First War of the Broken Holds
The Conflict
Prelude
The Kingdom of Serica's army had been trained and equipped in response to an eventual retaliation from The Republic of Solden and Vernica, but no such attack came. The army sat around for many years and many households began grumbling about maintaining an army of that size for so long. King Histoph had recently been crowned as the second king of Serica and determined that action had to be taken. Since their inception Serica struggled in getting good mining deposits in the Mydon Peaks as most had been taken by the Dwarven Holds in the mountains and claimed this was a threat to the safety of Serica. King Histoph claimed the Dwarves not allowing Serica these mineral deposits could lead to the destruction of Serica as they would be unable to properly equip their men in the future and sent his armies to take the holds. The dwarven garrisons were taken by surprise as there had been little to no animosity between the Dwarves and Serica in the past. The garrison forces were quickly dealt with and most holds surrendered within the first couple of weeks. King Histoph deported them from the mountains and claimed the holds as well as the mines they were connected to. King Histoph immediately began exploiting the mines and preparing for an eventual counter offensive by the Dwarves. The Dwarven Holds upon receiving the news of the treachery of Serica immediately began planning its retribution for this indignity. The Dwarves are nothing if not patient though and waited close to a decade before dispatching their response. In Serica the households once again began to rally against maintaining such a large army for a threat that clearly was not coming and demanded King Histoph begin disbanding portions of the bloated army. King Histoph relented and demilitarized around half of the army and left the remaining portions to defend key forts and their new territory. Once Dwarven spies noticed this they reported back and King Morlen mobilized his armies and began marching for Serica. The armies were not spotted by Serican scouts until they were but two days march from the Mydon peaks. King Histoph was astounded by the speed the Dwarves were able to cross the distance. Reports continued to flood in, each report inflating the size of the army attacking. King Histoph dispatched all mobilized troops to hold the peaks, but like the Sericans did before the Dwarves obliterated the defenders in the stolen holds and reclaimed them under dwarf control. King Morlen then turned his gaze on the cities that dotted the plains of Serica and began marching out of the mountains. King Histoph scrambled to reform his armies and the various households panicked and began retreating to the capital of Thellica. The first detachment that King Histoph sent at the vanguard of the Dwarves was obliterated at the Battle of Rodip. King Histoph panicked at this development and was hoping the force he sent would slow down the advance of the Dwarves and buy him more time to fortify the City of Amydon. King Histoph ordered the evacuation of Amydon, but House Brodik refused and began preparations to defend the city. King Histoph was worried that losing Mydon and House Brodik could lead to the collapse of Serica and its destruction at the hands of the Dwarves. King Histoph began marshaling what troops he had and rushed them to aid in the defense of Amydon. After the Siege of Amydon and securing the city King Histoph lead his troops to continue harassing the dwarven troops to try and keep them from reorganizing their army again. The skirmishes continued to be small scale, but constant and bloody, and the Sericans managed to push them back all the way to the Bordin Tunnel in the Mydon peaks. Knowing there would be no way to crack through the elite dwarven frontlines guarding the tunnel so King Histoph planned on crossing the mountain with half of his force to try and flank King Morlen's forces and eventually starve them out. Dwarven scouts caught wind of this plan and informed their king. King Morlen determined they would be unable to destroy the Serican forces before they ran out of supplies and began retreating towards the barren sea. King Histoph was determined to cause a death blow to the Dwarven forces and continued following and harassing the retreat of the Dwarves and met up with the other half of the army as they finished crossing the Mydon Peaks. They pursued the Dwarves across the Guira plains and King Morlen expected the chase to stop once they reached the Glittering Mountains, but as they approached the mountains King Histoph performed a risky maneuver and sent them to be in between the Dwarven army and the Glittering mountains. During this time the Dwarven Holds sent request for help from The Republic of Solden and Vernica in return for a military alliance as well as being supplied dwarven made weapons and armor. They were waiting on a response, but none of their messengers managed to make it past the Serican light cavalry. As the Dwarves became encircled they entrenched themselves and prepared for a last ditch combat known as Morlen's Stand. After the forces of Serica were beaten back at the Morlen's Stand ending the war with both sides agreeing to a tedious peace deal the dwarves entered into an alliance with The Republic of Solden and Vernica, an alliance that persists into the modern day. The dwarves would provide large amounts of high quality weapons and armor in return for them helping them retake the holds they lost in the future.
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