The Great Patrol

INTRODUCTION

The Great Patrol was a full scale invasion of Seick by the Egleton Queendom. The Vei populus had begun to cram into the furthermost north corner of Abeon, and began to be driven out during the early 15th century. However, the Seick city-state had turned its back of Vei religion, the official cause of the war. Many historians argue that Egletone actually began the invasion as a result of high conquest ideas in the nobility, but the topic is still hotly debated to this day.

THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR

The outlook for the remaining city-nations of Vei in northeastern Abeon was bleak out the outset of the 20th century. Tsonlar was on the rise, having defeated all of their adversaries during the Alchemy War of 1280 (later called The First Magic War of Abeon the Indinell tribes had begun to apply pressure on the Phagees to push out all non-arvenon peoples from the jade expanse, and bitter hostilities with the dwarves were coming to a head in The Seventy Years War. The strongest of the Abeonic vei kingdoms, Egleton, was forced to call a council of war in 1535 3p. The bloody conflicts of the third period were slowly, but consistently, pushing the vei people out of the continent entirely. The High Queen of Egleton, Echrich III, was the third cousin of Lord Halbrant of Archia, the commander of the royal army in the Deep. Because of her relation, Echrich knew the arvenon's desire to exterminate the vei completely. Most of the leaders of the four vei nations agreed during the council, but Lady Rebekar of Seick refused to join the coalition. Although many other leaders of Seick agreed to join, Rebekar was the champion of the people and control more than half of Seick's forces. Without her aid, Echrich commanded the forces of all nations to create a large army, which she called 'The Great Patrol' to put down any army which came to exterminate the vei. In 1975, Echrich ordered the army of nearly fifty thousand vei warriors to invade the sovreignty of Seick- to which none of the other lords objected. Rebekar had allowed chambraids, men, and even Arvenon to dwell within the land; but perhaps the most profane law set by Rebekar, was her allowing of the lesser species of vei from across the sea to live in Seick: the Ecnafer of Eryaetos.

THE BRIDGE AT HARSOFF

In the blossoming of 1537 3p, the Great Patrol under direct command by Echrich III, marched toward Harsoff, the capital of the Seick and residence of Lady Rebekar, the rebel leader. Echrich knew that taking Harsoff would guarentee victory in the war and hoped to make quick work of the entire ordeal. But on Atember 17th, their forces met the bridge guard- a battallion of 400 trained men from the Indinell Tribes. The men managed to hold off the vastly outnumbering army for sixteen days, protected by the bottleneck the great river created. On the 34th, a few dismounted pikemen managed to cross the ford and flank the bridge guard, sending the formation into disarray. By nightfall of the 35th, Echrich's army had completely driven off the guard and now firmly had a foothold in Seick. However, the Great Patrol had lost nearly two thousand vei, and fifty of the bridge patrol retreated back to Harsoff. Porlein then exited the alliance of vei nations, growing weary of the infighting and refocusing its resources on the Phagees threat. Echrich lost another twenty battallions as a result, and her conquest came to a grinding halt at the city walls of Harsoff. Echrich later noted that she believed there to be a whole host of an army inside the city- when in reality, Elfort led eight other drows and the fifty wounded men of the Bridge Guard.

THE SIEGE

Echrich began a long siege, lacking the resources or support to make quick work of the massive fortress-city. Her forces were decimated and weary, but she pressed on. Inside the city, Commander Treymen Elfort, a male drow from Toralli, led a quick reinforcing of the outer and inner defeneses of the city. Elfort would push back the Great Patrol for fourteen months, closing gaps created by the siege using a shield of soldiers. In Jylon of 1601, Elfort signed an agreeable treaty, forcing Echrich to stop her progress and settle with taking Harsoff only. The Great Patrol Army would remain a staple of the Egleton military, later invading and destroying both the Phagees and Porlein. Egleton would go on to surivve until the horrific invasion by Reangar of Tsonlar in the 38th Century. The Seick would fall shortly after Rebekar's death in 1604 3p.

Conflict Type

Military Campaign

Start Date

1975

Ending Date

1979

PORTRAIT OF LADY UNSFAR REBEKAR II OF SEICK, COMMANDER OF HARSOFF