War of False Freedom
The people of Chirin-on-Dimar attack the Kingdom of Caresnas in order to liberate those living under the tyranny of the Greth family.
The Conflict
Prelude
The town of Chirin-on-Dimar has long been a troublesome neighbour for the kingdom. Maintaining an illusion of equality and democracy, this quarrelsome town has a wide streak of corruption. Power and influence are for sale, and those with wealth have less checks on their actions than the nobles of the kingdom. Overtures made to Chirin have oft times been met with hostility and when an honest officer in the Chirin Guard warned one of our envoys about an attempted poisoning the officer was dismissed from his post. In recent years the rhetoric against the kingdom has been used by the leaders if the town and bards in their employ to stir up the populace. Every new ally gained by the kingdom was depicted as having been conqueree or coerced. With Caresnas being constantly villified and blamed for every problwm afflicting Chirin it was no surprise that Chirin Council had little difficulty recruiting for their army, with promises of retribution and bringing freedom to the oppressed people of Caresnas. At the time it was thought this was mostly a political stunt, and that a single town like Chirin wouldn't be foolish enough to attack a country the size of Caresnas. Unfortunately the one moderate voice on Chirin's council was overruled and in the summer of 223 they launched their war of liberation.
Deployment
The assault on northern Caresnas by Clan Magrannor followed by the Unstoppable Invasion had drawn most of Caresnas' forces away from the south. Each lord still had a few soldiers but nowhere near enough to fend off a serious attack.
The Chirin Guard ahd stepped up their recruiting and had units stationed in newly built forts along and sometimes beyond the borders of the region claimed by Chirin. Virtuatlly all of thse were to the north and west as there were no serious threats to the south and east.
The Engagement
Around the Lake
Chirin's Army of Liberators launched their first attacks on villages along the edges of Lake Nasratha. Chirin Council had long viewed these as being within their sphere of influence and resented the fact that some villages remained stubbornly independent and some even preferred trading with Caresnas over Chirin. Hundreds of Liberators descended on each village, quashing any resistance. A heavy tax was levied on each captured village and volunteers for the army were called for. When the impassioned speeches by Chirin officers explaining how fortunate the villagers were to now be free failed to produce volunteers they started forcibly conscripting.
Securing the lake took Chirin's forces more time than they had expected as they were forced to capture each village and some soldiers had to stay behind to ensure the people stayed in line and paid their taxes. Even with the conscription the soldiers available to Chirin were somewhat reduced by the time they moved on from Nasratha.
We were meant to gather victories and volunteers as we went, with every village freed adding to the wave that would wash away the stain of tyranny
The Temples Burn
The assault on the villages provided Caresnas with some warning of what was to come, but there was relatively little that could be done. The Unstoppable Invasion had to be stopped and required most of the Caresian army. However, commitments made to Lorin and other settlements needed to be upheld so the Caresian nobles in Trem and the south were tasked with supplying what forces they could raise in haste.
While Caresnas tried to prepare for two simultaneous wars, the liberators were busy demonstrating that there is nothing more dangerous than a person convinced that they are in the right. It was never clear where it started but at some point the Chirin officers determined that the temples were rife with royalist sentiment and that according to the liberator's creed the temples needed to be destroyed. Shrines and temples were burned to the ground, often with the typically humble Guides inside. Predictably there were revolts in the villages, and the liberators came down harder on any showing what was deemed to be royalist sentiment.
Even among the liberators there were a few dounts beginning to emerge, but these doubts were put to rest by a few firey speeches and patriotic songs played by bards sent from Chirin,
It was never clear why, but at the time we were convinced that it was somehow King Caspian's fault that the villagers didn't have a healer after we had executed their Seyrian Guide
The town of Lorin
The village riots were quelled and Chirin Council turned it's avaricious gaze towards the west and the town of Lorin. Lorin had long been a trading partner of Chirin's but their relationship had soured as Lorin had built closer ties with Caresnas. There were plenty of villages on the way west, and though the villagers tried to resist they didn't have the numbers or weapons to hold off Chirin's forces. Fortunately for those of the Church of Seyr word had spread about the atrocities commited by the liberators and the Guides were able to flee.
Fishing villages along the coast of the sheltered sea were captured and the resident's put to work supplying the army of liberation with food. Protests that the waters couldn't support the level of fishing demanded fell on deaf ears and the amount of fish that could be kept in the villages to feed the residents was reduced.
Freedom has a cost. That was the refrain. Why should we risk our lives for their freedom if they can't even be bothered to feed us. We never stopped to ask if they needed to be freed
Falls to treachery
Lorin itself was a walled town that had had plenty of time to prepare. Reinforced by soldiers from Caresnas it seemed unlikely that it would fall quickly or easily. But that was before the treachery of two members of Lorin's ruling council. Unhappy with being unable to cheat their customers under the restrictions demanded by Caresnas in return for a favourable trading arrangement Arden Goldleaf and Welby Ennick made a secret agreement with Chirin. The pair of traders hired mercenaries that were supposedly going to help protect Lorin but instead slew Lorin's defenders and opened the gates to Chirin's force of invaders.
The six members of the council that hadn't betrayed their town were put to death as royalists and the people of Lorin were soon having to suffer through the misery that the liberators had imposed on every settlement they had captured. Taxes were imposed that were even higher than on the villages as recompense for all the coin that Chirin had supposedly missed out on since Lorin made an agreement with Caresnas. The traitors were exempted from the taxes in an example of the corruption that has long been a feature of Chirin's politics
We were told we would be welcomed as saviours, but the only ones glad to see us were traders who chafed under rules that limited their profits.
From the mouth of a bard
The fall of Lorin created a stir in Caresnas. It was becoming clear that Chirin could be a threat given the limited amount of trained soldiers that could be sent south. With the Seyrian's clamouring for justice and the southern nobles calling for reinforcements some of the forces fighting the Unstoppable Force were moved south, creating an opporuntity for the hobgoblin invaders.
It had been hoped that the people of Lorin would cause enough trouble to force out the occupiers from Chirin and for the first few months it seemed like this might be the case. However, a visit from Chirin's best known bard, John Fennan somehow led to a change of heart for many in Lorin.
Conscription was no longer necessary as volunteers were queueing up and the newly reinforced army was split in two. Half was sent south to Pelimouth while the rest made for the true target of Caresnas.
We all knew Fennan was singing about the truth, so it never seemed strange how he could bring people around
To the mouth of the river
Over a year of easy victories had led the liberators to become complacent. Firm in their belief of the rightness of their cause and certain that being right guaranteed victory they neglected basic tasks like scouting and patrols. Pelimouth had long been considered a rough place, and it's denizens were not afraid of a little bloodshed. Rather than trying to engage the Chirin army in direct combat, the Cormorant sent out his problem solvers to take advantage of their lack of attention.
Scores of chirin soldiers died before they finally arranged watches and patrols so that the Cormorant's killers couldn't infiltrate the camp. Now more cautious the liberators advanced on Pelimouth and were surprised to find no force there to stop them entering the ramshackle town. Some of the wiser officers counselled caution but there was little they could do to stop the soldiers being ordered to move in and seize the town.
When the Cormorant and his people sprang the trap the liberators found themselves at a huge disadvantage. The maze like layout of Pelimouth stopped them from getting anywhere quickly, and the townsfolk didn't seem inclined to offer directions. The gangs that run Pelimouth under the Cormorant joined forces for perhaps the first and only time in order to isolate an eliminate small groups of the chirin soldiers. The liberators were finally faced with a foe that could fight back and many lost their enthusiasm for the cause as they came to understand the risk to themselves. The army that was meant to take Pelimouth disintegrated and those that remained retreated to Lorin.
The loss in Pelimouth shook all of us. You could see in the expressions of the soldiers that returned - that hadn't been a fight against those who were ordered to fight. They'd come up against people fighting for their freedom.
Winter and hunger halt the advance
The other half of the army had started the long march to the north, aiming for the town of Wordin. Autumn was setting in as they reached the border with Caresnas, but there was no-one around to stop the liberators from entering. As they continued on through Wordin it became clear something was wrong. Every village they approached was abandoned and there was no food that could be obtained through taxes. The liberators were not prepared for this and their supply lines were not set up to deal with providing food for the entire army.
Urgent requests were sent back to Chirin and Lorin for more food, but this had been anticipated by Caresnas' forces. The young Baron Gilbert of Taber led a small cavalry force that had been waiting for the appearance of the supply wagons. With the Eastside Lancers not yet deployed to Caresnas the liberators had no way to counter the baron's attacks and the first few groups of wagons became little more than bonfires that marked the baron's passage. Chirins' army was forced to send more soliders to guard the wagons, but while this stopped the baron's attacks on the supplies he gleefully took advantage of his riders' superiror speed to pick off stragglers with little risk.
With winter getting every closer, and supplies being uncertain at best, the soldiers of Chirin retreated back home to prepare for the next year's campaign and attempt to replenish their losses
We called him a coward for not facing us directly. A coward who took on several hundred of us with only ten of his own
Before the Walls of Wordin
The next year the liberators again marched north towards Wordin. This time they found more traces of the villagers that had recently fled, as the villlages had only just been warned of the invaders approach. This wasn't unexpected and the a long train of supply wagons,guarded by the Lancers and other riders, followed the army. Some resistance was met in the form of a number of recently constructed small forts. The soldiers in these forts knew they had been handed a death sentence but they seemed undaunted. Their battlecry of More Than You and the shouted tallies continued to haunt the chirin soldiers for years afterwards.
Wordin had had plenty of time to prepare for the assault, and there were clear signs of repairs and improvements to the town walls. Unlike with Pelimouth there was no force of turncoats to ease the liberator's way into the city.so they settled in for the inevitable siege. Chirin's forces had no experience of siege warfare, though their experience at the forts had taught some degree of caution. A tentative attack on Wordin's walls provided another lesson in the benefits of defensive architecture after which the liberators decided that trying to starve out the town was the best option.
We found one village where the people hadn't left. Their fields were doing well so the officers said to leave them alone till harvest
A Bard Plays
By late summer the siege was progressing well, but only for those in Wordin. Well prepared and defended the townsfolk had repelled several attacks with little loss to themselves. Merial's acceptors dealt with the dead as necssary while Guides of Seyr worked hard to keep disease at bay. Outside the walls the situation was very different. Boredom and frustration caused tempers to flare frequently with fights becoming an increasingly common occurance. With no clerics and few healers a variety of diseases had passed through the ranks of the besieging army. With military success looking unlikely it was decided to try a bit of persuasion.
John Fennan, who had had so much success converting people to the cause was sent for and he agreed to try performing a few of his songs to try to sway the defenders. The defenders agreed to send suitable representatives to discuss some matters with the leaders of the liberators. A performance by John at the talks convinced the representatives that they should support Chirin and they returned to town to see what they could do about getting the bard a larger audience.
Except the talks had been a ruse on the part of the defenders as well. The representatives were tested for magical influences on their return and the compulsions laid on them were removed. What had only been a theory before was now a certainty. The bard was using the artefact Inspiration to influence his audiences. It wouldn't be possible to remove the magic from an entire army but a plan was hatched to try to steal the lute so that no-one else could be dominated.
John's visit lifted everyone's spirits, and the prospect of the siege ending with no more bloodshed just made it all the better. But it all went downhill after that.
And Wordin Falls
The plan to steal the lute was a success though it cost the lives of Baron Gilbert and his retainers. An enranged John Fennan was out for blood but it seemed he was unwilling to share why he was so upset about the loss of his lute with the other liberators. Neither side was in a rush to set up the concert for the bard so he slunk back to Chirin with Wordin still in the hands of it's residents.
With harvest approaching the liberators were looking for ways to supplement their supplies. They had discovered a village by the forest that hadn't evacuated to the town. The village was well known for it's usually impressive yields so the liberators decided to pay a visit during Harvest at Narthorpe. Though they suffered further losses they did at least gain enough additional food to make for an easier winter maintaining the siege.
Winter came and went, and the impact of the siege began to be felt more keenly within Wordin. Fresh recruits arrived from Chirin to reinforce the liberators as hunger and discontent rose in Wordin. With still no help coming from the rest of the Kingdom, Wordin eventually surrendered. The surrender was meant to spare the residents of the town, but after their own suffering maintaining the siege the liberators were in no way inclined to honour a pact made with royalists. Fully half the population was killed out of hand, and those that survived the intial cull were left in no doubt that their lives would be forfiet if they objected to any of the crimes committed by the liberators.
We were angry, some more so than others, and they were royalists. They needed to be punished, but not all of us good stomach what was being done
They fall apart
The fall of Wordin led to cracks forming in the ranks of the liberators. Some were covinced that serving the cause meant anything they did was acceptable, while others were disgusted by what had happened. Attempts to calm matters and remind the opposing factions that they were working towards the same goal backfired spectucularly and fighting broke out. Each side occupied part of Wordin and an uneasy stalement developed as both sides made a show of continuing the mission by capturing more villages while avoiding coming into contact with each other.
Despite demands from Chirin to resume the march this fierce divide in opinion kept the liberators in Wordin until winter. Unable to move out of Wordin for fear of being attacked by their rivals the two sides spent the winter causing trouble for each other, hoping that the others would give up and see sense. The situation was resolved when a fresh force from Lorin arrived and sided against those that though their comrades had gone too far. The dissenters were arrested and sent back to Lorin while the liberators made plans to get underway again.
We still believed. That was the hard thing. We believed in the cause but we couldn't tolerate what they would do in it's name.
And the kingdom strikes
By the time the liberators were in a position to resume their conquest it was too late for them to achieve more. Most of the nobles had been given the choice of being stripped of even their personal guards or personally joining in the battle against Chirin. The Church of Tarin and Church of Seyr had also provided fresh volunteers and there was now a force that could more than match Chirin's in number. Under the command of Gus Tetrin this new army fell upon the liberators as soon as they were away from Wordin. The liberators may have had a chance if they hadn't sent so many of their soldiers away in chains, but as it was they didn't have much of a chance. The liberators were routed and Wordin retaken.
Driving back the invaders was far from the end of the matter though. All the captured villages needed to be freed as well as Lorin. There was also the not so small matter of trying to remove the influence inflicted by John Fennan. A deal was struck with the Cormorant in Pelimouth - Caresnas would help rebuild in exchange for aid in taking Lorin.
The loss suffered by the liberators threw Chirin into chaos. Those opposed to the war began to speak out more and a more restrained faction on the council gained influence. More disputes broke out in the villages that had been captured early on in the war with sentiment against Chirin more prevalent. With the Unstoppable Invasion finally dealt with the Kingdom was able to send a much larger force south. Chirin's influence was cleared from Lorin and by the time the might of the Kingdom was ready to be unleashed on Chirin the town was more than prepared to surrender.
It was over. But it wasn't over. We could try again we told ourselves. But the enthusiasm faded as reality sank in. There would be no next time, as no-one cared.
Outcome
Chirin suffered a backlash from all it's former trading partners. No-one was willing to sell to the town without a hefty increase in price and without regular caravans going to and fro there was less incentive for people to travel there. The soldiers who had left for the war had been sorely missed even before many of them lost their lives and Chirin's ability to produce food and other goods was significantly curtailed.
As part of the surrender agreement those accused of the worst crimes in Wordin were turned over to the Church of Drack for punishment. Those most directly involved in the burning of temples were also turned over to the Drackians. It was also demanded that John Fennan be turned over, but he had apparently slipped out of town before the surrender.
The people of Lorin took some time to recover from the effects of John's songs, even with help from the Guides of Seyr. The rebuilding of the town was accomplised with help from the Kingdom of Caresnas and Pelimouth with the Cormorant gaining a considerable interest in Lorin.
With the Kingdom's help Pelimouth was able to rebuild quite quickly and new deals were struck around trade and access to the docks.
The Kingdom of Caresnas had already suffered major losses from it's war with the hobgoblins and the help it provided Lorin and Pelimouth put further strain on the Kingdom's resources. This was partially mitigated by the amount demanded from Chirin as compensation for the war. Some speculated that the Kingdom might take over Chirin, but it was likely that that would have cost the Kingdom even more.
Conflict Type
War
Memoirs
Many of the details of the conflict were captured in Memoirs of a Liberator which was written by a former Chirin soldier. The book was banned in Chirin-on-Dimar for being Caresian propaganda, though many of the claims in the book about the actions of Chirin during their invasion have been confirmed as fact.Liberator's Creed
The soldiers of the army of liberation were given standing orders that became known as the Liberator's Creed. This creed was strictly enforced and much of a new soldier's time was spent learning it.Direct Route
While the shortest way from Chirin to Wordin is through Thonnal Forest not even the most ardent of the liberators would have suggested going through it. Thonnal is well known to be home to dangerous creatures that defy mortal understanding.More than you
The motto of the Greyguard, a group of elderly Caresian soldiers who volunteered to give their lives in order to slow the advance of the liberators. The motto was a promise to their foes and their comrades that they would take down more foes than anyone else. In battle they would yell out their counts to boast and inspire their friends. Using the wooden forts to good advantage they achieved their goals and their sacrifice was honoured after the war.Pelimouth
The port town was attacked multiple times during the war, with similar results each time. The layout of the town made it hard for Chirin's forces to use their numerical advantage and the fact that each gang fought separately made them hard to predict and counter. The last attempt to take the town ended when the liberators resorted to burning the buildings. Half of Pelimouth was consumed in flames but the survivors made very sure that none of the attacking army would make it home.Inspiration
John's lute was hidden away in Wordin and word was passed back to the crown about it's dangers. When Chirin's forces seized Wordin they had no reason to hunt for the lute, thinking it just a regular minstrel's instrument. Unfortunately those that concealed the lute did not survive the massacre after Wordin surrendered and the lute's whereabouts remain unknown.Returning the Spoils
One of the conditions demanded by Caresnas was that all the objects looted from captured settlements be returned. While this was accepted as being necessary by Chirin Council they claimed that it would be difficult to return some valuables as they had been broken down and used to pay for the war. However, Nyls Factor, a former councillor who had been opposed to the war, pointed out several discrepancies in the records that indicated that more than a few valuable had gone missing. A local investigator, Garrett Wolfe, who was known for his honesty and willingness to take on anyone in his pursuit of the the truth, was hired to track down these objects. The trail led to several of the councillors who handed over to Caresnas to face justice.Belligerents
Caresnas
Strength
Casualties
Objectives
To resist the unprovoked attack by Chirin and protect the lives and dignity of the people of Caresnas
To free the people of Caresnas from the tyranny of the Greth family and remove the nobles who abuse their unearned power
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