Great Ushaora War

The Great Ushaora War (-3095 to -3092) in considered the primary rise to prominence of the Empire of Peroth and the ultimate downfall of the Ushanghali Empire and its direct legacy. The conflict was between the tetrarchal states of Peroth and Ushaora, in which Peroth aimed to conquer the old capital and achieve dominance over the Peroatlans.

Beginnings
Since the death of Ushanghal in -3431, his empire had been ruled (at least nominally) by a triumvirate, splitting the territory between elekan in Atalha, Peroth, and Ushaora. Ushaora had been viewed as Ushanghal's capital and thus held the greatest religious and military sway over the Peroatlans.

By the -3100s, however, the empire was waning significantly. For nearly 200 years, Ataya has deemed itself independent, though a partnership was reestablished loosely in -3350. Because of the gradual splintering of the imperial territories, including the loss of Redcah in the -3260s, Peroth and Ushaora began to be at odds with each other over trade and territory- tightening their border and failing to unite in military conflict.

In the -3120s and -3110s, Ushaora began to seize border trading posts along the coastline under the premise of "administering the Imperial Will". Peroth, who at first avoided conflict on religious grounds, grew more and more angry over the encroachments of territory and in 3202 even sent an envoy to Zanatal (Ataya) to request aid in a coming attack. Zanatal refused in the hopes of maintaining independence and neutrality.

In -3095, Perothan Elek Poradal assembled an army and marched to the border, sending an ultimatum to Ushaora's elek, Zanarok V to relinquish the capital to him and abdicate. Zanarok V refused and began to assemble his own army near the coastal territories. The war had begun.

Opening Moves
At the moment, Poradal had the advantage in having his full assembled force at the border and proceeded to quickly oust the Ushaoran officials and garrisons from the coastal region recently occupied. It is believed that the Perothan forces numbered around 22,000 men- mostly spearmen armed with square sheilds, 6 foot spears and 1 foot daggers. About 15% of the army were archers and seige engineers, who would play a minor role in the conflict.

Zanarok III was able to gather around 35,000 men by this time, mostly spearmen as well but with a mix of lighter axemen and even Fesha javelin mercenaries. Mercenary forces were extremely rare on a large scale prior to this conflict, so Zanarok's mixed force held a distict early advantage in flexibility over the Perothans. Zanarok sent roughly a third of his men under a general named Dolap to attempt to capture the border passes in the Perocadh Mountains to the west and took the remaining force to confront Poradal at the coastal cities.

The first battle was joined there a month later, called the Battle of Imiratu ("The Windy Battle") because of the strong, coastal winds that blew across the battlefield. Poradal had had time to prepare and arranged his spearment in a crescent shaped phalanx formation with his archers behind. As Zanarok's forces approached, the Perothan archers were extremely inaccurate due to the high winds, and had little effect on the spearmen, though the javelinmen were harassed when hit. Zanarok's javelinmen were more accurate and did some damage before the spear lines engaged.

Even though the Perothan spear wall outnumbered the Ushaorans and even began to overwhelm them, The Ushaoran axemen rushed around to the Perothan right and pincered the entire flank- causing Poradal to have to withdraw or risk a crushing defeat. In all, it is believed that losses were relatively even, with about 1200 dead on either side.

Tactically, Poradal knew he needed to diversify his army or he would risk further defeats agains Zanarok. To make things worse, reports arrived that the Perothan fortresses in the Perocadh Mountains were under seige. If the passes fell to the Ushaorans, the path would be wide open to Peroth itself. Poradal quickly withdrew northwards to regroup with more forces near his capital, scorching the farmland as he went to impede the Ushaoran pursuit.

The Ushaoran Invasion
Sensing the weakness of Poradal, Zanarok kept a token light force in the east to pursue Poradal, but took the majority of his army west to capitalize on the successes of Dolap in the mountains. Two Perothan forts sat in the way of the key pass north into the Perothan heartland, and Dolap had successfully surrounded them. Rather than await the end of the seige, Zanarok bypassed the siege forces and took his army north through the pass in early -3094, unopposed.

Though there was no enemy in the mountain passes- the terrain caused attrition on the Ushaoran supplies and morale. Nonetheless, they approached a Perothan city (Vunalha-Son) about a month later and laid seige. Some northern Perothan garrisons had rallied under a general named Ushan (about 8500 soldiers) and were gathering strength near the city Maxianta, nearly 50 miles north of the besieged city.

The Battle at Maxianta
Poradal and his forces were still about 2 weeks journey from Vunalha-Son when Ushan began to send raiding parties against the supplies and patrols of Zanarok's besieging army. Realizing that Ushan would avoid an attack until Poradal's army arrived, Zanarok prepared a trap by sending a small detachment of his cavalry on a fake patrol just south of Ushan's camp near Maxianta. Unable to resist, Ushan dispatched his entire cavalry force in the hopes of destroying the patrol. Unknown to Ushan, Zanarok had already mobilized more than two thirds of his army and marched on the scene of the attack, surrounding the Perothan cavalry.

Rather than lose his entire cavalry force, Ushan quickly attacked with his entire force, working to puncture through to his threatened cavalry with a concentrated spear attack. After losing more than 3000 men, mostly horsemen, Ushan was able to retreat with a fraction of his Cavalry but has suffered a crippling defeat. Zanarok reportedly lost fewer than 400 men.

Zanarok Advances Further
Zanarok now believed he had nearly achieved a tactical victory. Poradal's army was supposedly on the run and disorganized, and Ushan had just lost almost half of his army including most of his cavalry. Even though around 10,000 of his men were dedicated to sieges in the Perocadh passes and Vunalha-Son and 4500 men were in the south harassing Poradal's rear-guard, he chose to take the remaining 18,000 in his army and push north toward Peroth. He began moving up the Perotis valley, taking various villages along the way.

However, he failed to scout for Poradal's forces, which, unknown to him, had turned on the harassing force and routed it, killing more than 3000 of the 4500 men and losing less than 2000 on the entire retreat. Now, Poradal's army was only a few days march from Vunalha-Son and the supply route for Zanarok. Ushan was tasked with harassing Zanarok in the hills as much as possible with the remainder of his force and some 1500 reinforcements from farther east. Poradal would break the siege on Vunalha-Son and then swing north to hopefully catch Zanarok unawares and from the rear. On approaching the seiging forces, the siege captain chose to withdraw without engaging and fled north with about 4000 men. Poradal relieved the city and turned to pursue, as the forces were marching to meet up with Zanarok who was now about 100 miles north, almost half way to Peroth.

Poradal's scheme to catch Zanarok off balance almost worked, but messengers from the retreating siege forces informed the general of the approaching army. With Peroth nearly within his grasp, Zanarok made the painful choice to turn from his strike at the capital and aim to break through Ushan's force and retreat farther to the east. After a pitched battle, Zanarok's forces routed Ushan once again with minimal losses, breaking out to the southeast before Poradal's men could close in down the Perotis valley. Over the next several months, Zanarok was able to retreat south into Ushaoran lands while Poradal recovered his various forces and was able to push back to the northern Perothan fort in the mountain pass.

Poradal's Plan
As -3093 began, neither side had a distinct advantage, although Ushaora and the Zanelek had shown superiority in battle. Peroth had gained control of several coastal cities in the far east while Ushaora now held the southern pass through the Perocadh mountains. Poradal was in command of about 30,000 men while Zanarok had about 40,000 (however 10,000 of these were committed to the Caratis valley where Feshan raids continued to threaten the flank of the empire.