The Coming of the Ara'koi

Write about a conflict that shaped the political climate of your world.

As the Marivan Empire teetered between its Paranoid and Collapse periods the transition of the latter came with the arrival of the Ara'koi. Initially aided by strange powers that the Empire could not comprehend they took over most of the lower reaches of the Harren-var and the lands around Imperial Bay.
The empire collapsed as an organisation with around a fifth of its territory conquered; its elite discredited or killed the remainder entered a period of mass migrations and anarchy which ultimately lead to the settlement of northern Tarusia.

The Conflict

Prelude

Like a storm brewing on the horizon the Isle of Nabriz was sighted by Stormborn traders one spring as they cut across the arms of the bay on the route south. The first reports of it were discounted but as more came in it became apparent not just that the island was real but that it was moving in the direction of Nabra-thip. By the following spring this landmass, some 60 leagues across, had closed to within 10 miles of the city, coming to a stop where mariners say the sea bed falls sharply away to the oceanic depths. Great ships emerged from the Island disgorging an entire people onto the coast and destroying with ease any Stormboats that tried to intercept them. Thus came the Ara'koi bringing with them the fall of the empire.

Deployment

The Ara'koi landed men and machines on the beaches north of Nabrathip - machines initially taken to be great beasts and rapidly moved to take the city and its port. Their machines were impervious to the weapons of the Marivans and they stormed the little defended city with little effective resistance. The pleasure grounds of the empire's elite they razed to the ground; the city they flattened but the port they left intact and soon their ships were docking there and disgorging a whole people.

Battlefield

It was apparent now that the new arrivals were looking to transplant their whole people and as they expanded out from Nabra-thip they spread over the lands of the lower Harren-var coming to a halt at the Harren marshes, some 60 leagues inland and this, with a coastal strib some 30 leagues deep around Imperial bay was the scene of the many struggles, displacements and destructions that made up the conflict.

Outcome

Many of the empires elite died in the initial stages with the razing of their estates around Nabra-thip. The Ara'koi came for land and not specifically to kill or destroy and this resulted in mass migrations of people from the lands occupied by the Ara'koi to other parts of Marivar.

Aftermath

The loss of an already discredited and unpopular elite saw the empire's facade as a mighty state crumble and the provinces left unoccupied picked up the pieces; in many cases descended into civil war and a patchwork of new states emerged, each taking the general culture of the empire in a different direction. The population movements triggered by it resulted in increasing population density in the North and West driving development of what had been largely an agricultural backwater in the days of the empire and prompting the migrations from the north-west into the recently discovered lands of Tarusia.
In the lands taken over by the Ara'koi their initial dominance declined as their machines ceased to operate within two years of landing and for this reason, or more likely because they had secured more than enough land for their needs, they ceased their expansion, secured their frontiers and set about building a future in a land that stayed put.

Historical Significance

In Literature

Few stories are told of the conflict by either side. The descendants of the empire see it as an elite getting their come uppance and the descendants of the Ara'koi gloss over it, focusing on how much better their new homeland is than their old one.

Technological Advancement

The fighting machines that aided the Ara'koi are, to this day a mystery. They were powered by devices, known as gandors the size of a large barrel which turned a shaft but the detail of what powered then is unclear - their power lessened the further they were from Nabriz and since the Isle has moved on to other waters, they have been inert. These were an old technology made by previous generations and put into store and the Ara'koi knew little of their workings - only that they were normally a robust and reliable source of power. When an attempt was made to open one a few years after the coming, the resulting explosion killed 37 people and flattened crops half a league away. The remaining units were gathered and dumped at sea.

Start Date

961 Empire Years

Ending Date

962 Empire Years for fighting; 965 EY for the ethnic cleansing.

Conflict Result

The abject defeat of an empire no longer capable of sustaining itself. A period of anarchy followed in the unconquered areas until new states emerged over the following century.

Belligerents

The Marivan Empire

• Marivan Empire

The Ara'koi

Strength

The empire at this time had retained the services of some 50 Stormboats and had some 50,000 men under arms in addition to some local defence militias. Perhaps a sixth of this manpower was in the conflicted area and very few re-inforcements were received from other areas during the conflict owing to the collapse of the wider empire's organisations.

Some 100 ships were used in the transport operation, with perhaps 10,000 men and 200 fighting machines used in the storming of Nabra-thip. The total strength of the Ara'koi people arriving in Marivar was around 500,000

Casualties

Unknown - some 30 Stormboats were lost trying to disrupt the landings; conflict between the between the Marivan forces and the Ara'koi was limited with many more dying in the subsequent migrations and civil wars than died in actual conflict with the Ara'koi.

In the assault to take the port of Nabra-thip, around 200 men were killed; the subsequent expansion and (for want of a better phrase) ethnic cleansing saw around 5,000 killed over the course of the following few years.

Objectives

To lead a quiet and prosperous life.

A new homeland - one that stays put and where much of the land is not periodically inundated by the sea.

Extras

On Nabriz

The Isle of Nabriz has puzzled everyone: some say that it is a giant sea monster that swims the oceans of Challaria following it's mysteriaous purposes. Others say that this is rediculous, but are unable to furnish a better explanation. One thing is clear - the Ara'koi were extremely keen to get off it and had furnished themselves for war and invasion of the first land they came in range of. Much of their equipment had been made and put into store many years earlier to be ready for when land was sighted.

The Cleansing

The actual military campaign was brief, lasting less than a year but was followed by another 3 years of low level conflict which saw most of the Marivans displaced from their homelands. The exception was the The Vale of Arabour , where the incomers chose to not upset the food basket (here about a third of the population left but the remainder left the culture of the Vale able to survive) . It is not known how many died either in skirmishing during this period or on their travels north and east but from the way that their descendants describe it the numbers were low, probably around 2% with more dying in the anarchy of the empire lands not conquered.