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by The 𝔊𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔡 ℑ𝔪𝔭𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔲𝔪 of Altmoras. . 30 reads.

Imperium: The First (Incomplete)

In 1994 B.C King Tyrus Hallaq of Alderia inherited the largest kingdom in the history of the Alderian Subcontinent from his father Tyr. Virtually the entire Eldo river basin was under his rule or bound to him under the rule of his wife Queen Xarina Azari of Valigan. In his prime at thirty-three, Tyrus who commanded much of the Daltoran Conquest in his father's stead was as well equipped to rule the great kingdom as anyone could be. Stability and consolidation were expected to be the hallmarks of his rule as he prepared his eldest daughter Arine to bind the Valigani crown beside the Daltoran one beneath direct Alderian rule when her birthright as heir to both thrones came to fruition. However, Tyrus' time of only meeting expectations ended the moment he ascended to the Alderian throne.

Tyrus' Kingdom was centered around the bountiful Eldo river basin and the three great cities of Alderia, Daltora, and Valigan. To the south and east of Alderia was the Terran Peninsula, another agricultural breadbasket with its own cities of Tethos and Sciravia. Terra was divided into dozens of petty kingdoms and city-states, none of which were nearly as mighty as Alderia. In the early spring of 1993 B.C Tyrus issued an proclamation to the rulers of Terra, claiming that he had Imperium over all lands under the sun, with Terra being his foremost and immediate concern. Other than a few minor rulers scant miles from Alderia herself most Terrans scoffed the proclamation and ignored Tyrus, and so he did something they could not ignore. The single mightiest army in history up to that point was raised and marshaled on the Tyrian Fields outside of Alderia, 50,000 fighting men were assembled by the time the army marched for Terra in mid-June, 35,000 hailing from Tyrus' domains and 15,000 from his wife in Valigan.

The Terrans were not blind to this threat however, shortly after word reached them of Tyrus' army and its size, a majority of Terran rulers convened together and chose a single Imperator to command their defense against the encroaching Alderians. A seasoned commander from Tethos, Imperator Axon Verset immediately ordered the borderlands abandoned and gathered the combined Terran armies outside of Sciravia. This allowed Tyrus to sweep through much of northern Terra with ease, however it also drew him towards Sciravia like a moth to the flame. When the Alderians finally reached the walls of Sciravia they found a strongly garrisoned city, but not a city housing the entire combined armies of Terra. Verset had moved north, avoiding the Alderian army and then swept back west to rampage through the farmlands along the Eldo between Alderia and Daltora. The Terrans burned everything they couldn't take, as well as capturing and sinking as many riverboats as they could get their hands on in order to prevent any trade from passing between the two cities by rendering the river un-navigable.

Word reached Tyrus quickly of the Terran army pillaging his homeland and he made the decision to split his force into an army of 20,000 under Xarina's command that would continue the siege of Sciravia, and another force of 30,000 to go with Tyrus to destroy the Terran army. As Tyrus returned towards the north-west Verset was making his way towards the city of Alderia as well, the Terrans were far closer and they made it to the city outskirts a full fortnight before Tyrus' army would arrive to meet them. A two week siege would have been next to impossible, so Verset had his army fall upon the unfortified docks of the city in conjunction with a naval raid he had ordered the navy of Tethos to undertake before he marched for the Eldo in the first place. All 25,000 members of the Terran raiding army piled into their much expanded fleet and sailed away from Alderia well ahead of Tyrus, carrying loot with them and leaving a ravaged kingdom behind.

Left in his homeland without an enemy to fight, Tyrus was forced to make the long march back to Terra with nothing gained, and valuable time lost. Queen Xarina on the other hand was having a tad more success, she had succeeded in completely cutting Sciravia off from outside supplies by having her men sink several improvised barges in the city's harbor. With food supplies dwindling, and fresh water scarce in the high summer heat Sciravia was ripe for conquest. Xarina was far too crafty to simply attack the city head on and waste valuable troops however. A fortnight after the harbor was rendered useless, Xarina's troops approached Sciravia at dusk and launched dozens of volleys of flaming arrows and other projectiles into the drought stricken city. Although the Sciravians couldn't drink the water in their harbor they could use it to fight fires, and as such they managed to control the fires before they consumed the city, although it took a restless night of hard labor from every man, woman, and child.

As dawn rose over the exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and slightly singed city Xarina's Valigani-Alderian army stormed the gates and walls in full force. After their long night of firefighting, coupled with the attrition of a months long siege, only a small fraction of the Sciravian defenders managed to mount any kind of resistance to the wave of Eldonians crashing through their gates and over their walls. Those that did fight were killed or incapacitated within the first hour of fighting, and the entire city was pacified by noon. Queen Xarina Azari of Valigan captured one of the two great cities of Terra, along with around ten thousand of its fighting men, all in under six hours and with only ninety-seven casualties of her own.

Verset took the loss of Sciravia in stride, utilizing exaggerated tales of Alderian savages torching the city to recruit more men as he marched back towards the north at a leisurely pace. There is no true winter near sea level in Terra, or anywhere in Eldonia for that matter so Verset had no fear of snowfall miring his army as they moved. Nevertheless, Verset halted his forces in a crucial defensive position at the Alamut Heights as winter approached, perfectly content to let Tyrus and Xarina come to him. And come they did, after a few weeks of resting Tyrus' army and gathering supplies in Sciravia the monarchs moved south to meet the Terran army at the heights.

The Eldonians had the numbers, an army of 54,000, strengthened by randomly selecting Terran prisoners and pressing them into service. On the other hand the Terrans had a major terrain advantage being atop the heights with their 40,000 troops. The Alamut Heights were characterized by a large, flat, 50 foot high plateau with a single path no more than 20 feet wide giving access to the top, furthermore this pathway is completely exposed to archers on the plateau. If the Eldonians attempted to charge up the pathway their numerical advantage would be completely withered away by fire from the plateau, and by the time they reached melee range the Terrans would still have the higher ground. However, the Alamut Heights' greatest strength was also their greatest weakness, the pathway was also the only way down, an army could hold at the base of the heights and starve out an army at the top without ever engaging them.

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