Founding of Andaria

Founding

The Gold Dragon, disguised as a human, Armior unifies the city states and petty kingdoms within the Shieldwall Mountains and is coronated as Andaria's first king.

After the depopulation of the lands north of the Shieldwalls from plague and the subsequent fall of the northern kingdom of Galiniad, Armior, a gold dragon with an unusual sense of foresight predicted the inevitable rise of goblinoids in the region without anyone or anything to protect the lands. Knowing the rapidity of goblinoid breeding, it seemed inevitable that the petty kingdoms and city states in the lands within the Shieldwall Mountains would be overrun without any unifying force.   Armior set out to unify the lands under a single banner with the purpose of protecting the realms of men from the goblinoid threat. Being a minor noble in the city of Candorn he only had a small force of 100 men at arms he began planning with his friend Aren Swiftleaf (an accomplished hunter and warrior being the only man to be privy to Armior's true identity). Convincing Aren of the need to unify the region into a nation, Aren swore an oath to support Armior to that end until it was complete. On 09 Apr 4470 he took his 100 men and seized the city keep from Glantil, a deeply unpopular and highly corrupt king. In an entirely bloodless coup, the fruits of months of planning, the local watch and the kings army pledged their allegiance to Armior after the seizure of the keep and treasury.   In possession of the city of Candorn, Armior wasted no time in consolidating his power. By removing the more corrupt nobles from their positions and freeing up significant amounts of gold to be reinvested into the local economy he gained almost absolute support from the common people of the city. With a military strength of five hundred men at arms and ten mages his force was still far too small to directly assault the city state of Highbridge to the north or the Kingdom of Eddair to the west Armior looked to securing the important farmland to his immediate east to provide the means to feed an army potentially besieging a city and trade for required goods.   Six months after sending two hundred troops into the countryside to the east, an orc band that had previously been taking "tribute" from the local farms emerged from the woods and were shocked to discover a military force had moved into the region. The orcs attack was disorganized and broke upon the occupying army. However, given the sudden appearance of the orcs and the inexperience of the army, the pursuit was disorganized and allowed a large number of orcs to escape back into the woods. The orc band returned two weeks later with reinforcements. A horde of over eight hundred orcs spilled forth from the woods, taking the army and surrounding villages by surprise. The sacrifice of one hundred of the men at arms and two wizards acting as a rearguard allowed the majority of the people in the region to escape with their lives. As the rest of the army retreated with the villagers back towards the city, they could track the orcs' progress by monitoring the smoke rising from burning villages behind them.   The people made it to Candorn with the grave news of the approaching orcs. With one hundred of the remaining forces across the river to the west setting up a watch tower to claim the island and keep watch over the kingdom of Eddair the garrison of Candorn was severely reduced. The three hundred soldiers in the city began to prepare for an assault, Aren going so far as to conscript six hundred citizens into a militia force for an attack that was expected to arrive within two days. Armior not believing that his force of three hundred men at arms and six hundred militia could hope to withstand an assault from the orcs decided to take to the field in his true form.   Riding out at the head of his army in human form to the forward city walls upon the arrival of the orcs he allowed Aren to command the defense. Slipping away to a deserted section of the city he then changed into his dragon form. As the orcs approached the city the enormous winged dragon cast a shadow over their frontlines. Fear ran through everyone, however as the great golden dragon brought forth a breath of fire, strafing the orcs forward advance, incinerating dozens in a single pass it turned to elation. With the arrival of the dragon form Armior the orcish horde fractured, with hundreds simply turning to flee as volleys of arrows from the defenders began flying into their ranks. With a second pass from Armior the orc horde was broken and they scattered in several groups. The largest of the groups heading straight north. Armior, with Aren's assistance made it back into the city in his human form without anyone noticing. From that day forward, the city of Candorn was renamed Wyrmgate by it's citizens in reverence to the being that had saved it from almost certain destruction.   The largest group of fleeing orcs was advancing directly towards the city of Highbridge and Armior marched out with his three hundred men at arms in pursuit. Linking up with another fifty men from the western watch on the road. During the pursuit north the orcs crossed into lands controlled by Highbridge and assailed the first town they came across, the village of Girion. Armior made the decision to take his army into Highbridge's territory to save the villagers. And with a righteous fury the 350 strong army, supported by 6 mages crashed into the rear of the orcs who were attacking a desperate and outnumbered group of villagers defending their homes with grain threshers and pitchforks.   The orcs were annihilated, with over 300 dead orcs the army of Wyrmgate suffered almost 100 casualties, with 32 dead and another 24 who would never fight again, however the village was saved as was the surrounding farmland. In return the village supplied the army with food and supplies to easily last the entire winter. In return Armior left 50 men to protect against any other surviving bands of orcs and returned home with his remaining forces.   Upon returning, Aren took the senior members of the returning army and began raising another 200 fresh troops for the army to replenish the losses sustained in the previous campaign against the orcs. With the loss of the crops in the eastern region from the orcs the harvest was small and only strict rationing and a steady intake from the ships trading would allow the people of Wyrmgate to survive the winter. Within a month, a message was received from Highbridge expressing outrage at the effective annexation of one of their villages and contained a demand to withdraw troops from their territory. Unwilling to allow the villagers to be unprotected after they had so generously provided the army with the food to survive and train through the winter, Armior refused. The declaration of war from Highbridge followed within the week.   Despite being at a state of war, the cold and snows of the winter prevented troop movements and as such no offensive actions were taken during the winter. This allowed time for 100 reinforcements to be sent to Girion to construct defenses and provide time to train the 200 troops to completion. Upon graduating training, another 300 citizens began training for service and another 6 mages pledged their services. However with food supplies running low by the end of the winter the city had to purchase vast quantities of food to be shipped by sea. This strained the economy and only the reforms made by Armior during the first weeks of his reign saved the city.   At the end of the winter an army of 1,200 marched south out of Highbridge. Armior took 500 men north and met the 150 stationed at Girion a day before the army from Highbridge. The preparation of defenses by the troops all winter was to be critical as Girion had no walls and the sharpened wooden stakes installed all around the town would be the only fortification for the defenders. On March 26th the Battle of Girion began.   The Wyrmgate army took a defensive posture infront of the town, at openings in the wooden stake defenses. The Highridge army charged with 250 heavy cavalry towards the lightly armed and armoured defenders. At this point concealed archers with longbows loosed their arrows and took a terrible toll on the charging cavalry. The remaining cavalry, expecting to break a formation of light infantry were horribly surprised when the soldiers reached down and hefted long pikes, leveling them at the incoming cavalry. Many of the cavalry were too close to break the attack and died upon the wall of pikes. Of the 250 heavy cavalry that attacked, less than 50 made it back to friendly lines.   With this, the main Highbridge army advanced towards Girion, still heavily outnumbering the defenders. However the cavalry charge had churned the ground, soft and muddy from the spring melt making it difficult to traverse on foot. Significantly slowed by the muddy ground it made the advancing infantry in the open highly exposed to the Wyrmgate archers' longbows. By the time the Highbridge infantry reached the defending line their bodies littered the field in the hundreds. The wall of pikes effectively held the choke points into the city against the attackers for hours. In this time however the Highbridge army moved up their archers unnoticed and began firing flaming arrows into the town, starting fires of the wooden and thatched structures.   The Wyrmgate archers began returning fire with the superior range of their longbows, however the damage had been done. By the time the attacking archers were suppressed and forced to withdraw fires were spreading through the village. The fires caused gaps to open in the defenses and Highbridge forces began to press their advantage. At this time Aren took his veteran company and led them into the Highbridge forces wherever they began to breach the line. Charging into the fray at the front of the formation multiple times where the line was in danger of crumbling or being flanked him and his company prevented the destruction of the Wyrmgate army at Girion at the cost of half their number.   By nightfall the Highbridge army was forced to withdraw, retreating under arrow volleys as they did. Retreating from Girion with less than half the number they arrived with, the Battle of Girion was over. With comparatively light losses of only 200 Armior marched north with 400, preventing the Highbridge army from consolidating and capturing their baggage train in the process. With the enemy's supplies, Armior laid siege to Highbridge for a year with his army, capturing the outlying villages in the process. Being reinforced with another 200 men at arms 2 months into the siege to bolster the dangerously thin line surrounding the city. After the year was up and Highbridge still refused surrender, he approved an audacious attack plan proposed by Aren. Aren with a diverse handpicked team of veterans not more than a dozen would infiltrate the city and seize the main gate, opening it for the army to assault through.   Accessing what he thought was a storm drain into the city at the bank of the Eagle River, Aren and his team entered the city. However much to their surprise, instead of a storm drain it turned out to be a path right into the palace that the king used to smuggle his mistresses in and out of his quarters. Losing all but five members to the royal guard he was able to capture the king and then force a surrender. The army of Wyrmgate occupied the city that day and Aren was referred to as Aren the Bold from that point on.   With the oaths of fealty from the lords of Highbridge Armior had secured the only other crossing across the Eagle River and swelled his military power, adding an additional 600 troops to his army. With almost doubling his military strength and securing the strategically important city, Armior named Aren his Right Hand for his service in capturing the city and knighted every member of his team. Aren would also be the commander of Armior's army for the remainder of the unification of Andaria.   The survivors would accompany Aren for the rest of their days, taking on the name of The Falcons due to their use as a small hunting team with the ability to strike hard, silent and fast. Over the next two years they would venture forth on several excursions to secure the loyalty of towns, clean out goblinoids from areas and recover items needed by the fledgling kingdom. Most notably, ranging north into the lands of Galiniad, recovering the symbols of the royal line and freeing the people of that land from the brutal oppression of the goblinoids ruling them. Becoming accomplished and famed in their own right, the banner of The Falcons banner became both feared and celebrated where it went. Just as often however they would travel and operate covertly, using secrecy to their advantage.   Having swelled his army to a trained veteran force of over 2,500 and having cleansed the lands of the goblinoids that had plagued the region Armior began to look west towards the Kingdom of Eddair. Come the morning of January 10th, Armior crossed the Eagle River with 2,000 men into Eddair. The attack came as a surprise as Eddair assumed no army would march in the winter due to the logistical challenges of supporting an army on the march without the ability to forage.   However the speed and surprise of the army allowed them to capture large amounts of stockpiled food stores from towns before word even made it to Fairport that they were under attack. By the time Eddair's army was mustered, Penfield was surrounded and Armior's army was dug in. However time was not on Armior's side as an army of 2,000 began their march north from Fairport, intent on catching Armior's army between them and the 1,000 troops garrisoned at Penfield. Armior began fortifying his army's perimeter to repel the relief army. Armior hastily had vast quantities of supplies moved into his fortifications as well; this proved wise as the relief army did not assault his position, but simply cut off his supply lines.   With large quantities of food but still considerably less than stockpiled in the city, the stalemate lasted until the next winter. Seeing that they would starve before either the city or the surrounding army, Aren sallied out covertly with The Falcons, and using the stealth skills they had perfected over the preceding years, set alight enormous quantities of the Eddair army's food supplies. Being winter and with no longer any easy way to resupply the lost stocks, this forced them to attack Armior's army. By this time Armior's army was walled in with palisade on both sides and guard towers dotting the walls.   Having learned from the disaster of the Battle of Girion, the Eddair army opened with catapult volleys for two days, breaking walls and felling towers to open up multiple points of entry into the palisade. As the bombardment started, the royal mage used his magic to contact the garrison at Highbridge to send reinforcements with haste. Light cavalry then rode around the wall, forcing Armior's forces to divide to cover the entry points. Eddair's main force then advanced while continuing to launch rocks from catapults at the defenders preventing them from closing ranks into an effective formation until the last minute. Still, the volleys of arrow fire took their toll of the advancing infantry, inflicting several hundred casualties. Eventually however the infantry closed together and began to fight in melee.   With Armior's forces divided to prevent the Eddair cavalry from exploiting the other breach points, only the superior combat experience of the army prevented them from being overrun. However when the 1,000 troops from the city sallied forth and forced even more troops from the main engagement to defend the inner wall it made the collapse of Armior's defense imminent. However the arrival of 200 heavy cavalry who had rushed from Highbridge as soon as the royal mage contacted the commander of the Highbridge garrison smashed the rear lines and caused a panic in the army. Believing it was a much larger force assaulting them, Eddair's forces fled the field freeing much of Armior's army to man the inner wall and repel the Penfield garrison. With the relief army routed and the garrison beaten back, Penfield surrendered ending the siege almost a year after it began.   By refusing to sack the city (sacking being customary after taking a city by besieging or assaulting it), Armior gained overwhelming support from the nobles and citizens grateful for their fortune to keep their property, lives and dignity. Large portions of the Penfield garrison defected and joined Armior after their nobles pledged their fealty. Armior then marched south and laid siege to Fairport, this time requiring a naval blockade of the city to prevent resupply from sea.   Not having a large navy, Armior leveraged privateers to maintain the blockade. Promising to allow the ships to keep any goods seized from vessels attempting to enter the important trading city. This was highly successful and over two thirds of the ships blockading the city were privateers rather than ships in owned by the crown. With massive food stockpiles and still maintaining a strong garrison, Fairport would be impossible to assault without massive casualties and could withstand a lengthy siege. Armior's army settled in to remain in place for an extended period of time, having several companies travel the countryside and secure the villages Armior's grip tightened of the lands of Eddair.   A year into the siege, reports of an invasion came from the east of the kingdom. The city state of Melshire, anticipating that they would be next if Fairport fell, marched to war. In great haste, Aren rode east and gathered what forces he could on the road. With 500 infantry and 100 heavy cavalry they met Melshire's army of 800 at the town of Ansveil. Outnumbered, Aren prepared to retake the town with his small force. The soldiers of Melshire were exceptionally well equipped and armoured due to the production of steel from the ore in the mountains surrounding the region. This mitigated the experience advantage that Armior's held over that of Melshire.   Once again, The Falcons used their well honed skills to enter the town past the guards and disrupted the force from within. With arrows, fireballs and great disturbance the forces of Melshire were thrown into chaos, allowing the forces Aren brought to launch their assault under the cover of darkness while the sentries were looking inward. The sudden attack while a group was assaulting them from the inside overwhelmed the army and caused them to be annihilated.   Aren took the force he had and carried on to Melshire. With the annihilation of their army and the appearance of The Falcons' banner at the gates, Melshire surrendered and was occupied. Aren wasted no time in using the steel from the region to better equip the army. Two years later, Fairport surrendered to Armior, ensuring Armior controlled the entirety of the southern regions. This also ensured the major routes on The Long Road and The Tradesea.   At this time, Armior named his kingdom Andaria after the ranger who had found him as a wyrmling and raised him as a father would. This had the intent of having a unified kingdom of a single people rather than an empire of different kingdoms and peoples that would eventually fragment and collapse. A year of consolidation followed, with a growing population and controlling the routes into the region the kingdom prospered. To the north lay the Kingdom of Lankor and the last of the lands not conquered by Andaria. Preparations were made to begin the final stage of the campaign, taking another year to recruit, train and equip the growing army.   In April of 4480 the Andarian army of 6,000 marched north into Lankor. King Almeric of Lankor, seeing an army twice the size of his own marching into his land, formally surrendered to Armior upon the army reaching the Lankoran capital of Krestyl. Aren, recognizing Almeric as a kind ruler for taking in the hundreds of free people from lands of Galiniad, counseled Armior to show mercy. As such, the Kingdom of Lankor became the Duchy of Lankor and Almeric was named the Kingdom of Andaria's first Duke in reward for the avoidance of further bloodshed and his actions in taking in the last people of Galiniad. After organizing the transfer of power and the signing of the treaties, Armior and Aren returned home to Wyrmgate.   On July 10th 4480, ten years after the campaign began Armior was formally coronated as the first king of Andaria.