Peasant Revolt of Amberline

The Great Peasant Revolts of the North

The counties of the north, with the exception of Crowald had a long history of neglect and over-taxation. The counties that were in the same latitude as the Amberline or further north, had to work harder and were not as wealthy as rest of the realm. The families and lords tasked to take care of these counties wanted more than they earned. They hated the lords in the south and House of Acedia in the north, despite of keeping friendly appearances with them.

In their attempts to amass wealth and status, some of the stewards of the north ordered the peasants to hastily slash-and-burn forests in order to generate new fields. All while the majority kept annually increasing the taxation up to an unsustainable level. This lead to variety of problems with starvation and land management, including difficulties to acquire new lumber for repairs. The neglect in infrastructure beyond the welfare of nobility quickly compounded until the peasants revolted and burned the cities and manors. The violence quickly engulfed all of the northern counties, plunging the northern [realm] into a bloody civil war.
A charismatic individual known by most as the peasant hero, whose name has been stricken from all records: united the peasants under a single warband. The peasants were able to go against the armies of the northern counties. Forcing the remaining nobility to go into hiding or flee their counties. Many lost their lives regardless, and highway robberies and raids became the new normal.

Peasant Revolt of Amberline

The Peasant Revolt of Amberline was one of the most successful campaigns during the great peasant revolts of the north, capable of capturing majority of the nobles and plunder their wealth. After the peasants consolidated their power in Amberline and armed themselves, they prepared to continue their invasion against the last county in the north Crowald. The insurgents did not understand as to why the peasants in Crowald had not overthrown the House of Acedia and joined them. They believed that the reason was that the famous great family was so oppressive that they had managed to cull any attempts of uprising with violence and executions. In their zeal for feudal liberation, they were blinded to the truth.
The Decisive battle took place in late Summer after the peasant hero, led a warband to invade and liberate the county of Crowald.

Military Power

Peasant warband: est. 40,000 strong

Crowald: est. 150 strong (half a garrison)

Geography

The battle took place on an area mostly of crag and meadow. The topology of the battlefield always gave the defends the high ground. The grass and moss on the meadow could only handle a few dozens of men before turning into slippery muddy mush. At the center of the battlefield, was the King's Road leading towards the city of Crowald. To the west, was the river leading to Crowald, with a steep drop and rocks on the side. To the east, extremely dense thicket of the Black Forest, including chasms and sudden changes in elevation.

The Battle

The peasant warband were receiving intelligence reports of no military movements from Crowald, and most of the garrisons had been pulled in to defend The Snowcrow Palace. These reports were also confirmed by a small band of mercenaries that scouted the way for the main force. Fear had also infected the city of Crowald and the local population.
The peasants were not expecting that anything should happen. They camped in the soon to be battlefield as it was the best location for them to regroup and prepare for the invasion of Crowald. Charles Von Acedia was leading a small task force of his most elite knights, confident in their ability to cut the head of the snake before the conflict could escalate any further. When the band of mercenaries belonging to the peasant warband returned to report their findings, Charles Von Acedia gave the order for his ambushing troops to attack.
The first shock of dwarven dragoons, terrifying warmachines, spitting fire and condensed balls of slag caught the peasants by surprise, striking fear and panic. The knights rained volleys of arrows down on the frightful peasants. Eventually the peasant hero was able to regroup the warbands most experienced mercenaries. Led by the peasant hero: they rushed to the high ground to fight against the knights.
To their shock Charles Von Acedia led a fierce counter-charge. For a moment the battle culminated in a brief duel between the peasant hero and Charles Von Acedia. It was all over when Charles Von Acedia eyes flashed golden like the sun. The peasant hero fell, beheaded. This display of power had completely broken the morale of the peasants, as the knights slaughtered the mercenaries that had just witnessed their leader die against a member of nobility, nobility that was supposed to be frightful of them.
The peasants ranks collapsed and they retreated. Majority of the casualties were caused by the fleeing peasants. Many drowned in the river, many were lost in The Black Forest and others fell or were trampled to death. In the end est. only 10,000 were able to successfully return home. The rest were either lost and died during the retreat. Only a relatively small group of the peasant casualties were caused by the defenders in the battle.

Aftermath

House of Acedia cleared the King's Road and the [Realm] granted the stewardship of the county of Amberline to House of Acedia. The revolting peasants became scattered and eventually formed multiple bandit troupes, causing de-stability and famine in the surrounding counties. House of Acedia offered pardon for anyone who returned back to their fields in Amberline and tax cuts. However, as Amberline was the only county where an amnesty was given, revolts continued in other counties for well over a decade.
The stories of the battle grew quickly out of proportions. The general story is that Charles Von Acedia with only a handful of men defeated thousands of peasants and killed the criminal who had instigated the revolt. The public opinion soon turned so negative towards the peasant hero that people refused to talk about him. This lead to people eventually forgetting the name who had gathered the peasant to fight against feudal oppression and injustice.
The location where the battle took space has then become haunted.

Conflict Type

Skirmish

Start Date

23 Years ago *Fix-date-after-figuring-out-how-the-calendar-works*

Ending Date

22 years ago *Fix-date-after-figuring-out-how-the-calendar-works*