The Nine Years War of 1420-1429

The Nine Years War (1420-1429), was a large scale war on the continent of Thiva , between the kingdoms of Kingdom of Eniria , Darioth, Acros, Noros, Ethraia and Ureneth. The war began as a war between Ureneth and Eniria, over a disagreement of the rights to a mountain that stood on the border. The reason for the dispute, was that Urenethian The Guild of the Southern Dwarves had recently found a lot of gold, steel and iron inside it. Prior to this event, Eniria hadn't really cared about the mountain. Both countries claimed that the mountain was theirs, but as it seemed very useless, nobody bothered to clear it up. But once the valuable materials were found, The Enirian Miners Guild claimed that the mountain was rightfully theirs, due to the treaty of Waron, 200 years earlier. But Ureneth claimed that the treaty of Waron gave them the ownership of Govia, and the mountain was part of the Govia region.
The Southern Dwarves went to the lord of Govia, the city a few kilometers from the mountain. The lord smelled profit, and struck a deal with the dwarves of the south, giving him 10 % of what they mined, and in return he would back them up. The Enirian Miners in return, went straight to Enir Bas, to the court of King Baldwin, to seek his assistance in the matter. Naturally, he backed the Enirian dwarves, guided by his greed. With this escalation, the news arrived to High King Ihtizaz in Castle Gheliver. He is said to have condemned Baldwins insolence, in a fit of rage, that lasted several minutes. When he finally calmed down, he muttered silently that this would be seen as declaration of war.

The Convention of Uruthgast

The two kings and their vassals attempted to solve the conflict peacefully, in the convention of Uruthgast, hosted by the young Emperor Arkan , who attempted to mediate between the two powers. Attending the meeting, was also the Norosian King of Kings, Asger, as well as the Mir of Acros, Kamau, and the Consul of Darioth, Gaius. The historian Gregorios, later remarked that no one but Gaius seemed interested in solving the conflict. He theorizes that the rest of the rulers wanted a war desperately, and thus would be very much against a peaceful solution. The young Emperor Arkan seemed amused with the whole thing. In the end, Baldwin and Ihtizaz found no solution to the conflict, and went back home to prepare for war.

War Preparations

Baldwin immediately started on the war preparations. His barons started gathering their own forces, but they stalled it as much as possible, to hopefully avoid war. He ordered the barons of Waron and Ansbridge to build up their defenses, and bring in all the food they could, to prepare for siege. Meanwhile he struck up conversation with Asger of Noros, to ask him to honour their old alliance, and assist him in the upcoming war. Asger refused, saying that it was a defensive alliance, and in this case there was no aggressor. Baldwin was furious, but there was nothing he could say to make Asger change his mind. He was on his own in this war, but it would seem that Ihtizaz was so too. Althoug the war had officially begun, they would have to wait for winter to pass, before they could make any moves. Once the winted was over, small parties from both sides began to raid their enemy's land, while waiting for their king to gather his army. Although the war officially began in 1420, the first blood wouldn't be drawn until Spring 1421, on The Romel Plains around a hundred kilometers north of Govia. Nearly a hundred men died, before the engagement was declared an Enirian victory. These would only be the first of several thousand, who would lose their lives to the war.

Baldwin Goes to War

Once Summer arrived, Baldwin had recruited 21.000 men, from Enir Bas, Stagor, Casester and Stheron. It is said, that had he waited, he may have been able to gather more than 3 times as many men. But Baldwin was restless, and the with his barons constantly halting the recruitment, he would've had to wait atleast a year, and by then Ihtizaz would have already taken half of Eniria. However, unknown to Baldwin, Ihtizaz was having his own problems. Not only had the harvest been quite awful, but his people were rioting in many cities, over this seemingly unnecesarry war. And furthermore, many lords were plotting to replace Ihtizaz with his nephew, and thus they only sent a few hundred men to his aid, compared to the several thousand he my have been able to receive. Ihtizaz army was simply not capable of reaching it's full potential. In the end, he left with 35.000 men, less then a third of what he could have had if the conditions were perfect. But the men from Wiroun, Govia, Amthield and Thriber still hadn't arrived. he was hoping that he could increase his army to between 40 and 50 thousand men.
But Baldwin hadn't received all his men either. Lathor was known for having the second largest army in Eniria, and it was commanded by Baldwin's best friend, Edwin. Furthermore, he would get atleast 10.000 from Waron, Ansbridge and Stelhol. He was hoping that his brother, Alexander, would arrive with his 200 men, but it would seem that Alexander still held a grudge against Baldwin. By the time he arrived at the crossroads south of Ansbridge, by the end of summer, he had 41.000 men, with several people arriving every day to join him.

Composition of The Enirian Army

Eniria was known for it's amazing royal navy. They were however not very famous for their prowess on the field. Furthermore, Baldwin had surrounded himself with incompetent commanders. The only skilled Stratego in his army, was Edwin. But Edwin was still young, and the older Barons didn't pay much attention to his advice. The Army consisted of 32.000 Levy Infantry men. These were all unprofessional soldiers, and many couldn't even aford armour. They all had different weapons; Sharp sticks, sword, pitchforks, axes for woodchoping and pickaxes. But around 6000 of them had actual weapons, for battle, aswell as leather armour, with a few even wearing full metal armour. These were placed in the frontline. Apart from the 32.000 men, the army also had around 3000 archers. Most of these had some experience with bows. And finally, the army had 6000 Enirian riders. These were knights, and the profesional soldiers of each city in Eniria. They were the most skilled on the battlefield.

Battle of Khyrinus

On the fourth of Autumn, Baldwin got news that Ihtizaz had left Govia, and was properly already halfways towards the border. Baldwin immediately awoke his army, and prepared to cross the river and meet the Urenethian army. By the time they arrived at the river, the enemy cavalry was already there, attempting to prevent the Enirians from crossing. Baldwin sent Edwin and his 6000 riders over the bridge to meet them, and push them back. After 5 minutes of fighting, the Urenethian cavalry retreated, after losing around 200 men. Baldwin's cavalry lost less than 30.
He then proceeded to move his entire army over the bridge, guarded by the cavalry. After a long time, the entire army had made it over. Meanwhile, Ihtizaz's army had been ready for a while. They had killed a few men with arrows, before the Enirians pulled out of their range.
As soon as the entire army was in position, they advanced towards the Urenethian army. As the got closer, Ihtizaz ordered his men to do a 45 degree turn, so that they would face towards the river. Baldwin followed them, and ended up having his back towards the river. Then he started raining arrows on the Urenethian frontline. Ihtizaz ordered his men to advance. While they did so, the center of the infantry marched faster than the flanks, resulting in the line getting a small curve.
After an hour of fighting, the center of Baldwin's army broke, and attempted to flee over the river. Many drowned, but a few made it over. The retreat resulted in Baldwin's army being split in 2. On Baldwin's right flank, 10.000 men had been caught, while he had 16.000 on his left flank. They were slowly getting pushed away from each other. Meanwhile, an equal amount of riders faces each other, east of the main battle. The battle was a stalemate, with no side gaining an advantage. Eventually, after another hour, the right infantry flank surrendered or fled over the river. Eventually, Baldwin realised he had lost, and ordered his men to retreat over the bridge, under cover from the archers, and the cavalry defending their flank. By the end of the battle, the cavalry fled over the bridge aswell. The Urenethian army attempted to cross the bridge, but after losing many men to arrows, and engaging with the Enirian pikemen at the end of the bridge, Ihtizaz called his mnén back, and called it a victory. Baldwin pulled his remaining 22.000 men back to the crossroads. Out of the 22.000, 5000 of them were injured. Ihtizaz had caught around 7000 men on the right flank, and were offering them back for a large sum of gold. Lord Edwin was among these prisoners.
Queen Eleos adviced Baldwin to buy back as many men as possible, but prioritize the men over Edwin. The 7000 men had the same worth as Edwin alone. Baldwin ended up listening to her, and buy his 7000 men back. But in doing so, he lost the friendship of Edwin, aswell as the loyalty of House Khudia. He believed the 7000 men would be able to help him in the upcoming siege, but Ihtizaz didn't press further into Eniria, as winter was upon them.
Eleos's move ended up being a massive blunder. Not only did he lose a friend, which in itself is bad. The decision also led to a civil war against King Poros, 14 years later. Furthermore, more than half of the army that was ransomed back, were men very loyal to the Khudians. A thousand of the surviving riders and archers were also his men. They demanded that Baldwin ransomed Edwin back. When Baldwin refused, because he didn't have the money, they mutineed. Hundreds were injured, and dozens were killed, before they agreed on a truce. Edwin's younger brother, Tybolt Khudia, marched his army home to Lathor. Baldwin decided not to take revenge on them, because it would cost too many men.

Siege of Waron

With Baldwin's army weakened massively, and winter beginning, Ihtizaz originally decided to go home and wait out the winter. But instead, he decided to send home all his injured men, and besiege Waron with the remaining 17.000. The city was completelly cut off, as Lathor had become independent. The city did not receive any additional reinforcements or food, and was in a very poor position. The camp of the besieging army, was far better than many other camps. They all had far more food from leaving the injured in Govia, and the morale was very high. On the 4th of Spring, the Urenethian army stormed the city, and took it easily. The majority of the defending forces surrendered easily, and few died on both sides. Meanwhile, the situation was changing everywhere else.

Darioth and Noros enters the war

By the beginning of the war, the consul of Darioth had been an opponent of the war, and remained on the sideline. Unfortunately, in the election of Winter 2021, a new consul was chosen. This consul was far more pro-war, and immediatelly gathered his army (With support of the senate, the majority of the senators being pro war aswell), and declared war on Eniria. He entered Eniria during the winter, and besieged Stheron. This was an incredibly stupid decision, as Noros could now join the war on Eniria's side. They marched 50.000 men to Stheron, and destroyed their army. The Norosian Northmen were used to the cold, compared to the Dariothians, the majority of whom weren't. A quarter of the army was killed, another quarter was injured, and a third was captured. The tables were turned. Ihtizaz had gained a strong ally, who had just lost (dead or captured) the majority of their army, and Eniria had gained a very powerful ally, who had brought 50.000 men with them into the war. It was easy for everyone to see who had gained the most from all of this. By the time Waron fell, it didn't mean much for Eniria, who had just tripled their army.

Included Conflicts

• Battle of Khyrinus

Start Date

1420

Ending Date

1429