Siege of Rosemar

The Siege of Rosemar was the final battle of the War of Conquest, a long siege and final battle for the fortress city of Rosemar, in modern-day Rasyvias, fought between the future people of Rasyvias, led by P'hensor, and the Lake People. Rosemar was the greatest fortress-city in the entirety of southern Higashi, a great fortified city with many towers and siege devices used to wreak havoc with attacking armies. At its center the Core of Rosemar, a semi-spherical fortress, surrounded by fortifications, had never been taken by any force, its walls never breached, its men never betrayed. It was said that as long as the Core was occupied, the empire that held Rosemar was the empire that would outlast time itself. Not knowing of the defenses and undefeated nature of the Core, P'hensor believed that Rosemar would be a difficult battle, but that once he breached its walls, it would not be able to hold against his armies. After a short skirmish known as the Battle of the Rose Walls, as it never passed the outer gates of the city, P'hensor realized that he had been misinformed as to the strength of the city's defenses, and left a force camped a short distance away from the city, to ensure that the siege was not broken, while he withdrew the rest of his army farther, though close enough to reinforce the siege, if need be. He then sent a magic user, one of the far-reduced number that he had after their slaughter by the creatures of the Lake People, and sent them across the sea, using their magic, to seek aid from the Watchers, the name given to the group of Rhyioji who had chosen to remain in Nishi. The Watchers, made primarily of two groups, the Berserkers, who were insane warriors who enjoyed the war of Nishi, and the Nab'el, a high class of Rhyioji who stayed because they believed that to flee was to become refugees, which they considered below their station, at first refused this messenger, believing that nothing good would come of aiding P'hensor. The messenger, however, recited a string of words in the Rhyiojan language, a high tongue then known only to the Nab'el and the first generation, which P'hensor had had the messenger memorize without understanding what it meant. After considering it for a time, The Nab'el spoke to the Berserkers, and both consented to cross the sea to Higashi and aid P'hensor. Upon their return, they found that, using his magic-users and captured beasts, P'hensor had managed to keep the Lake People confined to their city, but could not take Rosemar, and that there was an underground well, as well as a cavern, equipped with mirrors to direct the sunlight, where food was grown within Rosemar. The Lake People were thus trapped but with food and water, and the city would not fall. The Nab'el's leader, seeing this, brought with him the leader of the Berserkers and asked to speak with P'hensor. As they spoke in private, it was revealed that the offer in Rhyiojan had spoken of powers granted by a secret talisman that the last of the first generation had given P'hensor, which granted the powers of the first generation. P'hensor confirmed this, and told the leaders that the last of the first generation had given him two, one for the Nab'el, the chosen people of the first generation, and one for those that P'hensor would choose, which were the Berserkers. He told the Berserker leader that his people would be the warriors of P'hensor's people, and be famed as champions, and told the leader of the Nab'el that his people would be the nobility, the leaders of the people. After securing oaths of loyalty from them, P'hensor granted them the talismans, which exploded into energy and granted upon the two peoples of the Rhyioji the powers of the first generation. This power, which had also been granted himself, P'hensor explained, was the power to summon the S'herlor to give aid in battle. The Berserkers, whom he now dubbed Archons, were given the power to cloak themselves in the energy of the S'herlor, to change their form and give themselves new abilities while using their power, and the Nab'el, whom he stripped of the name and simply called the class of the nobility, were granted the ability to better control the S'herlor, to change them as they would and use them in the Arts. Massing the ranks of his magic-users with the summoners of the S'herlor, and surrounding Rosemar with his fearsome, bloodthirsty warlords, the Archon, P'hensor began the bloodiest segment of the Siege of Rosemar, storming the walls from all directions, and half destroying some segments. While he took the walls and conquered the city, forcing the survivors of the Lake People's armies into the Core, he suffered heavy damage himself, though not on such a scale as his opponents, and was forced to camp much of his army in the outer area of the city while preparing his final assault. That final assault would take place within the week, the assault upon the Core itself.

After an initial attack on the core with the most powerful of his Archons was proven utterly ineffective, serving only to kill the commander of the Archons and severely wound many of his best warriors, P'hensor was forced to admit that, despite his military power, he would not be able to conquer the Core by normal means of combat. Following this realization, he resorted to utilizing magic, calling together his S'herlor-connected followers, and began to plan for the destruction of the Core. The next day, at dawn, when the guard on the Core was changing, P'hensor lead a full-on assault of the Core, attacking from both the East and the West. Each prong had a contingent of magic-users with them, which assaulted the defenders of the Core from a distance. While the Core was hurrying to mount its defenses, P'hensor himself, along with a larger contingent of battle-trained S'herlor-connected men, assaulted the open North face of the Core, utilizing their more advanced control over the S'herlor to change the texture and density of the wall, breaching it with ease. However, even as it reformed, returning to its normal state, a trap within the Core went off, killing a great number of the nobles. However, the survivors were able to open the gates, and Archons flooded in, routing the Lake People, and ending the War of Conquest. P'hensor then went on to create and establish the government, beginning the country of Rasyvias.