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The fall of the Essa Empire, more commonly referred to as the Chrysant War, was a five-year conflict between the Essa Empire and the Regalian Empire, at the end of the Regalian Pessimism. The war is called the Chrysant War in Regalia as Regalians have always associated the Hadar Archipelago with the Chrysant Flower, one that only grows on the southern continent, and that became a symbol of victory afterward. The war started with Regalian fleets invading the Essa Empire in the spring of 286 AC with fighting lasting until the autumn of 291 AC. The war is more commonly remembered by Alorians for the destruction of the Allar’s second homeland, the establishment of Ailor colonies in the far south and the mass genocide of the Slizzar that followed the official end of the war.
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| Historical Event | |
| Event Name | Chrysant War |
| Dates and Times | March 286 AC - April 291 AC |
| Location | Hadar |
| People Involved | Regalian Empire, Essa Empire |
Background
Starting in the late 260s, Regalia began to suffer a prolonged period of economic and moral declines, today referred to as the Regalian Pessimism. This period of two decades was dominated by a severe decrease in nationalist sentiment among Regalians, as well as the decline of the momentum of the Unionist faith. A series of weak Chancellors and Emperors brought the Empire into a steady decline, a far cry from the high days of Chancellor Vladimir Kade’s tenure. Politics and military decisions were largely overseen by the Regalian Senate, a bloated and corrupt body most came to rapidly dislike. The noble families themselves were severely politically fractured. Even the Kades weren’t on steady footing, only standing at a small minority in the Senate due to the rampant rise of the Iron Bulwark, a group lead by the heads of Houses Medavinci and Sangiovese. The Iron Bulwark more aggressively voiced their desire to wage holy wars on the lesser Races, believing the fervor for conflict would bring an end to the Regalian Pessimism and herald in a new era of hegemony. Despite Regalia’s considerable wealth and power, her actual political power in Aloria was not that much larger than its contemporaries, the Songaskian Masaya, and further south, the Sendrassian Empire. Eventually, the Emperor and Arch-Chancellor acceded, and the plan to wage war with external states was approved.
History
Choosing a Target
In Hadaria, the Essa Empire had just recently been formed by Empress Miko Missa, a Slizzar who had managed to charm the most powerful Digmaan into helping unite the various Chrysant Kingdoms into one large political entity. This nation was rapidly growing in geopolitical power, as well as in military means, thanks to this unification, particularly focusing on smaller naval vessels carrying Allar troops, ultimately combining alchemical knowledge with Slizzar cunning. Empress Miko Missa began to build up this military force for an invasion of her own. Miko Missa’s goal was to invade the Sendrassian Empire to the south of Hadaria in order to help start the restoration of the Allarian homeland they had been forced to leave over two centuries ago. It has never been determined whether Empress Miko Missa had any designs beyond Sendras to invade other nations. The Regalians, acting on the information of military buildup and on the aggressive urges of the Iron Bulwark, chose to invade the Essa Empire, as the Sendrassian Empire was too far away and the Songaskian Masaya was in a period of thriving power. The fleet set sail for Hadaria without the Essans even knowing, the invasion having been made without a declaration of war to maintain the element of surprise and the momentum.
The Fall of Osstissa
Osstissa was the northernmost Chrysant Kingdom (member state of the Essa Empire) and the one to bear the invasion at full force. It sat on a cluster of islands of what is now the north of the Alvaan Kingdom. The majority of the Regalian battle fleets descended on the coastlines of the smaller state, shelling cities and temples to complete ruin and destruction. The tactic chosen for the war by the Iron Bulwark had been one of annihilation and repopulation, the idea being to eradicate the Naylar population and resettle the lands with Regalian citizens. Within a week, the Kingdom of Osstissa was utterly eradicated, save for some citizens escaping into the jungles or by fishing boats; all cities were razed to the ground, and thousands of Allar and Slizzar died in the opening of the war. Empress Miko Missa was caught by surprise and attempted to mediate with Regalia in order to save her Empire from utter destruction. During this time of peace, the Senate refused to allow official attacks on Chrysant Kingdoms, resulting in many small unaffiliated settlements of Naylar being brutally purged and Allar troops skirmishing with the Regalian Navy in an attempt to fight back. By the spring of 287 AC, a truce was close to being reached between the Essa Empire and the Regalian Empire as the Dragons Faction and the Red Faction in the Senate were in favor of such a deal. Yet the Iron Bulwark remained adamant that the only acceptable victory would be that of complete surrender. Ultimately, it was Empress Miko Missa who retracted the branch of peace first, enraged by reports from her Chief Digmaan of these massacres and the destruction of Nessrassian temples. It is also likely that her Slizzar spies in the Regalian Empire were telling her of the atrocities being committed against both Races, and how the Iron Bulwark was likely to force a conflict anyway. The terms from the Regalians were also extremely harsh, and so the war continued in a much more dramatic fashion.
The Fall of Uesston, Allossa, and Ssesollosa
The short period after the collapse of peace negotiations saw the loss of many cities and kingdoms like Uesston, Allossa and Ssesollosa, at the hands of the Regalian forces. Similar tactics as had been used against Osstissa took place, though more direct resistance was offered by Allossa and Ssesollosa. Uesston had their capital located on an island and so the Imperial Navy surrounded and blockaded them into submission. In Allossa, the final point of major resistance, only a single attack was attempted against their mountain ridge capital before the Regalians employed another blockade, unable to bombard the clouded city. Ultimately, the capital of Barazzt surrendered itself when its Cro-Allar leader saw he was not going to get reinforcements. Ssesollosa, another kingdom,, put up far more of a fight. Several back and forth battles were fought over the capital, though it ultimately fell to the Regalians.
The enormous success of the Regalian Empire in their blazing campaign can be chalked up more to the failures of the Essa Empire. Their navy was made up of new, but mostly rudimentary ships armed with bows and arrows, being no match for Regalian cannons and ships that were years ahead in technology, despite many of them being almost a decade old themselves due to the stagnation of the Regalian Empire. Allar chemicals, while often devastating when deployed, were limited due to the complex methods of their creation. In addition, Regalian cannonballs could easily ignite and destroy vessels carrying the biological weapons into battle. On land, despite the huge size of the Essan military, the Cro-Allar commanders often surrendered without a single battle being fought, in the hopes it would save the people considering the devastation Regalian bombardments could inflict. The Slizzar leadership were slowly considered dark manipulators as many Slizzar officers, priests, and advisors melted away when the Allar needed them most, mainly due to their intrinsic need to survive. Ultimately, this would have dire consequences for the Slizzar, but for now, Regalia now began their final campaign.
The Final Campaign
Regalia’s victory had been assured early on in the war and much of the outcome of the battles validated that prediction. Back in Regalia, the war had indeed done what the Iron Bulwark had hoped. The Regalian Pessimism was rapidly coming to an end and was replaced by nationalist fervor for the war effort. Mothers gladly sent their sons off to war in the fleet, the victors returning with crowds cheering. The economy went back into overdrive as mining output increased every year, resulting in more employment and rising earnings among the artisans and craftsmen. Meanwhile, the Essa Empire was close to collapse. Regalia had carved a wide sea of destruction and often eradication, as the main fleet moved to the east before swinging back to the south of the island chain, to the Essa Empire’s capital of Fessa Huallo. The capital was nestled at the core of Hadar in what is now the East Hadar Cluster. Various Chrysant Kingdoms in the region which had not yet been attacked already started to surrender to the Regalians while others declared neutrality to try and escape the onslaught. This did nothing to deter the Regalians from sending rear fleets their way to subjugate these groups, though it can be argued it saved many Allar lives when compared to the alternative. By that time, in the minds of most Allar, the Slizzar had brought about this apocalypse, resulting in many attacks on the Slizzar populations in Allar and Regalian held territories.
The final battle of the Chrysant War was to be the Battle of Fessa Huallo, where the Regalians thought Empress Miko Missa was gathering a large fleet to strike back at Regalia. In truth, however, Empress Miko Missa was gathering a fleet to evacuate the city, loading the people onto as many civilian ships and fishing boats as she could find. When the Regalians arrived, they opened fire on the ships which they thought were warships. The ships did indeed return fire, as many of the ships had soldiers on them, in the hopes of sailing south and establishing a new base of operations on the north shores of Sendras or west, to the city of Ssasrakand. There were hundreds of ships in the harbors of Fessa Huallo and only forty Regalians warships strafing the horizon to open gunfire on the smaller vessels. Between the screams of terror and drowning Allar and Slizzar alike as harsh chemicals lashed their bodies, a few Allar war vessels raced forward to try and save their people by acting as a distraction for the civilian ships to get away, but to no avail. The ships were quickly dispatched and the slaughter continued. In an act of utter desperation, Empress Miko Missa used an ancient and unique Magic to summon Deep Sea Serpents, Slizzar gods made flesh, to the surface to aid their people. Four of these creatures surfaced near the battle and immediately descended on the Regalian war vessels. The first warship to shatter was the Calemberger Adler, followed by the Anglian Empress Crown and the Girobaldin Battaglia Girobalda and Claro Elessa. The sudden panic in the Regalian fleet caused the rear admirals to realign their ships around the Emperor’s flagship Julianus der Grosse and the Kade warship the Laridae II. The wall had no effect, as the largest of the snakes burst out from the sea below the Laridae II, ripping it in two and causing a huge gunpowder explosion that ironically enough also killed the sea snake itself. The Regalian war vessels started shooting at random around themselves, somehow managing to kill the two smaller snakes before the last one broke straight through the Calemberger Köning Frislau and the Vixhallian Sacre Vert, but fell short when the Imperial flagship opened a full 120 cannon barrage on the beast.
Only after the battle did Regalia fully realize they had destroyed a civilian fleet, a fact that was later well hidden from the Regalian population and quietly sanctified as a holy act of purging. When Regalian troops entered Fessa Huallo, Empress Miko Missa was promptly arrested (despite the attempts to save her) and she was beheaded at the top of one of the Slizzar temples by an Imperial Guard. The remaining inhabitants of Fesso Hualla were summarily executed, civilian or military, and the city was torched to the ground. In the aftermath of this, whatever Cro-Allar remained, either captured by Regalia or operating their own states out in wider Hadaria, were summoned to meet with the representatives of the Regalian Empire and a crushing peace deal was brokered between the two peoples. However, the Slizzar were not present. Having lost the war, and seeing that their experiment in opening themselves to the outside world had failed, those within the bounds of the former Essa Empire fled back to their holy city of Ssasrakand. Many were killed or abandoned by their Allar bodyguards and servants on the way there, but once within the city, they believed themselves to be safe. Unfortunately, this was not the case. As no Slizzar had accepted the peace treaty between their peoples, the Regalian Empire sought to enact further devastation on the Slizzar people. They would not just rob them of their empress, but also of their greatest and oldest city. The bombardment was long and the fight horrific but in the end, the Regalian Empire was unable to fully breach the city, the inner wall around the great pyramid and other buildings at the city’s core remaining strong (if not a bit shaken) by the withering fire pelted down upon it. The Empire turned away, and the Chrysant War formally came to an end.
Effects
One of the big events that Regalia did not foresee resulting from their attempt to destroy the city of Ssasrakand was the revenge of the Slizzar on Regalia. Deadly and simultaneously, Slizzar killers descended on the noble houses of Regalia when they were celebrating their victory, killing many nobles of both sexes, all ages and regardless of whether they contributed to the war or not. Overnight, Regalia lost a sizable chunk of its nobility and it is said to this day that nearly every family lost someone important, including the Kades and the Ivrae de Sanges. Despite this loss, however, the fire of Regalian nationalism had been rekindled and the state’s aggressive foreign policy was back in full swing. The political implications in Regalia turned against the Iron Bulwark, however, as the events of the war spelled an end to the bad reputation the Kade family was suffering from. Within a year following the war, the Kade family would gain ground in the Imperial Senate until it had enough power to disband it with the consent of the Emperor, thus officially bringing an end to the Regalian Pessimism in the eyes of many. In contrast, to the Allar the Chrysant War was both destruction and a wake-up call. The Soor-Rassa-Allar, which was ultimately held captive by Regalia for their political power, worked hard to show the Empire the value of the Allar as allies. Ultimately, this would come to succeed, and the Cro-Allar became unique for regaining control of much of their homeland.
That homeland, however, will largely remain scarred for decades as Regalian bombardment had deeply scarred the land while in the water, chemical pollutants from sunken Essan boats killed or corrupted certain wildlife. For the Slizzar, the war marked the lowest point in their history ever and proved to them that openness to the outside world was highly destructive. Most now view the Allar as a traitorous Race for turning on their masters and many more deeply hate the Regalian Empire for obvious reasons. In the aftermath of their great culling of the Regalian nobility, an event rarely discussed in the Regalian Empire as it is seen as a cataclysmic failure in national security and thus as an embarrassment, all Slizzar within the Regalian Empire returned to the city of Ssasrakand. This had the effect of suddenly opening the region up to new Slizzar, who moved in and replaced their now compromised brethren. Thus, things have slowly begun to return to normal, though these scars between Races will heal only if given the proper time.
Trivia
- The Sendrassian Empire shortly considered invading Hadar at the same time as Regalia, though when Regalia was clearly winning, the Void worshipping group backed down to conserve their power.
- To this day it is still not known how Empress Miko Missa managed to summon the Deep Sea Serpents. Whatever Magic she used has been lost with her death and those of her direct cult followers, all of whom were Slizzar. Some have taken to assume the Magic was Void-based, as Es-Allar dislike using such Magics, and oddly none of them were allowed into her cult despite their magical abilities.
- Many question how the invasion of the Essa Empire even took place considering how many Slizzar were within the Regalian Empire who likely would have warned their homeland of the attack. The most popular theory is that the hostile and secretive xenophobia of those noble families involved in much of the planning for the opening wave of attack prevented Slizzar operatives from understanding the true scale of the event until it was too late.
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