eruli tribesmen murdered several Armantist priests in November of SA 351. The Eruli chieftain Erogan then refused to hand the suspects over to Carelian authority, and the crisis steadily escalated until King Carles I requested military support from Thesodius. A Berksin army marched south under Thesodius' general Roland Rooke, joining Carelian troops to besiege the Eruli stronghold of Charidus. The