It makes a cracking read indeed....
The History of the Mercinaen - Parrian war of 1021 as told by Zenichiro, the Master of Lore This red leather bound tome can be found in the Chamber of Records in Parrius
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. (15626) 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.
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.
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. (15651) (15654)
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.
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. (15738)
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.
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.
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 15742-15760. 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.
