Before the Conflict

The following is my memories and recollections of the events that led up to the first invasion of Mercinae by Parrius and its aftermath. However, for the sake of context, I begin by relating the period a little while before the war. Also contained are references to public declarations made over the years by various parties. Going back a long time now, to around the turn of the millennium, The Master had recently returned to the land as the ancient prophecies foretold, only to be banished once more. His attempts to defy and overthrow the divine pantheon of Olympus were defeated, and he and his diabolical minions were variously destroyed or banished. At this time, I led Thakria as its Prince, Mercinae was led by Omacron the Alchemist, Springdale was led by the long time Princess Orielle of the Craftmasters, and Parrius was as it still is, led by a collective council, but was then dominated by Catt, long-time guildmaster of the Artisans. It's notable in my eyes that each of these leaders was of their respective Loremaster guilds. Thakria and Mercinae were as ever, at war, but on a military level, relations between Thakria and Springdale were peaceful, and relations with Parrius were cordial, but being pushed lower by Catt and Conan of the Warriors. I had been handling all the warfare for my city at that time and had over a period of time taken over the entire Greenwood, Eleusis and Thaumacie. The troops of Thakria were quite literally at the gates of Mercinae. It was at this point that Catt and Conan made a quite unilateral decision to plunge Parrius into war. I had been a citizen of Parrius before, and always had a soft spot for Parrius in my heart, so I always tried to maintain relations with them as best I could. However, war with Parrius was thrust upon Thakria. Parrius marched around 15000 men to the Northern gates of Mercinae, thereby protecting them and preventing their impending invasion. An erstwhile petrified and cowardly Mercinae was now smug and brave and threatening the total and eternal destruction of Thakria. Bulletin post: jhors words A less than secret deal had been hatched by Sir Arathorn of Mercinae and offered to Conan and Parrius. The Paladin convinced Parrius that if they should merely protect the north gate of Mercinae with Parrian troops, Mercinae would then be free to safely throw all of its forces into an all out assault on the City of Miracles in the north. And once the conquest was complete, both Parrius and Mercinae would share equally in the plundered loot. As history shows, this never came to pass.

The Fall of Parrius

Thakria's only realistic response to this was to show the citizens of Parrius on a personal level the folly into which their leaders had led them. They were consistently slaughtered in a manner that Parrians had never had to face before, certainly not in living memory. Their homes and shops were burgled repeatedly, their leaders persecuted. As the most peaceful of Avalon's cities they simply weren't up to facing it, yet the leaders cared not. It wasn't long before defectors were only too willing to escape the death and despair that had befallen Parrius. As our cities were now at war we Thakrians felt we had to accept them and any stolen property they decided to bring with them. The rot was deep, a number of Custodians betrayed the city they were charged with protecting; however this is not the place for their naming. This situation was not always the case, only a few years earlier, Weasal of the Warriors had left Parrius, frustrated at the corrupt leadership of Catt and Conan, taking with him commodities and at the same time destroying Artisan legions within the city. Every commodity that was taken was given back by Thakria; if they were already enemies as some would tell you, why would Thakria give back a large amount of commodities? So while some defected to the enemy, others simply found home in a safer city such as Springdale, though probably most of all found that there was no refuge for them and simply departed from the land, never to be seen again. It was not long before Parrius was a desolate wasteland. Every single shop, stall and home, was burgled, empty, abandoned. It was a ghost town, and a sight to chill the coldest of hearts. It pained me to walk the streets of Parrius, I remember one of the saddest sights was to walk around the shops, every one with the door unlocked and left open, it's stock bare, and a glance at the owner's name was just another reminder of someone who had found they could bear the painful side of the land no longer. It was around this time, with Parrius defeated in all but name, it's leaders leading only themselves, but still refusing peace, that my soul felt itself being called elsewhere. I departed for a number of years, giving up my Princehood in Thakria.

My Move to Parrius

Upon my return, things in the land were much the same. 15000 troops still stood outside Mercinae, Parrius was still effectively a broken city. Remembering the sadness I felt at seeing the emptiness of Parrius, and perhaps feeling guilt at largely being responsible for it, I decided I wished to help rebuild the city. At around this time another person returned to Avalon, but one much older than I, and one which virtually no one around at the time, including myself, had met before. Her name was Marie of the Enchanters. She had in fact returned shortly before I, and was just about to defeat Catt in an election. This was an important turning point for Parrius, as it represented Parrius finally trying to actively change its future and not stubbornly try to deny the realities of life. So, with the citizens of Parrius obviously changing their ways and throwing off the shackles that had held them down, I moved to Parrius with the aim of making Parrius the city of Parrians, something which it hadn't been for a long time. With many of the Parrian citizens having abandoned the city including its leaders there was a vacant Custodian position. Catt challenged for this straight away, but, as a hint of what was to come from him, he was found to have fixed the election in a way that ensured he was the only candidate. Due to the dubious nature of how this came to pass, the gods annulled it almost as soon as it had begun. Undeterred by his chastisement, Catt stood for the vacant seat again, this time, however, I and other candidates stood against him. In 1017, just over a year after rejoining Parrius, I won the election and this seemed to send a panic through certain parts of Mercinae. It will come as no surprise that most notable of these was Kes, then Minister of Justice. Bulletin post: An Open Letter to ThakriaBulletin post: parrius

The Withdrawal from Mercinae

Parrius was already moving away from war in heart, and just after my election a city meeting was held, at the end of which the key decision was made that it was time for Parrian troops to come home from Parrius after the 15 or so years they had been on foreign duty. Another key decision made was that Parrius would declare neutrality with all guilds and cities in Avalon, which it duly did. Now, at this point Parrius had given a great cost to the war against Thakria, much more in fact than any of the other cities had, and to a war that largely didn't even concern it. A war in a far flung land. Parrius felt that it had paid too much, whereas Mercinae had gotten off lightly, and worse, it hadn't carried out its side of the bargain. All its legions were hiding behind its fortifications, which hid behind our legion, not out invading Thakria as it had promised so many years ago. With this in mind Parrius approached Mercinae and brought up the issue of some kind of reparations, as well as clearing up some long overdue matters. Chief amongst these was the issue of the Parrian Mission. When Parrius was abandoned and plundered by its leadership many years before, one of the things they took with them was this soup kitchen where very young of the city could eat for free. Despite Parrius being re-built it had not been returned. Another key point was Coriona: this village right next to Parrius had for so many years been Parrian, yet was taken by Mercinae when they were at the height of their power shortly after their invasion of Thakria.

The Breakdown of Negotiations

Negotiations were quickly held which went very well and seemed to bode well for the future of our two cities. The issues mentioned above were raised along with a few others, and they were completely agreed to by both Mercinae and Parrius. There was much rejoicing in Parrius, things were going wonderfully and the city could look forward to peaceful relations with its neighbours. One other important event happened at this first meeting. This was the banning of Sir Kes of the Knights from having anything more to do with talks between our cities, or having any kind of public say on behalf of Mercinae. This ban came from his Prince, and was due to his repeated and random outbursts directed at me during the discussion. Bulletin post: Rumours So peace was at hand, or so it seemed, but the very next day it became apparent that Mercinae wasn't as willing to give up what it then controlled as easily as they it first appeared. Prince Omacron and Ragar, the Marshall of the Mercinaen forces, were stalling. We were being sent back and forth between them, one would say the other had a change of heart, both were saying that the previous agreement was just theoretical and that no real discussion had taken place. Literally as we were being stalled, Marie and I decided to take a look over our troops in Mercinae, and to our horror we discovered that a large legion of 22000 Mercinaen troops had been moved directly next to our much smaller legion. In addition, many more guild legions of a few thousand each had been moved next to ours, almost entirely blocking our legion in, and with yet more on their way to complete the job. The most shocking aspect of all of this was that the largest guild legion was a legion of Artisans, led by Catt, and supposedly a guild of Parrius. It was later learned by Parrius that these legions were moved there on the orders of Mercinae. There was a general feeling in Parrius that Mercinae had taken advantage of our city when it had the opportunity to do so, and had given little in return. And now that Parrius was in the dominant position, Mercinae was indignant and outraged that they may take back a little of what they had lost, and indeed that Parrius may flex its muscles a little. In response to the attempt to block in Parrian troops and the threatening behaviour of the entire Mercinaen army being moved directly next to us, I slowly began to move the Parrian legion away. There was but one area of the locale that provided my legion with an escape route, which I quickly took, and then marched our troops as far away as possible from the threatening forces that had surrounded us. However, due to lack of rations the furthest we could move our troops was to the east bridge of Mercinae. We warned Mercinae not to come any closer once more, and promised both they and our own citizens that as soon as the next harvest was collected, our troops would leave the city. At first Parrius also suspended talks until our troops were safely home, however after much badgering the next day Baron Hero of Mercinae convinced us to speak with him and some other Mercinaen council members and for us all to try to reach an agreement. I will neglect to detail here the contents of the deal that was agreed to at this meeting, suffice it to say the very next day Hero and Mercinae denied once again that any deal was anything more than speculation and hypothesis. However, the most interesting part of this meeting was this: Catt was present, and as such, he made Mercinae proud, arguing fiercely on their behalf, trying to make sure that Mercinae made no offers or sacrifices. However, as he was a Parrian this came as quite a shock to his city-mates, who subsequently voted for him to be ejected from the city, along with an invitation for him to go where his heart lay. After the dubious events with the Artisan troops, this ejection was overdue. I note for the record that the Artisans had once in the past repelled an attack on Mercinae by Thakria in which Parrius was also involved. In essence they had saved the city from an early total invasion and once again worked against the foreign policy of their home city.

The Escape from Mercinae

Just two days after the meeting with Mercinae, all hell broke loose. Harvest came, and it was bountiful for Parrius, and thus as promised, Parrius was going to bring its troops home. However, as soon as I went to our legion, it became quite apparent that something was stirring in Mercinae. Of the Mercinaen barons, all were present in their council chambers but for Ragar, the field marshall, he for the time being remained unseen. As I began marching our troops towards the eastern fortifications and gate, things were quiet. However, once we began to near it and ask for them to be lowered so that we may leave, we were met with an odd silence. As we were quite aware that the council was all too active, our polite requests became urgent demands, and it was at this point that the first 'No!' was to be uttered by the Mercinaens. Also at this time, Parrius became sadly aware that Ragar had been ordered to wipe out our legion, and was found to be catted and trying to march his huge legion towards us as quickly as he possibly could. At the same time, I and those Parrians around me came under attack from Mercinaens using an Avalon Ritual. As time passed, these attacks were added to by bands of Knights assaulting us, along with an assortment of other Mercinaens. To our surprise however, our attackers also included large amount of Paladins, Wizards and other Springdalians. Parrius had not expected any of this and thus no particular plans had been made for our citizens to be present to repel such attacks. Equally to our surprise, but perhaps not with hindsight, many Thakrians came to our aid and together with our fellow citizens, hounded the forces assembled against us. For nigh on a whole Avalon day did our troops stand and wait at the fortifications, repeatedly asking for them to be lowered, only to be met with silence, refusal or stalling. As the only option besides escaping from Mercinae as quickly as possible was destruction at the hands of Ragar and his dangerous legion of 27000 men, the decision was made that we had no other choice but to force our way out. Parrians such as Lamothe of the Enchanters and her husband, Druid Fizzy, worked tirelessly preparing rations and equipment and transporting them to our escaping forces. Meanwhile, others such as ex-custodian Blotto, then of the bandits, flanked and protected me as I led our legions to safety. We destroyed a barracks directly next to us so as to slow any following of us and then destroyed the newly strengthened fortifications preventing our escape. For days our legion marched until we were half way home, though it was not until we were on our own borders at the Half Way Inn that our men felt safe. Ragar's legion could not afford the rations to follow us so far with such a large legion, nor the time, no doubt.

The Aftermath of Mercinae's Betrayal

Now, the events that I have related on these pages have proven to be contentious along the years. Many people such as Sir Kes of the Knights and Mage Hero along with others have tried to present a revisionist view of history of a Parrius that attacked anything it could and declared war on Mercinae. This is simply not so, and the facts show it. I urge all those who wish to see the truth to glance through public declarations from Bulletin post: Parrius to Bulletin post: public statement. They begin with Kes making his usual accusations and claims of the events that took place (even though he wasn't present at the time) and ends with Ragar's post declaring as I had, the truth of the events. After the debacle that had befallen Mercinae, and the fear-stricken and paranoid way Omacron had handled matters, his fellow barons immediately replaced him as Prince that very night. Ragar was chosen as the new leader of Mercinae, and he chose to hand the role of Marshall of the Mercinaen forces to the able combatant Geist, of the Mages. Ragar's post pointed out a few truths. The truth that two of his Barons had tried to deny. The truth that there was no Parrian attack until the Mercinaen legion began marching towards us. The truth that the fortifications were refused to be lowered to allow the free passage of the Parrian legion. The truth that Parrius did want peace, or else it wouldn't have moved its legion all the way to the Half Way Inn. The truth of the matter is simply that panic and fear gripped Mercinae, but mainly it's Prince and Barony. What Ragar's post doesn't tell you is that he voted to allow the Parrian troops to leave unharmed and to lower the fortifications. He was over-ruled by his Prince and ordered to wipe out the Parrian forces. This is the thanks to a city that saved Mercinae from invasion and protected and guarded it for what had become many years. Paranoia is what brought Mercinae to war, nothing else. Things quietened for a time after that. Kes, despite Ragar's post, continued to blame Thakria and Parrius for the events that happened. Bulletin post: lies His continual posting only served to help send relations between Parrius and Mercinae into a spiral. Some might say that I manipulated him. Perhaps. But he made it oh so easy. Bulletin post: Misunderstanding During one bout of insanity he attempted to declare every single active Parrian an enemy of his city, and of course, continually threatened war and the destruction of Parrius by Mercinae. Bulletin post: Actions Things got so bad that Parrian citizens had taken to posting bounties upon the head of Kes within the Parrian BB, which I duly collected Bulletin post: A recurring theme, your death

Catt and the Neutralisation of the Artisans

However, just 3 years later war was brought again to Parrius. This time, I had discovered a plot by Catt, who had by now moved to Mercinae and quickly been elected a Baron, to use the Artisan troops inside Parrius to attack and loot our commodity stores. Horrified at this, I held an impromptu city meeting with all the Parrians in the land at the time, and after explaining all the details a vote was taken. It was virtually unanimous that Parrius act decisively to eradicate this internal threat. The Artisans didn't at that time have a single active Parrian member. One of the last was Midori, a Parrian Custodian who was put on probation by Catt, because she refused to Citizen him after the council had unanimously refused him citizenship. So he was punishing a guildmember for a wholly city-related matter. Much the same happened with Procyon, the ancient founder of the Artisans guild who was probationed and stripped of power by Catt, simply because he was a friend of Marie, the person who had challenged and defeated Catt in an election. Bulletin post: hypocrisy It was for these reasons that the Artisans guild was at that time attacked, its legions were killed, its barracks were destroyed. Its commodity stores were plundered and razed, and the commodities stolen from Parrius by Catt were retrieved. Bulletin post: The Artisans

The Knightswood Crisis

Meanwhile, Kes the foolish Knight and others were eagerly supplying Parrius with ample reasons to take a more dim view of its western neighbour. Attacks began to focus on harvests and on the Custodians. Bulletin post: Your hairless monkey Ragar, to his credit, was trying hard as ever to avert war. Bulletin post: your post However, it was the actions of people like Kes that were speaking louder than the words of Ragar, and Parrius was becoming gradually more angry. Not only that, but Mercinae had made up and then changed its mind over two agreements regarding the handing over of Knightswood to Parrius and now talks had dragged on for 3 years. Parrius decided it had to get tougher with Mercinae. We knew that they already had serious problems with Thakria, and there was no way they'd go to war over a small village like Knightswood, or so we thought. We marched troops into Knightswood and set them out in the manner in which one takes command of their borders, without placing flags in the area to demonstrate our dominance. However, to our great surprise Kes declared war on Parrius. Bulletin post: Parrius Well, at least in his own mind, but it didn't bode well. He had proven himself a maverick on many occasions and when frothing at his mouth was capable of anything. At around this point Ragar gave Parrius an ultimatum. Parrius had to march out of Knightswood and abandon the area, or else face war. Bulletin post: invasion of knightswood I also became aware of a plot by Mercinae to launch a sneak attack on Parrius, regardless of Ragar's ultimatum. Many Mercinaen citizens were preaching to others at the time, that 'it was better to go down in a blaze of glory, than just sit and wait for doom to come to them.' And also that they should 'take down Parrius with them'. They could not accept no longer being the dominant partner in that relationship.

Parrius Strikes Back

I became aware that not only had the Prince and his barons rejected our proposal, as had his citizens quite vocally, but they were also planning to try to take down our city with them. Unfortunately, I could only have real proof of this once they had wiped out our 22000 men at the border, which I of course couldn't allow to happen. So after learning of Mercinae's decision and knowing action may be possibly imminent, I gathered all Parrian citizens in the land and explained the situation and my proposed actions, asking for opinions and alternative solutions. Of all those present only Tyrion of the Craftmasters had any objections and would rather I flag Knightswood and move troops back to guard there. In light of the fact that Ragar had declared any flagging of Knightswood would lead inevitably to war, Parrius would have still just been waiting for Mercinae to muster forces and attack. On the 6th of Mournsend in the year 1021, Parrius decided that the best course of action was to remove Mercinae's ability to threaten them. Once the decision had been made, all citizens supported the city. Tyrion, although differing in opinion, was amongst the first to offer his services as a Parrian. When action began, the first attacks of any kind were by Artisan Catt, and as anyone who knows him could guess they were purely verbal. As time went on, more and more Mercinaens entered the land, mostly Mages; yet for some reason no attacks were launched, no attempts to hinder Parrian progress were made, and no more troops were mustered against them. I became aware that the cunning plan of Mage Geist, the Mercinaen Field Marshall, was to simply allow our forces to massacre the troops under his responsibility. It was also discovered that Geist felt that since he had only been the Marshall for a short time, this was 'not his problem'. Parrian forces continued to gather strength unmolested until at one point Geist did mount an attack, forcing our commanders away from their troops as they assembled outside the Halfway Inn. It was but short-lived however, as Geist came alone and without support from any of his fellow mages who were in the land, and he was quickly slaughtered. After that attack, things were quiet and a large proportion of our forces quickly and quietly moved west along the highway, outside the Mercinaen gate, and prepared for final orders. As this was taking place, Camaris of the Bards appeared, and began to take command of Ragar's legion of 24000 men. Slowly he split the forces in two and I give orders that he should not be hindered until the two Mercinaen legions were nearing equality. The foolish bard did not realise that he was simply giving Parrius the opportunity to neutralise his forces with smaller losses. More Parrian forces quickly moved up, and as Camaris had split his forces cleanly in two, an attack was mounted upon a Mercinaen legion by a Parrian force of over 22000 men. The battle was ferocious and losses were severe on both sides, but the legion which Camaris had been assembling was destroyed, leaving only 9000 men left under the absent command of Ragar. Without their leader these troops were no threat and so we concentrated on bringing the rest of our reinforcements to join with our main legion, since by this point Camaris, having been mocked, and despairing of his foolish error, had given up hope of helping the situation and had decided to remain under divine protection. Once again, there was virtually no resistance from the Mercinaen commanders and supposed heroes. Finally, as the rest of the Parrian reinforcements made the slow march to join the main attack legion, I launched an assault on the remaining 9000 Mercinaens in the area. Mercinaen bodies dropped endlessly as their blood was spilled while their commanders trembled under the protection of the gods. With most of the Mercinaen army now defeated and posing little threat, and with Parrius having a combined legion of 25000 men within the city walls, my spirit left the land for some much needed rest.

The Battle for the Bridge

Departed for but a few Avalon days I was struck down by a terrible vision. A vision of a brave Parrian Pirate drowning, his life-force fading. As terror struck his face and his lungs became filled with water, my vision suddenly changed. Looking down from above I realised this was not the mighty raging sea, but a river. Body after body, thousands of them, bobbed lifelessly up to the surface. The twisted and burned remains of a bridge evident as the tool of their murder . As recognition dawned from my never-before-seen vantage point, I realised this was a vision of the future. I immediately re-entered the land to find Prince Ragar and his fellow Mercinaens attempting to burn down their own bridge as my vision had foretold. With their Prince to lead them, for once the Mercinaens made a concerted effort, but the skill and bravery of the Parrian heroes defeated them at every turn. At one point Camaris made his way to the bridge with a cart of oil and wood. As I cornered him and delivered a killing blow, much to his own annoyance he was summoned away by a mage, merely causing him to leave the cart where he had stood. With no other option Ragar requested a ceasefire and peace talks which I granted on behalf of Parrius. At this point Mercinae had lost over 24000 scurvy dogs and Parrius had lost some 11000 fine, brave pirates; however, not a single building had been attacked, plundered, or razed.

The Surrender and Treaty

The initial demands I gave to Mercinae on behalf of Parrius were as follows: 1 - The guild of Bards be closed down for at least 20 Avalon years. 2 - The guild of Artisans be purged of all Mercinaen members. 3 - Parrius receive a sizable (but unsettled) proportion of the gold and commodity reserves of Mercinae. Each of these requests in their own way was chosen to add to the strength of Parrius. The Minstrels had been re-opened in Parrius just a few years before, and this was seen as an excellent opportunity to make sure that Parrius had the single active bard guild and get it off to a good start. Having the Artisans guild purged of Mercinaens would solve that problem of this guild being dominated by Mercinaens yet situated within Parrius, or so Parrius thought at the time. The value of the gold and commodities is self-evident, Mercinae at this time had somewhere in the region of 9 million in gold, if I remember correctly, and very healthy commodity stores. The fractions being talked about were around half to two-thirds, which, given the most recent comparison to Thakria and its invasion by Mercinae, were very generous. To continue with the bloody-minded attitude of Mercinae, many Mercinaens of the time wished their leaders to refuse any and all treaties, deals or offers of surrender. (16062) However, the gods counselled the Barony that if the city made that choice it would have to live with it, and could not expect the gods to help them if they did not attempt to help themselves. Just as internal discussions were still going on within the broken city, a very simple deal was made with Parrius. Both cities agreed that until a long term solution was found, citizens from neither city would attack each other. However, with the agreement barely begun, the guildmaster of the Artisans, under potential threat of ejection from his Barony or alternatively from mastery of his guild, flew into a vengeful rage. With his rage burning, he came across the peaceful Lamothe working late at night within the Parrian council chambers and there he slew her in cold blood. In reaction to this attack Parrius suspended talks until a sincere apology was forthcoming from Catt. Then a Mage by the name of Alarius stepped forward, angered by his leaders blundering actions and the subsequent halting of talks. He suggested that if Mercinaens voice their dissatisfaction with the actions of their Baron by calling an election, talks would be resumed. Parrius was more than happy to accept this also. So the questioning began. However, each time a citizen stepped forward and denounced Catt, the Artisan Snowbird duly cancelled it out by questioning Prince Ragar. This was initially presumed to be merely a blocking tactic, but once the aid of other Artisans were enlisted to question their Prince, it seemed like a coup was emerging. As anarchy seemed to be growing within the defeated city, a simple ultimatum was given. Mercinae would have to establish an agreement of surrender with Parrius by the turn of the new year, or else the entire city would be razed to the ground. Bulletin post: Catt and his war lust The ultimatum had the desired effect and focused the attention of the Mercinaen leadership. Within the oval council chambers of Parrius, Ragar and I met and hammered out the finer points of a treaty. Under the watchful eye of Orthwein, the god of fate, the deal was signed and on the 1st of Skyelong 1021, there was once again peace between the cities of Mercinae and Parrius. Bulletin post: Peace between cities The treaty was to last for 20 years but as events were to show, the treaty merely created more bitterness and mistrust than ever between the former allies.