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In any case, the armaments of the regular forces – those assigned to city or fort defenses – would be arguably the only people on the island designed for protracted conflict or personal defense aside from the nobility. The overseers in the plantation fields would not need much more than whips or clubs.

In an earlier discussion, there was a brief mention of The Throat, a thin strip of land in the secondary arch of the island chain. Given Tubor’s geography, this Throat would probably be a high, stony section of land overlooking the bay, gently eroded thin by the lapping of the bay water. To increase its strategic impotance for the sake of our story, the Throat could contain a trade road for supplies too heavy on the draft to cross the bay, or another natural overlook for security like Merdigal. This road could contain an old Vandagan-style wayfort to control traffic on the road.

The Throat screams to be a chokepoint. It would generate a sticking point on the campaign westward overland and force Da to “hold the Throat” and send forces across the Bay. The fighting would be very heavy here. I recall that some 60% of the Hillmen forces died during the course of the Consolidation, and The Throat seems like a good place to have something like that happen. Giving a name to one of their greatest losses would help developing the rebellions later on in history. After being denied a straight fight with the Vandagans, being sick on the boats during the invasion of the smaller islands, the Hillfolk would have been ready to prove their fearlessness and ferocity by volunteering to hold the fort and then smash their way west after Dav made landfall in Sinjiara to cover his flank. The heavy wayfort would be aged – probably built before the Squall was put in place. It would be shifted on its foundations, rocks would be cracked or swarming with the surging jungle. The space between the gates could be sheer cliffs to add a little more danger, making the narrow bridge all the more hostile to a large army. With the Throat held, the bulk of the Consolidation forces would have to move south along the eastern shore of Lightwater Bay to secure a small fishing village as an embarkation point. It would have an easy grade to launch boats, are perhaps even a pier to board larger ships and move supplies. It would be here that Dav would try to secure two types of vehicles – boats and ferries.

The first priority would be to find a landing vehicle for a mixed contingent of heavily armed Lithmorran/Vandagan elites and Hillfolk shocktroops, likely those that had kills from previous engagements. This landing vehicle would likely follow a similar style to a Viking ship. With a rowing team and a light, deckles frame, the long ship could easily hit the beach at speed and beach far enough in for soldiers to disembark straight onto land, avoiding the quagmire that is surf. Any ship coming in to the beach would likely have had to contend with incendiary projectiles fired from the beach. The Tubori would be well familiar with the bane-of-sailors. Other slower ferries would have had to use turtle-like shield formations to shrug off a rain of arrows.

This conflict would have been major. The landfall is so near the capitol that it would have incited the entirety of the Tubori regular army to show up. The beachhead would have likely sought to land at a place similar to where they launched from, a suitably large fishing village with some semblance of a cargo dock to facilitate the landing of troops. It is likely, however, that if the Tubori knew where this assault was likely to land, that they would have lit their own dock on fire and littered the beach with detritus to hinder the landing.

When we talk about the Consolidation providing a textbook for strategic and tactical military maneuvers, the vast variety of terrains and types of engagements fought seems to begin here with a beach assault over open terrain against an enemy in the full cover of jungle. While a fishing village would have pushed back the jungle from the beach a bit to accommodate buildings, the thickness of the treeline would provide superior cover and concealment for any troops. The Tubori would likely engage enemies on the open water and beach with long-range attacks and when the enemy was in melee range, use the treeline as a skirmish point to enable surprise attacks and retreats so that their inferior armaments did not matter.

Even if I understand the history and the obstacles overcome – that Dav won these battles and eventually consolidated all of this land – it is surprising to me to look hard at the military prowess that was needed to overcome such a vast variety of theaters and foes. Some time in early 115 – possibly winter for the rest of the world – Dav’s forces arrive at The Throat and are briefly repelled by the entrenched wayfort. Hillmen volunteer to pour into the heavy fighting, first taking the fort and then using it to hold the land forces of the Tubori. Dav pipes forces south along the eastern shore of the Bay and begins to prepare a fleet of ships to cross the water directly to Sinjiara. The pre-dawn assault begins on a relatively moonless night – the brightest of them in their new period. A dozen long boats with shallow keels and no decks filled with blooded Hillmen and heavy Lithmorran/Vandagan units would row in toward the shoreline as fast as they could in order to beach their hulls. Their lines are staggered into two or three waves to cut down on casualties.

The beach would be lit by burning docks and hundreds of eyes would be peering from the treeline of the jungle. As soon as the long boats hit the shore, a mix of fire and night (unlit) arrows would rain down. Hillmen, under the cover of Heavy shields would strike flint and steel to light oil pots netted to long ropes. With ferocious strength, they would spin into a hammer-throw and huck the pots to the treeline in hopes of catching the jungle ablaze. As the first wave sustained heavy casualties, the second and third would arrive to supplement the push. Behind them, a fleet of ferries would start moving in between the beached ships as shelter, landing mounted troops and battalions of spearmen to protect the flanks of the beaches from the Tubori jinete. The treeline – once bristling with arrows and thrown darts – would now be on fire in places, dividing Tubori forces. Those caught between the beach and the wall of flame would be cut down. As this skirmish point broke down, Tubori infantry would regroup further back into the jungle to form a secondary line of engagement while simultaneously sending forces to the north and south to try and pincer the beachhead along the open shoreline. The Tubori jinete – light horsemen with bundles of darts – could move with relative impunity on the open sands and put hails of darts into the sides of Consolidation formations until their own cavalry and spearmen landed to counter them.

The Tubori regulars would arrange in line formation on the road to the capitol, perhaps a league inland, with irregulars on their flanks and hidden along the road leading up to them. Once the Consolidation forces began to march up the road, the irregulars would pepper them with poison darts and javelins before retreating and regrouping further up the road. By wearing down the landing forces prior to the full engagement of the regulars, the Tubori commanders figured they could have a fighting chance. The first line-to-line clash occurred several miles inland. The Consolidation forces were wearied from the landing, some likely dying from jungle poisons and others from dysentery. The Tubori, under-whelmingly armed, managed to hold their own in the first clashes with the superior force. Off in the Bay, the Tubori corsairs harassed the supply chain, hoping to cut off the flow of fresh troops and supplies.

It was not until the HIllmen forces broke out of The Throat and headed south-southeast that the battlelines began to surge further inland. Faced with HIllfolk pouring in from the north and hardened troops at the fore, the Tubori covered their retreat along the road with pitfalls, dead animals in fresh water supplies, trees in the road and other traps. They would head into the capitol to setup their last conventional defense.

The advance of the Consolidation forces would have been further slowed due to the Vavardi intervention against the Vandagans from the Kirulean. While I don’t see the turtling Vavard opening up a second front, they would have attacked the supply ships leaving from Vandgan territories or even land routes to mines or farms. This joint attack on both sides of the Squall – the Tubori corsairs hitting the supply chain that linked Longpoint/Merdigal to the overland route to The Throat and then across the Bay to Sinjiara until the HIllfolk cut a swath overland. Instead of being able to maintain momentum and sack the Tubori capitol in a few months, the slog through the jungle and the constant supply line harassment would have been a quagmire, likely causing internal problems among the troops and even their command staff.

Notes on morale in warfare

How did Dav maintain morale over so long a time when the first major engagement of the war was a tropical hell? One can only imagine that Dav, a hitherto untested battlefield commander save for minor previous engagements against other Lithmorrans, had to rely upon and learn from history and men like Aurthyn, Jaren and Gweran. His predecessor, Pinalo, was adored by his men. This personal adoration of their commander likely enabled Pinalo to consolidate as much as he did under the Lithmorran banner and instill enough confidence in himself to try and carve sections out of the Warsalus territory. Likewise, Dav understood that his own image had to be wrapped up in the espirt de corps of his army. The symbolism of the Chalice and Dav would have been heavily associated through rhetoric by Dav, perhaps coached by Gweran and Aelwyn. Gweran was an expert at rhetoric and Aelwyn understood the vocabulary of his faith. Dav would have laid down clear goals to his commanding officers so they could do the same for their men using these speaking techniques and consistent key phrases. Confidence, even among the lesser troops, would have been high from the outset of the Tubori campaign.

The hillmen’s morale would have been largely based on their clan cohesion and a type of cooperative competition for kills and therefore glory. The Lithmorran/Vandagan liason officers would have to do their best to direct the hillmen in terms of personal challenges, perhaps even goading warchiefs into action. The conscripts and levies from the counties and baronies would have had a shallower ‘pool’ of morale as they were easily swayed by the horrors of war and the superstitious nature played upon by the Tubori. Even if their sergeants were more experienced fighters, able to direct and unify the rabble, they were still trained less than most. Once a single man breaks, unless he is reinforced by his fellows, he will succumb and run. As one man believes, often the entire unit believes. When he thinks hope is lost, he will scream and cry out, telling the others of their folly as he bolts in the opposite direction. However, the weakness of these units can be turned by a clever commander into something extraordinary. Occasionally, these conscripts can latch on to a belief more fundamental than cleansing mages or unrooting evil domains. Within the immediate scope of a battlefield, they may seek to protect their fellow soldiers or, for a country-bred farmboy from Wilhelm, protecting the fallen horse of their knight with his life.

This sense of attachment and camaraderie is not an accident in more cohesive military units. The military concept of the uniform, for example, is not simply a matter of quick battlefield identification, but also personal identification with a group of people and their goal. Where the acts of devotion and valour are rare in conscripts, they would be more common in the regulars. Regular army troops – those with training and armament to match – would have had more experience with their weapons, confidence in their gear, their fellow soldiers and in their country. If a man wears the colors of a country every day, then he is more readily prepared to defend it, if only in spirit. Regimentation, discipline and united colors and battlecries all lend to unit cohesion. To paraphrase military commanders throughout history: if a man knows that he cannot lose, then he will not. If he is the best trained, best equipped, the best man in the best battalion, then he will not falter where the metal meets the meat. If all of the soldiers believe they are the best and their cause is just, their focus will be on executing orders and nothing else, allowing the moral and tactical obligations to be assumed by their commanders.

The heavier troops – the knights with dedicated servants to mind their arms and mount – would have had a more noble caliber, a personal belief in their cause and likely a material understanding of what they were defending as vassals. They were not just fighting to survive, but to gain favor and continued employment with their lord. Battles were wartime courts where favor could be achieved without petty posturing, gift-giving and cronyism. Heavy knights were the tanks of their day. Their heavy armor, weapons and dedication were top-notch and could serve to anchor lesser troops in formations. While slow on foot, they were a nightmare on horseback, uniting speed, durability and offensive punch into a single deadly package.

Tubori capitol taken, supply chain becomes priority

In thinking about the Tubori campaign as a whole, I often wonder how Dav was able to maintain such a large military force in such an isolated area for so long. Zeta pointed out that the capitol was taken within two years and that the remaining five years of this campaign were spent in clean-up operations against guerilla troops. In relation to the troop concentrations in Tubor over the course of the campaign, their numbers could have been greatly reduced from an invading force to a three part group (city garrisons, supply chain and counterinsurgency) under the control of Jaren in order to save resources for further conflict and relieve war-fatigue in the homelands.

While Dav and Aurthyn went Total War Sherman to rush the capitol, burning the jungles down as they went, it is likely that Dav’s political and economic advisors told him to keep the rest of the infrastructure intact now that the core settlements were occupied. While it would seem like a ready solution to burn the entire Island chain to the ground to smoke out the searats, Dav had to consider the economic ramifications of his actions. If he wanted the Jewel untarnished, and their ability to produce exotic wares intact, he had to tread carefully and stave off the guerillas until he could arrange for a total, cavalry based sweep of the islands with resources from the Plains.

Or at least that was my initial solution for why Dav invaded the Plains before completing his conquest of the Islands. Would it be logical to require cavalry for a jungle and mountainous theater? The utility of cavalry has always been speed, which can best be utilized over hard-packed ground and roads. While the high-endurance horses of the Charali would have been useful for navigating the wide-swaths of destruction left by the advancing army, I cannot imagine they would have been as much use in ascending the interior mountains to root out the remains of the Tubori resistance. Perhaps, Dav and Jaren were also waiting for timber to bolster the numbers of their ships for shore patrols or even a breeding program to hybridize Lithmorran/Vandagan horses with Charali, or even produce mules to better ascend the mountains.

The withdrawal of some of the invasion forces would have allowed men to return home, including the seasonal warriors of the HIllmen. With fresh warriors marching up from Lithmore, the Hills and Vandago during 116, Dav would have been able to turn his attention to the harassing Vavardi forces and the battle that would result in the fatal razing of Yarsith. It is Jaren that must administer in the Lord Paramount’s place and wage the war that he and Aurthyn began. As far as I can recall at the moment, there were no Tubori heroes or nobles that stepped up to lead their country post-invasion aside from Martis le Cabot. This void may deserve a look, as a pro-Davite figurehead would have done a great deal to foster integration. I would say it was Jaren’s job, but I think someone would have had to step up for the preservation of Tubori values, otherwise the island would be more Vandagan than it is now. Jaren also had to earn his title as Dav’s Sword, which would have been difficult to do as a ruler of both Tubor and Vandago. While le Cabot is the nearest thing I can equate to a cultural champion for the Tubori at this time, it is possible that other figures – those with vested interest in survival, even if it meant acquiescence – would have soon realized that the isolation that made Tubor a safe haven for aristocrats and liberal thinking would remain intact long after the Consolidation was over.

In truth, it seems as if this war did more to bring out the character of the Tubori that we would describe as essential than destroy it. They possess a very strong national sentiment, as well as an at-all-costs attitude toward profit and survival. This period in history would have defined the revolutionary, liberal pirates that we come to recognize as islanders. And I believe that it was this exotic character that Gweran capitalized on when he brought le Cabot into Lithmore to introduce him to court. The pains undertaken to romanticize and aggrandize the Tubori lifestyle by Gweran mark an effort to cement and preserve their character and soften the Lithmorrans into believing that the passion the Tubori showed in defending their homeland could be a grace as opposed to an obstacle for conquest. The acquisition of the exotic resources of the islands and their ships would help to fund a continued war effort and the much needed building of infrastructure that would have needed to exist for the Kingdom to be a unified organism.

Yarsith

While Jaren continued to rebuild Tubor, fortifying roads and potentially rebuilding the docks at the capitol to field his own navy against the corsairs, the rest of the army would have been headed back into the temperate areas of Vandago to regroup and move on the Vavardian brigands harassing their homelands. There is not much available on the battle of Yarsith aside from legend, of course. Gweran was reportedly missing from Dav’s council at the time (perhaps gathering intelligence on other theaters or somehow tied up with Martis or managing his own consolidation, the Troubadours Guild), two of the Seven were seen hanging around and the Vavardi – whose tactics to this point in history were limited to turtling and opportunistic attacks – somehow manage to pull a ‘victory’ out of their hats in the destruction of Yarsith, perhaps the furthest Lithmorran settlement of its time.

Some folks have asked that I not nail down a single reason for Gweran’s absence, or if the archmages were present for certain on the battlefield as that is a part of the mystique of history. And to that, I would agree. Short of a memoir from any of the main characters, it is likely that none will ever know and only the fallout of the incident remain. This splinter of failure could have burrowed into the minds of everyone involved. Was Gweran to be trusted implicitly after his absence? Was his political massaging in the capital what hindered his operation of intelligence organs around the Kirulean? Was he in an illicit relationship with le Cabot that distracted him momentarily from the horrors of war?

Yarsith, as far as I can remember, was always described as a shore town. It is partially in swamp or moor near the Kirulean, perhaps in a delta-like area. Some of the buildings are on stone foundations or pier-and-beam over the moor. Gangplanks, wood and stone bridges would link major landmasses. The construction of the homes would have likely been predominantly wood, thatch and mud. It would not have smelled very nice. Yarsith would have been an outpost town, managing ferries along the shore and even some heavier boats from crossing the inland Sea. As described before, it would probably have been a hot spot for observers from both the Lithmorran and Vavardi camps. It also made a reasonable military target, given that it was a gateway to the Sea and represented a ready jumping-off point for an invasion of Vavard.

The helpfiles describe a feint by the Vavardian forces, utilizing their fleet of ships on the in-land sea to lead Dav away from Yarsith so it could be razed by ground forces. To expand upon this point using some of the things already established, I would write the burning of Yarsith as the fulfilment of an obligation toward the Tubori in a long line of attacks on trade. While a contemporary Vavardian government would have restricted trade to penalize Vandago and Lithmore for their actions, the only way to do that in a fractured landscape is through force of arms. Suspension of trade with the Vavardian region would have been a given when Jaren declared his fealty to Dav. The only way for Vavard to inflict further damage would be to hit infrastructure and industry at the behest of the Tubori. The merchants are shrewd, however, and seem to fail to commit a sizeable ground force against the Vandagan. Instead, they rely on a gambit to low-blow Dav’s confidence, perhaps selling this sort of attack as enough to destabilize his ego and allow the Tubori to win the war of attrition.

Cutting through the legends to see the actual event may be difficult. Was the loss of Yarsith a strategic blow in any way? Or was it simply the only Lithmorran casualty up to this point? Was Dav’s PR board so desperate to keep his image untarnished that they insisted the reason for this defeat was two archmages and the loss of his intelligence chief? To me, it seems as if the loss of Yarsith was promoted in such a way in order to defend his next action: the 30 Days of Fire. Lionizing Dav becomes difficult when he commits genocide against a technologically inferior force. And after the loss of Yarsith, it almost seems like rage, not the acquisition of resources necessary to smother the fire he started in Tubor. Perhaps the threat of a two front war – even if one of those fronts was against guerillas – ate away at Dav. He was desperate to draw the conflict to a close because his men were dying in the jungle. Jaren, a new friend and loyal captain, was nearly alone in an isolated theater. With Yarsith burned to the ground, perhaps he saw Jaren’s death, the death of his wife and children again. And he committed a very human sin of desperation – weighing the lives of the horse people against the lives of the people he knew. At the extreme, the 30 Days were an act of frustration. Caught in a quagmire in the islands, fighting a force that seemed invisible and perhaps insurmountable, the Consolidation forces could fight and subdue the Charali with relative ease.

30 Days

If anyone has read the Song of Motion, I tried to create an Inquisitor that would visit the Plains and ascertain the depth of their impiety prior to this invasion. Certainly, the ecclesiastical reasoning behind the invasion was there. If Dav was simply a military commander, the 30 Days would appear to be a deplorable, one-sided invasion. To a martial Patriarch, however, the reports and direction of Aelwyn to suppress these superstitious people would be completely justifiable. Yet, I do not like to stake a character’s motivation on a single influence – I believe it was a combination of economics, strategy and emotion. Economically, the Vavardian front needed to be closed to protect the war machines of Lithmore and Vandago. Strategically, Dav opted to try and contain the Merchant Princes on this new Vavardian front by controlling and utilizing the vast, untapped resources that the natives possessed.

As with the other regions during the Consolidation, the fragmented political nature of the area may have required a massive show of force in order to subjugate the Plains in total. In a way, this seeming genocide played directly to the Charalin sensibility – by creating an epic level of terror, Dav was able to integrate himself into legend instead of being passed off as a simple, human enemy. Though it is a long shot, I would like to think that Gweran was aware of the Song of Motion. The Charalin superstitions about iron and elemental judges, particularly the creation/destruction aspects of Brother Fire, would have been used to great effect to direct the Charalin with fear and awe. It is likely that the Plains were set on fire to create strategic barriers and force the plainspeople to move in a particular fashion until they were sealed into a box made of cavalry and spear-wielding infantrymen.

The endgame was not capture of the Charali, only their horses, which may explain the high mortality rate during this month. If a plainsman was asked what was taken, he would have said his family instead of his horse.

Strategically, the Plains are relatively flat, which provides nearly unlimited visibility and mobility in good weather which is exactly opposite to the Islands at this point in history. The Charali are honor-bound to face their opponents, and due to their primitive nature (not just primitive appearance, like the Tubori) may not have understood the impact of armored cavalry and infantry.

Though this was originally an off-the-cuff text dump to incite discussion, my recent rereading has revealed a great deal of grammar and other mistakes. One day I would like to revisit this material and clarify it to a higher standard of quality. I was considering an audio or even video series of entries at one point. Would there be any interest in continuing my analysis?

I do like it, but I must admit that I find it dense to read. I would very much like to see it become an IC canon book or something though.