The Battle of Brox Crossing is the sister battle to
The Battle of Castle Hyperios, the two major, and only, Battles of the Third Virnosian War.
The Battle of Brox Crossing was a distraction battle orchestrated by ex-Atresan Lord Thannor and mage Lindra Thalsor to keep the Atresan Army away from
The Battle of Castle Hyperios.
The Conflict
Prelude
After losing the election Lord Thannor fled to Virnos, coming to some sort of agreement with the Grand Magus. The agreement granted him nearly a third of the Virnosian military. The general gist from the Virnosian side was that an victory would be attributed to the Virnosian's, and a failure to the "crazed" Lord Thannor.
In reality it was all a pretext by Lord Thannor's right-hand-woman to get revenge on Guild Hyperios. So when the invasion began half of the Virnosian force headed straight for Atresa proper to keep the main Atresan army distracted, while the rest of it marched on Castle Hyperios.
This distraction force was in reality the vast majority of Thannor's force. He and Thalsor expected Castle Hyperios to be poorly defended, and did not see the need for the entirety of their force.
At the same time, Baralas Oakenhollow, King of the Torva'Ne made a sudden deal with Tutiro Cam. Using Druids in the form of animals to aid Atresan scouts the Atresan's were able to quickly discover the Virnosian battleplan and mirrored it. Baralas and Atresan War Hero General Alsen Lastimora led a force to relieve Castle Hyperios, while Tutiro Cam and several Atresan Prime Lords would lead the main Atresan Army against the main Virnosian army, an army not fully mustered due to much of it being strung along the entire border. They were reinforced by a contingent of the Ne'Ira who had accompanied Baralas as well as two of his druids.
The Atresan Army headed southwest from Atresa and found the Virnosian army at Brox Crossing. While The Prime Lords counseled to use the crossing as a choke point to funnel the Virnosians, Tutiro instead pulled the army just behind the Crossing, giving the Virnosian's plenty of room to maneuver over the bridge and set up battle lines. The Virnosian Commander saw opportunity in the deployment, assuming that Tutiro was just too naïve to see his advantage.
Brox Crossing was a land bridge that extended over a thirty food deep, forty foot wide ravine that used to connect to the Larin River before the river was diverted for agricultural purposes. On the North side, which the Atresans controlled, was mostly road and forest. The South side was irrigated farm land.
Much like Hyperios the weather was clear for the battle.
The Virnosian's made the first move, using their air-superiority to occupy the Atresan air fleet. While both fleets were engaged The Virnosian's moved forces across the crossing, mostly unmolested minus the artillery barrages both sides were exchanging.
After about an hour of maneuvers the Virnosian's sent out their skirmishers but were promptly beaten back by Atesan skirmishers with the help of the Ne'Ira. The Virnosian's, still unaware of the Elven Presence, pushed for an assault. Their heavy troops engaged the Atresan center and their line troops harassing the flanks with the intention of wearing down the sides of the Atresan lines enough to slowly surround the inexperienced Primor and his army.
Fighting in this nature continued you for several hours. In that time the majority of Atresa's cavalry along with Ne'Ira cavalry atop Deer Bucks snuck through the forest and had two druids create temporary bridges across the ravine far away from the battle.
Eventually the Cavalry crossed and about 6 hours into the battle they came rushing from the East and West on the Virnosian sides of the ravine, quickly overwhelming the small force guarding the Virnosian camp and charging into the rear of the Virnosian lines, killing the commander in the process. A group of cavalry also used Virnosian artillery to begin bombarding the Virnosian backline and taking out the reserve Virnosian airships, turning the Air battle in Atresa's favor.
Their commander dead, the air battle lost, and surrounded on all sides the Virnosian's surrendered completely, not even being able to retreat.
Combined with the dual defeats of Brox Crossing and Castle Hyperios the Virnosian's had about a third of their military either captured, killed, or on the run. This led to a quickly changing position between the two Fallen Cities as Atresa was suddenly in a position of strength compared to Virnos militarily. Hostilities were quickly ended, making the "war" last less than a fortnight.
Virnos found itself militarily embarrassed and weakened, and faced many internal pressures. The new Primor of Atresa,
Tutiro Cam, used the opportunity to send aid and support to Virnos. While not popular with the upper echelons of society it was a huge winner for the tension-weary and trade-loving populace. Within a month the respective power of the two cities had almost completely reversed.
Brox Crossing in particular was also important due to revealing of military cooperation between the usually isolationist
Torva'Ne and the Fallen City of
Atresa.
Historical Significance
The legacy of the battle is still being debated. Will it be the marking of a new era of peace, or simply the prologue to a longer and bloodier war to come?
