The Freedom War

The Freedom War was a conflict between the rebel organization known as The Astorian Pact and the oppressive Adamant Empire. What began as only a minor inconvenience to the Empire evolved steadily into guerilla warfare and then all-out war over the course of a few years.

Guerilla warfare

Once The Astorian Pact came together and began to get their feet under them, they started sending out feelers; testing the boundaries of the Imperial defenses. This began as no more than scouting forays, trying to gauge how well-defended the Empire's trade caravans were. Once they'd spent a month or so watching and learning, they began setting ambushes for these caravans all over Astoria, hitting them hard and fast and leaving little time for the Imperial guards to react.
With each ransacked caravan, more supplies and intel were gathered, and more Imperial slaves and "criminals" were freed, bolstering the Pact's ranks even further. Slowly, over the course of the next year, the Pact grew stronger and more bold. Eventually, their preparations came to a head with the Battle of Roseford.

The Battle of Roseford

The first official skirmish of the Freedom War, the Battle of Roseford was the Pact's first real attempt at taking and holding an imperial outpost. The Pact troops surrounded the small outpost in what is known today as Aseria in the dead of night, taking the imperial troops by surprise. Even so, the Imperials put up a hard fight, entrenched as they were behind their fortifications. In the end, it was a costly battle for the Pact, but a necessary one. Though they lost many troops in the skirmish, they learned much about both the Imperial defenses and their style of combat. The victory proved to themselves and the world exactly what the Astorian Pact was capable of, and that it was possible to defeat the Empire.

All Along the Watchtowers

After the victory at Roseford, the Pact continued to hold and maintain their fortifications at the outpost, using it as a staging ground for their training, recruitment, and assaults on other outposts in the region. With a concrete location now available for the Pact, freed prisoners, slaves, and Empire-branded criminals flocked to these outposts in droves, and the Pact's numbers swelled. In addition, holding Roseford gave the Pact a solid strategic advantage, as it was the only major crossing of the Ophidian River, allowing the pact to control major trade routes in the area.

As their numbers continued to increase, and their military prowess became more and more well-known, the Pact began to expand their reach, assaulting and holding similar outposts across Astoria, further increasing their numbers and supplies. As their number of followers grew into the tens of thousands, the Pact leaders realized, with a little training and discipline, they might just stand a chance against a full scale assault from the Empire. Hoping to get ahead of this possibility, they began to prepare their own assault on a larger scale. Their first target was another major trade location in what is today known as Aseria: Wildelyn.

The Battle of Wildelyn

The first major large-scale military conflict between the Pact and the Empire, The Battle of Wildelyn was a long and bloody engagement. The Pact, having split their forces and surrounded the city on all sides, began the assault by swarming each of the city's four gates. The Imperials, who had been well-prepared for the attack thanks to both their spy network and close proximity to the Pact's largest staging ground at Roseford, easily fought back the first wave of attackers, kicking down their ladders and scalding them with molten tar.

After sounding the retreat and falling back to beyond ballistae range, the Pact lay siege to the city, licking its wounds while hoping to force the Imperials into a weakened state. The Imperials, however, had plenty of rations stored away, and what they did not have, they commandeered from the city's populace. Realizing their mistake, and not wanting to cause any further suffering to the city's innocents, the Pact changed up its strategy once again, deciding to show their hand a bit earlier than expected.

For months, Jelna and Abraxos had been working on a new type of siege weapon, one that did not require a large arm to travel long distances. Rather, this weapon only required careful placement and protection as it was carried. The slightest misstep could prove disastrous for anyone in a 100-foot radius. To counteract these drawbacks, the Pact sent a small team to stealth up to the wall between two gates, burying Jelna's explosive device just under the surface at the base of the wall.

The next morning, they amassed a large portion of their troops on the opposite side of the city, hoping to focus most of the Imperial defenders there. They gave the Imperials one final chance to surrender, and were laughed away from the parley. As the two sides reached their respective lines, the command was given and a massive explosion ripped through the wall of the city. Their ploy had worked, and the assault resumed, this time finding much more success. Within hours, the city was completely under Pact control, and the citizens were free.

All-out War!

Once the Pact had claimed victory at Wildelyn, they set about making it their base of operations, increasing its defenses and repairing the damage they inflicted on the city. With the Pact's banners flying proudly above the city, thousands more fresh recruits joined their cause, flocking to the city and clogging its streets. Eventually, they had to be stationed around the outside of the city, as there simply wasn't enough room for all the troops within the city's walls. With this, the Pact truly began to establish a foothold against the Empire. But the Imperials were far from ready to give up on Wildelyn.

As they finalized fortifications throughout the city, the Pact's scouts reported signs of a large contingent of Empire troops moving from the regional capital of Ristarron. Scrambling to finish repairs and fortifications while simultaneously formulating a battle plan, the Pact leaders prepared for their toughest challenge yet: full-scale warfare. Siege engines were hastily recconstructed and rearmed under Jelna and Abraxos' watchful eyes. Troops were put through last-minute drills in preparation for the coming conflict.

By the time the dust cloud from the approaching army could be seen, the Pact's forces were ready and waiting for them. As the Imperial army came into view, it saw for the first time the strength of its opponent. Tens of thousands of free Astorians stood ready to fight - and die - for that freedom. Without letting the enemy army get into position, the ballistae, catapults, and trebuchets launched a full barrage against them, decimating the front lines. So began the largest conflict of the Freedom War to date: the Battle of the Plains.

Not expecting such a strong and sizeable defense, the Empire's forces were easily routed, a lesson they would not soon forget. But this major victory bolstered the hopes of both the Pact and Astorians everywhere, causing even more followers to flock to the Pact's banner. Several other major battles took place across Astoria as the world erupted into all-out war between the two sides:

Conflict	Type	Location	Result	Pact Losses	Empire Losses
Battle of the Plains	Land	Aseria	Pact Victory	10 percent	70 percent
Battle of the Cauldron	Land/Air	Greenshire	Close Pact Victory	60 percent	70 percent
The Burning of Mellryn-dor	Naval/Air	Mellryn-dor	Pact Victory	20 percent	60 percent
Assault on Valkyra	Naval	Valkyra	Empire Victory	80 percent	20 percent
The Rout of Karag'faern	Land	Karag'faern	Empire Victory	80 percent	10 percent
Battle of the Drakes	Air	Draconia	Empire Victory	100 percent	20 percent
Blockade of Orcport	Naval/land	Orkul	Pact Victory	30 percent	100 percent
Battle of the Steppe	Land	Ironsteppe	Pact Victory	20 percent	100 percent
Second Assault on Valkyra	Naval/land	Valkyra	Pact Victory	30 percent	80 percent
Slaughter in the Swamp	Naval/air	Argon	Pact Victory	10 percent	100 percent

Other, smaller battles took place around each region, but it was these larger battles that were the deciding factor for each area of the world.

Taking the Isle

With the Pact's victory in Argon, the The Adamant Empire was effectively crippled. Losing control on all fronts - even in Draconia (albeit slowly), its second-strongest region next to Mirre - the Empire's troops were retreating to The Adamantine Isle, shoring up their defenses and preparing for the Pact's inevitable assault. With the Empire right where they wanted it, the Pact indeed set about planning for the final strike: an assault on Theogonia, the very heart of the Empire.
In order to have even a remote chance of capturing Theogonia, the Pact first had to establish a foothold. As their first chosen target on the continent was the Twin Sentinels, they split their forces and established two beachheads, one north of Fornarmen, and one south of Tirnarmen. This allowed them to attack the Twin Sentinels simultaneously in one sweeping pincer movement. Actually taking the Sentinels would still be no easy feat, despite this, but the Pact pressed on. And so began what would later be known as the Battle of the Twin Sentinels.

Battle of the Twin Sentinels

The two keys to the Pact's victory in this battle were stealth and speed. Each sentinel tower held a mechanism to raise the Gate of the Sentinels - the enormous adamantine chains that stretched across The Iron Strait between the two towers, preventing all naval access to the Sea of the Watchers. If this "gate" was raised before (or worse, while) the Pact's naval forces sailed through, the battle would quickly be lost. Two small teams would need to infiltrate each city, aiming to disable the gate mechanism in each tower. If they were found, the alarm would be raised and the gate would be shut.

The north team, led by Virk Gagash, quickly managed to sneak into the city disguised as a group of slavers heading to market with their "wares." Once they were in, they quickly discarded their guises and stuck to the shadows, clambering over the walls and taking out the northern sentinel's defenders. The south team consisted of only one man - or rather, one goliath. Once Virk sent up a burst of golden flame into the night sky above the north sentinel - the predetermined signal - Lo-kag Horncarver loaded himself into one of the Pact's catapults and launched himself over the walls of the city. Before he could become a greasy smear on the side of the southern sentinel, however, Lo-Kag opened a small package that Jelna Minwise had given him. Immediately, a mountain of canvas erupted from it, slowing his descent and allowing him to float silently over the unsuspecting Imperials. Not one for stealth, Lo-kag cut the cords that held him to the canvas, and tore into the Imperials, quickly taking control of the southern sentinel, and using a special magical rod to send a second burst of golden sparks into the air.
Already on high alert after the first flare, the twin cities went into lockdown with the second, but by then it was too late. As the Pact's forces swarmed the gates of both cities, their naval vessels sailed out of the night and through the Iron Strait, pummeling both cities from the water. Beset from practically all sides, their main naval defense gone, the remaining Imperials quickly surrendered both cities, and the Pact had it's foothold. It's longest, most arduous challenge yet, however, had yet to begin.

The Gauntlet of the Watchers

While not technically a battle in the traditional sense, The Gauntlet of the Watchers is still considered the longest engagement of The Freedom War, by far. Over the course of 7 days and nights, the Pact sailed through the Oron'armen - The Sea of the Watchers, so named for the series of towering statues that loomed out of the sea at regular intervals across the body of water. As the Pact sailed past each statue, its magical defenses activated, and it assaulted the passing ships in one varying form or another. Where one watcher's eyes might light up and launch fireballs at the passing ships, another might come to life completely and attempt to crush them beneath its stone boot. The Pact vessels fought back, but ultimately their best strategy was to attempt to outrun the giant stone terrors. This seemed to work best, as each watcher had a limited range, settling back into a dormant state once the ships had sailed sufficiently far away from it. Finally, as the last watcher went dormant behind them, the ships sailed into view of the second layer of Theogonia's defenses: an intertwining waterway of various controlled levels, commonly referred to as The Locks.

The Battle of the Locks

The major challenge the Pact faced here was gaining access to each level of The Locks. Before them they faced a series of five stone steps carved out by the Empire. Access to each step was granted via a section of the step that could be closed off entirely around a vessel, allowing the water level inside to be raised or lowered as necessary. In order for the Pact to reach Theogonia, they would need to gain access to each step and maintain control of it, allowing each of their ships to rise to the next level. Luckily, by this time Lo-Kag Horncarver's heroism at the Twin Sentinels had spread like wildfire among his fellow goliaths, and many of them were eager to attempt to replicate (or, if possible, surpass) his daring feat. Soon the skies above the first step were filled with flying barbarians, bellowing a mixture of war cries, bloodlust, and pure terror as they hurtled through the air. Completely baffled by this simply indefensible strategy, the Imperials on the first step fell quickly, and the Pact's vessels began the slow process of riding the water level up. Unfortunately, many of the goliaths were injured in this attempt, mostly due to the fact that they had forgotten to release their parachutes. Successful though the attempt was, they would either need time to recover or a different strategy entirely to proceed upward. In addition, the element of surprise had been exhausted, and the Imperial defenders began readying ballistae and catapults for the goliaths' next flight through the air. The next few days saw a stalemate, with neither side showing any attempt at taking or regaining control.
Fortunately, Jelna spent those few days engulfed in more research, and came out the other side with a new type of substance that, when applied to the bottoms of the feet, allowed the wearer to walk up the surface of a wall as if it were level ground. Soon, she was mass producing this substance (which she named "Spider-goop" and which today's artificers utilize in many "Spider Climb" magical items), and handing it out to every soldier who would volunteer to climb up the stone face of the next step and assault the lock controls. This worked surprisingly well, despite the Imperial defenders resorting to anti-siege tactics and pouring boiling tar and hurling debris and projectiles down at the climbers. Soon four of the five steps had been conquered, and the Pact's vessels were slowly making their way to the top level. At this point, all Imperial defense had been focused on the final step, making it impossible for the Pact to gain any ground utilizing the two previous strategies.
It was then that Arthan Euralus provided the solution. Throughout the battles at the Sentinels, across the Oron'armen, and up the Locks, he had been locked away in his cabin on the Pact's flagship, The Chainbreaker, attempting to further untangle the secrets of magic the Empire had kept locked away. Now, he emerged, the light of victory in his eyes. Raising his hands, he unleashed a rain of fire and destruction upon the defenders on the last step above them, massive flaming rocks crashing into the siege weapons and throwing hapless defenders flying over the edge. This gave the Pact's climbers the window they needed to reach the top and overtake the defenders completely. And with that, the Pact had overcome the second fabled impenetrable layer of Theogonia's defenses, and before them lay the Oron'ende - The Neverending Sea. And beyond that, just over the horizon, they got their first glimpse of the spires of Theogonia.

Fall of the Emperor

As the full might of the Pact sailed ever closer to Theogonia across the Oron'ende, they began formulating their plan of attack. The capital of The Adamant Empire was ancient, its walls fabled for never falling to a single enemy attack. In addition, the magical wards around the city would prevent any kind of aerial assault, as had worked so well in previous battles. The Pact pact leaders knew that a full frontal assault would be pointless. Fortunately, Therival Liadron had a plan.
Therival had spent the majority of the war in Theogonia, working as the Pact's eyes and ears inside the Empire capital, providing what information he could gather to his allies on the outside. In addition, Therival had been quietly gathering together elves inside the city he could trust, in case a military force would be needed on the inside. Therival's plan was to sneak a small group of Pact forces into the city through the sewers while the main strength of their army assaulted the city gates as a distraction. Then, with the aid of his elven allies within the city, he would lead the group directly to the Emperor's throne to confront him. This plan would require a portion of the Pact leadership to be a part of this team, with the remainder leading the assault outside the city. Lo-kag Horncarver immediately volunteered to lead the exterior assault, with Jelna and Abraxos vowing to maintain a steady bombardment with their siege engines and magic. The remainder of the leadership - Lilliana, Arthan, Brandric, Torogg, Virk, Xior, and Arashk - readied themselves for their incursion into the city. And so began The Battle of Theogonia.

The Battle of Theogonia

As the assault began, the incursion party silently slipped away, stealthily approaching the spot indicated as their entrance point by Therival. As they huddled in the shadow of the city walls, they spotted it: a small sewage outlet pipe just barely large enough to crawl through. Following Therival's directions, they made their way through the maze-like corridors of the ancient city's sewer system, dealing with no small amount of larger-than-average sewer-dwelling creatures along the way. Finally, they made it to the exit, clambering out to find themselves in the northernmost part of the city, directly in the shadow of the Emperor's palace. Therival was there waiting for them with a large contingent of loyal elven followers. As they stopped to catch their breath, Therival explained that they would need to remain as stealthy as possible until they reached the main gate to the palace. There was no other way in: they would need to fight past the guards at the front gate. Luckily, the Emperor's arrogance led him to a false sense of security, certain that no one could breach the boundaries of his city unnoticed. Therefore, there was only a small group of guards stationed here. The plan was simple: take out the guards at the main gate, and Therival's elven allies would take their armor and their place, preventing any additional reinforcements from heading into the palace after them. They gathered their courage and pressed forward to the gate of the palace. The guards there were taken completely by surprise, and put up very little resistance. Therival's loyalists quickly donned their armor and took their place manning the gate, while the incursion party stepped into the dark interior of the Emperor's palace.

Making their way as quickly and quietly as they could, following Therival's memory of the place, they made their way through the high, arching corridors of the Palace, shushing terrified servants and slaves and dispatching any guards they came upon. Finally, they approached the enormous doors to the Emperor's throne room. Pausing one last time to gather their courage, they pushed open the doors and stormed into the room. What they found was not a feeble old man, as many believed the Emperor to be. Rather, they faced a strong, healthy, dark sorcerer grown powerful from a thousand years of consuming the innocent souls of his "citizens." Korbal Broach, Eternal Emperor of The Adamant Empire, had spent almost a millenium gathering his strength by using his dark necromancy to absorb the lifeforce of those who displeased or disobeyed him. Not only was he strong, healthy, and powerful - he was waiting for them. As they entered the throne room, he waved a hand, almost as if in greeting, and the giant doors slammed shut behind them, disappearing as they melded into the stone walls. There was no going back now. They were trapped.

The Final Battle

A fierce battle ensued, the Pact leaders on one side, and Broach on the other, facing them on his own and holding his own in spite of this. Cackling madly, he unleashed wave after wave of unfathomable necrotic power at them, throwing them around the room and practically destroying the throne room in the process. Finally, Therival and Xior were able to wield their divine powers like a shield, allowing their allies to get close to Broach and attack him directly. But the Emperor hadn't sat idle for the last thousand years. Even in melee combat, he was still a ferocious swordsman, steadily holding off any attack that came his way. Eventually, however, the heroes were able to land a series of solid strikes, and the Emperor fell to his knees. Outside the city, as the Emperor's power was diverted entirely to the fight in his throne room, the city's magical defenses wavered and fell, allowing the Pact's main force to swarm into the city, overwhelming the exterior wall's defenders. But the fight was far from over. The incursion team watched in horror as, cackling maniacally, Broach unleashed the remainder of his power into a massive explosion of necrotic energy, sapping the energy out of them and causing the entire building to shake and tremble as its structural integrity was severely compromised. Broach himself disappeared from view under a mountain of falling stone, and the heroes scrambled out of the building through the now crumbled throne room walls, barely escaping with their lives.

As the Palace collapsed in on itself, the entire city paused, as if holding its breath. Then, as the dust settled and the Imperial troops saw their Emperor's seat of power destroyed, they immediately surrendered the city. The remainder of the Pact's army swept into the city, disarming Imperial troops and freeing slaves and servants wherever they were found. After almost five years of worldwide war, The Astorian Pact had done the impossible: The Adamant Empire had been defeated. Astoria was free.

Start Date

5 Thryssal, 1025 IE

Ending Date

27 Thelisdren, 1029 IE

Conflict Result

The Adamant Empire defeated; Astoria Freed