Desolation of Lontum
The opening battles of The Bloodmarch are a sordid and brutal tale. The undead hordes of the Lacusta Dynasty only grew in power as they swept northward over their border with Palatrea. The ravening hordes marched directly to Lontum, the largest city in that region. The king of the Palatreans, Lykomedes, confired with his generals and they planned to stop the advance at Lontum. The city was not to fall under any circumstance and the foul necromancers and Vampires of the Dyanasty to be driven back to their accursed home. Their defense of the city was valiant and stopped the advance of the dead for several months. However, the Blood Empress does not tolerate failure and a change in leadership led to a sudden breakthrough into the city proper. Anyone who did not flee was killed or captured by the Empress' forces. The dead added to the ranks of the conquering army.
The seemingly unstopable forces of the Dynasty drew attention from other nations, most importantly the Valkynd Kingdom. If the Dynasty were to defeat Palatrea and continue their march unaltered, they would next reah Valkynd territory. While the Desolation of Lontum was a short-term strategic victory for the vampiric Empress, the alliance it forged would ultimately lead to a series of later strategic losses. The war that started here would eventually end at the negotiation table.
Once the bread basket of Palatrea, Lontum would never recover from the foul rituals and cruel experiments performed there. What remains of the city and much of the land surrounding it is a cursed wasteland. Plant life no longer grows there and the landscape is scarred with the trenches, landmines, and craters of industrialized war.
Skirmish at Naxos
The Palatrean 412th Cavalry Company was stationed at the village of Naxos, near the border with The Dynasty. Forty five minutes after noon on Prezenurys 15th, 615 E7 a small group of skeletons was sighted by a patrol in the forest 30 kilometers outside of Naxos. When the skeletons moved aggressively toward the patrol, the patrol retreated to report their findings. Two platoons from the company were sent to investigate and found a company sized force of undead. The Palatrean forces fired several volleys at the advancing undead before pulling back to their main force. The radio operator reported the action to headquarters while the company was lead into battle by Captain Kassyllis. While most Palatrean commanders of the time relied on the bayonet charge as the decisive action in battle, The 412th's Captain was more cautious. As her force was entirely comprised of Centaurs they were able to thin the ranks of the simple undead while staying out of their reach. Once enemy artillery began firing Kassyillis made the, at the time, controversial decision to pull her entire company from the field of battle. The 412th made an effort to assist the civilian population of Naxos evcuate, but were not able to save everyone. The 412th would conserve their strength for a future battle and retreat to headquarters of the 80th Cavalry Division. General Menenos was informed personally of the scale of the attack by Captain Kassyllis. Some accounts state he was frozen in fear and did not issue any orders to the other companies in the 80th. Others state that orders were sent, but a malfunction with the radios necessitated the orders being sent by runners that did not make it in time. Regardless, the 365th and 897th Cavalry Companies met an untimely end and their corpses were added to the undead marching towards Lontum. The village of Naxos was razed to the ground and the land cursed, a portent of the fate of Lontum.The Meatgrinder
General Menenos' orders were clear, hold back the tide of the Lacusta Dynasty. He was a staunch traditionalist who believed that massed cavalry charges were the answer in nearly every case. Retrospecively, he is regarded as a poor strategist who only got to where he was due to nepotism. His solution cost many lives, but did see limited success in slowing down the advance of the Lacustan forces. King Lykomedes was distribed at the loses incurred by Menenos' orders. He spoke with the young, and at the time often maligned, General Eteokles. Eteokles was often considered 'too radical' by his peers. Palatrea was ruled by Centaurs and traditionally placed great emphesis on the tactics and technology that benefited from their physicality. However, Eteokles pointed out that Palatrea was home to more than just Centaurs. His plans called for a greater emphesis on Infantry and Artillery. Eteokles and Lykomedes worked out plans to build a great defensive work around Lontum. Many miles worth of tenches were dug, thousands of bunkers dotted the land, landmines covered swaths of land, most of the vegitation was burned to create clear lines of fire. The King purchased from neighboring countries many artillery pieces that were placed in their own special defensive nests and had pre-sighted zones of fire. A simple code sent by radio or runner could call the fury of Palatrea down on any place with a high degree of precision. Recruitment drives began. Prior to the war, only one infantry division and one artillery division existed on paper. Both of which were severly understrength in reality. Mercenaries were hired to fillout what gaps the drives could not. Just two months after the start of the war, on Sekhnurys 17th 615 E7, General Menenos was sacked and Eteokles was place in charge. All forces were pulled back and the majority of what survived was sent far behind the lines for rest and recuperation.Trench Warfare
While the common "pop history" accounts of the war often paint the Lacustan forces as entirly composed of mindless animated skeletons and zombies, this is only partially true. Large portions of the Dynasty's forces are comprised of these undead. However, the majority of their armed forces are Infantry and Artillery units composed of mortal soliders. Raising the undead due to the "Chaos Factor" of Magic can be unpredicatble and the materials required at not free. As the Lacustan forces got their first taste of coordinated artillery fire and machine guns cutting their advancing undead to ribbons, they switched tactics. The Dynasty began digging its own trenches and engaging in counter-battery fire. An average of 1,000 rounds of artillery were fired per day for the next two months. The pattern set in, one side would take a trench or two only to lose them the next day. Neither side could get the edge they needed. Eteokles had a plan to change this. He had secretly commissioned the creation of the Bulletbane Brooch and was able to outfit a small fraction of his cavalry with them. He also was able to purchase new Type15 Submachine Guns and gave them with the enchanted brooches to selected units. The brooches would give them a (mostly) relable shield against the enemy machine gun fire to cross "no man's land" and the submachine guns to cut down the infantry once they got close. These tactics saw the first real reclaiming of territory. Lacusta had taken after his plan and they had also dug their own trenches around the village of Naxos, where the war started. While the Palatrean forces were able to make it as far as Naxos, it was there that the advance was halted on Ikaarnurys 1st. During their advance, the stories that the few surviving civilians that were able to be rescued appalled the Palatreans. Tales of horror and inhumane treatment swept through the ranks.The Breakout
Frustrated with the lack of progress The Blood Empress tasked Dread Count Tavian Galca with finding a solution to the lack of progress during the inital stalemate of the trenches. It was not until their fortunes began to turn that Galca finally presented a solution. The Corpsebreath Gas was a chemical weapon that could be delivered in artillery shells. It caused the living to die painfully, both removing troops and harming the enemy morale in the process. While the physical bodies of the undead would be somewhat effected by the chemical burns, they would not die to them or complain about the pain they were incapable of feeling. The Palatreans did not have any equipment that could protect them from the cruel weapon they now faced. The Night Baron Vlad Stirbei who was previously in command was moved to a secondary role and The Dread Count took direct command of the counter-offensive.Palatrean Retreat
Unable to prevent losses to the Corpsebreath Gas for now and their morale wavering, the Palatreans were pushed back faster than they had ever been before. The city of Lontum was abandoned and the army routed even farther. It was almost impossible for Eteokles to bring the rout to an end. Lykomedes was inundated with requests from his vassals to bend the knee to The Blood Empress. A few of his vassals did abandon their oath and swore fealty to Lacusta in fear of this new terror. Thanks to the efforts of the brightest minds in their neighboring Valkynd Kingdom, the Palatreans were able to issue protective equipment to their troops. Unfortuantely, this equipment was not available in enough time or number to prevent the loss on Lontum.
Included under Conflict
Conflict Type
Military Campaign
Battlefield Type
Land
Start Date
Prezenurys 15th 615 E7
Ending Date
Ikaarnurys 28th 615 E7
Location
Belligerents
Lacusta Dynasty
Led by
Strength
50 Divisions:
-20 Divisions of undead
-25 Divisions of infantry
-5 Divisions of artillery
85 Divisions:
-55 Divisions of cavalry
-20 Divisions of infantry
-10 Divisions of artillery
Casualties
Around 400,000
-Approx. 150,000 dead
Unknown number of undead permanently destroyed
Around 750,000
-Approx. 275,000 dead
Unknown number of civilian casualties, estimated between 1 and 2 million
Objectives
-Take the city of Lontum
-Make the lands uninhabitable
-Collect captives for experimentation
-Prevent Lacustan forces from reaching the city of Lontum
-Push Lacustan forces back to pre-war border
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