The Battle of Nishawa: Part 1

In spite of my unease, the early phase of the war went smoothly. Manean intelligence had spread information of our impending arrival ahead of time among the population at the Sorcerous League’s western coast. This region was, not too long ago, known as the Republic of Pazowa, and they yearned for independence still. When we disembarked, we found the nearby towns having their gates opened for us by saboteurs, and rebellions erupted everywhere as we approached. Not only did we suffer minuscule losses, but our number swelled with volunteers. They were mostly untrained militias, so we were wary about taking them with us any further, but we wouldn’t have to leave precious soldiers behind to garrison the towns.

We had, with almost no effort, secured an overseas outpost: a place where we could retreat if things went poorly, and where reinforcements would be shipped as necessary. The majority of the army pressed onwards.

We ran into scant resistance on the way. The king of Sokobanya, the first city-state in our path, didn’t even bother defending himself. He ordered the city gates opened and, without any guards, walked out to meet us. Huffing and puffing, barely managing to walk with his impressive gut hampering his mobility, he prostrated himself before King Philoctetes, begging for leniency. He got exactly that – His Majesty allowed him to keep governing the city, only ordering him to send one of his sons to Hieropolis as a hostage.

Here, we learned a good deal about the situation in the Sorcerous League. As far as the assassination attempt was concerned, Arthacyros had allegedly acted alone, and the local kings were none too eager about fighting a war they thought they weren’t likely to win. Making such a risky move without consulting the other – nominally equal – rulers didn’t sit well with them, and the necromancer’s popularity plummeted. There was also the risk of Shina in the east, which had previously subjugated a not insignificant chunk of the League’s territory, joining the war again, though they remained neutral so far.

This information raised our army’s morale. The enemy was far from united, and our job would be easier than expected. It didn’t ease my mind much, unfortunately. I couldn’t poke any holes in the official narrative, but attempting to assassinate a king without a contingency plan seemed way too foolish for the world’s most powerful sorcerer, who had been running a country for centuries. Perhaps he was finally getting senile?

The next few cities offered token resistance but gave up quickly. A proper army was raised by the kings of Grot-Skah, Boletch, and Mosh-Taniza. If they consolidated their forces in one of the cities and defended it, we would’ve faced a prolonged siege. Luckily for us, they couldn’t agree which city to protect, and as a compromise, they met us in the field, where their army was soundly beaten.

This quick and bloody affair was my first proper large-scale battle, with nothing except glorified skirmishes occurring by that point. Captain Nixon was, as befitting light cavalry, tasked with flanking enemy infantry and disrupting them with hit-and-run tactics, while preventing enemy mounted troops from doing the same. We proved to be more than a match to the enemy, who was still far from keeping up with our firearm technology and even fielded a non-insignificant number of hadrosaur-mounted archers. The enemy army’s morale broke quickly, and the three kings were forced to surrender.

From there, we marched towards Busiye, where we were once again pleasantly surprised. The local king not only surrendered but also offered to secede from the Sorcerous League and provide troops to the war effort. This was great news, since our only objective was to deal with Arthacyros, and a friendly local ruler who could take things over after we returned to Manea was a great boon.

The circumstances of his switching sides were due to a religion that had been spreading around the League for the past one hundred and fifty years. Nageibanite creed posited the existence of two deities, Afrain and Takhar, who were of equal power and whose domains were creation and destruction, respectively. Seven hundred and seventy-six times Afrain created different worlds, and seven hundred and seventy-six times Takhar destroyed them. Finally, on the seventh hundred and seventy seventh attempt, Afrain created man, and man had powers of creation of his own, tipping the balance of power and allowing the world to continue. Takhar couldn’t destroy the world anymore, but seeded the heart of man with hate and anger and war, so man could do his business for him. With these two forces in constant conflict, say the Nageibanites, it is up to humans to act virtuously and join Afrain’s side upon death, or else the world itself might perish.

This young faith was started by a man named Nageiban. Born to a family of slaves, he got caught up in a failed uprising at the tender age of eleven and was among those who were, as an example, chained to a rock in the wilderness and left to perish. Somehow, he survived and returned to civilization fifteen years later, claiming to have had prophetic visions. Initially, this new faith was begrudgingly tolerated, as a new fad among the slaves and the poor, until Nageiban walked into an iron mine and left with all the workers and guards in tow. Crackdowns ensued on this new threat to the system, and the prophet himself was eventually captured, drawn, and quartered.

From there, the religion split into two sects: the original, uncompromisingly pacifistic True Path, dedicated to self-perfection; and the pragmatic Sword Path, whose members were willing to spill the blood of tyrants if they felt the net result would be a positive shift in the balance of power between the two deities. At different times and in different places, the attitudes of those in power towards Nageibanites were varied, from publicly executing worshippers to tolerating them as long as they continued with their everyday duties. It remained mostly a lower-class faith, but the king of Busiye was one of the few monarchs who not only converted but made Nageiban’s creed the official religion of his city-state. A devout follower of the Sword Path, he was itching for a chance to disrupt what he saw as a destructive and decadent system common in most other parts of the Sorcerous League.

With winter fast approaching, His Majesty made the decision to camp at Busiye until the next campaign season. After setting up an encampment, I had the opportunity to get intimately acquainted with the city over a period of several months.