Second Battle of the Crying Fields

Military action

The most famous battle to have taken place on the Crying Fields, thousands perished in a single day of fighting.

Though the Crying Fields had been the site of numerous battles and would be revisited again in the remaining war years, the 955 battle in that ghastly place is the most famous. This was the clash that gave the area its name.   The Thrane legions were formed from 19,000 peasant levy spear and axe, 2,400 heavy horse including a company of Flamehand paladins, 1,600 veteran archers of the Third Athandra, and a company of silver pyromancers from the Order of the Pure. With a strength of 23,000 troops, the faithful were confident of success.   The Aundairians should have been led by General Retief Dekker, but that noble warrior was assassinated on the eve of battle. Command was quickly granted to the young Captain of Horse Lord Darro. Although higher-ranking nobles were available, the other officers knew and trusted Lord Darro, and he enjoyed the support of King Aarott. The Aundairian order of battle included 400 knight phantoms of the Knights Arcane, 2,000 heavy pike, 6,000 light foot including half-elf and centaur troops from the Western Reaches, 1,600 magewrights of the Arcane Foot, 2,000 veteran artificer-supported crossbowmen, the famous wizard company of the Fairhaven Wands, and ten lances of the King’s Regiment of Dragonhawks. In numbers they were no more than 13,000, but in quality they far outshone the Thrane levies.   After an hour of maneuvers, spells, and archery, Aundair's mastery became apparent. Once the knights and levies had been stung harshly several times, the foot-priests and sacrosancts could no longer hold them. The Thrane heavy cavalry began a massed charge directly at the center of the Aundairian line, desperate to come to grips with its foe. The Aundairians outfoxed the Thranes. As crossbows ripped into the knights’ charge, an illusion was torn away, revealing that what seemed a line of light foot was actually the Aundairian heavy pike. The pike countered the cavalry’s charge as dragonhawks flew onto the scene, engaging the Order of the Pure pyromancers and spreading chaos in the ranks. Although initially stopped, the heavy cavalry reformed with huge numbers of levied axemen. At this point, the Flamehand paladins unleashed their silvereye marauders, sending them after the Fairhaven Wands. Aundair's right flank broke.   Miraculously, at roughly the same time, the Thrane heavy cavalry—mauled and spell scarred from the heavy pike and the magewrights supporting it—withdrew. The supporting axemen could do little but engage in a fighting retreat. Aundair held the field, but only just. Thousands had perished. After all that bloodshed, hardly an acre of land changed hands. To this day, it is said that the slaughtered of the Crying Fields reenact their futile sacrifice.