Conquest of Scæþing
| Conquest of Scæþing | |||||||||
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| Part of PrikPack v16 | |||||||||
 Claims on Scathia before the war | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
 Lûl & Lûlian Asurinica
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 Tianchao
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| bcfoss | Wikaros | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 1 death | ~8 deaths | ||||||||
The Conquest of Scæþing was a short conflict between Tianchao and Lûl over the island of Scæþing. Following the Massacre on Midway a large part of its playerbase moving to the capital of Tianchao. The war ended in decisive victory for the forces of Lûl, and the entire island and the surrounding island chains were absorbed into the Lûlian Imperium.
Background
The collapse of the Magical and Scæþing Empires and simultaneous withdrawal of baconpancakes36 from worldly affairs created an unprecedented power vacuum throughout the world. For a time it was speculated that the descendants of Scæþing would establish their own independent states, but in reality most simply aligned themselves with one of two rising powers: Lûl and Tianchao.
Scæþing descendants who settled west of Old Scathia (Kjolt947 and Cflip_) aligned themselves with Tianchao, a newly established nation founded by the Heavenly General of Magical Island. Those descendants who settled east of Scathia (jusipat) sided with Lûl, an ancient and historically secondary power that had managed to survive the chaos of the war.
Development on Old Scathia
Both sides viewed Old Scathia as a symbol of imperial authority, but neither was particularly interested in developing it beyond the token effort required to legitimize their respective claims and deter encroachment. During this time both Empires initiated, and furthermore completed, several expansive building projects in their capitals, even establishing trade deals with the other in order to facilitate said projects. And yet, it was only in the ~2 years (~week irl) directly leading up to the war that the two Empires put any real effort into fortifying Scathia.
For as long as a week before the war happened, it was clear to both Tianchao and Lûl that a war for Scæþing was on the horizon. The western half of Scæþing which contained all the old buildings and ruins was abandoned, and all valuable items were relocated as Tianchao's population focused on improving the capital. Lûl claimed the eastern tip of Scæþing island and built extensive fortifications there, but for about a week after that there were few developments on the island.
Asurian Agitation on the Island
In an effort to legitimise Lûlian claims on Scæþing, Asurine official jusipat installed DaLogangster as de-facto governor of the province in secrecy. Confident that Scæþing was completely abandoned by Tianchao and that they were too far away to exert territorial authority on the fringe province, jusipat hoped it would lead to a peaceful transition of Scæþing into Lûlian imperal control. DaLogangster would take control of the old Scæþing government building, the Tuff House. It was promptly restyled as the "Fuff House".
Eventually, Tianchao revisited Scæþing to begin building infrastructure for a new city. DaLogangster was discovered to have been squatting in the government building within Tianchao's borders, so a few building materials from his chest were taken in order to continue construction on the island. This sparked some controversy with jusipat and significantly ramped up tensions between Lûl and Tianchao. Lûl claimed the rest of the eastern side of the island and built a large tower near the border, and Wikaros built a road leading directly to the edge of the claimed chunks.
War Preparations
In the years leading up to the conflict, Tianchao believed that the imminent war was to be a conventional war. Banking on their superior numbers and economy, the Tianchaoese Emperor ordered the production of horses, armor, and weapons en masse. Forces were consolidated from across the empire and outfitted with a wealth of quality equipment, resulting in a large and well-supplied army that, due to Tianchao's successful horse breeding, would have had a decisive edge against any other conventional force, past or present.
The Lûline Emperor likewise factored Tianchao's numbers into his planning. With Lûline forces spread more thinly over a smaller empire than Tianchao, the Emperor perfected development on the Araneum or Spiderweb, a one-way network of teleportation gates that linked key defensive positions in the capital with border citadels in Scathia. Believing that the coming war would be at least partly defensive, he was fully prepared to contest invasions on both islands simultaneously, though with a large degree of risk. It would never come to that.
With war on the horizon, both sides promised to keep the war on Scæþing until one side was forced to retreat. With the theatre set, the two rivals began preparations. Tianchao set up an underground bunker with horses, unaware to the fact that jusipat had obtained a magic invisibility mirror and other artifacts from bcfoss and was scouting out the bunker as they were building it. Propaganda pamphlets were dropped from the sky via airplane as both sides were preparing for battle by jusipat stating the futility of Tianchaoese resistance on the island.
Declaration of War
After Wikaros declared war, the forces of Tianchao roamed around the farmland south of Fin Ley on horseback, hoping to lure in an assault from the enemy. Ignoring the bait, bcfoss sat inside his tower on the border and hurled lightning bolts from a border citadel, to middling effect. At the same time, jusipat, who was completely invisible, ravaged the bunker as soon as war was declared. jusipat then proceeded to dance invisibly among the Tianchaoese ranks, periodically pausing to fire from his musket or throw incendiary grenades. Seeing the commotion among the enemy forces, bcfoss took the field. Close distances increased the deadliness of his lightning bolts exponentially; over the course of the battle three seperate riders were smote before the Tianchaoese routed, retreating back towards the Old Scæþing Parliament complex. During this time, DaLogangster remained as sentry in the large Lûlian tower on the centre of the island, firing upon any who would get too close.
Lûlian Offensive
The situation worsened further for Tianchao when Wikaros had to leave for chores. The Tianchaoese were driven before the Lûline forces, either evacuating the island or going into hiding. jusipat erected a forward outpost near to the Parliament and was in the process of linking it to the Araneum when sentry alarms detected the presence of enemy forces approaching Port Scathingia.
Tianchaoese Counterattacks
Kjolt947 remained on Scæþing for most of the war, occasionally distracting bcfoss or jusipat to ensure they wouldn't move the war towards Lengshan. Several assaults were made on Port Scathingia as part of this strategy; during one of which Kjolt947 managed to detonate a bomb in the center of town that did little damage. Cflip_ was able to get bcfoss killed by standing right under him as he rained down lightning, but since the bunker was destroyed and Cflip_'s respawn point was in Lengshan, Tianchao was unable to take bcfoss's magic items.
Following this, DaLogangster and jusipat made a concerted push into Scæþing City, building an obsidian outpost in the centre of town and linking it with the Lûlian portal system. After the last of Tianchao's forces were driven off of the island, jusipat began the construction of coastal defenses. DaLogangster then returned to his claimed residence of the Fuff House.
Confusion in Lûl
The Lûline Emperor bcfoss and his lieutenant jusipat were both at odds concerning their outlook on the war, constantly dove-tailing between reserved and radical stances on the developing conflict.
Having distributed magical artifacts to jusipat before the war, bcfoss advised restraint in their use, but when conflict finally erupted jusipat was driven mad with their power and spread havoc among the enemy ranks with reckless abandon. In doing so jusipat secured a decisive victory for Lûl but at the same time revealed the full extent of Lûl's magical capabilities, which the Emperor would have rather kept hidden.
Inversely, bcfoss considered the war a conflict for total dominion over the terrestrial world, one which ought to be carried out to the fullest extent, no matter the risk to the future of the Lûline Empire. In this arena it was jusipat who was the voice of restraint, citing concepts such as over-extension, Dirt Warfare, and widespread rebellion at the suggestion of Tianchaos complete annexation. jusipat did not share bcfoss' ambition in such a large-scale conquest.
Peace Treaty
Ultimately Tianchao was forced to surrender and make peace. Originally, bcfoss planned to annex all of Tianchao's territory and enslave its citizens, however jusipat urged bcfoss not to take their capital province. Tianchao got away with keeping Lengshan, however Scæþing and Lü Hangye were ceded to Lûl. The first seeds of secessionist tendencies in Asurinica took root due to disagreements between bcfoss and jusipat over the subject of War Loot; jusipat was disappointed over the lack of it, and bcfoss was supremely annoyed because it was jusipat himself who had urged against invading Lengshan, where the bulk of Tianchaoese wealth was stored.
Following the war bcfoss linked the two existing road networks in Scathia together. Plans were made to renovate Scæþing city, but the server died before they could be initiated.