War of the Meadows
The Last Great War
The War of the Meadows, also known as the Saint’s War, was a twenty-two-year conflict between the Sheician Kingdom and the Pact Nations, circa 1438 AV. It took place 340 years before the beginning of Ashfall: Council of Wyrms, and marked the end of the Age of Vigilance (Anni Vigilo, or AV). It was the last great conflict that spanned the entirety of the Idaelyn continent, and the last war in which dragon riders were used.
During this war, a kalashtar dragon-rider named St. Helen led a holy war of liberation into Liscea and Makain. This was supported by the Sheician monarch, Queen Lovisa Vaaström. St. Helen was killed by the awakened spear Sunbreaker, which was enchanted by her own traitorous bonded dragon Erdra, at the bridge of Du Sens Menneschol in Liscea. Following the loss of St. Helen, Queen Vaaström sued for a white peace, leading to the war’s formal end. Du Sens Menneschol was subsequently popularly renamed to Sunbreaker Citadel.
Following the war’s end, military dragoneering was outlawed in both Bryn Shei and Pact Nations as part of a postwar peace treaty. Weyrs were dissolved, and most dragoneering units retired or went on to offer their services as private mercenaries.
Background
A military dragoneer from Bryn Shei, Helen came to prominence when she performed what many believe to have been divine Miracle magic - the mass-healing of an entire unit of wounded soldiers who she had fought alongside in a skirmish. Stories quickly spread about her unusual magic; it was said that she carried a true divine blessing from Tamara, the Dragon Goddess of Healing. As such, Helen quickly gathered followers. Many kith were drawn to stories of Tamara’s miraculous prophet, eager to share in both her power and her lessons. Eventually, Helen gained enough support that her outspoken anti-Pact Nation beliefs were gaining traction. Among her followers, she shared a frightening but sorrowful truth; dragonkind would always seek to oppress and dominate kithkind, and there could be no resolution to injustices until this dynamic ended. With each new follower, her power grew, and her message carried further and louder. When Helen and her followers marched on the Silver Castle to meet the Sheician Queen, Lovisa Vaaström, many had expected the wayward dragoneer to be imprisoned. Her heretical beliefs and aggressive stance against the Pact Nations would be good kindling for a war Bryn Shei did not need - yet many were instead surprised. Queen Lovisa not only entertained Helen as a guest for six days, but also eventually gave her formal recognised status as a national saint, and pledged military support for an immediate liberation of the Pact Nations from their oppressors. During Helen’s stay in the Silver Castle, Hindruul, the then-Councillor for Makain on the Council of Wyrms, met with Helen, her followers and the Queen in their territory to discuss an urgent de-escalation of the situation. As Helen approached the Councillor, according to some accounts, her body turned into something that was no longer human. Her flesh became luminescent, and her head transformed into pure, blinding light. She gave him a message to return to the Council - ‘I will not abide tyranny with kindness, and in time, nor will you’. The Councillor, knowing there was no way he could oppose what appeared to be an avatar of Tamara herself, fled and delivered her message. St. Helen’s newfound status led to a moment of inspired national unity for Bryn Shei, who were awed that a God - a dragon God, at that - had chosen to manifest herself and free kith from the yoke of draconic oppression. Elsewhere, Tamaran worshippers vehemently denied and rejected Helen’s dogma, and labeled her cause as a heretical splinter faith. In retaliation, Helen began punishing allies of the Pact Nations and the ‘poison on the world’ - dragons, in her eyes. Though Bryn Shei had never had dragonlords since its independence, a few smaller dragon clans did exist and live cautiously alongside kith in Sheician territory. However, with Helen in charge, large segments of the dragon population fled for Liscea, Makain and Naedor, seeking sanctuary and assimilation into foreign clans for safety. Eventually, Helen’s eyes turned outward from beyond Sheician borders, and the troops she had been promised for a continental liberation effort were readied for an invasion.Invasion
Many invading wars against Bryn Shei have been launched before, especially by Liscea and Makain. These have often been made with the objective of conquering and/or entirely subjugating Bryn Shei, removing its independence, and affirming draconic overlord rule over them once more. In retaliation, Bryn Shei has also historically shown some aggression back, launching their own conflicts for either land or resources. Notably, the Kalashtar peoples of Bryn Shei feel much of Liscea is their ancestral homeland, and so there is often an internal sentiment from the public that Liscea is 'wrongly sitting on' Sheician land. At the beginning of the war, Liscean Great House forces rallied and took the battle to Helen in Bryn Shei, attempting to prevent as much damage to their own land as they could. Even though the Liscean forces suffered devastating losses, through the use of dragoneering units, they were able to secure a few victories for themselves as well. St. Helen personally led many of the battles during the war, exhibiting extraordinary supernatural powers. She seemed virtually untouchable on the battlefield, able to burn or even disintegrate her enemies with beams of blinding, white light. With a goddess on her side and possibly, as some said, inhabiting her, she was thought to be indestructible. Though she entrusted the invasions of Makain and later Naedian land to professional Sheician generals, her own incredible prowess as a commander was said to have been possible only through omnipotence of her foes’ plans; an ironic fact, given how the war would later be resolved. Forces from all Idaelyn mainland nations were involved at various points in the war, especially Liscea and Makain. Mercenaries from Vheldûn and even Andevali were also used by both Bryn Shei and the Pact Nations. Naedor and Lautai contributed naval forces to intercept and hamper Bryn Shei’s own coastal campaigns. Battles were predominantly fought on land with kith foot soldiers, though many dragons and even dragonlords were directly involved in the fighting. Clan warriors loyal to nations or individuals also took part. Undyrǣn attempted to keep out of the war. However, emboldened by their incredible progress and successes, Bryn Shei led a two-week invasion at the end of the war into House Olyarn territory in the Underdark beneath their soil. Though they made good initial progress, they were unprepared for a true campaign into the Undyrǣni home turf, and were quickly beaten back onto the surface when news of St. Helen's fall reached their expeditionary forces. Atrocities were widespread during the war. The horrors of dragoneering were especially prominent due to the extreme damage they could cause while boasting extreme survivability. Bryn Shei themselves fielded several small units of dragon riders. This was to the horror of the Pact Nations, who saw Sheician riders as immoral warmongers who brainwashed impressionable young dragonets to 'fight against and slaughter their own draconic kind'. This war also saw the founding of the nation's fiercest warriors; its liberated Dragonborn, known as the Ironscale Legion, who once served as slave-soldiers to Makaiid dragonlords. It was a contingent of Sheician skylark riders, headed by a Kalashtar captain named Ida Fhasen, who infamously committed war atrocities against Liscean peoples during the war. These included acts such as 'piking' (impaling multiple live surrendered combatants on tail-spikes as a form of in-unit competition mid-battle), or mass civilian execution inside temple prayer rooms by exhaling continuous streams of dragonbreath on the exterior, leading to the inside of the rooms (which were often large brass domes in frigid northern Liscea at the time) reaching many hundreds of degrees and cooking innocent people alive. These horrific acts were far from exclusive to Bryn Shei's forces and riders. Each of the nations involved racked up a long list of broken international rules of war, civilian mass executions, prisoner-of-war torture and mistreatment, and more. However, survivors and witnesses' tales about Bryn Shei’s own acts after the war's conclusion led to enough outcry that military dragoneering was widely abolished and outlawed following the war's end.Du Sens Menneschol
The dragonlords of the Pact Nations knew they would lose the war if they could not at least slow St. Helen down. Yet it was one of Helen’s own allies - her bonded silver dragoness, Erdra - who provided the means to end the war. Engaging in the dangerous and soul-twisting art of enchantment, Helen’s closest lifelong friend developed a weapon she hoped would be able to stop a god. Imbued with the whispers of deepest night, the spear called Sunbreaker was enchanted to strike directly into the core of Helen’s body, wherever her supernatural power might’ve resided, and then redirect itself immediately into her heart. Twelve Liscean men and women volunteered to stage an ambush at the bridge of Du Sens Menneschol to keep Helen on it until the spear’s power could be awakened, at the highest point of the moon’s reign in the sky. The battle was short, bloody, and ultimately decisive. The Dozen (as they came to be known), with the help of Erdra suddenly turning on her own rider and forces, were able to delay Helen on the bridge. The spear was hurled by a nameless soldier, and the force of its magic killed Helen, the four Liscean volunteers still alive at that time, and over fifty Sheician soldiers marching on the front line with the god. Erdra was nowhere to be seen as the dust settled. It was at that moment the war unofficially ended. The remaining Sheician forces at the Menneschol were easy to rout. Even though they had more than enough men and equipment to finish the siege, their leader - previously thought invincible - had just vanished in a rain of metal and stone. Panic set in, and the Liscean troops sent them away with ease. Having lost the driving force of her war and guarantees of military success, it fell to Queen Lovisa to lead the rest of the conflict she’d agreed to support. Lacking Helen’s prowess and invulnerability, as well as suffering a terrible blow to national morale after losing the power of a god, Lovisa would go on to make several strategic mistakes that would ultimately turn the tide against Bryn Shei. Rather than suffer a protracted and arguably doomed conflict, she conceded that the losses on all sides were no longer worth paying for her war goal of liberation, and sued for a white peace.Mural depicting Erdra, Saint Helen's bonded silver dragoness, who betrayed her to end the war.
Aftermath
The Pact Nations didn’t individually agree outright to white peace, and many dragonlords wanted to impose immediate demands on Bryn Shei - including, but not limited to, the entire dissolution of their country’s power structure, the instillment of a dragonlord or total vassalization of the state. However, recognizing the economic situation of many Pact Nations was looking dire after twenty-two years of fighting and losing territory, the Council of Wyrms invited Bryn Shei to a neutral discussion table; terms would be imposed and territory would trade hands, but Bryn Shei would not be forced to change their governance in any way that the Pact Nations wouldn’t also follow. As such, when dragoneering dissolution was imposed on Bryn Shei during discussions, the Pact Nations begrudgingly also agreed to do the same. Naedor officially joined the Pact Nations for their aid in the war, and gained a chunk of the upper Glitterwing Coast that Makain had lost during the war. Having struggled to exploit it properly even before the conflict, Makain happily traded it to their new allies to focus on healing their ailing economy, hoping that Naedor’s new presence there would act as a protective ‘cushion’ against Bryn Shei’s new borders. Naedor turned this coastal land into their twelfth Great Republic city-state, and enjoyed having a land bridge to the Council Aerie regions that they were now entitled to visit and be a part of. Erdra's fate is unknown. However, should she have survived, she would be Halved and without her rider. She never resurfaced, and so is presumed either dead or having successfully escaped punishment for aiding St. Helen for much of the war. While many argue that she atoned for her role in the invasion with her final known act, others insist she did so for less altruistic reasons, or should still be made to answer for her crimes against the dragonlords and their peoples.The broken spearhead of Sunbreaker, which was enchanted by Erdra to kill St. Helen. Reportedly, the blood it shed never dried, and always remains wet upon the crude iron.
Tamara’s Legacy
Officially, to resolve religious disputes and quell the anger of Pact Nation clergies, Bryn Shei renounced claims that the Goddess Tamara had truly aided or guided them in the world. However, unofficially, many Sheicians still proudly hold to the believe that Tamara did support their cause. As such, she remains a popular and widely beloved goddess in Bryn Shei, even despite being a Draconic Pantheon deity. Conversely, elsewhere, violent backlash against Tamaran apologists of Bryn Shei’s plight began shortly after the end of the war - or even those who slightly demonstrated some form of pity for Sheician Tamarites. Known as ‘The Purges’, these pogroms involved homes being set on fire, ‘rogue’ temples to Tamara being destroyed, and followers being murdered. Ironically, these were often carried out by followers of the goddess of punishment, Lendys, instead of fellow Tamarites who preferred to forgive and forget. To this day, to be a Tamarite is welcome, but to be a Tamarite who openly forgives Bryn Shei is to spit on the gods’ names. Philosophical debate over Tamara’s possible involvement in the war has led to much unrest and discomfort amongst priests and followers alike. If she truly was involved in the war, it implies that she has turned rogue against all other members of her own pantheon - dark tidings for a goddess of life, mercy and forgiveness.The Conflict
Outcome
Economic and cultural disruption across the entire continent.
Some Tamarites are massacred in small but violent riots.
Aftermath
Military dragoneering is banned in Bryn Shei and the Pact Nations. Weyrs are dissolved and dismantled.
Naedor joins the Pact Nations and is given a seat on the Council of Wyrms.
Territory changes hands, and Makain no longer directly borders Bryn Shei.
Historical Significance
Legacy
The Tamaran faith is split into several schools of thought, some illegal or considered undesirable.
Dragonriders are a dying breed, soon to be extinct.
A Sheician war banner used during the conflict
Included under Conflict
Included Conflicts
Battlefield Type
Land
Start Date
1438 AV
Ending Date
0 AC
Conflict Result
White Peace
Comments