Burning Bird

The sack and occupation of Canna

Many attempts have been made to enter into Manka and conquer dusky territory. Most tell of the utter devastation repeatedly inflicted on invaders by small defenders of the passes.

— Tullup'aki

Burning Bird was final stage in the Sapa Inkillay Cachi Allccarima's attempt to forcibly integrate the dusky people into the rest of the Four Corners of the World. The actual occupation would last 30 years to the present day and would be defined by the excessive looting perpetrated in all that time.
Three innoit armies were committed to the overall invasion:

1. Army of the Conquering West
   • General Neckaya led elite veteran innoit troops, who were broken into smaller armies to thread through the many lakeside routes to disperse the inevitable ambushes and fortify a staging ground for the following army.
2. Army of the Conquering North
   • General Pama led conscripted, but still experienced, warriors from the second and third quadrants to head directly to Canna through the gorge pass and simply absorb the losses.
3. Army of the Conquering South
   • General Zambo led conscripted coastal people to travel through the silver trench and unite with Dhani subsistence troops to divert dusky attention from the main thrust.

However, it had been the Northern army that had been severely weakened from unprecedented desertions and ill discipline. To say nothing of all the dying done by the spear tip that was the Western army. For a while it was feared that the loss of so many innoit blooded officers would be the ultimate undoing of the state.

The Conflict

Prelude

90 days after invading Manka; and one week after a costly victory at snake lake; the conquering general entered Canna.

After the battle of the snakes, the Sapa's "Army of the Conquering West" forced the dusky army to retreat eastwards towards Canna. Dusky leadership was then faced with a difficult choice:

1. they could risk another battle with their badly weakened army.
   OR
   
2. they could abandon the historic city to the very Innoit led army they publicly announced to have already beaten days before.

Soldiers of Tawantinsuyu marched more than 3,000,000 paces and after brutal fighting and deprivations; and finally reached Canna. Units of Innoit, Honey People, Riven and Bayn in the "Army of the Conquering North" passed through the city gates.
Duskies fled in panic.

Thoughts were given to initiating delaying battles, but the geography would not allow for it. Plus, several commanders had to remind the Ullawanka that the army meant to face the enemy was also struggling with morale and supply. Most citizens had already fled the city even as thousands of wounded from battle streamed in for treatment.
On the 13th day since the Cannans met for their war council, adherents to Xiuhtlatlauhqui and Xiuhxoxoauhqui went to retreat, while those belonging to Xiuhcozauhqui and Xiuhiztacuhqui wanted to fight. Ullawanka decided that the city could not be defended and needed to be evacuated.

This is not the end my friends. Canna will be the soil in where they sink and burn.

— Ullawanka

This threw Canna into further chaos. Residents panicked, choked the streets and refugees followed their army as it left the city. Cannan soldiers were demotivated and discipline began to break down as units plundered on their way out. For many losing Canna was unthinkable and akin to the end of the world as they knew it.

Deployment

Innoit Side

Chhukruna

Chhukruna is a holy district caressing the slopes of the Fire Mountain itself. From its sturdy temples, the entire expansive city can be overseen and where the generals took for their headquarters.
It is the most sparely populated district in Canna because it is the most fire prone.

Koretta

A more temperate district due to its distance from the rest of the fiery city. Though it is still heated via the winds blowing from the river.
It is another residential district housing poorer, but still very well-off citizens. The foreigners considered it the safest place to be from the flames.

Dusky Side

The generals expected to be greeted by dusky dignitaries to formally surrender the city. Instead, they discovered the majority of the population had fled. Acting as the Sapa's representative, missives were sent all high ranking duskies dictating peace to end the wars of fire at last. There would be no reply.
As the dusky army withdrew, the terrestrial arrived. The generals agreed to a ceasefire after Canna threatened to collapse the gorge pass to the city. Several strange scenes ensued as both sides led units into and, sometimes even, mingled with units from the other side; with both armies looting freely. Canna seemed to promise relief after more than two months of unbearable suffering.

After all the suffering, dangers, hardships and privations. They were all swept from our minds. Thoughts of of entering the unconquerable and taking up comfortable quarters in it and of making conquests of another country.

— Sergeant Phakchay of the Imperial Guard

Raids continued to disrupt the arrival of supplies and vital communication along the Qhapaq Ñan; while steady attrition between the terrestrial army and dusky reinforcements meant the Innoit were becoming increasingly outnumbered for the first time.

Battlefield

Canna

Lloq'e

A Giants facing market district that caters specifically to the swinger sensitivities mixed dusky cultural preferences.

Phuyu

The city's governing district populated with identical, spaced out, colour-coded buildings complete with tunnels and secret bunkers.

Rapra

A Manka facing residential district that houses the richest duskies in the city.

Conditions

Heatwave

Everyone in the four corners knew how severe Manka summers could be. But the invaders had long resolved, in Ca-Chisneu, to remain in place. To occupy the city as a further launching off point for the rest of the valley. The cooler-than-normal weather at the city's approach had gone a way to reassure the army's leaders that there might be an easy reception. It was not to be.
Two weeks after the formal occupation of Canna, the temperature noticeably went up. Five days later, an advanced patrol was ambushed on the way to the Boiling Bay and destroyed.
As night fell, ominous patches of light flickered across the city. As the winds picked up the lights burned brighter join together and began to spread. Canna was always a city that burned day and night; but now its streets were burning and filling with smoke.

The Engagement

The great city was nearly empty - of 250,000 residents only about 10,000 remained. Among those who left were 2,100 Fire Adherents, and their pumps; ordered out of the city by Ullawanka. Small fires broke out one evening, but Innoit officers assumed that they broke out accidentally as a result of careless soldiers; Dusky and Innoit alike. Or they were the natural fire pits that would erupt at random from where Canna was built. However, later that night, larger and more ominous blazes broke out in the Lloq'e district.
Innoit troops rushed to put out the flames and discovered torch bearing arsonists. It became clear the fires were no accident. Before he left, the Ullawanka had ordered the city set on fire as part of a scorched earth policy. With the rising wind, no firefighters and no more fire pumps, it was a matter of time before the conflagration got out of control.
The innoit executed anyone suspected of spreading the flames. The next day, Phuyu was alight. And the day after, so was Rapra. The fire reached the conquering generals near the holding pens next to the palace which forced them to relocate for the nearby Fire Temples on higher ground. Units also partially evacuated the city until fresh rain finally outted the fire. When they returned, much of the city was smoking charcoal.
A third of homes were destroyed along with another two thirds of the lesser temples and countless cultural treasures. Far from a sanctuary, Canna was now a ruined city filled with anger and fear. Troops were led with renewed ferocity as they looted and killed hundreds of civilians, wounded soldiers and raped an unknown number of women.

Outcome

Attempts were made to reach out to the Ullawanka for a peace, but the result was not at all what the generals expected. Other dusky settlements and leaders began feeling pressure after Canna had fallen. The dusky army was, likewise, in crisis. The soldiers separated into hordes of bandits, looting everything from manses they could carry under the eyes of their superiors.
Several efforts were made to establish some form of communication with their counterparts.

• The general of the North met with his opponent who agreed to act as an intermediary between the him and the Ullawanka's mother. She did not respond.
• One dusky confidant to the White Flame, was convinced to relay a message to Ullawanka. But he did not respond and the confidant was imprisoned.
• One brave chasquis, then delivers a request for Ullawanka to meet with the general of the East himself, but was advised on the futility.

Aftermath

While the generals succeeded in conquering the unconquerable, their biggest failure was in letting so many prominent figures escape. Tawantinsuyus's army conquered and plundered Canna's ashes.
The innoit want peace but there was no one to make peace with. So they decided to make one. The Xiuhiztacuhqui were co-opted into the white flames as dusky collaborators to hold the capital as part of the Fourth Quandrant's capital and to administrate it.

Relations between other sects of Xiuhtotontli were strained for a long time. At the fall of Canna, these strains became the dividing line for large groups in the population; spawning the

1. Golden exiles who found a new home in faraway Gaioor
2. Government in exile continuing to administer a formal war effort against the invaders and traitors from the Elders
3. Guerilla faction conducting hit-and-run across the Ribs and operating from the Fall Wall under previous Ullawanka's son

Historical Significance

Legacy

Thirty years after the duskies' submission, much of their material wealth continues to be looted as the spoils of war.
Art, treasures and skilled artists are stripped from their homeland; as well as shells to be turned into trumpets, cheap ceramic copies of many things, mullu shell jewelry, bags of stew spices, sardines as fertilizers and cotton bales for highland looms.

Dusky elites are so rich, that they've left their own imprint on the land for as wide as the eye can see

— Conquering General of the West

Conflict Type

Military Campaign

Battlefield Type

Urban

Conflict Result

Canna is desiccated and occupied by the innoit

Location

Canna

Belligerents

Dusky Fanatics

• Xiuhtotontli

Terrestrial Army

• Tawantinsuyu

Strength

Xiuhcozauhqui
8,000


Xiuhiztacuhqui
Unknown

Army of the Conquering West
60,000
Army of the Conquering North
60,000
Army of the Conquering South
60,000

Casualties

Xiuhcozauhqui
Unknown


Xiuhiztacuhqui
2,000

Army of the Conquering West
40,000
Army of the Conquering North
2,000
Army of the Conquering South
4,000

Objectives

Deprive the invaders of a suitable forward military base

Establish control over Canna as the capital of a newly founded Fourth Quadrant