Renaren's Conquest of Horizon

Inspired by the reunification of Requiem at the hands of Eero Hengellen and troubled by tales of human oppression at the hands of The Aeturnum Elves, the legendary warlord Tron Renaren marshalled a force and marched northwards with the intent of reclaiming The Province of Horizon for humanity once again.
In 481, Renaren marched into the Oran Mountains with a force of nearly 10,000 fighting men under his banner. Their first major hurdle came at the Watchful Towers, a magical barrier the elves had erected when it became clear to them that humans had once again become keen on settling Horizon. Attempting a brute force assault would have seen vast swathes of his army incinerated at the barrier, and so Renaren adopted a strategy that would become his bread-and-butter of the campaign: Sabotage and Subterfuge. Renaren staged a feint assault on the barrier with just a fraction of his army to bait out a counter-attack. During the skirmish and quick retreat, friendly elves disguised themselves amongst the Aeturnum forces and snuck back into the towers along with their defenders. Once their, it was a simple matter of deactivating the barrier and allowing the whole host of Renaren's army to steamroll the elves remaining defenses.
From there, Renaren fortified in the newly settled town of Waypointe and the Towers. From there, he began a precise, surgical campaign of conquering the lowlands one stronghold at a time. The elves held a strong homefield advantage and Renaren knew marching his host en masse would result in a swift death by a thousand cuts. Instead, he sent out small parties to make contact with the human settlements living under elven rule. During this time, those settlements that survived The Antecean Empire's fall became vassals of the elves when they reclaimed the province. The elves treated them with little respect and saw them as nothing more than a huddled collection of quick-lived servants from whom they could levy resources and labor. Naturally, Renaren was able to easily find dissidents and disenfranchised who were willing to take up his banner and fight back. These local bannermen grew exponentially as Renaren's campaign continued to succeed and proved a vital ally in overcoming the elves' fortification in the region; providing intel on elven strongholds, patrol patterns, and areas of influence as well as engaging in asymmetrical warfare on Renaren's behalf.
In just a few years time, Renaren was able to establish a strong presence in the Gleanlands. However, the elves still had sizeable forces within the city of Lar'Nimloth (later called Crucible) and Luma Forest, both of which would prove insurmountable in a direct attack. However, in the open fields between these two strongholds, Renaren's forces were on more equal footing. The next two years of the conflict consisted of the heaviest toll on Renaren's campaign as he painstakingly marched his army around the perimeter of Luma Forest to the northern banks of Lake Aberren, enduring consistent hit-and-run attacks from the elves all along the way. However, the tide changed once they reached the lake. There, they built a fort and a harbor on the spot that would become Fendelen. In addition, they were able to construct a small fleet of warships to patrol the shores of the lake and deny the elves passage of their own, as this is how they would have deployed troops to aid in the defense of Lar'Nimloth had Renaren's forces attempted a siege.
With his flank secured, Renaren turned his attention to Lar'Nimloth and discovered a fatal flaw. When the elves reclaimed the city from Antecea, they constructed a series of tunnels beneath the city, including access points outside of the city walls intended to be escape routes or a means by which to counterattack a siege. Unfortunately, Renaren was able to wrest the secrets of these tunnels from spies and elven turncoats. As Renaren's army marched on the city's gates, the elves prepared their defenses for a lengthy siege, but much to their dismay, the gates flew open upon Renaren's arrival thanks to his infiltrators. In order to avert a bloodbath, the elven Queen Haeva surrendered the city without a fight and led a mass exodus back to the elves' last remaining bastion of Mir'Heled.
With the city that Renaren dubbed Crucible secured and the elves having retreated far into the mountains, Renaren's campaign came to a successful conclusion. In the following years, he divvied out land to his most influential generals and advisors, establishing such cities as Azure, Fendelen, and River Run. This kingdom came to be known as Renaria and was ruled by Renaren's dynasty for many generations before his line was ultimately ousted. However, in 1217 EP, his line came back into power as Dorian Havik led a campaign very much in the same vein as his forbearer to reclaim the city of Crucible from a malignant king with the aid of a powerful adventuring party.

Start Date

481 EP

Ending Date

493 EP