The Pale Dawn

Belligerents

Maldrone's Host

The host was ultimately commanded by Maldrone though 'breakaway' hordes were led by his lieutenants, necromancers handpicked for their commitment and skill. The vast bulk of the host consisted of wights and ghouls but a wide array of other beings and dark creatures served as living siege weapons or instruments of terror.

x 1 lich

x 1 undead dragon

x 1 enormous bone colossus

x 1 monolith of pestilence

thousands of necromancers

thousands of black sorcerers

Legion of Anguish

Triad of Pious Youth

Honour Guard of the Black Sepulchre

hundreds of vampires

hundreds of werewolves

millions of wights

millions of ghouls

over a thousand savage giants

at least 50 undead Fel wolves

hundreds of great flyers

thousands of grave diggers

The Living

Every sovereign power within Hebronia and even many within Panormus, from petty kingdoms and nomadic tribes to vast empires committed forces for the war. Their armies were a mix of professional soldiers and warriors to lowly peasant militia armed with pitchforks. However, the gods did not stand idly by while the forces of Apatoth wrought destruction on their world and they aided the mortals with their own servants. In the darkest days of the war, Numaxian himself intervened and turned the tide.
League of Cinnabar

1 x avatar of Numaxian

x 570,000 foot soldiers, warriors and mercenaries

x 139,000 missile troops

x 163,000 cavalry

over one million militia

thousands of sorcerers

x 500 armoured war elephants

x 463 noble giants

hundreds of emuary

hundreds of dryads

934 CN - The North Falls

Invasion of Risvern

With their forces massed along the border and under the cover of powerful illusion magic, the invasion of Risvern commenced. Within a day, most of the bordering provinces were overrun. Every farmstead, village and town was raised and their populations slaughtered. Much of their fighting force was killed before they could even organize. Despite the speed and violence, thousands escaped, largely thanks to the geography of Risvern which stunted the mobility of the invaders. Maldrone anticipated this however and quickly deployed hundreds of airborne creatures summoned from Carthal to hunt them down.
Even this action did not prevent all from escaping to safety. A young boy and his mortally wounded father managed to reach a watchtower on horseback just as the sun was rising and they alerted the guards posted there. Their account of the events was met with strong skepticism, nevertheless the order was given to send a message requesting reinforcements to deal with the 'raiders'. The boy's father died from his wounds before he could receive care and the boy didn't care to stick around with the undead in pursuit. He stopped at every settlement along the road to the capital to warn people but very few took the threat seriously, thinking him mad.
Upon receiving the message from the watchtower, a modest detachment of cavalry was sent to investigate rumours of a bandit raid to the north. They soon arrived at the still burning ruins of a town and expected to find a massacre but there were no bodies, no signs of looting. After further investigation they discovered a survivor, a guard who was supposed to be on duty but had been in an alcohol induced stupor in the tavern's cellar, he had no recollection of what took place. The detachment's captain sent two men to relay their discovery to the nearest garrison and it was fortunate he did; as they made their way back through the forest, bestial roars were heard not far behind them.
By the end of the second day, there were scattered efforts to organize a military response to the new threat, which was still poorly understood. Most detachments were woefully under-strength as it would normally take days for armies to muster to full strength, instead reinforcements arrived by piecemeal. They were tiny rocks hoping to break a tidal wave. The next two days were a disaster as supply caravans came under attack by flying creatures, butchering man and beast alike. The garrisons were now isolated as further attempts to reinforce them were halted to preserve their own strength.
The commander of one such garrison, Wlanisayv, decided to abandon efforts to defend it and instead chose to lead his men south to link up with the main army at Lutzerv. He had not anticipated an aerial threat and his forces were harried for miles. As fortune would have it though they came across a military academy that trained young sorcerers in warfare. Despite their inexperience and youth, the students, along with their teachers, drove off the creatures with pyromancy and saved the commander and his men. Both parties joined up and continued the journey to Lutzerv, rallying others along the way.
At the capital, Soteskagrav, there was anarchy in the streets once the nature of the threat became known. There was widespread looting and an angry mob had besieged the royal palace. Deployment of the king's army was seriously delayed as it had to fight its way out of the city and the streets were severely congested with fleeing refugees. The day earlier, King Vasiliovic had sent messengers to all of Risvern's neighbours, even those they had been on less than amicable terms with.
After a day's travel, Wlanisayv and his party happened across the aftermath of a skirmish along the River Rostor, just half a day from Lutzerv. It was unclear as of yet who emerged the victor but there were far more Risverni dead than their mysterious enemy. The river was almost clogged with the grossly disfigured corpses of men and horses. There was a startlingly low number of these slain 'creatures', all signs pointed to a highly one-sided fight.
They arrived at Lutzerv just as the sun went down and were glad to see that the bulk of the army had arrived and were already manning the walls. The defenders had already repelled several waves of attackers and the fields outside the walls were littered with the dead monsters, this raised the spirits of Wlanisayv's men considerably. No time was wasted in joining the garrison in their efforts to erect barriers and other makeshift defences. Commanding the garrison was the king's older brother, Aramatov, a serious man and veteran of a successful long, bitter campaign in the north to crush the hardy and warlike Katarpoy.
Aramatov was supremely confident that even outnumbered twenty to one, Lutzerv would never capitulate. That confidence evaporated when he saw the force arrayed against him. It was still dark but everyone manning the walls could clearly see the vast western forest 'moving'. Only, there wasn't a forest to the west. Disbelief momentarily gripped the defenders, even the king's brother was inwardly unnerved, but he rallied his men to their posts.
Battle of Lutzerv

In conventional circumstances, Lutzerv's defenders may have lasted several weeks even against these odds. The battle lasted mere hours. The Risverni drew first blood, firing missiles with ballistae and catapults when the undead horde came within range. The enemy responded with their own artillery; greenish-black projectiles resembling great gobs of spit were hurled with frightening accuracy at the defenders on the walls. The defenders quickly learned to fear this new weapon when their effect was demonstrated to horrified witnesses. Anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the blast quickly dissolved into a bubbling, hot paste of reddish-pink goop.
Archers rained down wave after wave of fire arrows but the enemy had a response for that as well; flying monstrosities poached them from the battlements and tossed them around in the air like rag dolls so they'd fall to their deaths. The sorcerers from the academy and the local garrison managed to deter the airborne threat again, then began hurling fireballs into the mass of wights. Soldiers and even many peasants joined with their efforts, throwing bits of debris or their spears.
One of Aramatov's commanders expressed confusion at the lack of proper siege engines. No towers or battering rams. As if to answer him, the earth shook and great roots sprouted from the soil, growing all the way up the walls. The wights then began climbing the roots to reach the battlements and a fierce, but short melee broke out. The walls were lost and the fighting spread to the narrow streets where the defenders regained some parity as the layout negated the horde's greater numbers.
Aramatov saw the hopelessness of the situation and ordered the immediate evacuation of all civilians and then joined his men defending the street leading to the market square. The other streets leading to it however were overrun and from there, the defenders were surrounded and torn apart. In the aftermath of the battle, Maldrone himself appeared and resurrected the dead on both sides. The army of eleven thousand, including Aramatov, now served the lich.
Battle of Rinetz
By day six, what remained of the army was in full retreat and there was a mass exodus of civilians fleeing to the capital or to neighbouring states. By now most of Risvern's neighbours were aware their neighbour was under attack. King Vasiliovic offered generous terms for their aid in defeating them including great land concessions. He also sent messengers across the Agrospide Sea to enlist the aid of the powerful city-states of Panormus.
Situated along the only safe road to the capital of Soteskagrav was the small town of Rinetz. Nestled between the imposing Mornovmat mountains, it was an ideal place to defend. Prince Oleksyr, the king's only living heir to the throne, was in charge of the meager force assigned to secure the road for fleeing refugees. Six hundred men in all. Two days earlier, he ordered the construction of an eight-foot deep trench to be filled with wooden stakes, camouflaged with a trap door to be activated by rope. Twenty men took positions up the cliffs on either side where they waited for the signal to release an avalanche of boulders with the help of pyromancers.
After the devastating loss at Lutzerv and the desertion of hundreds of soldiers from their posts in the aftermath, meaningful reinforcement seemed unlikely. The remaining seven thousand men, including the cavalry contingent, were ordered back to the capital. By late evening, the last of the refugees had passed through the town with an escort of soldiers. According to their reports, giants were among the horde pursuing them. As if wights weren't enough! The men had one last hearty supper and prayed fervently to their gods.
At nightfall, the distant din of marching could be heard through the impenetrable darkness. It seemed to go on forever and some of the soldiers, essentially still children who had never seen battle, were visibly unnerved. Men shifted uneasily. Soon, the distant low thunder of the approaching enemy was drowned out by the cantering of horses, the two scouts returning from their mission. When they came into the light of a sentry's torch, only one horse was mounted and there was a bloody stump where the rider's head should have been.
For those faint of heart, the grisly spectacle dealt a severe blow to their morale. The sound of inevitably grew louder and the order was given to brace. The first wave came from the sky, which was expected thanks to intelligence reports on their tactics. Spell-casters deployed alongside the pike phalanx worked together to conjure a powerful psychic shield, disintegrating the airborne creatures when they slammed against it. Their sheer mass began to weaken it and soon the casters needed to rest. Mercifully the flying things were driven off at the last second.
The wights arrived next in a disorganized mob equipped with all manner of weapons from scythes, axes and cleavers to large billhooks and curved swords. A spell caster sent up a flare to signal the activation of the booby trap. The trap door pulled open and hundreds fell upon the sharp wooden stakes. The pikemen were ordered to charge forward and impale the survivors. Oleksyr commanded them from the front and then ordered a retreat back to their original positions before the enemy came back in force.
The narrow passage through the mountains proved to be an excellent choke-point and the battle was going in the defender's favour. More attacks came from above and they were again repulsed but each wave put more and more strain on the casters. The wights suddenly ceased their attacks and retreated back into the darkness, the Risverni were jubilant. Cries of relief were cut short when a trio of giants thundered onto the scene wielding massive hollowed out tree trunks and clubs.
Their arrival had been expected but they were not prepared for it. The towering brutes staggered forwards, their ugly faces twisted with malice. The front ranks of the phalanx were swept aside like crumpled leaves caught in a violent gust of wind. Soldiers were snatched up and torn in half or simply tossed into the air, they were trampled and flattened like pancakes, pulverized into puddles by the huge clubs, even partially devoured before being spat out.
Oleksyr order his casters to signal the next trap, the boulders and gave the command to retreat before his own men were caught in the avalanche. The boulders crashed into the giants, breaking their bones and trapping them under the rubble. The prince rallied his men and ordered them to charge in formation against the giants while they were recovering. Angry, deafening bellows rang out from the savage brutes as they tried to defend themselves with free limbs but the pikemen had greater reach. The giants were impaled through their hands, feet and finally through their heads, at last putting an end to their flailing.
Sunrise was still many hours away but the Risverni maintained over nine-tenths of their strength despite the ferocity of the attacks. With the only passage blocked by rubble, the undead would now have to traverse the cliffs on either side if they wanted to take the town. Oleksyr predicted this was their most likely course of action and reinforced his positions up the mountains. He also ordered his pyromancers to demolish the town, using the debris to further barricade the narrow road. The bodies of the slain, ally and foe, were also burned to prevent their reanimation.
The undead must have given up and moved on elsewhere, because an hour passed without more attacks. Oleksyr was urged by his officers to abandon the objective of defending the narrow pass and regroup at the capital, where reinforcement was no doubt urgently needed. So with just over 500 men left, the prince gave the order to head back to Soteskagrav.

Risvern is answered

Risvern's southern neighbour of Vargrad was ruled by King Dmitrytrask, an ally through marriage to Vasiliovic. He discerned from the letter that his cousin-in-law's kingdom must be under attack by a considerable threat, as their army was quite large by Hebronian standards but also proven in battle. His in-law also claimed ignorance about the nature of this 'invader', surely it must be the steppe nomads? If their northern neighbour falls, Vargrad's own borders will be vulnerable.
Dmitrytrask sent messengers to his lords to rally their men and to recruit ten thousand mercenaries with wealth captured during the Pauper Crusade across the Agrospide Sea. Building up the army would take a week, weather permitting. In the meantime, Risvern's other neighbours had received the news that she was under attack. Most simply ignored but two weeks into the invasion, word had reached Emperor Konrad von Jakowic of the Holidnorst Empire. Upon learning that a former ally in the Pauper Crusade had come under attack by 'pagan savages', he requested that Matriarch Baruszric, leader of the Church of the Holy Trinity, to call for a crusade.
However, the Matriarch declined the request, his reason being that the heretical Risverni were being punished by God because they belong to the blasphemous Ruthirim sect. This left the emperor in a difficult situation as defying the matriarchs was as good as political suicide. If they failed to aid their erstwhile ally in the north, against pagans no less, it would undermine years of politcal maneuvering to ensure their role as effective buffer states against threats to their vulnerable northern border. They were also a vital source of grains, timber, and vitally, flax and hemp for their navy's ships.
If they did send aid, that would undoubtedly result in the emperor being excomunicated and even invasion. He sent diplomats across the sea to Panormus to appeal to the few Aramic powers there, though knew his chances were slim as they had their own war on the horizon with the ever-enroaching Alvar. In the meantime, they would recruit the various mercenary companies. Konrad allowed himself a wry smile. When diplomacy failed, you could always rely on coin to turn a man's sword against your enemies.

Risvern's Last Stand

Two days of marching later, Prince Oleksyr and his men arrived at Soteskagrav. There was a cold bite in the air, the first signs of winter. The survivors of the Risvern army were ammased outside its walls in a large camp. Engineers were hastily constructing catapults and trebuchets. A camp sentry challenged their approach to the city walls and after recognizing the prince, allowed them to pass. The huge portcullis opened, allowing Oleksyr to enter. The streets were crammed with refugees; sons and daughters comforted their mourning mothers, while their husbands, the few who weren't killed defending their homes, begged for morsels of food to feed their families. A group of small boys entertained themselves by roleplaying soldiers in a make-believe war.
Arriving at the palace, he was just in time to catch the ending of a meeting between his father and his advisors. Little more than a week earlier, King Vasiliovic requested military aid from his neighbours and even the Panormus city-states. The hope was to prevent the enemy from reaching the capital for at least three weeks, which is roughly how long it would take for their closest neighbour, Vargrad, to gather her forces and reinforce them. If the winds were favourible, it would take Panorm mercenaries four days to reach Risverni shores.
A detachment of cavalry scouts returned to the capital with news of the enemy, though their number was considerably less than what they had set out with, losing over twenty men in a brief skirmish while they were foraging for food the previous morning. They estimated the invaders were less than a day's march away from reaching the city. They had spent perhaps two days shadowing them and according to their officer, numbered no less than one hundred thousand. The city's defenders numbered little more than seven thousand men-at-arms, knights and cavalry. In addition to that, twenty thousand militia had been raised. They were armed with any weapon they could get their hands on; knives, pitchforks, scythes, throwing spears, even smithing hammers and whaling harpoons.
The bulk of the army camping outside the walls were ordered to fall back behind them, leaving only a token garrison to man the siege equipment and the cavalry. The cavalry were split into two wings of six hundred each and were deployed to the north and south, their flanks were protected by marshland and dense woodland. These were shock cavalry, armed with 9 foot long lances and kite shields, their primary role is to smash into the enemy flanks at the decisive point in battle when the enemy morale is teetering on the brink of disaster. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, this worked. Against an opponent who could not feel fear however... Oleksyr knew these men would be sent to their deaths.
Night had come and gone and the pale white sun had just crested over the iron grey sea to the east. The grey silhouette of the undead horde was gradually unveiled from the darkness of night for those manning the city's battlements to see. Great braziers were lit to signal the arrival of the invader and the army of seven thousand, supported by the hastily trained militia, were ordered to the west wall.

Historical Significance

In Literature

Without His Light

A religious text written by a veteran of the war, calling for a renewed devotion in the god Numaxian for his pivotal role in defeating the undead.

A History of the Dark Arts

Far from the main focus of the book, 'A History of the Dark Arts' does however dedicate one chapter to the war in the necromancy section. There is particular emphasis on the magical feats of Maldrone and his lieutenants, which the author stresses that while terrible, were nevertheless considered impressive even by their adversaries.

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

934 CN