Timeline of Calredia

The Complete Timeline of Calradia

The Diathan Epoch

• 1-43 AF: The Empire is officially founded by Diath on the bloodied steps of the once independent city of Halmar, Diath proclaims himself King of the Calrads and begins the mighty conquest of the south, marching his armies into the independent mercantile city of Shariz and annexing all land from Halmar to the banks of the Thavma River.

• 43-50 AF: Diath’s Empire turns its eyes west to the mountainous regions of Rhodokia. In 44 AF, the petty kingdoms of the region are subdued and intergrated into Diath’s new Rhodok heaven, Veluca.

• 50 AF: Diath marches into the unprotected plains of Swadia, here he beats a combined army of Battanians and Vlandians and founds the city of Dhirim on the field of battle. He dies later that day.

• 50-100 AF: Diath’s two sons, Duve and Dunnon, continue their father’s conquests westwards. Here they conquer the last of the free Rhodoks and following a combined effort by all of the First Vlandians of the Bezan Coast to stop the Calrads, the two brothers utterly crush the Vlandians. The defeat results in the decision to expel the Vlandians from Calradia, and thus the entirety of the Vlandian aristocracy was banished from the continent - most fled to Balion.

• 100-168 AF: Following the inappropriately named Last Conquest enacted by the two brothers, a seventy year period followed in which the imperial administration focused on internal expansion. A proper system was put into place to monitor all the provinces, regulated tax was put into place and the first professional army was created; called Diath’s Chosen, the army consisted of several thousand fully fledged soldiers who usually protected the capital of Dhirim. The Great Peace concluded with the completion of the School of Jaculan.

• 170-206 AF: The Sturgian Wars begin, marking the end of a nearly century long period of peace. Urged on by Jumnic Raiders and increased colds, several of the Sturgian clans fled south into the Empire. Taking the softened, unprepared and few troops near the border by complete surprise, the young emperor Tarquin amassed such a large army that the ground trembled as they marched. The Sturgians united under a chieftain whom they hastily crowned King, a certain Bargoramix and prepared themselves for battle. Tarquin arrayed his lines with their backs to a river, and attacked the Sturgians who fought on the steps of a mountain. Although the Calrads were met with increasing success as they attacked the Sturgians, Emperor Tarquin was slain in the thick of combat - this threw the bulk of the professional army into disarray, and soon the veterans were surrounded and slain, leaving the masses of undisciplined militias covering the banks of the river. The Sturgians surrounded and completely massacred the army, those who were not killed by Sturgian blades were trampled to death, and those who were not trampled to death drowned in their armor. The Empire was thrown into chaos, and the last living member of the imperial line was raised to the throne. Arivas the Odd was soon found to be one of the best tacticians in the history of the Empire as he led the scattered troops of the Calrads in a desperate battle in which he personally beheaded Bargoramix. His skull is still on display in Halmar to this day…

• 216-252 AF: The Empire invests in an expeditionary force to explore and colonise the rugged and uncivilised lands of Geroia. Although initially unsuccessful, the expedition eventually defeats the locals and annexes large swathes of the Geroian Coast.

• 252-260 AF: The Empire reaches its strongest ever year in 254, the Empire stretching from the Curin River to the Geroian Savannah. The Aserai are unified under their god, the King of Kings, who singlehandedly killed all the minor kings of the Nahasa.

• 263 AF: Arsama, King of the Nahasa; Nahashah, invades The Empire. Emperor Callus gathers his armies and dispatches his cousin Arivas of Jaculan to fight the Aserai. Arivas is outsmarted by Arsama and his army surrounded, he is taken prisoner while Arsama continues on to the city of Shariz.

• 264 AF: Shariz slays Arsama’s emissaries in the Spring of 264, the siege is short and as soon as the city fell the entire male population was crucified along the Sharizian Road. Callus hires mercenaries from Sturgia and the Steppe to bolster his ranks. Arsama marches his armies to Geroia where he forces each city to give to him the generosity of their own emperor or be destroyed. The stalling of the city of Galirexos gave Callus enough time to arrive.

• 265 AF: Arsama builds a fortress near Galirexos, Callus attacks the fortress and is repelled. Aserai reinforcements arrive and Callus withdraws to the Serrates, Arsama pursues and the two armies meet in the Summer of 265. The Calrads emerge victorious after nearly a week of daily fighting, yet the victory is pyrrhic as the majority of the army has been killed. Arsama rides into the Calradic camp and kneels before a heavily wounded Callus, dissolving the First Aserai Empire and committing ritual suicide the evening of his empire’s dissolution. The former Aserai lands collapse completely into chaos and anarchy as city states and powerful generals turn on one another to try and grab as much land as they can for themselves. Callus dies from infection several days later, and is celebrated as the saviour of the Empire. His son Dunnon III is crowned emperor.

• 270-280 AF: Dunnon assembles a mighty host of 30,000 soldiers and personally leads the army into the rough mountains of the dark-skinned of southern Geroia. Here he is met with fierce resistance from the locals, in particular a certain King Ulsser, who fielded an army of eight thousand men and crushed the heavily depleted army of Dunnon on the banks of what is now known as Dunnon’s Vein. Dunnon marched his surviving men back towards Geroia. He is faced by guerilla attacks, hostile environments and mutinies at every turn on his long journey home. Dunnon returns home after ten years to find his brother, Qurrus, as reigning emperor. Dunnon arrives at the imperial capital with his troop of veterans and murders his brother in cold blood. Dunnon proceeded to purge the ranks of the empire’s commanders and administrators.

• 300 AF: The Jumnic Peoples, urged on by conflict at home, begin to raid all along the Bezan Coast. The Empire is unable to deal with the problem due to the weakness of their army following Dunnon’s purges. Emperor Qaertes hires the Company of the Golden Boar and the Company of the Sacred Lion from Balion to help protect the Coast. In return, the Balish-Vlandian mercenaries received the Penninsula of Tihr and the coastal town of Pravend.

• 323-329 AF: The Sturgian Prince Vargan Rullis establishes himself as first King of Curaw, he expands eastwards toward the tundras and fights war after war as he pacifies the clans of the tundra. Prince Baloslav Erdan of Wercheg claims to be the last bastion of Sturgian freedom and declares war on Vargan. Following a two week long battle, Vargan Rullis emerges victorious. He looks to expand elsewhere, and looks toward the Vlandians of Tihr.

• 330-335 AF: Vargan marches his troops into Tihr, the Vlandians ride out to face his vast horde. The Sturgians are crushed after a devastating cavalry charge, Vargan retreats back to Curaw and prepares for his next campaign. He invades Battania and completely annexes the free tribes, establishing a border with the Empire.

• 335-342 AF: Vargan Rullis claims to be Vhagar’s Chosen King. He declares a war of “unification” against the Empire. Emperor Laertes marches an army northwards to face him, after an indecisive battle, both forces return home for the season. Laertes levies armies from Geroia and Vlandia to aid in the war, and meets Rullis in battle in 339. Laertes crushes the Sturgians, yet suffers a fatal wound and perishes soon after. Vargan survives and sets about hiring a new army. Laertes’ only son, Tarquin, was too young to rule; and thus Laertes’ close friend Rovus Megadrachus took control of Laertes’ army and followed up on the battle by marching swiftly into Sturgia. He crushed all resistance, torching any settlement he comes by. Curaw is defended valiantly, yet as the Imperial troops burst through the doors of the palace, Vargan Rullis threw himself from the top of the tower. Sturgia was thoroughly pillaged, and left to its own devices as Rovus returned home as a saviour after half a decade of hard fighting. Tarquin was now of age, and made plans to be rid of Rovus; for the young emperor was known for his cunningness and smartness; so much so that he was called the Crow. Rovus and all his grown sons and daughters were invited to dine with the imperial family, and when Rovus’ meal was revealed, he found a dead lizard on his plate; the Rovian symbol was a reptile, and so guards entered and massacred the Rovians. Tarquin exiled Rovus’ grandson to the court of the desert king Varsam in the Nahasa.

• 350-360 AF: The Vlandian king, Derthold the Brave, found ancient evidence that showed that western Rhodokia was once Vlandian territory. He attacked the Imperial Garrisons along the Lvenn, beating the imperials swiftly back to Yalen. Here Tarquin led an army and outsmarted Derthold. It is said that the king slew two of Tarquin’s brothers in the battle himself, causing to the young emperor much pain. Tarquin smashed the Vlandians but found himself set upon in the east by a united front of Aserai. He left a small portion of his army in the hands of the general Barreus and went eastwards to face the Aserai. Here he found the desert folk had reformed their ancient empire under the rule of Varsam II, who attacked the empire as revenge for his good friend Rovus, dubbed The Younger. Varsam marched at the head of a vast army against Tarquin’s smaller army, Varsam is recorded to have had several hundred war elephants. The war came to a climax at the end of the decade…

• 360 AF: Varsam’s army was composed largely of horsemen and farmers, yet he still had a core of veterans with which to fall back on should numbers not do the trick. Tarquin, on the other hand, had an army of professionals; ironically most of whom were soldiers in the ancient army of Diath’s Chosen. Tarquin made his stand on a hill, known now as the Crimson Crest, with his troops arrayed to protect from attack in all sides. The Aserai attacked on the first day with their elephants, yet Diath’s Chosen were the best army in the world; and the elephants rampaged and rampaged and killed soldiers, yet they were picked off and depleted the entire day. They returned to the camp as the sun fell. Then, for three days, the Aserai sent their conscripts and levies and like waves on a rock, they smashed against the sturdy Calrad formations. Day after day the Imperial army was depleted, so much so that Tarquin is known to have said “If the army our lord created falls and I do not, I deserve to be cast into the Void as a pebble in a lake…”. And thus Diath’s Chosen fought against the entirety of Varsam’s forces, and perished to the last man, Tarquin included. Tarquin’s brother Duve, having heard this, hung himself. And thus the line of the lord-founder of the imperial line perished, with no male heirs to succeed Duve and Tarquin, Rovus was marched into Dhirim and proclaimed emperor by Varsam himself.

End of Diathan Epoch

Written by Warwick