Kythiran Invasion of Imperius
| Kythiran Invasion of Imperius | |||||||
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| Part of The Raggisar Revolution | |||||||
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| Minecraftia's largest army, leadership splintered into monarchist and republican factions. | Minecraftia's largest navy. Large army united under the Crown. | ||||||
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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 Agression 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 fought fully in what at the time was the Imperius Reich, which today is the Raggisar Republic.
Pre-War Events
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 entire day, hundreds of ships on both sides fell and sunk into the ice cold sea.
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 153 Kythiran ships that participated in the Battle, only 32 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, 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 bureaucratic reasons. 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. As the Republican Armies began to approach from the east, and with the looming threat of Kythiran forces from the west, the Monarchist government decided to escape south, leaving behind a skeleton crew.
The
Prince Wulfhere Von Dragestein, who had stayed in the capital, was arrested by a local militia, tried and found guilty of being an 'Enemy of the Revolution', and publicly executed.
Crossing into Imperius was easy at first, and the Kythiran armies marched quickly. A poignant moment was when they entered the ruins of Lotric. At the same time, this quick advance of the Kythirans warned the warring factions of the Monarchists and the Republicans that they needed to work together to stop the Kythiran war machine, or they'll have nothing left to fight for.
So they united their forces against the Kythiran invader, who at the same time ran into another obstacle.
The Imperius mountain ranges are the largest and most complex in the world. They spread high and long, and are covered with freezing tops and dangerous cliffs. There are few routes that allow for easy passage, and most of these were under heavy guard or