The Sixth Barbarian Scourge

The Conflict

Prelude

The state of the Grenzland

The devastation of the earlier barbarian invasions had made the Rhendorian Empire increasingly anxious and concerned with the state of their eastern border. Any expeditions that tried to discover what hid in the jungle that formed this natural barrier had not returned, or only sole survivors, decimated by the barbarians inhabiting the jungle. To prevent any disasters like the fifth Barbarian Scourge, the then emperor, Ludwig III. decided to increase the contingents every eastern kingdom and duchy was supposed to send to the Grenzland. Furthermore, they were strengthened by members of the royal guard and volunteer service in the Grenzland was advertised as divine duty throughout the Empire.
As men alone could not stand against the barbarian onslaught, the emperor also dispatched a group of loyal advisors to make the Grenzland more adept at holding back its enemies. Their changes were nothing less than revolutionary. Unlike the feudal or republican models, on which most of the Empire ran, it became a stratocracy, lead by a military governor, appointed and only responsible to the emperor. The entire region was reorganized to resemble an army in waiting, rather than a civilian populace. Before the invasion began, around forty-thousand lived in the Grenzland, more than three-quarters able to fight. It was the largest active military force in the Empire, renowned for its quality, as well as their daring bravado, with which they held the line against the occasional barbarian raid. But even they never dared to enter the jungle further than a few miles, for any group that ventured further disappeared, sometimes without leaving a trace.

Eve of the Invasion

On the eve of the invasion, 04.03.729, the Grenzland was not in good shape. While their fortifications were in excellent conditions and manned sufficiently, they had recently lost a party of experienced riders under the command of Darius Petersson, the scout-general of the Grenzland. Although there were many able to replace him, Darius had known the land better than most. Most concerning to the general staff in Karlsburg, the capital of the Grenzland, he had ventured into the jungle to follow up evidence that the barbarians were mounting a major attack.
Furthermore, there had not been a barbarian raid for over a year. While this may have been good news for most, it made the staff and governor Erika von Vogelhorst quite nervous. The only times the barbarians had stopped their raids was before their large onslaughts. While this itself may have been worrying, the timespan was even worse. During the other five scourges, the barbarians stopped attacking for half a year before swarming the Grenzland. As such, the somewhat legitimate fear spread, that this next attack had to be even worse than the ones coming before. Help from the heartland wasn't likely, as the Empire was going through one of its many periods of civil unrest and was still dealing with the aftermath of a minor famine.
Finally, the local mage college had reported that many of its members had started to have trouble sleeping, waking up and screaming incoherently. Worse, they couldn't focus enough to properly cast spells, rendering one of the most effective weapons of the Grenzland unfeasible. Another worrying aspect was the dreams the mages all shared. They reported having seen visions of a barbarian flood, greater than anything ever seen before, lead by a tall creature they couldn't comprehend, powerful beyond any imagination. While the Empire was a nation skeptical of magic in general, the number of mages reporting these visions, combined with the other clues, made the governor fear for the worst.
However, as she didn't want to risk an uprising or a panic, she didn't order a general mobilization, fearing that the food reserves, drained from the winter, wouldn't be able to sustain an army for long. As such, only an eighth of the Grenzlands army was mobilized at the time of the invasion.

Deployment

At the start of the war, most of the Grenzland still lived their civilian lives, the ones already conscripted had occupied the fortresses along the jungle, blocking off critical routs inland. The barbarians did not worry about supply, living off the land and disregarding any casualties through attrition. Despite this, they would usually take the time to lay siege and crush the fortresses. The reason remained unclear, but the staff theorized that one of two things was likely. For one, the barbarians were driven by pure bloodlust and wanted to kill anyone they saw. On the other hand, they could be guided by rudimentary strategical thinking, wanting to eliminate enemy strongholds that could backstab them if ignored.
Other than these fortresses, the only noteworthy army was located in the capital, acting as a rapid response force. The staff had dismissed the idea to build a deeper defense, claiming that it would spread the forces unnecessarily thin and endanger the fortresses. If all soldiers were tasked to man the fortresses, they could hold out against the barbarians long enough, so the Response Force could liberate them. During the last scourge, the barbarians had only been able to successfully siege a fortress after throwing away a good fifteen-thousand, while the garrison had only consisted of four-hundred. "Victories" like this made the staff rather complacent, who were more concerned with logistical issues, instead of developing better strategies.
The general mobilization plan would allow all soldiers theoretically available to become active in less than three months. This would only work if the rest of the Empire would begin supplying them quickly enough, perhaps even going so far that they send serfs to man the farms now left abandoned. If this could not happen, at least a third of the soldiers would not be able to serve, as they would need to fulfill civilian roles. Due to the current state of the Empire, it was questionable whether they could provide the help they needed, making early mobilization irresponsibly dangerous.

The Engagement

The Flood

On the 05.03.729, a nightly scouting patrol had not returned to Burg Adam, located towards the northern end of the Grenzland. This was unusual, but not unlikely, as patrols were able to delay their arrival if they found something of concern. Regardless, the alarm was sounded and another party was sent out to find the scouts. They never returned. Instead, during the late morning, the defenders could spot a massive horde of barbarians marching towards them. This was quite dangerous for multiple reasons. One, the host was larger than anything seen before, meaning it was a proper scourge. Two, they marched in an orderly fashion, as if they were a proper army and not a horde of barbarians. Three, they had harnessed mighty beasts of the jungle as war beasts, something thought to be impossible. Quickly a messenger was dispatched to the capital, escaping only barely from the Oudinae's flying war beasts.
In the capital, the general staff was panicking. Not only was the northern border under attack by a host equal to a proper scourge, but the same had happened in the south. Two hosts of tremendous size had appeared, well-coordinated and properly trained. Due to the immense strength of the invading forces, they decided to leave the now sieged fortresses to their fate and instead march their army towards the center of the fortress line, so they could attack the host left weaker by their siege. Afterward, they would turn towards the other host and try to contain them until further help arrived from the Empire. Additionally, the general mobilization was issued, so the army could hold their own against the hosts.
During the two months consumed by preparing the army, the invading hosts had battered themselves bloody trying to take the fortresses. While they mostly laid in ruins, the central structures were still standing and several thousand barbarians had lost their lives. Especially the savage tribes, who charged into battle almost naked, armed with sticks and stones, suffered horribly against the ranged weaponry and kill zones used by the defenders. Alas, the barbarians cared little for losses and even used the bodies of their fallen to climb the ramparts. Some positions of the defenders were quite literally buried by bodies. As the fortress mages told the general staff, the hosts used the savage tribes to weaken critical positions, to then use well-trained barbarians to break the position. This level of tactics was new, as before the barbarians had thrown themselves at the enemy without regard for their own lives. Yet they now even started tending to some of their wounded.
While this newfound level of competence may have worried the general staff, they did not change the plan, as it was the only choice they had without abandoning the entire Grenzland. Only three days after the last defender of Burg Adam had died, triggering the complete destruction of the fortress, the army was able to march under the command of von Vogelhorst. When they finally arrived at Burg Herzstein, the second fortress had fallen as well, leaving the choice where to go unclear. While the host close to Burg Adam was weakened more during its siege, they had time to recover and maybe even prepared an ambush. While it was unlikely for them to be so sophisticated, a sense of general paranoia had taken hold of the general staff, who now feared the barbarians.
Bound by this paranoia, von Vogelhorst was convinced to stay at the Burg for another week by her magical advisor, Bernard von Syndland. He urged her to stay put and send out more scouts, while also pulling more and more soldiers from the fortress line, so a victory against one of the hosts could be guaranteed. While most of the general staff vehemently protested against this action, fearing a complete loss of the fortress line, von Vogelhorst followed the advice, as he had been a reliable source of advice and claimed to have visions about the enemy's plans. As such, the army ended up drawing more than two-thirds of all soldiers in the Grenzland in a single location, making it powerful enough to dispatch at least one of the hosts.
During this time the fortresses reported the sighting of the bronze tribes, elite forces of the barbarians, along the jungle line, who were scouting and probing the fortress line. While it was theorized that they prepared an attack on the central fortress, Burg Herzstein, the idea was quickly dismissed. As a high ranking officer put it: "It is most certainly impossible that there could be another host of sufficient size." Due to the army now camping at Burg Herzstein, this new host would have to be even larger than the other two, numbering at least four hundred thousand to pose a proper threat. The desperation of the staff, who were clinging on to the idea that the current situation was the worst possible scenario may have played a part in this optimistic sentiment.

The Destruction of the Burg Herzstein

A month after the army had encamped at Burg Herzstein, now swollen to a size of thirty thousand soldiers, enlarged by a good half of the fortress garrisons, it was ready to march towards the barbarians waiting at Burg Adam. Reinforcements of the Empire had started to slowly arrive at the capital, where they were forged into a coherent fighting force. While this process would take time, the staff assumed that victory was achievable, once the eighty thousand new soldiers would be able to partake in operations. While most leaders outside the Grenzland thought it was wildly overambitious to fight a force almost five times as strong, the local commanders did their best to soothe them.
The difference in scale was negligible in the eyes of the Grenzland veterans, as the efficient use of ranged weaponry, magic, and their warbeasts could allow them to kill ten barbarians for each soldier lost. Especially once the numbers of the barbarians went down enough so they could not keep up their literal waves of people, they could be killed without incurring almost any casualties.
However, on the eve before marching off to meet the host at Burg Adam the true force of the Oudinae revealed themselves. In a single second Burg Herzstein, the mightiest of all fortresses erupted into flame, consumed by magical fire. The ground itself broke apart, lava erupting, throwing the army into chaos. Lastly, meteors rained down from the sky, creating poisonous vapor wherever they landed. It was then, that a host of more than five hundred thousand barbarians revealed themselves as they charged out of the jungle, trying to overwhelm the forces of the Grenzland. Among them more than thirty thousand barbarians of the bronze tribes, each one a monster in their own right.
Despite these overwhelming odds, their lacking organization and the issue that the seeming end of the world had come, the army tried to form some sort of defense and tried to retreat in an orderly fashion. At first, they saw some success, the waves of barbarians proving no match to good tactics, training, and utter desperation. As such, it seemed possible that only a fourth of all soldiers would die that day.
Alas, this hope came to a sudden and brutal end when the leader of the scourge revealed himself. Like the mages had foreseen in their visions, it was an abhorrent creature. Easily as tall as three humans, it was thin, almost frail, but its avian features radiated magical power in amounts never seen before. It was this creature who had destroyed the fortress with a single spell and now cut off any chance of retreat by ripping apart the ground once more. As the twenty-nine survivors would later say the leader was probably able to wipe out the entire army singlehandedly.
However, after it cut off the possibility of retreat it stopped casting spells and let the barbarians take care of the slaughter. It only stepped in when parts of the army tried to retreat, preventing it while almost trying to avoid casualties. This decision, as it was later reasoned, the army was able to kill more than one hundred fifty thousand during the two days the battle raged on. It was, by any description, apocalyptic, the land even a century poisoned and burned, a desolate wasteland. Only at the end of the second day, the leader allowed those twenty-nine to escape, perhaps wanting them to spread the message.
In the end, the might of the Grenzland was shattered, its leaders and most of its soldiers dead. The barbarians stood victorious, now more than nine-hundred-thousand ready to march on the capital.

The Dawn of the Apocalypse

As the survivors, unmolested by the barbarians arrived at the capital, hope there plummetted. If the army of the Grenzland was destroyed without at least critically weakening the enemy, what hope was there for stopping them in the Grenzland? Most likely they would manage to reach the east of the Empire and devastate it, causing indescribable horror.
In a desperate attempt to prevent the worst, the dukes and kings who had already arrived pleaded that the emperor himself had to take up arms and lead them in this darkest hour. The emperor accepted and made his way to the Grenzland, joined by his entire court, containing the greatest knights of his time, as well as his royal guard, one of the most pristine fighting forces of their time.
It took the emperor more than a month to arrive, but the barbarians didn't attack. Instead, they pillaged the now empty Grenzland, strangely ignoring the remaining fortresses. As scout parties reported they worked methodically, organizing their loot and storing it at specific locations, but never taking anything for themselves. Interestingly, the scouts themselves could never approach these locations, not due to barbarian intervention, but due to the strong urge simply not to do so. It was later discovered that powerful spells, far too sophisticated to be used by the barbarians, would manipulate the mind of anyone who came near them.
During this brief respite, the capital was fortified more and more, at the end becoming almost impregnable by the standards of the time. Kilometers of palisades had been built, magical explosives planted kill zones established and more than three hundred trebuchets built, each of them with a sizeable amount of explosive ammunition. For any force other than the barbarians this obstacle would have been insurmountable. The Empire went so far that they burned down anything in a thirty-mile radius around the capital, to deny the barbarians any supply.
Then, a mere day after the emperor arrived, the barbarians began to march towards the capital, arriving there three days later. They had been reinforced since the battle, now numbering around a million. In comparison, the remaining ten thousand soldiers of the Grenzland were supported by another eighty thousand of the Empire. Would it not be for the leader of the barbarians, the new staff believed a victory was possible. Considering the power of the leader, however, it was deemed very unlikely. Unfazed by this pessimism, the emperor proposed a daring plan. He and his retinue, among them both some of the greatest knights, as well as some of the most important lords of the Empire would form a spearhead and fight their way towards the enemy leader. Then, supported by most of the Imperial college they would face it in combat and kill it. Its death should equalize the playing field and break the barbarian's will.
Some disagreed with the plan, as it posed an uncomfortable risk for the emperor and some of the most distinguished figures of the Empire. However, it was accepted by those involved, as it both promised a quick and decisive end to the war, as well as eternal glory. The latter wasn't openly discussed, but everyone knew that the man to slay the enemy leader, now dubbed the Chosen, would enter the annals of history as a legendary hero. With their plan ready, they waited for the barbarians to make their move.

End of an Era

The barbarians began their assault two days later, now having constructed some rudimentary siege weaponry, something unthinkable in earlier scourges. Despite this new level of civilization their main strength still was their numbers. These were countered by the expertly made defenses of the Empire, causing horrifying casualties, leaving more than a hundred thousand dead before any real ground had been gained.
At this point, the barbarians had become a little weary, the losses stood in no comparison with their gains. Despite this, they continued their attacks, though their resolve seemed to waver a bit. Especially the Grenzländers hesitated, though they were quickly cut down by the bronze tribes, ensuring that morale didn't break yet. Aware of the risk for his army the Chosen then chose to reveal himself. Marching forth he annihilated an entire line of defense with a mere snap of his claws, strengthening barbarian morale.
Now, as their prize had revealed itself, the emperor and his retinue began their attack in the heart of the barbarian horde. The elite of the Empire cut through the barbarians, like a knife through butter, both the barely armored savage tribes and the bronze elite falling to them, not even the monstrous mages of the barbarians a match for the imperial college. As such, to the amazement of the soldiers holding the barbarians back, they were able to reach the Chosen.
There, the emperor himself, a renowned monster slayer, supported by the best and brightest of the Empire challenged the chosen to a duel, ready to end the danger then and there. It is said that the battle stopped, all eyes upon the duel.
It was then when the chosen flicked a talon, dissolving all but the emperor who now stood alone, faced with this monster, as powerful as a god. The Chosen then took the emperor and held him high, for all to see. After a short speech, heard by everyone on the battlefield, and every mage throughout the empire, Immanuel IV., Emperor of the Rhendorian Empire, King of Feglerland, Herald of Richardus, Champion of the Common Man and Scion of the Old Empire was crushed in an instant, leaving behind only a faint red mist.

The Miracle of Karlsburg

The barbarians roared, charging the defenders with newfound energy, breaking themselves upon their defenses, inching ever so closer to the central fortifications. Victory, even survival for the defenders seemed impossible, as their best had just perished without achieving their goal. As such, they abandoned hope and accepted their inevitable death. However, to die with their head held high was the least they could do. As such, they gathered their strength, wanting to make their defeat as pyrrhic as possible.
Throughout the following hours, the battle raged on, defense after defense being overwhelmed by the barbarians, the remaining soldiers only hardened in their resolve when they saw the atrocities committed by the barbarians. Throughout this time, the clerics who had joined the emperor had been praying in the central fortress, asking their gods to stand by them and hold back these creatures. Alas, the gods were quiet that day.
Thus, the barbarians overwhelmed the last line of defense before the main citadel in the center of Karlsburg. At this point, the barbarians had suffered greatly, almost none of the savage tribes were left and even the bronze tribes had been greatly diminished. Despite this, they numbered at least three-hundred-thousand. More than enough to crush the last two-thousand defenders inside the citadel, less than a fortieth of their original strength.
Then, now dubbed as the miracle of Karlsburg, disaster struck at the barbarians. As Burg Herzstein had fallen before, the land around the citadel burst into flame, meteors striking the largest barbarian groups, the ground itself splitting and swallowing thousands. Throughout this, no harm came to the defenders inside the citadel, who watched in awe, as the largest army ever seen on the continent perished in less than two hours. In the end, almost no barbarians survived, those who did retreating to the jungle as quickly as they could.
The chosen was not seen after the miracle, among the dead barbarians neither a skeleton nor a body belonging to it could ever be found. However, before the miracle, the clerics still praying for salvation experienced a vision. They were warned that this would not be the last of the scourges and what had happened would never come again. Only their steadfast power would be enough to fight the next scourges. While it remains a topic of scholarly debate who sent the vision, the practical implications would not be ignored by the Empire.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

729

Ending Date

730

Conflict Result

Phyrric victory of the Empire

Belligerents

Rhendorian Empire

Oudinae

Strength

Around 90.000 Soldiers

Estimated between 1.2 million and 1.4 million

Casualties

Around 82.000 Dead
Around 6.000 Wounded

Around 1.2 million dead
No wounded

Objectives

Defending the Empire from the Oudinae

Destroy the Empire