history

[snowywolf]

• Born in Ellvaldez/Ellvaldezberg, an incredibly cold mountainous region with infertile soil and a duchy in the Balt-Rhein Empire, on the continent of Rumeliana. People often either freeze or starve to death in Ellvaldez, particulary during winter. Winter in Ellvaldez lasts much longer than winter in the rest of the Empire, and lasts for half of every year.

• Met Lelederik, The Baltic Empire's emperor Goldbatl XI's niece, at a young age, when she was sent to Ellvaldez to govern in place of her deceased father and brother(s). She is called the "Prince" of Ellvaldez. They befriended each other, though most people find that weird because their friendship is a little weird.
• Became a member of the Ellvaldez army, and Lelederik's right hand man. They quarrel a fair bit. The troops are used to seeing that.

• Year 529, the Imperial Calendar, there is a big war between the Balt-Rhein Empire and the Türkiye Stratocracy.

• Year 451,the Imperial Calendar, a Balt-Rhein minister on inspection is killed at the border to Türkiye, shot with an arrow with Türkiye's emblem on it. Finance Minister Louis had planned for it to lead to war between the two nations as not everyone in Balt-Rhein wanted war, but that plan failed because of the newly instated Pasha, Tughril Mahmut, the Golden Eagle General.

• Same year, during Türkiy'es spring festival, the Arba tribe (a nomad tribe driven from their homeland 100 years ago by Türkiye, now mostly living as citizens of the Empire), together with members of the Röd Orm cult, disguise themselves as a circus troop and infiltrate the border city Hisar, and, by Minister Louis' design, take the families of the Hisar soldiers hostage. At the same time, Lelederik's army, consisting of 10'000 men, are a day away, under the excuse of training, when they in reality are there waiting for the signal to attack and take Hisar for the Empire. Hisar is declared an independent city by the soldiers whose families are captive, and they become seen as rebels by Türkiye. Zaganos Pasha, Vizier and manager or the first province, where Hisar is located, rides for Hisar and lay siege to the fortress city. Hisar is an important location, so Türkiye can't afford to let it fall into Balt-Rhein's hands. For the same reason, Balt-Rhein wants it. A whole colony of Araba clansmen, numbering over 40'000, approach Hisar, and hinder Zaganos' from taking action. As Zaganos' forces reach Hisar first, Lelederik has lit a beacon to tell Minister Louis that. Zaganos reaching Hisar that quickly was not part of Minister Louis' plans. One of Minister Louis' underlings, a Röd Orm member, orders them to wait for Louis' orders. As both Lelederik and Gralat wants to fight, Gralat suggest they just kill the Röd Orm member and let the battles begin. The next day, something happens inside the fortnress; Mahmut Pasha freed the hostages and gave the governor of Hisar a chance to open the gates to Zaganos and ask for help and surrender. That means that Minister Louis' plan has failed. Lelederik orders Gralat to tell Minister Louis about the death of the Röd Orm member and aplogize, she thinks he should tell him he was drunk "or something" but he doesn't want to do that because he doesn't want to face Minister Louis' wrath. Instead, Gralat coems up with the idea of crushing the Röd Orm member with rocks and say his death was accidental. They cover up the death and then retreat.

• Some time after the Hisar Uprising, Lelederik ald Gralat goes to meet the Emperor. Goldbalt XI tells her to keep her playing to a minimum, and that if the Empire doesn't act as a whole, they will only invite the unbridled agression of their neighbors. He also warns that if she becomes too much of a tomboy, she'll never find someone to marry her, which pisses her off. Lelederik and Gralat dine with Minister Louis after their audience, and she says that they want to go "outside" already. Her words implies how Minister Louis' previous plan with Hisar had failed and they didn't get to fight. The two are told by the minister that the plan failed because of the spy network that Zaganos has built over the entire continent. Louis has Röd Orm taking care of the spies.

• Five years ago, the Empire initiated a friendly treaty with the port city-state Saros, and Saros's economy grew more dependent on the Empire. The Centro fleet that the Empire spent the last five years building finally launched. Under the guse of a courtesy visit to Saros' king, they staged an incursion.

• Two months later, the fleet, with Gralat and Lelederik aboard, arrive at Phoenicia, a city state that has not been occupied by enemy troops for over 3'000 years, and Gralat, appearing as a foreign dignitary, delivers a message to the senate on behalf of the empire. (On his way to meet with the senate, Gralat passes Mahmut, who is also in the city, though Gralat only notes that he's from the Stratocracy of Türkiye. The message is a proposition, asking that Phoenicia cede to Balt-Rhein and become a military port for their imperial fleet. He says that he will return in ten days for their answer. Although he is offered the best lodging the city can provide, he returns to the ship to stay there.

• Phoenicia does not agree to the Empire's terms, so it comes to war. Lelederik has been promised half of the tax revenue if she were to take the port city and make Phoenicia an imperial territory, and she needs that money for Ellvaldez.

• Gralat is given command of the fleet (Lelederik commands it too, but at the start she is terribly seasick). Upon the 15th day of the siege, they have attacked with four waves. They try to get in through the harbor mouth, which is covered by thick chains, by the land side wall, and the sea side wall. It's not a successful attack for the longest time. The troops are more scared of Gralat than of the enemy, as he has ordered any deserters to be shot dead on sight. The 16th night though, he sinks the lookout boat and allows a small boat with some deserters get away, and Phoenicia, to show that other deserters that deserters from the empire side will be allowed inside as he expects that a fair number of the soldiers are displeased with the Empire, the chains in front of the harbor mouth are lowered to let them in. Gralat takes the chance to get a ship emptied of all ballast into the harbor, and for the first time in 3'000 years Phoenicia's defence have been breached. Inside, their ship is crashed into by a smaller ship, and they are attacked by Mahmut and a small number of Phoenicians. Mahmut has them injured and captured, but as Gralat and his men fight for Ellvaldez and their people's survival, Gralat continues fighting his broken wrist and other injuries and hurts Mahmut, and fights to prolong the battle as long as possible.

• The 15th night, Lelederik and her men have made it around to the back of Phoenicia, and climb the steep and deadly Cliffs of Crystal to get inside. The 16th night they take the upper parts of the city, and Phoenicia is forced to surrender. The fleet was merely a distraction, though she was supposed to take the city faster, so Gralat is pissed that she's late. In taking the city, Lelederik lost nearly all of her 10'000 men, only about 1'000 remain. Lelederik kills both the Magistros and the Kaesar of the city. After the battle, Gralat's arm is in a sling for some time.

• In the 451st year of the imperial calendar, on the 29th day of the 5th month, Phoenicia initiates a full surrender to the Balt-Rhein Empire. They fought for 17 days.

• 13 days after the fall of Phoenicia, a special assembly is held in Türkiye. The slultans of all the stratocracies that makes up the Great Türkiye Council are there. The assembly is to prepare a response to the recent aggressopns of the Empire. The proposition of Türkiye is that they begin the transition to the wartime system of Greater Türkiye, which is a unified Türkiye. The sultans vote on it, and for the first time since the createion, the other four stratocracies vote against Türkiye's wishes. This is all according to Minister Louis' plans, meant to, in the long run, help the Empire take over Türkiye. Howevevr, with the assistance of Mahmut, the four stratocracies gets new sultans and Greater Türkiye starts to transition toward the wartime system anyway. But that didn't matter, even with the four sultans gone. The civil war, however short, meant that Türkiye had suffered a blow and had lost a fair amount of soldiers, giving a good opportunity for Balt-Rhein to strike. The most oppurtune moment would be in the autumn, once Salos sends them their shipment of wheat.

• That wheat, however, does not get delivered as it should, because Venedik purchasede all the Salos wheat at five times its market value. The news reach Louis while he is at a ball, which Lelederik and Gralat are also attending. After failing to forcefully claim the wheat fails, Lelederik and Gralat are sent to Venedik to negotiate a ceasefire. They are able to get hold of the wheat, but their ship is sunk by pirates, because for one whole day, no Venedik patrol ships were sailing Centro. This because they wanted the Balt-Rhein ship to be attacked, but in a way that the Balt-Rhein couldn't prove it. And, like pirates, Balt-Rhein did try to steal the wheat. Gralat and Lelederik get to both take a swim, and worry about Minister Louis' reaction when they get back. Balt-Rhein has made an enemy of Venedik, the Queen of Centro.

• Year 452, the second month, the Salos-Phoenicia channel is blocked off, hindering anyone the Balt-Rhein Empire doesn't want to pass from passing. The same day, Türkiye, Venedik, and the Urado Kingdom, formed the anti-empire Tripartite Military Alliance. Balt-Rhein also started their invasion of Scoglio.

• At the beginning of the fourth month, Balt-Rhein lays siege to the city-state Chielo. They ambush and defeat one of Türkiye's more experienced Pashas, Halil Pasha. Meanshile, at the Balt-Rhein's Imperial Capital's amphitheatre, Gralat takes part in a tournament that Minister Louis and Lelederik watches. He goes to the finals and likely wins. During it they discuss the 13th batallion, which is to thank for defeating Halil Pasha.

• After Halil's defeat, Türkiye leaves Chielo to Mahmut, who defeats the forces the Empire had there. Meanshile, with Zaganos at the front, Türkiye deploys an army to invade Balt-Rhein and take their capital. On the way there, one after another, Zaganos makes the invaded territories that they pass through to turn against Balt-Rhein. The Salos-Phoenica blockade is broken, which means that the tax revenue from Phoenicia doesn't reach Ellvaldez.

• Zaganos helps all the captured kingdoms in the former Rhein territory to claim independence, except the last one, which is taken by force by Venedik, according to Zaganos' plans. Thus the Empire lost the omnly naval station.

• A month after new year, Zaganos, Mahmut, and their troops, reach Murs and St. Michael, the Balt-Rhein capital, and proceed to lay siege to Murs.

• Lelederik marries Count Meissner of Balt's Schneesturm, for the sake of Ellvaldez. After the marriage has ben consummated in front of witnesses, and she is properly the wife of the Meissner, Gralat kills her husbands brothers, and she threatens to kill her husband as well if he doesn't give her command over his cavalry. In the first place, she married the man to save Ellvaldez and the Empire. As she has less than 1'000 Ellvaldez soldiers left and her territory is really impoverished, she needs all the things her husband's territory can provide her, and she doesn't need him to stay alive.

• Phoenicia is freed from the imperial clutches by Venedik, and Ellvaldez completely loses any claim to the taxes.

• The siege to the fortress of Murs, the ultimate defense of the capital St Michael, continues. He defeats several of the defending forces. Minister Louis had planned in case of such a scenario, and had sent Lelederik and her troops to go around through a length of underground tunnels, to ambush Zaganos. She even had flares sent up to inform Minister Louis that she would arrive at Murs in three days with her new troops. However, she does not show up.

• Zaganos had known that she would come by way of the tunnels and shut them down, however, she actually didn't head for St. Michael at all. Instead, she had taken her troops with her toward Türkiye, and overrun the Urado cavalry guarding the Türkish border, and marched on the Bicak Stratocracy capital city, Müchever. The Sud army, leftovers from the failed siege of Chielo, had joined up with her and her troops amounts to at least 44'000 men. The plan is to take down the Türkiye Stratocracy's capital, Altin. They take Müchever, as, at the time, the sultan is away, and there are fewer people to defend the city and fewer commanders. Nobody would have thought to cross the very steep Ayna Mountains in winter, because it's crazy thing to do, but the Ellvaldez troops are not normal.

• Lelederik takes another city. The troops belonging to the four sultans intercept them on the way to Altin, and they are all after Lelederik's head as she is the commander. Lelederik's forces intend to take the sultans heads, so they can continue toward Altin. It if a race to see who thaks whos capital first.

• The biggest shock on the battlefield thus far is when Türkiye firest their newly invented cannon at the Balt-Rhein forces. It had been used for the first time against Murs, but the troops from the empire fighting within Türkiye had not been present for that. Ayse, the guardian to Kemal Sultan, goes for Lelederik's head, but is attacked by Empire troops, and saved by Orhan Sultan's troops. Lelederik is attacked by Ismail Sultan's mercenaries, but she cuts the ones that come for her down. After that some officers from trhe Sud army goes for Ismail Sultan, and when he retreats his horse falls and lands partially on him. When they are about to reach Ismail, the cannon which was designed by a bell maker, makes loud bell noises that startles the imperial horses, and throws them off. Ismail manages to get back up on a horse and away from the imperial soldiers. He shouts out words that makes the imperial soldiers think that they have fallen into a trap, but Lelederik calls their bluff and says that their retreat as proof. The Türkiye forces retreat towards Altin. While the imperial soldiers pursus the fleeing sultans, Gralat is told to stop the noise, so he steals a horse and goes to do so, ordering those of the Ellvaldez troops that can move to come with him. Gralat reaches the location of the cannons, and takes down the people that had remained to ring the cannon, and lastly strikes Beyazit Sultan. As he is about to tand the killing blow on Beyazit, Gralat is mauled by Beyazit's tiger Al-Sakal.

• Gralat fights off the tiger, and Beyazit turns on a dam that starts flooding the chamber the cannons are in. Gralat leaves, taking the sultans hat with him since he can't take his head along.

• He meets up with Lelederik and they reach Altin, where they display various heads and the hat.

• When the Divan, the leading council of Türkiye, refuse to open the gate, Gralat goes to capture some of the countrys nomads and brings them back to camp. The nomads are executed in front of the Altin walls.

• The attack commences.