The Taking
The Fall of Aneloria | Estimated -300 to 0 BE
Imagine, if one dares, a sea of dark savagery-of black iron and red claws-rising like a tidal wave on the shores of the mighty civilizations of yore. It is our Nightmare and our Legacy. After centuries of progress and expansion by the Named in Western Aneloria, the land was known by those whose rule extended over it. There was no escaping it. Not the North or South-from the Over-Kingdom of Aendor in the central northlands to the Old Kingdoms of the Southern Coast. Nor East or West as smoke filled the sky from countless pyres and cities-from out of the eastern Grimwall and across Western Aneloria all the way to the gleaming and the unassailable might of the Mantherian Empire in the westlands, there was no escaping the wrath of the endless hordes of subhumans that we had driven out so long ago.
The Taking sent us all, from the queens on their thrones to the beggars in the streets, lurching from one upheaval to another; stripping our predecessors of their pride, their legacies and their very lives. The thrones and nobles, senates and cities fielded their warhosts in numbers never seen before. Sparkling under the fiery skies from harness and kit, our array of a thousand thousands, trained and armed with all the knowledge and wealth accumulated since Thera had fallen, marched against the endless waves of savagery and destruction unleashed over more than two centuries of strife.
In brief, the TAKING was an event and period of time that lasted more than two hundred years. Prior to the TAKING, the lands of Western Aneloria had flourished and expanded as the Named Peoples spread out under the Mantherian influence. It was during the TAKING when the multitude of civilizations and societies built up by the Named Peoples was brought down and Western Aneloria was plunged into chaos and ruin by unbelievable large numbers of subhumans and worse acting in uncharacteristic coordination and centuries of dreamed-for-malice. The TAKING occurred all over Aneloria and most scholars agree that it likely occurred all over the Known and Unknown World. For obvious reasons, this treatise will only cover the events of Western Aneloria and the Regions relevant to our focus.
SUMMARY OF THE TAKING
The TAKING was a massive, continent-wide invasion of settled lands by subhumans, abominations, fellcasters and all manner of foul ilk. This destructive phenomenon manifested itself throughout the entirety of Western Aneloria. Mankind and their allies traded much blood for each backward step but each step was inevitably taken. The great kingdoms of old such as the Over-Kingdom of Aendor and the sprawling Mantherian Empire, to name only two, fell under the century-long warfare in a conflict that permeated every land, uprooted nearly every soul, and laid some regions to dust and death that lingers to this day.The TAKING began in the north, even north of the region now known as ‘The Retreat’ and the former center of the Over-Kingdom of Aendor, and it began abruptly. Sporadic and delusional tidbits would filter south and be discounted in Aendor and its sub-kingdoms. Like a warning that a more northern Kingdom had succumbed or that the numbers of a Warhost were ‘uncountable’. The difficulty of the climate and terrain led to few refugees making their way south to bring first-hand accounts but soon the flow of mercenaries north and pleas for help south was unavoidable. But even as the warhosts were pushing south above AENDOR, there were raids down from the Grimwalls that grew stronger and invaded deeper into THESALIA, the River Kings and neighboring lands every year.
The large passage of time is based on the variability in the onslaught reaching any one particular Region of Western Aneloria. Warhosts would destroy a kingdom, or even just a stronghold, in one Region and abruptly relocate to a different Region and a new opponent. As the truth and extent of the invasion became known, it was this spontaneity to their depredations that slowly ground the hope of the defenders into nothing.
People speak of the TAKING like an avalanche but it was not nearly so sudden or so uniform. While subhumans and dark peoples were the vast bulk of the host, especially in the north and west, there were other invasions that were just as devastating and occurring contemporaneously. The OLD KINGDOMS on the Southern Coast suffered one of the most severe and still-mysterious invasions. In the space of 33 days it is said, a city of black stone and pale bone emerged within the lowlands neighboring several of the Old Kingdoms. From it flowed a miasma of death and from it marched, the Nezzarene Horde, a warhost of bone and metal, skeletons and the undead all wage war under the banner of GURAEG NEZZAR-the City of Bones. Crops failed, plagues thrived, and soon the land failed—becoming empty and barren except for the bones of those who lost their lives but avoided the loss of their soul as a necromantic construct. The entire region, once housing three of the opulent and wealthy Old Kingdoms, died a long and lingering death. It is now known as the BONEMILES.
Each society and Region experienced the TAKING differently both in manifestation and its process. As indicated, this summary is a general overview. More specific information regarding the wars of the Over-Kingdom and the final outcome of the TAKING in the Approach are located elsewhere.
Over two hundred years long, the TAKING was nothing less than an attempted extermination of all intelligent life that once stood against the dark races that strode in the ranks of the various armies of the Takers. These armies, or hosts, or ‘plagues’ swarmed from Region to Region leaving little behind them. Despite their unexpected mobility and effectiveness, the combined forces of Civilization held their own in many brave battles but as the death toll mounted, Civilization began to weary and stumble while the forces of savagery and violence only gained momentum.
With each fallen kingdom and throne crushed, the few refugees fled the clutches of the savage and wicked troops within each warhost. Crises of plague and famine arose as the surviving infrastructure and polities began to buckle under the pressure of total war and the largest refugee crisis ever recorded.
The TAKING is so-named due to the result being the mass abandonment of entire civilized regions and cities of massive area and construction by the Named Peoples. These lands are now wild, hostile and occupied by unknown fell powers and unknown numbers of Subhumans. Our knowledge of these lands is limited by the destruction of most academia and cultural works that were abandoned by those few who survived to flee and left behind to ruin on bloody roads and trails. Being steeped in the darkness of our ignorance, the tales that can be heard in any taproom or the gossip of border soldiers are more than enough to chill the aspirations of many a would-be-adventurer.
Even now, more than a century since the TAKING came to its abrupt and uncertain end, Mankind and the other Named Peoples have not even been capable of mounting concerted efforts to retake the lands lost to the TAKING. There are various efforts and even movements, such as the Divine Triune-supported RECLAMATION movement.
AN UNEXPECTED ENEMY | AN UNKNOWN PHENOMENON
In the opening acts of the TAKING, it was not hubris but simple disbelief that kept our many armies and conclaves from fighting as one against wave after wave of savage beastmen and dark sorcery. As far as can be determined, the dark numbers of the Takers simply could not be—such estimates as were provided were met with logical refutation that was simply wrong—the weight of their hosts as well as their dispersal through0ut Western Aneloria. For example, the Warmaster of the great Ithian city-state sent correspondence by arcane means during their sixteen-month siege listing a consistent estimate of over half-a-million beastmen encamped outside their walls. It was simply impossible—and yet there it be.
And there was more—the Takers displayed a sense of order to their hordes in battles, a focus by their forces not seen before and all who faced them in the field felt the cruel magicks that strode and warred amongst them. While hordes and brutal rule drove many beastmen into war over the millenia, this was something different as the majority of accounts indicate that these vast hordes or even a multitude of smaller warhosts worked together in battle like never before. Their warhosts maintained ranks when it should have been impossible. They maneuvered at speed and with a logistical adeptness that had rarely been seen in the histories of old. Always regarded as ferocious but unwieldy, the warhosts of the Taking seemed something else altogether. Many field commanders lost all hope when the vastly larger numbers were able to display a tactical acumen that devastated our offensive and defensive actions. Hordes of beastmen were once believed incapable of besieging a settlement or fortification for no more than weeks before boredom and internal hostility would leave it riven in discipline and effectiveness. The notes and discussions between warleaders, the correspondence from kingdom to kingdom, the frantic scribblings of arcanists and the divine beseechers—all of them speak to this ‘determination’ and ‘focus’ that devastated and disheartened them time and again. Now it seemed that the great walls raised in some of the grandest of cities were nothing more than traps for those people who did not abandon their possessions and flee content with their lives. it showed in the stream of victories secured by the Enemy especially in the first century of the invasions.
As Viewed Through A Metaphysical Lens
The TAKING is considered not only a historical and physical event but also a metaphysical happening. This is due to the observed and postulated energies released in due to some unknown astrological or metaplanar phenomenon that likely presaged, caused or was caused by the TAKING itself. In addition, the energies released during the warring of more than two centuries by archmagi, sorcerous conclaves, divine supplication, invoked servitors, and a never-ending flood of battle magic expended against Reality on an almost daily basis by the Named.
…vast amounts of arcane workings were spent and prayers made to the Powers in hopes of finding the answer to this evolved threat in time. But such pleadings were not heard and the arcane formuli rarely produced results. It was as if all prying into the Taker Hosts was stymied or confounded by the sorcerous weight within the host itself or maybe the aforementioned cosmological-or-metaplanar event hypothesized by many historians. Such an event would explain or, in the face of ignorant pride, mitigate our failures for no one could be expected to succeed in, as my colleague states ‘…in a war against the Materium and Immaterium alike’, and so our battered pride may retain some shape and structure centuries later.
COSMOLOGICAL MUSINGS
Of the Dark Aspects and Arcana that saturated the wars and fed on the bloodshed—it is often suggested that some phenomenon aided the darker powers and weakened our own manifestations. There are numerous tales of strange weather and phenomena in the skies—much of which can be explained as either a direct or indirect result of applied arcana or intervention. But a few Mantherian, and as such reliable, sources speak of strange and missing constellations in various writings that have survived albeit incomplete. Few of those bending their mind and will to the effort were interested in doing anything more than keeping basic notes and observations. Yet another facet of the past and its truths that was lost during these days of woe.
A DISCUSSION OF METAPHYSICAL SATURATION
…so it is with deference to the great Dweomercrafters that gave their lives and their souls in the fight against the Taking, I will refrain from a digression into how the sheer ‘weight’ of such energy being channeled, on both sides with abandon, and the hordes may have exacerbated some mild cosmological differences in the Winds of Magic. That topic is a heavy matter, if you will excuse the pun, and should be approached with the depth and respect that it deserves so I will speak of it no further. But a discussion of the 'metaphysicality' being saturated is required as this is a known after-effect of great Dweomer. Such alterations of Reality requiring great applications of energy can leave tears in the skein of the Materium. This can cause odd arcane phenomenon in that localized vicinity for some time. In addition, the repeated and heavy use of some energies, especially negative or destructive, has been known to have a similar 'warping' effect over time.
UNSEEN HAND THEORIES
Though dismissed by prominent divinators and arcanists, there is a small body of support for the idea that the TAKING was orchestrated by an Entity. Theories on the identity and potentia of such an Entity (or Power) vary widely and are subject to the vagaries of opinion and imbibed intoxicants. But the notion has gained traction and there are several known inquiries into such a possibility. The Unseen Hand theory is able to make encompass all of the the varying phenomena and effects observed during the Taking on both the Materium and Immaterium. However, it should be noted that the theory owes its flexibility to the very absence of established facts supporting it; in the absence of knowledge, it is imagination that is our Guide.
While the identity of the specific Entity responsible is a popular debate topic amongst those of like-minded basis, the second question is rarely discussed due to its darker and more frightening nature:
To What Purpose?
…regardless of the likely accusations of delving too deep into unsupported musing I do feel it is necessary to address the ‘The Unseen Hand’ position. It merits inclusion as an elementary explanation for a number of the cosmological discrepancies referenced afore along with the interference cited by several records in beseeching the Powers as well as the unorthodox behavior of the Taker hordes and invoked servitors/Entities. The theoretical existence of an orchestrating consciousness behind the Taking allows us to draw a straight line through the aforementioned myriad disturbances and deviations from established academia on the metaphysical bonds between Bound and Powers, the weaving of Dweomer, and behavioral changes of the belligerents. We should, nay Must, explore the possibility of such an Unseen Hand as evidence of such may provide insight into future calamities of a similar nature. Despite the scarcity of surviving records, I can point to support for such a theory in-
The Conflict
The Engagement
The Battle of the Last Generals
While the TAKING was the time of a thousand battles, there are only a few that anyone living can recall with any certainty. The BATTLE OF THE LAST GENERALS was and remains the defining battle of the TAKING.
After nearly two centuries of warfare, the MANTHERIAN EMPIRE had collapsed back into small and divided provinces and city-states. Beset by small but mobile warhosts, the Imperial political dance continued even though the combined forces served cooperatively in the field against the Taker warhosts. But even then, the pride and martial prowess of the Imperials shone throughout the decades and even now. The northern border-states and fiefs that once belonged to the Imperial Throne was now known as the STRIFELANDS due to the constant fighting. It was here that the remnants of all Western Aneloria began to gather under the military heroes that had formed the nucleus of this force. They came by foot, horse, and even wagon or boat, none of whom could say why they had walked for days to battle and likely die so far from home. Many Named Heroes and Heroines bolstered their ranks. Many of these Names would never leave the site of the great Battle; having given their all to Civilization. But the presence of such Names raised spirits in the preceding days as a storm was coming—the largest warhorde seen in the West was headed in their direction and the Last Generals had decided that there would be no more retreat or evacuations. There was nowhere to go…
The Battle lasted for 12 days and involved troops and auxiliaries from all over Western Aneloria. It was at the Battle of the Last Generals where, without warning, the Taker horde retreated and splintered into their respective tribes and warbands—scattering the forces of the Enemy.
The BATTLE OF THE LAST GENERALS is widely considered to have struck the death-blow against the entire Taken force. Though a number of warhosts and raiding parties were not present at the Battle, it was learned later that these forces also seemed to melt away under their usual temperaments and culture.
Outcome
As lands and thrones fell, again and again, the people were left helpless against the eons-old hunger and hatred of the beastmen. The populations of kingdoms in the hundreds of thousands simply evaporated—their fate too horrific to contemplate—as the hordes swept through the defenses, then over the walls, and finally through and past the lands… leaving only blackened bones and melted stone in their wake. Escaping with one’s life was a cold comfort to those who fell under the claws and incisors of the foul folk from the rivers of refugees that flowed from one Region to another and then another as the Taking came to rest its dark touch upon all of our foremothers.
Aftermath
The TAKING decimated the powers of Western Aneloria. The Mantherian Empire had crumbled into a hundred feuding fiefdoms but amongst the dance of voice and blade; there soon emerged several maybe worthy of bearing the Mantherian mantle—these small polities are known as the SUCCESSOR STATES. The northern border, the STRIFELANDS, remains a land of ultra-violence and danger. Many of those dispersed from the Battle of the Last Generals settled into the Strifelands to nurse their wounds and regrow their strength. There are few that explore deep into the Strifelands and the rumors coming out are concerning—a dark kingdom of slavery and blood sacrifice, the growing power of a particular subhuman warlord and the constant background murmurings amongst those who worry about darker but more esoteric matters.
The once-opulent Old Kingdoms were either choked to death amidst the Bonemiles or, in the Begging Lands, they have collapsed into petty fiefdoms and failed feudal systems after the refugee crisis from the north and east became too much.
Too be continued...
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