Siege of Axegarden

We ran to and fro, desperate to find cover as the watchtower bells clanged terribly in the distance. The air was thick with arrows as I dove behind an embankment alongside one of my fellows. We watched as a couple of orcs riding horses - a marvel in and of itself in other circumstances - leapt over the embankment, sliding to a stop just in time to engage our pony-riding fellows in front of us.

— An account written by a dwarven soldier in the siege of Axegarden

The Siege of Axegarden in 2695 PD was one of the most astounding series of skirmishes and battles that The Fell Wastes had ever seen. From its sudden beginning to its upsetting end, the Siege went down in Renathian history as one of its most sudden upheavals.

Prelude to War and Other Battles

The dwarven Kingdom of Felwasin was focused too much on its mining of gems and precious metals to see trouble brewing on the horizon, its scholars lamented. This trouble was orc clans such as the Vainhands and the Lecherarms who coveted the riches flowing down the Felwas River to the Dragonhead Sea. As their forces grew and they attracted smaller clans to their banners, they planned their assault on the nation.
Their first targets were the mining towns at the foothills of the mountains. They stormed right through them, capturing as many miners as they could in order to keep them working. Before the dwarves could launch a successful attempt to recapture them, the orcs swept down the river, taking the farming towns. While there was a successful rebuttal of the army near Glintar, that only led to them circling back across the plains to suddenly strike at Axegarden while the main Felwasian armies were busy recapturing the mining towns.

Initial Contact

The orcish troops arrived in the area of Axegarden around nightfall on the 13th of Virethir, camping on a nearby ridge. A group of scouts happened across them and returned to warn the city, which began to fortify the city throughout the night.
The dwarves launched an assault on the orcish camp, trying to lead the orcs away from their defensive position into the open. They didn't take the bait, using their cavalry to run down the dwarven troops and then returning to their ridge. They then used their few small catapults to send the heads of the defeated dwarven captains into the city as a warning of further carnage while they slowly began to craft ladders and siege fortifications and create camps of cavalry around the city to cut it off from its food supplies. 

The Siege Thickens

On the 15th of Virethir, the dwarves launched a proper assault, aiming to get their cavalry and a significant force behind the orcish camp in order to encircle them in return. The assault was rebutted in much the same way as their previous one, leading to a great amount of slaughter. The orcs, emboldened by their success, then moved their cavalry camps closer to the city, providing cover to their infantry as they too began to move in.
It wasn't long before the dwarven trebuchets began to sling stones at the orcish camps, in an attempt to thin out the large numbers of orcs that still outnumbered them four to one. But by the 21st of Virethir, it appeared that the forces in the mining towns were unlikely to return to the city in time to lift the siege. 

A Desperate Sortie

In one last vain attempt to force the orcish armies away from the city and force them to disperse, the armies of dwarves inside Axegarden made one final assault on the night of the 22nd of Virethir. Using counter-tunnels underneath the city, they forced their way up behind enemy lines in order to catch them unawares. But the sheer number of orcs was simply too many, and the dwarves'  counter-tunnels became convenient entrances into the city.
While the dwarves tried to stop the orcish forces using the counter-tunnels from entering the city, the orcs' ladders and siege weaponry came into play as they scaled the walls. By the time dawn broke over Axegarden, the walls were overrun and the city's remaining troops and people had fallen back to the underground tunnels under the Bright Citadel. Even that once-impregnable fortress was quickly overrun, though most of its inhabitants were spared if they surrendered. Only their ruler, Ewan IX, was put to death by the hand of Zarnar I, the head of the Vainhand clan and new ruler of Fallen Felwasin. 

Aftermath

Axegarden's sacking at the end of the siege broke what little hope the dwarves had of holding onto their lands. Many fled to the neighbouring allied Stewardship of Numh, pleading with the Grand Prince to drive out the orcs and restore their kingdom. The Grand Prince refused, claiming war to be expensive business, and one of the dwarven Stewards at the edge of the nation is rumoured to be descended from Ewan IX's exiled family. 
The orcs quickly drove out any remaining opposition in the city's environs in the coming weeks, capturing all those who surrendered and killing any who mounted resistance. The city of Axegarden was set ablaze and left to ruin, and most of its residents were relocated to the farming villages of the Felwas River to help bring in the harvest of the new orcish nation. Soon, the glory of Felwasin was nothing more than a memory, and the occupation of the Orcs led to the land being named the Fell Wastes.

Date of Conflict

12th-23rd Virethir, 2695 PD

Conflict Type

Siege

Battlefield Type

Land

Location

Axegarden

Belligerents

Kingdom of Felwasin

• Kingdom of Felwasin

Led by

• Ewan IX

The Vain Hand

• The Vain Fist

Led by

• Zarnar I

Strength

4000 Infantry, 250 Cavalry, 20 Artillery

7500 Infantry, 500 Cavalry, 5 Artillery

Casualties

2750 Infantry, 200 Cavalry, 19 Artillery

3700 Infantry, 290 Cavalry, 2 Artillery

Objectives

Defence of the City of Axegarden
Continued preservation of the Kingdom

Capturing of Axegarden
Destruction of the Kingdom as a whole.