The Nord Invasion and Fertile, Bloodied Ground

Following the events of Braws, word would spread to neighboring cities and eventually throughout the lands of the Kingdoms, fueled by the Church and the Nobility, which were finally equipped with ammunition about the Orders’ crimes against the will of the people and even Divine Authority. Arch-Bishop Nikolas was soon canonized as a Martyr Saint, driving the population into a near-frenzy against the Orders. Immediately the nobility attempted to use this as leverage against the Orders, subtly igniting riots in an attempt to oust the Orders from their Kingdoms. In the end, however, their tactic backfired spectacularly. The tension of decades of increased oppression and constant warfare had finally received an outlet, and the lay people of the Kingdoms would as soon turn against the enforcers of the local nobility as they would against the brothers of any Order. At the same time, Deist believers who the Church had silenced in its areas of influence rebelled against their oppressors, protecting their gatherings with force if need arose. While the riots would eventually stop, the chaos did not. With social structure, divine dogma and the might of the Orders in question, war followed on a scale unlike before. Weakened Kingdoms were prowled upon by their neighbors, only for the chaos and social disorder to spread unto them, perpetuating a cycle of ruthless ambition, violent pretenders and enraged populations.

Such was the chaos, that records of the time are considered falsified and unreliable, while most events were too limited in their influence and too numerous to be recorded properly. Many are the modern nobles that conveniently forget how their houses came to existence through the violence. Many more are those houses that are simply forgotten, stripped of land and titles or even completely erased since the Red Years. But in the end, the existential threats of the fledgling civilization, came as much from without as it did from within. And in the north, the Nords were ready to punish the southerners for their transgressions against their ancestors. Whether deliberately or by a twist of fate, the northern shores had suffered an escalation of Nord activity, with raids increasing every year and entire areas being delivered to steel and fire, only to be settled by the invaders.

With the Murder of Saint Nikolas, therefore, the Orders had almost single-handedly led the Kingdoms into over a decade of riots, violence and warfare. In the wake of such chaos, all but the Order of the Sword and some Knights-Errant of the Shield decided to withdraw from the Northern front against the Nords, in an attempt to bring back a semblance of order and peace, as well as try to safeguard their assets, when that failed. While perhaps understandable, this would only deteriorate the situation on all fronts. In the Allerian Plains, a coalition of City States led by the rising power of Tauria, would attempt to expand their influence, by sword and spear, marching ever to the north and even reaching the southernmost shores of the Bounty. Meanwhile, in the North, the Nords were whipped into a proper army and led personally by the Einherjar Svarthgalm, called Darkcry, Steelbreaker, Scythe-of-Men and a dozen other names. His eyes were set on the Bounty and without the Orders to oppose him, he seemed unstoppable.

While the Nords pushed deeper south, Rafalic, an Earl and bannerman of Hand – today’s Hanse – turned to the “scorched earth” tactic. Poisoning wells, burning crops and putting granaries to the torch all along the Nord supply lines, he completely cut them off from their ships, crippling their ability to resupply and maintain their army, while trapping them in the depths of Kingdom territory. Forced by Rafalic, the Nords attempted to cross the Gaulan river, attacking Vaanburg… only to find a force led by the Orders of the Sword waiting. But while the siege was ongoing, the Order of the Sword launched a surprise attack outside the walls, aiming at killing Svarthgalm and removing the head of the Nord army.

It was a daring plan, one desperate enough to portray the strength of the Nord army. But for all its bravery, the plan backfired. During the Sword’s attack, one of Svarthgalm’s sons was killed and rather than break the spirit of the Nords, the assault infuriated both the Einherjar and his people. With reckless abandon, the main army fell once more upon the walls of Vaanburg. Svarthgalm and his chosen, however, ignored the attack and chased the Order of the Sword, whose knights never managed to reenter Vaanburg and had been pushed south of the river. Soon, stalled by the efforts of the city’s defenders, the main army would follow them, ignoring strategy and fueled solely by their thirst for revenge.

Nothing escaped the rage of the Nord army, as they carved a bloody and fiery path through the lands of the old Galtonni settlements, from Vaanburg all the way to the city of Beurn, which they nearly leveled. Realizing the destruction that the chase was causing, the Order of the Sword sent a handful of riders to the South, in order to raise an army and alert the Kingdoms of the Heartlands. The bulk of their Order, however, remained and changed tactics; with the help of locals and Knights-Errant of the Shield, they lured their chasers into tight passages and tried to hold them as much as possible, before retreating. If the Nords ignored them in order to raid and secure provisions, they would attack the raiders or perform surprise attacks on the main army, only for the cycle to be repeated once the Nords were forced to turn their attention to them. While the dozens of remaining Knights and the few hundreds of Brothers were not enough to cause real damage, much less achieve any proper victory, their tactic worked. Frequently strengthened by local forces led by Knights-Errant, the hit and run maneuvers stalled the Nord advance and while it was never really stopped, the main army was delayed for over a month, as the first rains of Autumn started falling. Eventually, however, Vercy would fall too, and the Order of the Sword would be forced to retreat even more to the South, eyeing the river Sinia as the site for a last, desperate attempt to halt the invaders there before the Winter.

In 274 P.R., exhausted and with its numbers crippled, the Order of the Sword made a stand on the bridge of Corbeauvoix. What would have happened if they had not, would become one of the greatest “ifs” in the history of the Hundred Kingdoms. But stand they did, barely more than a hundred knights and brothers along with a few hundred half-trained forces from neighboring villages, led by a handful of Knights-Errant of the Shield, holding the bridge for two days and fighting battle upon battle, without rest. The last battle, skalds and bards would later claim, lasted for a full day and night, with the few remaining Knights holding the line against the army of Svarthgalm, while the Einherjar himself was wounded, some claimed mortally so. The Sword’s sacrifice was immense, crippling the Order for centuries, but it was not in vain. On the third day, a young King by the name of Charles Martell, having interrupted his campaign conquering Austersia and southern Galania, brought his army to the aid of the Order. At the end of the battle that followed, the dead were so many on both sides that it is said that the ceasefire which was decided between Charles and the hooded speaker of the Nords happened in shadow, the sun hidden behind the sheer number of crows circling the battlefield.

It would perhaps be fitting, inspiring even, if the Battle of Corbeauvoix had signaled the end of the Red Years. Alas, it was not so. While the herald of their end would be brought to the forefront, the name of Charles whispered with admiration by people all over the Kingdoms, it would take five more years of bloodshed before this painful period of history would come to an end. Oblivious, even indifferent, to the plights of the heartlands, the rest of the Kingdoms remained in bloody turmoil, with the other Orders struggling to keep things in check and having, for the first time since the Murder of Saint Nikolas, some indirect success. With its attention refocused and its finances having received blow after blow, the Order of the Sealed Temple would start leveraging nobles through outstanding loans.

This, however, would not be tolerated. In 277 P.R., pressured and supported by nobles all around the Kingdoms, the Holy Father issued a bull, the “Nihil Latet Sub Solem”. Calling for nothing to remain hidden under the Sun, the words of Nikolas were remembered, condemning those who hid their heretical practices. While few commoners dared turn their wrath against the Orders, witch hunts began anew; riots were sparked once more, with burning and lynching becoming a regular occurrence in every corner of the Kingdoms. Many nobles saw this as an opportunity to escape the influence of the Church and the Orders alike, while others would doubt their very sovereigns, because of the support received by either the Church or the Orders. For the first time, the former Brothers Militant of various Orders who had formed the “Crimson Band” mercenary army became extremely active, taking on contracts for pittance or simply involving themselves without invitation, ending endless conflicts with brutal efficiency and en masse, only for their interventions to spark new ones as often as not.

In many ways, the last few years of the Red Years would be the crescendo of their violence and the bloodied soil of the Kingdoms would be grimly fertile for the change that was about to come. For while the rest of the Kingdoms burned, the core of the heartlands was being changed, united under one banner and one name: Charles Armatellum.