The Crusade of Truth

Military action

This noble-turned-bloody campaign culminated in the formation of The Order of The Ring of Truth, and the Ring of Truth's relocation to Alabast. What began as a stealth mission aimed at taking the ring via coercive means quickly turned into a string of merciless conflicts that started with the Razing of Xyphon. From there, the crusaders sided with local rulers in order to ensure they could see their crusade through, ultimately ending with The Sack of Ioskos. The end of the crusade also marks the end of the civil war that was raging in western Tiberoa at the time.

The Crusade of Truth, as it is now dubbed was a nearly six year long campaign driven by the three brothers, Astav, Tristyval, and Richelieu. While they set out on this crusade nobly, at first, a series of missteps and difficult decisions resulted in it becoming one of the bloodiest humano-centric conflicts in recent memory, owed to the fact that it also helped fuel a local civil war in Tiberoa.   After the Razing of Xyphon, the crusaders allied themselves with one of the Tiberoan factions, an enemy of King Deretrides. This saw the crusaders spread across several battlefields in the years before the crusade's end, a decision which directly lent itself to the deaths of nearly a third of the brother's original force. However, they constantly recruited from the local populous, mostly in the way of brigands and criminals.   At a certain point, the ends justified the means to the brothers, who sought only the salvation of their own homelands as the years of the crusade dragged on. And time and time again, they clashed with Tiberoan forces on nearly a dozen battlefields. Late in the crusade, however, after the crusaders made an offer to their ally. They asked to be the first ones to siege the city, in exchange for the first pick of King Deretrides' treasures. Their ally agreed, not wanting to risk their own elite soldiers for such a battle.   This eventually resulted in The Sack of Ioskos, during which both Tristyval and King Deretridess were slain in battle. This not only marked the Ring of Truth's changing of hands, but also the official recognized formation of The Order of The Ring of Truth. Additionally, around half of the entire city of Ioskos collapsed into the sea in the aftermath of the battle. In the years after the crusade, the faction aided by the crusaders laid claim to all of King Deretrides' holdings, and the remnants of the royal family were either imprisoned or killed.   The ripples of this long conflict would be felt throughout the centuries that followed, though they would also haunt the remaining brothers to their dying days. It is common knowledge that Astav struggled with drugs and alcohol for some time after Tristyval's death, and Richelieu admitted to having nightmares about the crusade nearly every night in a journal he published about the conflict years later.