Kythiran Invasion of Imperius
| Kythiran Invasion of Imperius | |||||||
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| Part of The Raggisar Revolution | |||||||
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350,000 Men Small but highly advanced Royal Navy |
135,000 Men Massive but outdated Imperial Navy | ||||||
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Near-complete destruction of the Imperius Royal Navy Major civilian casualties Massive military losses |
Massive military losses Undocumented number of prisoners of war | ||||||
The Kythiran Invasion of Imperius, called the War of Dragestein Restoration by the Kythiran Crown and called the War of Kythiran Aggression by the Raggisar government, was a war fought between the forces of the Kythiran Empire and the united forces of the Imperius Monarchists and the Raggisar Republicans. It was the largest war in Minecraftian history, resulting in the collapse of the Imperius monarchy and the near disintergration of the Kythiran Empire, which was prevented by the Reforma Carta.
Pre-War Events
The Lotrican Genocide, the Dervich Incident and the resulting Treaty of Altojardin had greatly damaged the reputation of House Von Dragesteiner and the monarchy as a whole. The loss of territory had been an enormous scandal, filling even the pro-Dragestein newspapers of the reich. Riots broke loose in Imperia and across the reich, which the royal guards struggled to put down. General Von Wolfswald took control of the city of Eisenturm, locking the Count of Eisenturm in the city's dungeon, and declaring himself interim-president of the 'Imperius Republic'. The Kaiser immediately demanded that Von Wolfswald would either surrender to the reich or execute himself.
For the safety of the royal family, the Grand Marshal suggested they'd travel to the royal palace deep in Imperius territory. As the carriage travelled through the forests of the Reich, it was suddenly ambushed by revolutionary soldiers. They shot the Grand Marshal as he tried to fight them off, and arrested the kaiser and his family, transporting them to a farm nearby. Here they were stripped of their valuables and locked in the basement.
Once it was discovered that the kaiser and his family had gone missing, the uncoordinated kidnapping caused chaos in the reich. In the senate many suggested the kaiser had fled the country, whilst others claimed he had been killed by Von Wolfswald.
At the closing days of the Dervich Incident, the Emperor of Kythira had ordered the arrest of the visiting Kaiser of Imperius and his Grand Marshall, who were visiting for peacetalks in the Kythiran city of Helmira. The intend by the Kythirans had been to negotiate directly with the Imperius Senate, using the Kaiser as leverage, but instead republican undercurrents in Imperius, which had begun to form ever since the Lotrican Genocide, exploded, causing a civil war in Imperius between the Monarchists, who wished to have Kaiser Von Dragestein return to Imperius, and the Republicans, who wished to establish a full Republic, inspired by the Aqumis Republic and the ancient Federation of Provinces from the Second Era.
Cause
The Kythirans did not want a republican government in charge. Preferring a monarch and a system more like their own, they immediately began preparations to restore order in Imperius, end the civil war and return the Kaiser as the leader of the Reich, although with considerably less powers than before. The Kythirans hoped that, in return for helping the Kaiser regain his throne, they would be able to annex large swaths of territory of the Reich.
The Start of the War
Over the course of a month, tens-of-thousands of Kythiran troops from all over the Empire were brought to the Mediori Fleet and boarded onto the many ships the Empire had to offer. Being able to ship around 3000 soldiers per crossing, the fleet began its first wartime excursion out into the Southern Sea. Part of the fleet went south-east, bringing Kythiran soldiers as far as the east coast of Imperius. The rest of the fleet went north, and split into two attacking forces. The first place to fall under Kythiran fire was the City of Chesterfield. Under heavy bombardement, and totally outnumbered and outgunned, the city watch quickly raised a white flag above their walls. The Kythirans had their first foothold in Imperius. Quickly, ships began to ferry soldiers from the Mediori Fleet and unloading them in Chesterfield.
A Fjellsoldat soldier who had survived this first attack however had managed to mount his horse, and began an exhausting ride across the entire Imperius western coast, warning all settlements and forts along his way about the incoming Kythiran invaders. Eventually, he confiscated a boat, and managed to reach and warn Dorwall about the incoming invaders.
Captain Fernando Cortez was the highest ranking officer of the Imperius Royal Navy present on Dorwall at the time, and he swiftly took action. Arresting all foreigners present in Dorwall at the time, most of whom traders from Kythira. These people were taken aboard a series of confiscated ships, together with all women and children of Dorwall, and evacuated north towards Imperia. All men still in Dorwall were brought to the docks, where they were rationed out the sparse amount of weapons and armour left in the trading city.
As the last ship with refugees left the island, the first Kythiran Imperial Navy warships could be seen arriving in the horizon. The makeshift battalion was no match for the Kythiran Navy, which acted relatively restrained compared to later years, killing only a dozen local soldiers, sending most towards Alcanzar as prisoners of war. Here, many would be sold off into slavery, with only a small portion of the original population of Dorwall returning after the war. Captain Cortez managed to escape his temporary jail in Dorwall, stealing a rowboat at night and managed to get to the Imperius mainland, where he would rendezvous with a Republican army under the command of Thomas "Cobblestone Wall" Jansohn.
The island itself became the a Kythiran stronghold in the Narrow Sea, being used as a vital port for transporting more troops into mainland Imperius.
When the Kythirans wanted to move their fleet further north, towards Imperia however, they were ambushed. First, a large field of sea mines were spread over the Redstonian Strait. The ships that managed to pass these fell under heavy fire from coastal batteries operated by troops warned by the Fjellsoldat soldier. Then, in the Northern Sea, the Kythiran Imperial Navy met most of the Imperius Royal Navy, and the largest sea battle in history unfolded, known as the Battle of the Northern Sea. Over the course of an four days of continued fighting, hundreds of ships and thousands of soldiers on both sides fell and sunk into the ice cold sea.
This battle destroyed most of the Imperius Royal Navy and greatly crippled the Kythiran Imperial Navy. The remaining Kythiran ships, still under heavy bombardment from the batteries on the Imperius coast, retreated back to Dorwall and Chesterfield.
This stalemate destroyed most of the Imperius Royal Navy, and created extremely heavy losses in the Kythiran Imperial Navy. The remaining Kythiran ships, still under extremely heavy bombardment from the Imperius coast, retreated back to Dorwall and Chesterfield. Of the 453 Kythiran ships that participated in the Battle, only 72 returned. Admiral Amedeo, who led the Kythiran Imperial Navy, send a letter to the White Gold Tower, requesting that the Province of Ardoragh would send its navy, one of the world's most advanced at the time, to aid in the war. Mean-whilst, with the sea no longer a viable route towards Imperia, the Kythirans began their full land invasion.
Chaos in Imperia
In Imperia the news of the Kythiran invasion was causing mass chaos. The city guard struggled to contain the looting that occurred almost every night, with many citizens fleeing into the countryside. The government buildings were shut down, but the operation to evacuate the valuable inventories of these buildings was extremely slow to get off the ground due to the massive amount of bureaucracy by the city police. By the time the evacuation crew arrived, many artifacts, including a great many historic ones, had been looted. A week after the riots began, the Palace of the Dragons, the royal palace in Imperia, began to burn. Local firefighters managed to save much of the exterior of the building, but the majority of the interior was destroyed. The prevailing theory is that the palace itself had been looted, and the fire was a way to cover up any tracks of the theft.
With the Republican Armies approaching from the east, and the Kythirans approaching from the west, the Monarchists leader, Senator Meyer, decided to abandon the capital and escape north, taking with them the remaining ships of the Imperius Royal Navy still present in Imperia. Due to their dwindling troops however, some of these ships had to be abandoned. Rather than leave them for the Republicans, they decided to scuttle them in Dragons Bay.
Groups of Republican fanatics stormed the Zitadellenturm, taking control of the armoury and becoming the Democratically Organised Council of Free and Equal Citizens of Imperius, or DOCFECI.
Grand Duke Wulfhere Von Dragestein, a nephew of the Kaiser who had stayed in the capital in his role as Commander of the City Guard, was arrested by the DOCFECI, tried and found guilty of being an 'Enemy of the Revolution', and publicly executed. This began a reign of terror, wherein the DOCFECI ruthlessly prosecuted anyone they suspected of having even the slightest Monarchist sympathies. This reign of terror, called the Month of Tears, only ended when the Republican army took control of the city. General Von Wolfswald used the Zitadellenturm as his temporary base of operations. From here, he commanded the Republican armies, which were fighting the Kythirans on the west, south and east, and the Monarchists in the north.
Kythiran Advance
As General Von Wolfswald settled into Imperia, five Kythiran Armies were marching into Imperius.
- Army Group A, Operating from Dorwall, marched alongside Imperius' second largest river, which led to the forests south of Imperia.
- Army Group B, Operating from Chesterfield, marched south towards the remains of the Duchy of Lotric.
- Army Group C, Operating from the Mediori Fleet, had landed on the eastern shore of Imperius, and was marching west, through lands that were flatter than the west coast, but covering a much longer distance, which was harder to supply.
- Army Group D, Operating from Marsadini, crossed the mountains to meet up with Army Group A from the south.
- Army Group E, Operating from Solleria, also marched to Lotric in order to meet up with Army Group B.
The numerically superior Republicans send eight army groups south to intercept Kythira's Army Group B and E. During the Battle of Lotric, the Republican Army faced a massive defeat, losing a total of seven army groups. This was because only two army groups had managed to reach Lotric at all, the others had been stalled by fighting with Monarchists armies under the command of Senator Meyer.
This Kythiran victory showed General Von Wolfswald that the civil war had to stop first, in order to reunite the armies of Imperius and fight the greater threat to their realm. To this end he invited Senator Meyer to Imperia, offering a full stalemate until the Kythirans were defeated, a full pardon for all who were fighting for the Monarchists cause after the war, and a position in the new Republican government.
Whilst these negotiations were underway, Kythiran Army Group B and E had fully taken control of the Duchy of Lotric. Here, they treated the local populace kindly, offering them food and other supplies. Important Lotrican artifacts were carefully packaged and shipped to Helmira. Any Lotrican citizen who so desired also received the ability to move to the Kythiran Empire, where they would be able to gain full citizenship in any of the regions, an offer that a great many Lotricans took.
It was at this time that the Kythiran Crown Prince, Charles Viromaro, who had received the rank of Admiral of the Kythiran Imperial Navy, landed in Lotric for a surprise visit to the Kythiran troops. A mass parade was held through the old city ruins, and a week of celebrations were held for their "Liberation from Imperius oppression". Crown Prince Charles was quoted in the Helmiran Times as saying "This is a glorious day, not just for our Empire, but for Minecraftia and indeed for justice. Finally House Mace has been avenged, and Lotric is free.".
The Great March
After the celebrations, the Kythiran armies focused on taking the midlands of Imperius through a combined attack. At this point morale in Imperius had fallen massively in the civilian population after their armies had suffered loss after loss. This caused many cities and towns to surrender to the Kythirans without a fight. Those places that did fight back were met with great acts of brutality, hoping to squash any rebellion. Any city, town or village that surrendered without a fight was spared, although the occasional looting did happen. If a city resisted and after that fell, the Kythirans responded by publicly executing all "Men of fighting age", whilst sending at least half of the remaining population back to Solleria, where they were sold on the Alcanzari slave markets. If there were not enough ships in a harbour at any time to transport all the new prisoners, the remaining Imperians were simply dumped into the cold seas and kicked back when trying to get back to land. Learning of the atrocities committed against their countrymen caused a flood of refugees that was yet another drain for the already struggling supply chains of the Republican forces.
At this point the Republican and Monarchist forces had fully united under the shared command of General Von Wolfswald and Senator Meyer. This, together with the massive mountain ranges that spread across Imperius and the start of winter, caused the Kythiran march to slowly grind to a halt. Grand Marshal Agricola and Grand Admiral Amedeo personally travelled to Helmira to convince the Emperor that his latest order that "No Kythiran shall retreat." would be retracted in favour of allowing for tactical retreats. The Emperor however rejected this, and almost had the two commanders arrested on the spot for high-treason.
Disgruntled, both commanders returned to the front. On their journey, the H.M.S. LeGrave, which was carrying Grand Marshal Agricola was attacked and sunk by an Imperius battle-cruiser submarine. This caused his deputy, Alfredo Castillo to be promoted to the role of Grand Marshal. Castillo had risen through the ranks of the Imperial Legion fully based on his merit, rather than his heritage, which was how Grand Marshal Agricola had received his rank. Grand Admiral Amedeo wrote in his diary: "Although Lord Agricola was a good man, and a brave soldier, he was not the shiniest of diamonds. It may be harsh, but I think his dying was the best tactical move he could've done for winning the war.".
Grand Marshal Castillo ordered the Kythiran armies to dig in for the winter, developing a series of trenches and temporary forts from where they could defend themselves against the continued attacks by the Republicans. Admiral Charles Viromaro, against the council of the other admirals, ordered a new attack on Imperia. His fleet was however mostly decimated before it could even arrive near Imperia, for the foggy and dark winter Northern Sea made traversing the fields of ice near impossible. He managed to make it back to Dorwall, where he was attacked whilst walking near the docks. The attackers were never found, and the young prince was send to a field hospital where he would spend several weeks recovering. Suspecting a mutiny resulted in the Emperor ordering the execution of over two hundred random sailors from Charles' fleet.
As the winter made way for spring, the Kythirans left their fortifications, slowly trying to advance further into Republican territory. At this point the Kythirans controlled around 30% of Imperius territory. Within this land, a massive propaganda campaign was being held, with the goal of convincing the local population that the Kythirans were only there to restore the Dragestein monarchy and that Von Wolfswald and Meyer were traitors to Imperius. Some Imperians believed in this so much that they volunteered to fight with the Kythirans. These peoples were organised into the Dragestein Battalion, which soon became one of the most brutal but effective part of the Imperial Legion. They struck deep into Republican controlled territory, performing raids, heists and assassinations of Republican targets. Their commander, Anton Fritzi, had served in the Fjellsoldat but had been thrown into prison after stealing from the village bakery he was stationed at. The arrival of the Kythiran Legion in his town turned out to be his salvation, as the Kythirans freed him, after which he offered his services.
As summer came around, the Kythirans finally managed to break the deadlock, marching deeper into the Republican territories, until they eventually controlled around 60% of Imperius lands. Crown Prince Charles, having fully recovered, landed his new fleet on the southern Imperius coast with the intention of meeting up with Army Group E. This succeeded, and the two armies marched north together, during which the prince tried but failed to take full command of the army group. As they marched over the Battenberg, they marched straight into an Republican army that was two times as large as the Kythiran army group. Attempting to retreat, they ran straight into a piercing manoeuvre by General Von Wolfswald. During this Battle of the Battenberg, the entire Kythiran Army Group E was lost. The commander, General Pendragon, killed himself before he could be captured. Crown Prince Charles Viromaro was captured alive and send to Imperia as a war trophy. Here he stayed for a total of three months, until winter eventually came, and the armies fell into another stalemate. This caused a massive drop in morale, that resulted in a wide spread retreat across all lines, until only about 25% of Imperius territory was still held.
The Grand Chancellor eventually managed to negotiate a prisoner swap with General Von Wolfswald and Senator Meyer. 40,000 Imperians who had been sold into slavery in Alcanzar were bought back by the Crown, and the Kythirans let it be known that all those people would either be freed together with the Crown Prince, or all slain. Von Wolfswald was forced to agree, and the freed slaves were send to Republican controlled Imperius territory, in exchange for the return of Charles Viromaro.
The Last Stand
In Helmira, the Empress was assassinated by an Ardoraghi anarchist.