War of the Great Call

Never since the time of the heroes the world saw such an epic war and so many heroes united to fight in a conflict. Their deeds certainly were as great as those of the epic tales

— Albase of Ma'in, veteran of the War of the Great Call

Also kwown as the 2nd War of Liberation by the Elves. It was the first global conflict in the history of Yeia ( if we don't take into account conflicts dated to the Age of the heroes such as the The Siege of Dorstulon . It saw the biggest elven armies ever assembled and also the first powers from Teria crossing the sea and fighting in the continent of Karia.

Prelude

Show spoiler

From 591 onwards despite succesive Seris and Nari attempts to hold them, the dark elves experienced a revival of their power. They've created the so called Blue orb that housed inside it the power of 500 sacred trees. This gave the dark elves a huge advantage in terms of magic, but also gave them the power to summon huge armies of goblins and evil thieflings to fight alongside them. By 620 they began raiding territories to the east destroying the city of Airi in Gorhas that summer. In 622 AP they center their raiding activities to the west where they defeated the Farai nomads at the battle of An hakush and also annexed Idumela. One year later in 623 AP they raided Southern Seria where only the provincial capital and a few well protected villages were unharmed. This situation of continous raiding neighbouring territories continued well into the 650s AP. In 689 AP the dark elves went into the offensive again bulstered by the magical orb and their "slave armies" of goblins and thieflings and began attacking the domains of their northern cousins, the Sun elves. In 691 they made the Onari tribe of the Desert elves flee to Western Unhelion and they captured the kings of the Beleri and Olentil tribes.
Not happy with that, they raided the Wetlands where they destroyed much of the countryside and forced the peasants to flee to the cities. Seeing this situation, and searching for a solution, king Armelë V decided to consult the oracle at the temple of Ahira, there, the Goddess answered that in order to defeat the enemy he must unite his forces with the rest of the elven blood. So that same year he sent letters to king Ormell of the White Elves and Arasyl IV of the Green Elves for help. He also sent a petition for help to the Seris Emperor Yukteru II who, in turn promised to send 7000 seris elves to fight in the war.

First months of the conflict

Show spoiler

The elf kings answered the call but Arasyl was bussy fighting against an usurper called Erai who was the governor of the regions surrounded the Interior Sea. Ormell did send 8500 infantry and 4000 cavalry that arrived in winter of 691. But despite these reinforcements the Sun and White elf armies where defeated in eastern Unhellion and barely managed to hold the area around the Sun lake during the following months. It was in early 692 that prince Lothiel of Unhelion came up with a brilliant idea. He knew that together the combined light elf forces would stop the Dark Elves alone and he came up with another interpretation of the words of the oracle. " The Goddess said that we'll win if we united our forces with the rest of the elven blood, but he didn't specify that only elves should fight, we've the half elves of Teria and those of the Seris Empire, that can fight alongside us, as they have elven blood through their veins" said to the council of Unhelion, and so, letters were sent to the Blatian Empire and the half elf kingdoms of Stormitia and Brire .

The Half elves go to war

Show spoiler

It was the 4th month of 692, in early spring were the letters arrived to the Elvish-Oronai lands. And at the end of this month, Zoisos III of Brire and Nearchos I of Stormitia signed the "Treaty of the Galleys", where they formalized their alliance and swore to fight side by side with their armies answering the call of the Sun elves. Together they raised a huge army of 50.000 half elves, half of them were transported by sea around the coast and the other half travelled by land until they were embarked in transport ships ( ceeded by the Republic of Valia) and crossed the Middle Sea. They landed in Seria in the 8th Month of 692 and travel north, headed by their kings. But due to the treachey and magic monsters summoned by the dark elves the half elf armies lost their way and had to cross the dessert instead of entering Unhellion travelling alongside the river. There it is estimated that 1000 half elves lost their lives. Finally thanks to a local guide they managed to reach the river and from then travel south to Unhelion.

Things don't go well for the coalition

Show spoiler

Once Nearchos and Zoisos arrived at Ymhilean, they were lavishly recieved by the sun elf king and its people and, together with the other elven kings, they assembled at the royal palace to decided about the best strategy to follow. But soon disputes arose between the commanders of the coalition, and while the monarch were bussy arguing the dark elves continued their advance capturing the city of Ethen Ush. Finally the leaders of the coalition came up with an strategy that, if executed correctly it would not only stop the dark elves, but it will anihilate them .
They will first harass the dark elf army, inflicting as much casualties as they could and also trying to capture or destroy its bagggage train. And then, once they became weakened they will force them to fight in open battle.

The First battle of Dayr Madyin and the first victories for the coalition

Show spoiler

In early 693 AP at Dayr Madyin, near Ethen Ush a combined seris-elvish oronai half elf army of horse archers and light cavalry achieved an important victory ambushing a dark elf column of 7500 men and capturing their baggage train with tons of supplies for the main army. Ambushes like this continued for several months thanks also to the help of the desert elf communities. The Desert elf tribes achieved an important victory at the Sea of the Doomed, in words of the desert elf king Alwash " Thousands of years ago we defeated a dark elf army and their bodies lie here, today their descendants have join them in this sea of sand and death".

The battle of Alwalyz pass and the beginning of the end of the dark elf threat

Show spoiler

After many more battles the dark elf army, after suffering quite a significant amount of casualties, had no other option but to fight their foes in an open battle. They tried to cross the river Ush but the coalition forces were waiting for them at a place called Alwalyz. Battle was inevitable. It was early spring of 694 AP and Unhellion was prepared for the largest and most epic battle it had witnessed. At the beginning; the Dark elf king demanded that the battle should be decided by 3 duels between the heroes of both sides, “like during the era of the heroes”. If the coalition won the three rounds he would retreat and sign a peace treaty, if the dark elves won the coalition will dissolve and they would have to pay a tribute to the dark elves. The monarchs of the coalition agreed and selected their three greatest warriors: Nikanor, son of Crysanthos, Togash Kadearu, a descendant of Yuya’s cousin Arishi, and the sun elf champion Yndramyl.
At the side of the dark elves were selected Erodë Brightsword, Aridarsyn Blackheart and Orestän the brave. We’ll not go in full detail about the duels but in resume the three heroes from the coalition won, but at the last duel, after having won the combat, Togash Kadearu was killed by an arrow while returning to the coalition lines. This infuriated the coalition forces and they deployed in battle formation. The half elves of Brire, Stormitia were placed in the right flank (hidden by an slope) while the other half elves and elves from Blati and Seria were placed on the left flank and the elven forces of the Green, White and Sun elf realms were placed in the middle.

Epigonoi in battle by Callyxtus

The dark elves, as it was usual to their nature, advance first and charged into the center of the coalition forces, in the left side the combined Blatian-Seris forces were holding the charge of the dark elf cavalry while at the right flank the elvish-oronai cavalry,commanded by their kings did a couple of fainted charges upon the enemy and, taking advantage of a sand storm that either appear or was created by one of the wizards of the army, hid themselves from the dark elves forces and proceed to attack the dark elf reserve force and the dark elf king Alasdias IX. The latter ordered an advance on the right flank of the coalition believing that there was no force there and he will outflank the enemy forces. But he was mistaken, the dark elves, both cavalry and infantry that advanced through that place came face to face with the oronai phalanx and their pikes. Soon a bloody fight ensued and it appeared that the half elf forces where being pushed back but it was a trap, they were following the strategy of the leaders of the coalition, they were distracting the dark elven forces on the right flank opening a gap for the elvish-oronai cavalry to attack them from behind and also capturing the enemy king if possible. It worked, suddenly the sand storm disappeared in front of the Alasdias IX showing to him 10.000 cavalrymen, the best in the world with their kings at the front charging upon him.
At the same time the reserve cavalry of the coalition commanded by king Ormell of the White elves arrived at the left flank to help the Blatians and Seris destroy the remaining dark elf cavalry. And at the centre, after holding the line, Prince Lothiel of Unhellion and Arasyl IV of the Green Elves ordered a general advance that pushed back the dark elf forces that suffered tremendous casualties. At the right flank, Zoisos III and Nearchos I managed to rout the remaining enemy forces but Alasdias IX miraculously managed to scape north with 10.000 men.

The Great Flight of the Ilidari and the end of the war

Show spoiler

The final and decisive battle occured in early 695AP. After the battle of Alwalyz Alasdias IX march the rest of his army, 10.000 men to the north near the Temple of Dayr Enmeret. He fortified himself near that location and the first attempts to assault his position became futile.
Then, Zoisos III came up with a great plan. Taking advantages of the woods near the Sun lake, and with the permission of the Sun elf king, he ordered his general, Perdiccas of Phais to built a navy and embark the coalition troops in it. But the question was, how to make the dark elf king abandon his position. Well, for that the coalition ask for the help of 500 Ilidari, from some of the citizens of the region. And with them, a hot night of the second month of 695 AP the cute flying lions, the pet of the elves that follow the light side of magic, descended upon the dark elf camp and became the messengers of hell. Fire rained from the sky upon the dark elves, and those that were not burned alive exited the camp only to find the troops of the coalition already landed and waiting for them. The result was an slaughter, no dark elf survived that night, aside from the prince heir of the Dark elf kingdom, the future Alasdias X.

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

691 AP

Ending Date

695 AP

Conflict Result

Victory of the forces of the coalition

Location

Ymhilean, capital of Unhelion

Belligerents

Light Elven Coalition

• Kingdom of Brire
• Kingdom of Unhelion
• Order of the Knights of Light
• Seris Empire
• The Blatian Empire

Led by

• Tylis, princess of Steplia and queen of Bire

Dark Elves

Strength

78.000 infantry 25.000 cavalry 150 elephants

around 90.000 to 95.000 infantry between elves, goblins and thielflings

Casualties

12.000 infantry 4331 cavalry

90.000

Objectives

Expell the dark elf forces and weaken their power

Annexing the light elf territories or force them to submit as vassals.

Aftermath of the conflict:

Show spoiler

After its capture, Alasdias X, sign a peace treaty, promising never to come back to  Unhelion or attack any of his neighbours. He also promised to sent 10.000 Myreliion of silver each year as war reparations and was forced to relinquish the Blue Orb.  Then, he was released.

As for the coalition forces, they didn't know what to do with the orb, and then again consulted the oracle of Ahira. The Goddess answered that through fire the dark elves have come and through fire Unhellion’s prosperity will return. They didn’t understand what she meant, but the Ilidari of the King, named Spark, seemed to understood the goddess and exhaled fire upon the orb. It melted and the magical force of 500 sacred trees was dispersed upon Unhellion, making the fields grow again with crops, vegetables, fruits… It was like the war and its ravages had never happened.

After that the forces of the coalition held a great banquet and festival that lasted weeks at  Ymhilean  and a month after the war ended, the rest of the forces of the coalition said goodbye to Unhellion, the Elvish-Oronai made a sacrifice to Pyra (Ahira to the elves) and said goodbye to Unhellion. They and the Elven forces from Teria embarked in Southern Seria where they have previously landed, and when they reach Teria they held a final banquet and athletic competition and each one of the armies departed to their respective realms.

The Dark Elf forces would not be involved in another conflict for the next century and a half .