The Fall of Ukja ab'Sthekkas (ukʤɑ ɑbsθɛkʰɑs)

Ptarshakkians are known for their bellicose and expansionist natures. However, the Grand Army of the Ptarshakkian Empire were repulsed and suffered huge losses to disease, infection, poisonous and venomous creatures in the wilds of Suwada. Indeed, entire companies of soldiers disappeared completely after having been dispatched into the jungles. The campaigns to include Suwada (the Ptarshakkian name of the Suvata Region) were considered abject failures and abandoned. Field Marshall Romasil of Ptansannae fell on his sword rather than face the imperial court when his losses mounted and his honour was forever tainted. Like the Yssians to the south, Ptarshakk elected to leave Suwada wild, laying claim to it in only the most nominal way (which no other nation respected or acknowledged).
The failures and suicide of Field Marshall Romasil of Ptansannae lead to the promotion of one of the generals of the Ptarshakkian army's Fifth Order, a young, and very ambitious woman, Biwas ab'Daenae. The new field marshall had had a meteoric rise into power. She was merely 21 years old when she became the general of the Fifth Order. True, a number of her superiors met with accidents or were lost to the Suwada. Nonetheless, Field Marshall Biwas rose to her positions by skill of tactic and of guile. Her swordplay was second to none in the Fifth Order. Unlike other Ptarshakkian generals, Biwas lead from the front. She was fearless. The other generals were mostly appointed from nobility; they had nothing to prove. Biwas earned her rank through will alone.
It was she that successfully launched the greatest military victories of Ptarshakk against the hated Qh'énns, which eventually became known as the Third Ptarshakkian-Qh'énnish War. However, before this conflict began, Biwas ab'Daenae dispatched a legion from her former Order, the Fifth, consisting of hand picked soldiers who were fiercely loyal. For the glory of their ascendant leader, they would go to the Thōur region: if Ptarshakk would not take Suwada, Biwas would take the rest of Thōur instead. For decades, Ptarshakkian nobles squabbles amongst themselves as to who should annex Thōur and make all of Ptarshakk one region, Thōurraidt. Politics had stymied this. Biwas would have it for herself.
Farmers at the edges of Ptarshakkian controlled Raidt had felt predation from another emergent enemy. It was said that trolls had wandered into their region. Biwas seized upon this as provocation that not only would Ptarshakk annex Thōur, it would be ostensibly for the good of the nation. But also, for her own glory.
Trusting her legion to make short work of the unrest, Field Marshall Biwas ab'Daenae and thousands of soldiers from all five of the Ptarshakkian army's Orders, set sail for the west to punish the Qh'énns. The would occupy westernmost Llaohh and prepare to take Qh'énnshaiyn.
Her legion, under a former lieutenant, Sthekkas of Zennept, would push south, southwest, to the Idakk region. First the legion took to patrolling around the outpost there known as Ukja am Adakk (lit. "keep on the Idakki plain").
From Ukja am Adakk, the legion turned westerly to the coast and began the construction of a fort at the coast: from thence to conquest of the Black Isles. Devoid of humility, the general named the fort for himself: Ukja ab'Sthekkas (lit. "the keep of House Sthekkas").
Ships were acquired and preparations at Ukja ab'Sthekkas were made to launch sorties towards the Black Isles. General Sthekkas of Zennept, believed his knowledge of the area and the plight of its farmers were beneath him and his legion. Building up of the Ukja―named for himself―was a much better use of the legion's efforts. Only a handful of companies would launch towards the Black Isles; a few other companies would patrol the western Idakk region. It would all be finished in less than a month and the legion could then rejoin the vastness of the Grand Army's invasion force in Llaohh and at Sarn.
Electing to personally lead the sorties into the Black Isles, following the example of his beloved general, now field marshall, Sthekkas left his legion scattered throughout the Ptarshakkian border at Thōur. It was perhaps for the best that he and his command vessel were never seen again, because the losses under his command were as devastating as those of the erstwhile Field Marshall at Suwada.
General Sthekkas' assessment was in fact quite inaccurate.
The Black Isles were indeed populated by a powerful nation that had hidden itself in the mountains, vast underground cities, and they had grown tired of Ptarshakkian encroachment. The Black Islanders were trolls of the h' BchBrche nation and they laid waste to the legion, its naval forces, and set siege to Ukja ab'Sthekkas.
The trolls had been assumed to have been primitive, bestial creatures, in tiny numbers, incapable of higher thought. Incapable of organization. Incapable of war. The bellicose Ptarshakkians found out that the trolls of the Black Isles were as prepared for war and as warlike as they were. This lesson was not learned until most of Sthekkas' legion were dead.
Whilst the vast majority of the Grand Army of the Ptarshakkian Empire conquered the Qh'ill straits Channel Islands―Sarn and Garnère―and made a successful beachhead in the Qh'énns' lands, their southern borders were overrun. And the monument to Sthekkas' folly, Ukja ab'Sthekkas fell.
Soldiers fleeing Ukja ab'Sthekkas, before their execution for desertion, reported the vastness and strategic deployment of the trolls to the Ptajma elite at the closest secure outpost, Ukja am Adakk. A devout Ptajma knight, Lord General Iraem Ambarae* rallied his troops and made their way to the border. Thus began the Black Isle-Ptarshakkian war.

* Also known by his name rendered in Raachern, Ire'em Mbarii /ireːɛm mbɑɹiːi/. Iraem Ambarae /ireɛm ɑmbɑre/ is the Ptarshakkian version of his name. Although born and raised in Ptarshakk, Ire'em was an ethnic Mbaran and spoke one of the trade languages as his mother tongue long before he joined the Ptajma.

Conflict Type

Battle