The Drake War

Military action

In the year 1350, thousands of large, armored ships arrived across miles of eastern Szalan shorelines. Aboard them was an expansive army of Dragonborn warriors, their drake mounts and hunting packs, and tens of thousands of Goblin slaves.

In the year 1350, thousands of large, armored ships arrived across miles of eastern Szalan shorelines. Aboard them was an expansive army of Dragonborn warriors, their drake mounts and hunting packs, and tens of thousands of Goblin slaves.   At this time, Szala was not a member of the Korum Empire, but instead merely a tense partner. Empire diplomats regularly worked with Szalan leaders, but submitting to the rule of the Empress was out of the question.   When the Dragonborn raiders clashed with Szalan forces, the result was bloody. The elemental ire that spout from the Dragonborn wreaked havoc on the lightly armored tribes and their forests. The Szalan people retreated to their mesa fortresses. The Tunnel Wraiths faced their first large-scale assault in recorded history, and the Dragonborn forces quickly learned this direct assault on the mesas was a lost cause.   With their broad shoulders and large drake beasts at their side, fitting into the deep mesa tunnels was nearly impossible, and their breath weapons couldn't reach far enough. The Dragonborn instead held hostages, openly torturing people to lure people out. They sent Goblins in, but to no avail. The Tunnel Wraiths were still able to move swiftly and launch arrows and spears towards their foes.   The Empire immediately began assembling Korum Legionnaire throughout their lands and gathering able-bodied adults to join their ranks. The slow down in Szala was enough for the Empire to meet the Dragonborn forces on their eastern borders by the end of 1350. Despite the long, back-and-forth battles between the sides, the Empire refused to march its Legionnaires into a territory not of their own unless they were at war.   In all this time, Dragonborn reinforcements were slowly trickling in around Szala, and even a few on the southern coastlines of The Essun Comms. The people of Szala were slowly withering down after being trapped in their mesas with supplies running low.   In mid-1354, the Grand Chief Mongkut Ampon said he felt an internal break as he watched a fleeing family mauled to death by a drake pack. It was then the Grand Chief sent a message to Empress Finia Lirusyle of subservient loyalty in trade for help. On Julon 30th of 1354, the Empire's largest amassed forces marched fully forward into Szala.   It took another year before the Drake forces were marked as entirely wiped from Empire lands. The damage to the land and the people was immense. Hundreds of thousands of acres and hundreds of towns and cities were razed. The exact number of dead is unknown. Whole tribal groups were wiped out.   The remains of Dragonborn, their drakes, and many of their ships still pollute Szalan lands, warranting a spit or curse by all passerbys.   After the war, tens of thousands of Goblin slaves were freed. They were cautiously invited as citizens of the Empire, but their eagerness to help rebuild what was destroyed soothed many tensions.