Razing of Nurweth Mel

Military: Battle

The Era of the Sotteran Front was started by a Larani force surging deep into the Sotteran to siege the city of Nurweth Mel. It lay at a crucial junction of several interlocking mini-regions called the Llaldwik, effectively acting as the capital of the region. After a short--relatively--razing campaign, the Larani army headed by Go of the Cult of Obxo burned the city to the ground following a two-year siege.

Nurweth Mel had been used as a staging point for previous Akroni ventures into the Sotteran, especially during the chaos of the Nauld Caverns. It lay at the center of several mini caverns and the junction out of that superregion of the Sotteran. Each mini-cavern complex was smaller than the Nauld Caverns, but altogether and linked by Nurweth Mel, made up a massive region of Akroni aligned fiefdoms which all pled fealty to the King Bathed In Fire, the title given to the ruler of Nurweth Mel.

The main assault against the region was led by the Lati Go, leading an army largely mustered from the lands belonging to the Cult of Obxo--a diviner cult, of which he was a high ranking member. Go, unlike many fellow Lati, had no interest in acquiring more personal wealth and power. Instead, his seers in the Cult of Obxo saw predictions that the war would drag far beyond even the point to which it had already escalated. While predictions ranged from a century to five, all were correct in guessing the sheer scale to which the Long War would rise.

Instead, Go wished to create a buffer against the Confederacy, permanently closing off a front now that the Nauld Caverns had been officially seized and incorporated. The force he raised for this purpose consisted of the Legions known as the Daemon's Claw, consisting of ten Cohorts gathered from the Sotteran and the Desert of the Saviour. They formed the core of the army, to be bolstered by 40000 peasant levies, three Wych Covens that owed the Cult fealty for protection, and a hag who owed a debt to Go personally.

The hag was sent into the city ahead of the assault, around 698, to begin to sow chaos. The army was mustered at Trahe Nor, but shortly after deployment a native revolt of Dawasi would retake the city, which resulted in their supply line being cut. While this changed Go's strategy, it did not change the final objective. Go would take his army and occupy instead of raze the first cavern system connecting the Nauld Caverns to Nurweth Mel.

Expecting him to bring his army directly to the capital, the King Bathed In Fire drew all defenses in the region to the city. This left the rest open for the force to be split up and to raze every undefended cavern to the ground, overpowering the cursory defenses left there. Every cavern but the one occupied, which would be renamed to Obxo's Grace, could only be described as completely devoid of life following the three-year-long razing period. This included the main passage from LLaldwik to the rest of Akroni-controlled Sotteran being collapsed, only to be re-excavated following the Long War's conclusion.

The siege of the city took two years, with the cults and rebellions the hag raised being put down by the ever-dwindling resources of the King Bathed in Fire. The sieging army stayed put, starving the city out. They were slowly starving themselves as the cavern to be known as Obxo's Grace could not supply them enough food, but Go banked on being able to last longer than the defenders at Nurweth Mel. He was proven right as the hag exploited resentment and desperation to lead a coup on the royal palace, which would coincide with the first and final assault by the sieging army. The entire city was razed to the ground in the two-month battle, with Lati magicks being used to complete the destruction once the city's protective seals were found and destroyed.

This mini-campaign would end Akroni influence in that entire region of the Sotteran, robbing them of an important supply hub and power base. Go would turn around and defeat the insurrection in the Nauld Caverns by 713, gifting it back to the House of Xoch in exchange for a permanent military alliance and their induction into the Cult of Obxo. They would receive the territory eventually as an official fiefdom after the House's dissolution a century and a half later.