Northern Council War

The Northern Council War (SA 320-322) was fought between a Deurving tribal confederation and the northern Council of Lords, comprised of the sessessionist Northern Marcher-Lords. The war was a part of the final phase of the Herrenkrieg, and by it's end the Northern March had been swallowed and the Council subjacated by the expansionist Deurving Kingdom.

Background
The movement for Northern sessession began in the SA 290s as the legarthic Arkyne Empire became unable to properly assert it's authority above the Rottmotte. Thus, the Northern March-Lords were largely alone in confronting the invading Northmen tribes, building up a powerful and insular governmental apparatus. Lord-Warden Walter Saric had begun to set up an independent Northern government in SA 295 when the Berskins, in Imperial service, poured across the Eisenfold, defeating the Northerners at the Battle of the Red Fords and at least nominally restoring Imperial suzeranity to the Northern March.

However, the Empire continued to be roiled by turmoil, and by SA 299 the movement for Northern independence had been revived by warlords such as Julian Saric, who subjected the Berskins in SA 300 and defeated the Arloginians the following year, seizing the throne. The Northern March experienced a brief period of reconciliation with Westreach during Saric's reign, as Regental authority was asserted and legitimized though the creation of a standing frontier army to protect the March. The situation deteriorated once again, however, with the steady degradation of Regental authority and finally, the overthrow and death of Saric in the Night of the Knives. By the time central government was restored in Harerok under Walther Lancercost's Triumvirate, the Northern March had already begun detaching itself, with a Council of Lords being formed by the Northern magnates in SA 318. The Triumvirate, threatened on all sides by hostile confederonds and weakened by internal disputes, was unable to even project it's limited power in the Middefold, much less the North March, allowing the March-lords to peacefully secede.

As the central governing body in the newly-independent North March, the March-lords convened a Council, intending to preserve the balance of power between the Lords. The March was quickly assailed by Northmen neighbors; the Engerlings who hugged the borderlands, subdued with such celebration only a decade before, resumed raiding into the March, while the Deurvings, who had been settled in the north-east corner of the March, broke out of their encampments and spread across the eastern March in late SA 318. The Deurvings bloodlessly seized the fortress of Zwellstrung in SA 319 and coronated their leader Ceillebronn as King of the Deurvings. Though the tribes' status as Northern clients was nominally maintained, they ceased to pay tribute to the Council and disregarded it's edicts while continuing to expand their territory, carving out a kingdom in the northeast corner of the March.

Tensions with the Deurvings, which had been subsiding, came to head in SA 320 when March-Lord Clefford Stanley, leader of the faction of hawks in the Council, largely seized control of the government. Hoping to consolidate his control over the Northern March by inspiring war fervor, he provoked the Deurvings by sending several increasingly hostile lists of demands to Zwellrung and then finally demanding that they attend court and resume tribute. When he was met with a refusal, Clefford raised an army and prepared to march against their de facto capital of Zwellrung.

Course of the War
The Northern army began it's advance from Sternard in early September of SA 320, burning crops and plundering villages as they moved slowly across Deurving lands. The slow pace of the Northerner advance allowed King Ceillebronn I to gather his warbands at Zwellrung, where he prepared to give battle. The two hosts met in battle outside of the city on September 29th. Despite being significantly outnumbered, Stanley's confidence in his heavy horse resulted in a frontal assault against Deurving lines. The Deurving's application of their reserves prevented the Northerners from punching through their line, and the battle steadily turned against the Northerners until only their rout prevented annihilation. March-Lord Stanley as well as some two thousand of his men were killed in the disaster, the remainder captured or scattered.

The defeat at Zwellrung effectively crippled Northern military strength for the remainder of the war. In the aftermath of their victory, the Deurvings marched on Sternard but were unable to carry the city. The next spring, rather then invest Sternard, Ceillebronn and his chieftains led their forces on extended raids that decimated the countryside and isolated Northern strongpoints. Due to this strategy, by May of SA 322 a number of March-Lords had defected to the Deurvings, and Sternard fell peacefully on