In the year 3514 a strange foreign army appeared out of nowhere and began marching from the east upon the Lyre valley. Wielding oddly shaped spears, dark veils and face paint, the attackers spoke with a strange tongue and bore the look of Easterners from Libynos. Those who knew of such things called them the Huun, the same Huun who had sacked the holy city of Tircople so many times over the centuries and which no less than four Great Crusades had been launched to battle them.
The fierce warriors of the Huun were the nightmare of many an Akadian knight who had faced off against them in the East, but how they had managed to sail the thousands of miles across the Gulf of Akados or march across the Isthmus of Irkaina without being noticed by anyone was a great mystery.
The Huun swept through the upper reaches of the valley with little resistance, those lucky enough to have warning of their approach fled to relative safety of the city’s walls. Fortunately for the city, its new High Burgess Cylyria, elected only five years before, had made a priority of reinforcing the city walls and had ensured that the ranks of its defenders were fully filled and adequately trained. Though the Huun were a nightmare to face in battle upon the open field, they were little prepared for a protracted siege against a modern walled city of Akados complete with full garrison, numerous powerful priesthoods, entire companies of allied mercenaries, griffon-riding cavalry, a sizable Wizards’ Guild run by a cabal of extremely powerful spellcasters, and an abnormally large and diverse contingent of adventurers among its populace.
The Siege
Despite the adequate defences, victory was by no means assured for the defenders, and for over a year the massive Huun army assaulted the walls of the city but were never able to breach it. All the while the superiority of the rivercraft forces fielded by Bard’s Gate both prevented any successful incursions by that route while at the same time maintaining adequate supply lines to keep the city fed and armed by means of river travel throughout the length of the entire siege.
Finally the nations of Akados were able to react to the invaders at the door step, and after 14 months of siege a massive flotilla comprised of ships of both Foere and Khemit, as well as those of Bard’s Gate out of Telar Brindel caught the Huun fleet as it lay at anchor in the waters off of the Shorsai Forest. The Huun fleet was comprised almost entirely of craft from the trading nation of Mulstabha far to the northeast, leading many to wonder if they had braved the Great Ocean Uthaf. The Akadian naval victory was complete with very few of the Huun ships able to flee around the tip of the Isle of the Blessed Serpent and escape into the open sea, but hundreds of Khemitian vessels were sunk in the battle.
The Bard’s Gate and Foerdewaith
fleets sailed down the coast and landed at Freegate, and there the armies of Foere disembarked and began the march along the Tradeway towards Bard’s Gate. For the first time in generations, the Tradeway resounded with the tread of the Freegate phalanx as it took to the field alongside the crowns armies. Meanwhile a second army of Foere came up the eastern flank of the Mons Terminus and into the Stoneheart Valley along the course of the Stoneheart River. This larger army was led by none other than Ovar, the King of Foere himself, astride his dominated black dragon. Not far behind, a Rheman army marched down the Tradeway from the west as well.
The Overking Arrives
The Huun besiegers learned of the armies advancing to catch them in a pincer, so the Huun generals quickly fled to the north. When the Foerdewaith came within sight of the Bard’s Gate walls, they found the city still intact and unbroken, its defenders cheering the approach of the Foerdewaith troops that had broken the siege. King Ovar swept into town astride his dragon and landed upon the very roof of the Keep, artist renditions of this historic event have captured the hearts of the peoples across the realm.
After a hurried council with High Burgess Cylyria, Commander Imril, leading members of the Dominion Arcane, and the various religious and military leaders of the city, the Foerdewaith king mounted again and took to the air, urging his armies northward in pursuit of the fleeing Huun. The Foerdewaith army was on the move again before the Rheman forces even arrived and, ultimately, turned back for home, finding themselves too far behind to have any hope of overtaking the other forces.
Loss of a King
The pursuit of the Huun took on an aura of legend, like the great pursuit following the Battle of Tsar, and like that long ago tale once the Akadian armies had marched beyond known lands, they disappeared just as surely as had the Army of Light. Thousands of citizens of Bard’s Gate had vengefully joined the pursuing army, not to mention the countless tens of thousands of knights, soldiers, mercenaries, adventurers, nobles, free companies, and sellswords who had joined it from all across eastern Akados. Much of the cream of the population of Akados marched with King Ovar to exact retribution on the foreign invaders.
After spending months relentlessly pursuing the Huun northward through the Desolation of Tsar, the Starcrag Foothills, and the ancient Pass of Hummaemidon, the Foerdewaith army entered the Vast Desert just north of the Barrier Hills. The last word of them nearly years ago was of fighting an engagement at a small desert village called Prandaya. Since then Bard’s Gate, and indeed much of eastern Akados, has waited with bated breath for word of their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers who marched off to war. Magical means of contacting them have been met with silence, and none know what fate have befallen the Overking and his armies.
In his absense his Son Reynald has been crowned Overking, and the population of Akados has given up hope on ever seeing the Overking return.
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