King
Arabante I Profanter of the great kingdom of Falonde was looking at his so-called allies with barely hidden contempt. They were all reunited in what all of them considered to be neutral ground, and that location had been a simple tavern, nothing like something of this magnitude should have been attended, which is why he had accepted the less the spies of his enemies knew of what was happening the better.
As for his fellow kings, his forefathers had made war with them several times in the past, for territory and the resources that they would bring to their kingdom. He still remembered the tales of his forefathers and the great wars of conquest that would bring Falonde to ever greater greatness.
But then came Hithlade, from nowhere the massive kingdom had formed from a web of alliances and marriages that formed, and as much he wanted to deny it there was no way, the greatest power block in the region standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow great kingdoms and nations across the Sword Coast. And was even considered to be the block against the influence of the Lord's Alliance in the region.
Anyone would be envious of their position in the grand scheme of things.
That is why when he heard of the civil war upon Hithlade (a fact that surprised even him, since the rival realm was only increasing in terms of power and prosperity while his realm was only afforded the scraps of the so-called great nation) he sensed an opportunity. And it was not only because of the weakening of his principal enemy.
Liking or not, Hithlade had enforced order upon the region that they ruled over, and this included their neighboring kingdoms, by stopping any armed conflict amongst its neighbors they had ended the previous age of wars and conquests, with conflicts being more in the shadows as the various kings and rulers scurred for favors with Hithlade like vermin.
It was disgusting and something that, to his shame, both his ancestors and himself had been forced to do to keep their lands since there had been times when wars had happened amongst the neighboring kingdoms but all knew that it was only because, the attacking realm had the blessing of Hithlade to gain new territory on the back of the kingdom that had been invaded, and even then, those types of events were rare as most did not have the will to fight.
In short, all of them, were vassals to Hithlade in all but name, even if they had a bit of autonomy the shadow of Hithlade was a constant presence in all their lives.
'But no more' Arabante's firsts tightened. 'Now that they have been bled, now that their entire realm has been effectively gutted, the times of glory can return'
Indeed, now that Hithlade has suffered such a tremendous conflict., they would not have the forces necessary to control them as ruthlessly as they did before, which means that finally after generations of oppression, the time of glory was upon them once more. And the first one to strike would have a higher chance of coming out more powerful in the coming age of open warfare.
This is why he had decided to host this little alliance with what was once his enemies, all to further weaken his principal enemy Hithlade, and while yes this would further strengthen his future rivals for dominance in the region it was a small sacrifice for the greater good of his kingdom.
He could already see it, the power of Falonde growing higher than ever before as their potential was fully unleashed for the world to see, the position of power that Hithlade now belonged to Falonde instead, with all the riches and glory that accompanied it.
But first, he must talk about a few things with his 'allies'.
"Have our armies moved towards the borders that we share with Hithlade?" He asked, moving their forces towards the borders of Hithlade in a coordinated manner was immensely necessary for their efforts going forward.
Of the three Kings in his presence, one he respected, another he hated, and the last one he just found pathetic. The one that he respected was the King of Tiressa,
Pelagon III Angermann was a worthy man to have the title of King, while others would dismiss him as just a brute Arabante was wiser, he could see the spark of intelligence that was hidden in the veil of a brute. The way that Tiressa managed to still have the same territories as it did only show that, as Arabante knew that if the neighboring kingdom was ruled by an idiot who only thought on base matters, then it would have fallen long ago.
The King who managed to earn his boiling hatred, was
Udon IV Gaultier the King of Negritharg. The issue between both, if it could be called such a simple word for the righteous fury that coursed him at the sight of the so-called king, was that through generations both of their Kingdoms had warred amongst one another, frankly, Arabante does not remember the reason as he never really bothered too, especially since his family suffered so much by their hands, much of the lands that Negritharg called theirs had once been of Falonde itself, with an 'acquisition' done decades ago being enough to have been the reason for his father to die thanks to his heart giving out thanks to the stress of the situation.
Since their hands were tied Falonde could not raise the banners and wage war against Negritharg as they did in the past wherever the petty kings dared to barre their fangs against them because if they attacked Hithlade would interfere on the side of the hated enemy. So, they could only bow their heads, like good little dogs to the wishes of their master, but Arabante never forgot, and he was done with Hithlade, Negritharg would be the first that he would destroy.
The last king, King
Garfield V Merevel of the Kingdom of Tirone, was not even a true king, which was both embarrassing and pathetic, for decades now Tirone had been governed by scheming bureaucratic families, coin counters that had somehow amassed so much power that their influence could be felt across the entire kingdom. They were the ones that held the true power. They were the ones who were the true rulers of Tirone.
The best part of all this? The Royal Family was completely unaware that they had lost their kingdom right under their noses to coin counters, which only added more to the absurdness of the situation, as this meant that their network of spies had become compromised, to the point they had no loyalists among their ranks. Oh, sure the coin counters allowed the Royal Family to have their luxury and prestige, but the crown of power was not theirs anymore.
When he had discovered such a matter (which had been easy as the coin counters had long since dropped, they're subtly if you looked closer enough) he promised to himself and the gods that he would never allow such a thing to happen to his kingdom.
"Most of our troops are stationed at the border, they only need orders to move," Pelagon said. "The mercenaries are not causing any problems which are good"
Arabante nodded, while his council had tried to convince him to not spend the realm's treasury on what they called 'pay for hire criminals that had no honor' he ignored them, especially since that same council had also tried to advise him against his war with Hithlade, citing that even with the civil war Hithlade was still too strong for them.
The only reason he did not have them executed or sent to the dungeons for treason against their king, was that he knew that he could not have good enough replacements.
Besides he was sure that they would prove useful, especially the hired War Mages, even if they were certainly criminals by the amount that they charged for their uses.
"Good, my fellow monarchs it is time for us to reclaim what was once ours by right, if you excuse me, I must now rejoin my forces" Arabante did not even wait for any type of response as he rose from his chair and made his way to his escort.
He had a war to win after all.
~~~
Falonde and its allies thought that Hithlade had become weak after the civil war and that it had become a wounded beast that could only bar its teeth against its enemies but couldn't win against an attack. But they thought wrong.
When the forces of the coalition entered the territory of Hithlade after weeks of preparation, their forces were a combined 15,200, that was when the signs began to appear that they had just punched a sleeping dragon.
The first sign was that they were being constantly harassed, in the middle of the night rangers bearing the symbol of Hithlade struck, setting fire to carts and tents, poisoning food supplies that they had deliberately not burned, slicing the throat of officers and anyone that they considered essential, such as sleeping mages, in short, they started causing general chaos among their enemies and then making their way out of the camp using the darkness of the night to their advantage.
These attacks became so common amongst the forces of the coalition, that permanent night patrols had been issued, and when those had not been enough, they had doubled them, making more and more of their soldiers awake during the night, and while this did have the effect of making the night raids caused by enemy rangers easier to disrupt, it also made many of their soldiers tired as they had now much less time to sleep, making more and more tired as the days passed, slowing down the march.
But the worst hit were the Mages, as they had been forced to stay up all night to use their magics to protect entire camps against enemy rangers that hide in the shadows, this severely affected the reliability of their spells as like others they had barely any time to rest and recuperate, only being ordered around for more spells to be cast. And soon, many of these spells began to weaken as their casters were not in the right state of mind to cast them, their tiredness making their spells fluctuate between useless and catastrophic.
The second sign had been when they had approached, what they thought was, the villages of Hithlade. Their spirits had been lifted by the sight, as it meant that they were making some headway at least. Immediately the order was given to sack them, of all their worth, as it could help them in their march against their enemies.
But as the looting groups had made their way to the villages, they found that all of them were empty, and not a single trace of life could be found in them. Nor anything valuable, such as food. It was at that moment when a portion of the army was in the middle of the village, that it exploded in a ball of fire. Or in some other cases, different elements, such as frost, opened massive holes that swallowed all before they closed themselves again their victims never to be seen again.
Information took time to make way to all the dispersing groups that moved the territory of Hithlade. But when it did all portions of coalition forces began to avoid any village, they saw like they were a plague. Even then many of their forces had been decimated, and their number had dropped. But their generals were both too stubborn and too proud to admit that they had bit more than they can chew. And so, they continued their march, with Mages using spells that allowed them to see the truth.
The villages were highly realistic illusions and all over the ground of the fake villages were many different runes that held a variety of spells that when combined in their activation could cause catastrophic damage to whoever triggered them. It was ingenious, and something that they would not have expected, as the level of skill in the Art to do this was more than impressive even if the concept of the illusion was somewhat simplistic.
Trying to prevent future attempts such as these to catch them off guard, the generals of the coalition forces had decided to have the mages cast scrying and divination spells so that no more surprises would happen as they continued to advance across Hithlade's territories. The fact that their respective lords still wanted to advance was proving controversial among the lower ranks but still, they followed their orders.
The third sign was where the forces of the coalition were broken.
Across the invaded territories battles occurred between defenders and invaders. The armies of the coalition found themselves battered by arrows and spells upon their formations in a wave of surprise attacks before the army of Hithlade started to advance. Different from the peasant levies of their enemies each soldier was trained, wore steel armor instead of hardened leather, was augmented by the mass casting of beneficial spells, and were all veterans of a conflict where the chances of survival were slimmer than a war fought by mortal men.
Archers and mages petered them with arrows and spells. Cavalry moved in devastating charges, their steeds moving more ferociously and their blows hitting with far more potency than normal as for the infantry they had surrounded their enemy in the chaos, and when the cavalry retreated, they started to close in a massive shield wall. All were butchered to the last man, with casualties on Hithlade's side being minimal.
Of course, some managed to escape the various so-called battles that happened at the border but there were few. And were hunted down by the cavalry of Hithlade with impunity, the civil war that they fought in had taught them to be ruthless as it impeded them from facing future enemies down the line.
To say that the coalition was on the last legs after this sequence of defeats was an understatement, the mercenaries themselves, seeing the way the wind was blown, deserted their contractors, running away as fast as they could from Hithlade. Many would not be able to, as passing rangers would think of them as patrols and start to harass them. But eventually, they managed to exit Hithlade, and the Rangers left them alone refocusing their efforts on the remaining armies.
But that was not the last straw, the last straw had been when, the army of Negritharg seeing that the situation had become nearly unsalvageable, started attacking the armies of Falonde, to limit the consequences that their realm would have when Hithlade inevitably won. And they were right on that, as their sudden attack allowed the armies of Hithlade to cause even more damage, and so, the cracks widened even more, and it took only a few more days for the so-called allies to turn against one another.
One must understand that these kingdoms never liked each other that much, their suspicion and hatred of each other were only surpassed by the envy they had of Hithlade's hegemony in the region of the Sword Coast that they lived in. Now that they were both being beaten back with outrageous ease by Hithlade's superior armies and they were being attacked by their so-called allies, the coalition that once shared the same goal was now officially dissolved.
The armies of the disbanded coalition moved back to their borders constantly harassed by either their former allies or Hithlade in minor skirmishes. When they were done moving back to their territory, they immediately began to prepare for war against their neighbors and a potential invasion by Hithlade.
While they were dealing with that, the news spread across Hithlade quickly causing a wave of celebrations that showed that even if Hithlade was bleeding from a thousand cuts dealt in it, it was still strong,
they were still strong, and would not be easily bullied.
After that, new news came, the man that led them against the forces of the Mad King, was now finally going to be crowned, the noble man loudly spoke that he would only be crowned when the last of the threats that plagued the realm had been put down.
Now that the invaders had been thrown off, the last holdouts of resistance of the forces of the Mad King having finally been defeated, with any of the loyalists that were captured put to the sword for their crimes, Hithlade and its people were both ready for the new king that the people were sure would lead them into a new golden age.
Said to be crowned king was not as happy with his current situation, but he vowed to himself that he would do his best.
