The Vercy War was a conflict between the orcish tribes of Vercy Wood and the dwarven Thar Kingdom. It was the culmination on an unprecedented scale of skirmishing between orcish raiders and the dwarves of the Three Vales, an all-out war which saw both sides unite and raise huge armies, as well as never before seen devastation of the environment.

Context

In 1'299 b. OW, the Thar Kingdom was a loose amalgamation of dwarven clans in the upper Caverealm beneath the Thar Mountains, which were nominally ruled by the King but in practice were largely autonomous. The clans were largely self-sustaining underground, but occasionally traded with human communities. They also had some surface territories at the foot of the mountains, called the Three Vales, where small towns and villages farmed the land or felled wood. Both the food and the wood were in relatively high demand in the Caverealm, because they added some diversity to the diet and were better building materials, respectively. The Three Vales were squeezed between the mountains on the eastern side, and the vast forest of Vercy in the west.

Vercy was inhabited by orcish tribes which relied primarily on hunting and foraging for sustenance, but they also had gardens. These tribes were mostly sovereign groups between 10 - 40 in size, though there were a few larger tribes and a few nominal "clans", large groupings of tribes united by a common culture, heritage, or leader; in practice, even the strongest clans were largely nonexistent, as the tribes lived autonomously and there was little need for a central authority; clans were a wartime construct.

Three Vale Skirmishing

Occasional raids on the Three Vales were relatively common, though kept on a small scale. Tribes living near the Vales, or expeditionary groups of hunters from tribes further away, would enter the Vales, pillage a few farms, and make off with their loot. This was a good source of special goods such as better clothing and jewelry, but primarily metal tools and weapons, and in some desperate cases food. An orc also gained social status by killing a dwarf, and heads on pikes were a glorious decoration for a tribe's camp; however, this was very limited, and the dominant orcish religion - promoted by firbolg druids - spoke for peace and dependence on nature for survival, and most orcs obeyed it.

However, starting in early 1'299, religious insistence on pacifism began slowly declining, and simultaneously some tribes started banding together. Raiding bands formed out of the warriors of two to three clans began targeting juicier places. One large clan called Barkstrip formed under a joint leadership of orcs who attracted followers by promising good loot; among the leaders was a physically powerful white-skinned orc called White One. The 300-strong clan began raiding Bluevale lands on the 7th, forming three forward camp in the forest and striking out almost daily to burn farmsteads or even attack unsuspecting villages. On the 11th, the town garrison of Dirkhom rode out in force and slaughtered one of the raiding groups. Finally, after nearly half their number was killed - but laden with riches - the raiders fell back on the 15th, promptly splitting up to rejoin their individual tribes and bringing word of the wealth and glory they had amassed.

There was a slight increase in raids. The next noticeable event was on the 3rd of Irinich, when a loose alliance of tribes and clans sent 500 warriors to attack Dherngorn, a large town in Plainvale. The surprised garrison found itself stuck in its fortress as orcs pillaged the city all around them; several dozen dwarves tried fleeing their homes, but found themselves stuck between the Windflow and the raiders; they attempted to cross the rivers, but a rain of arrows fell on them and the waters went red with blood. By the time the garrison mounted a sortie, the orcs were gone.

Thar Mobilization, 14.5 - 25.8.

Outraged and humiliated by this brash attack, Clan Icerock answered the free town of Dherngorn's plea for help, raising its army; the raiding had been going on for too long, too many goods had been stolen and too many dwarves had died. 400 dwarven infantry marched out of the mountains on the 14th of Irinich.; 200 went south to help rebuild Dherngorn, while the rest went north, setting up a fortified camp near the town of Dirhkom because that region had been suffering the most from attacks.

Border fighting continued for months. Orcs would form clans and go on raids, bringing ever larger groups, or attacking on an ever larger front. The Icerock forces would rise to 600, while Bluerock raised an army with sizeable complements of Valers and Ironmont volunteers to defend the Seavale and northern Bluevale. The first use of fire to clear a large stretch of forest and take away the orcs' hiding spots was on the 4th of Makling, when Bluerock units burnt down forest wes of Thamduar in the hope of uprooting a resilient group of raiders. Throughout the war, the dwarves would increasingly resort to fire to try and make the terrain more favorable to them.

Another daring raid occurred on 6.7., when just 200 orcs snuck through the Plainvale and attacked the unsuspecting town of Kamman, within sight of Icerock's mountain gates. Half the town went up in bright flames, to Icerock and the king's extreme anger. The White One and his allies were likely once again behind the raising and daring expedition of this force. Though no additional troop deployments followed the Kamman Raid, this was the moment when King Icerock decided things could not continue as they were; the dwarves were deployed in considerable force, but it was impossible to stop raiders everywhere while remaining put. So he decided to try and expand his authority, to coordinate the two separate armies and many garrisons currently in the Three Vales and to make a common Thar war effort. This included both getting the political willingness of clan chiefs to follow his lead, and to convince the clans to go to war: Ironmont and Deepanvil, who had very little land in the Three Vales, were as yet unwilling to go to war. So he began working on the chiefs, convincing them through political, religious, and financial means to support him and the war. It is during this time that the "strangers" made their first appearance: wealthy dwarven representatives of some southern power who dressed in white robes, gave the king good counsel, and gave him loans (the royal treasury, separate from the Icerock treasury, was empty almost from the outset).

The king's arguing, and some intensified skirmishing in the south which threatened to overwhelm the garrison, bore its fruits: on the 26.7, Chief Deepanvil mobilized the 1st Deepanvil Regiment, 300 men, to reinforce his garrison in the lumberyards in southern Plainvale.

Things escalated increasingly in Seinvan, as the chiefs warmed to the king's ideas and Three Vales fighting picked up, incentivizing them to make ready for war. On the 16th, the army of Clan Skulleater - one of the earliest true, warlord-ruled clans - marched on Plainvale, intending to battle the half-as-numerous dwarves and plunder at their leisure. But 500 Icerock infantry met them head-on in close formation when they had barely exited the forest, and a thundering charge of 100 Deepanvil cavalry smashed into their flank soon after; the inexperienced and barely more numerous orcs broke and fleed. It would take over a month for Skulleater to regain its strength, and this was the orcs' first step in learning that open battle against a strong and prepared enemy did not favor them, but this was the dwarves' first taste of what united orcish forces could do.

Unexpectedly after the recent victory, a second orcish army - an 800-strong alliance to three clans - was spotted marching on Deepanvil's Lumberyard Camp. The dwarves were outnumbered three-to-one and faced heavy losses; nearly 100 died in the fighting and the camp was seriously damaged. This removed Deepanvil's final restraints about going to war, and the King officially declared the Thar Kingdom was going to war on the 25th of Seinvan.

Total War, 25.8. - 16.1.

The southern orcish clans had just suffered two major battles and defeats and were accordingly fractured; the northern clans were less united so far and, despite the great efforts of the larger tribes' chiefs, the hereditary warlords, and the White One, were not rallying together at any speed; the motivations of autonomy, and the druids' teachings of peace, were simply too strong.

The dwarves meanwhile worked on stratifying their politics back home and mounting a royal army worthy of the name. Royal mandates were given to Kern Bluerock to defend the reaches of the north; he constituted a sizeable force out of Bluerock's clan forces, most of the Valers, and the now 250-strong Ironmont volunteer corps. Meanwhile a central army near Dirhkom was being constituted, primarily out of the Icerock forces already in the field; 100 more Icerocks would join them. The king named Terngar Icerock his Marshal on 2.9, and the 700-strong field army camped outside Dirhkom became the Royal Army. Around early Lontran, the experienced administrator Chief Berren Ironmont arrived in Khelgrun at the head of a 220-strong force, built out of the Ironmont Clan Army and the Hammerseek 4th Cavalry. He was named Commander and mandated to defend the south, so he made his camp in the Lumberyard; he would form the third field army.

Bluerock's Campaign

Confident in their military ability and the strength of their field armies, the dwarves went on the offensive. The orcs had proven themselves weak on the battlefield, lacking organization or discipline; if the dwarves simply invaded their homelands, they would no longer be able to mount raids on the Three Vales. So Commander Bluerock, at the head of a 1'600 strong army, began his campaign of conquest on the 9th of Lontran. His force consisted of 1'200 heavy infantry and the rest badeep-mounted cavalry; he mostly relied on soldiers' packs for supplies, intending to swiftly set up camps far inside the forest and bring supplies to these fortified positions. The initial advance went well; over the course of four days, he covered 60 kilometers of forest, crossing even the Unseen Creek and marching deep into a sanctuary part of the woods. 100 soldiers were let behind around 15 km from Thamduar to build a fort there. Any orcish tribes or villages the army encountered along the way were destroyed. However, the army now faced a problem: it was very deep inside orcish territory, connected to the Vales and supplies only by a rough track, which was in parts muddy; and the cold was already affecting his soldiers and animals. It would be nigh infeasible to fortify a position here, and there were no large orcish settlements or armies to bring battle to. The army attempted to raise fires, but failed; it then marched back the way it had come, regaining the camp and supplies there. Because the army was so large, a second fort was built 5 kilometers away.

By marching into enemy territory, Bluerock had intended to destroy any backbone the orcs had and demoralize them from continuing the war; now, he built two forts, far in the forest and near the Gilstream, to in a way cut off all the forest north between the Gilstream and the coast; any orcish forces in that area would be flanked by the armies in the forts, especially once most of the area was cleared by fire.

The Bluerock Campaign, by destroying orcish villages and trespassing deep into many tribes' territories, had the effect of greatly motivating them to unite. In just a few days, hundreds of tribes gathered in several spots within the forest, forming a defensive league under the leadership of a famous Barkstrip leader, Terrekazr, who became the Warlord of Killdwarf. By the 20th of Lontran, the Killdwarf host could count on 2'800 warriors, using traditional hunter paths and tribal structures to communicate and move swiftly. The Killdwarf army emerged out of the wet, foggy forest on the 22nd of Lontran, assaulting the unsuspecting first fort; a second, smaller group was sent to besiege the second fort. The orcs outnumbered the dwarves, but were unable to properly mount a siege of the well-fortified forts; many died in fruitless initial waves. The army in the second fort swiftly dispatched its aggressors and marched to the first one; in a devastating sortie-and-flanking-maneuver, Killdwarf was routed.

Dwarven strategy was strongly impacted by the Battle of Two Forts. Soldiers would use large fortified camps, which were virtually immune to all orcish attacks, and lead forays against targets inside the forest; good roads would bring supplies from the Vales to the forts, easy to supply central locations. To further restrict orcish options, considerable stretches of forest all along the Three Vales border was burnt to the ground. Thereafter, aside from the main campaigns by field armies, the war would consist of a constant struggle; mounted dwarven patrols seeking out orcish raider tribes in the woods and burning down forests, while the orcs sent small, stealthy units to get around dwarven fortifications to raid supply convoys or the farming heartland.

Ironmont's Exploits

After its initial success and the "conquest" of 300 km2 of land, the army of Kern Bluerock found itself largely tied down. It had to deploy 300 men to burn forests, 600 to guard the Seavale and Thamduar, and have around 500 soldiers on mounted patrol and convoy escort duty; this left very few soldiers to guard the two fortified camps, let alone continue making forays deeper into Vercy Wood. The Royal Army under the Marshal was similarly tied down in Bluevale and Plainvale. A staff officer of Bluerock's assessed that to establish and maintain another fort 20 kilometers further in, perhaps at the fork of the Gilstream and Unseen Creek, another 1'000 men would be needed - and there remained well over 100 kilometers of untouched forest between the two forts and the human village of Carrotu.

Commander Ironmont, however, had a sizeable field army available; nearly 1'500 soldiers, having been reinforced by the 100-strong Icerock 8th Regiment (a Caverealm patrol and reserve force) and over 200 mercenaries from the Carrotian Adventurer's Guild, who had both light cavalry for scouting and regular infantry. Ironmont himself, though mostly known for his capable bureaucratic leadership, had also served some years as an officer in the Caverealm, and he was intent on proving his command ability.

Ironmont's Foray. There were reports that a large part of the surviving Killdwarf forces, including its core Clan Barkstrip, was marching south to meet up with a new clan led by a powerful tribe called Black-Bones. Ironmont knew from his scouts that the Killdwarves were vulnerable, and his garrison had encountered the Black-Bones before; they had strange, powerful warriors strengthened by magic, who had been able to march down the mountains, past the Lumberyard Camp, and into the woods right past the dwarven forces in the area. Ironmont knew that if these two weak clans met up, they would form a dangerous force. So he ordered his main army to be ready to march at the Lumberyard, and to burn down the surrounding forest, while he led a force of 400 cavalry to Dherngorn and from there into Vercy Wood.

Thanks to the excellent scouting of the Carrotian rangers, Ironmont's force successfully pushed 24 kilometers into the forest and intercepted the column of Killdwarves days before they met their allies. Battle was given, and because the forest did not allow the dwarves to properly use their cavalry, they fought on foot as heavy infantry, smashing into the open and already breaking ranks of Killdwarf; the Carrotians hunted down those who fled. The last Killdwarf remnants were successfully destroyed, and in the process, any authority of their chiefs to raise and command more troops was dispelled.

The daring but ultimately very successful campaign of Ironmont's was praised among his peers, and he thereafter had a dominating role in strategic decision-making, higher even than the much less successful and nominally superior Marshal Icerock. However, despite the foray's success, it was not emulated: no other dwarven force had access to or even knew how to use capable long-distance scouts, and mobile lightning strikes like this required careful reconnaissance and planning to pull off. Even Ironmont did not attempt another strike on anything resembling this scale, mostly because of the risk involved and improvements in orcish operations.

Ironmont's Campaign.Deciding to capitalize on the strategic advantage preferred by his foray, Ironmont decided to launch an offensive much like Bluerock's soon after, on the 30.9. He marched with half his army, cutting a path through the forest and setting up a fortified camp within a day's march of his headquarters at the Lumberyard. He considered marching onward from there, to strike at the budding clan less than a day away, but decided against it; there had been very little fighting or scouting this far south, and there were still regular raids on the southern Plainvale; by going deeper, Ironmont would expose himself to being surrounded, while also making his supply lines even more vulnerable. So he fell back on the standard tactic, building out the supply road and using the fort as a base from which to patrol the surrounding forest, suppressing orcish movement.

The campaign continued until the 9.10, with sizeable infantry contingents clearing long roads on the north-south axis to allow swift movement of patrols and, if necessary, swift movement of troops on the new front line to meet any orcish armies. The efforts slowly petered out as the roads were completed and soldiers fell back to the usual tasks: guarding the camps, clearing or patrolling the forests, escorting supply convoys.

Clan Big

After Ironmont's advance, dwarven progress essentially ground to a stop; advancing further would simply not be sustainable. And at first, things seemed to be going well for Thar: its armies were in a good shape, positioned strongly in enemy territory, and there were no large clans that could threaten them. But as time went on, raiding on the roads and on the fringes of the Three Vales continued and even increased, tying up many soldiers in patrolling. Though no progress was being made, the expenses of war continued, and the King found himself increasingly indebted to the white-robed strangers' help. In a diplomatic cataclysm, a convoy of delegates from the Dwarven Empire and Luche, here to offer Thar a sizeable loan, was ambushed on the road just south of the Port; all five delegates were kidnapped and brought into the woods. This was very embarrassing for the king and also a first clear sign that the war was not going as well as planned.

The orcs, meanwhile, were federating at a rate faster than ever before. Clans grew in power, to a point where clans began uniting into ever larger clans. The reemerging Skulleaters became a power to behold, joining the equally large Clan Blood-Teeth to form the huge Clan Big, which encompassed virtually all orcish tribes in eastern Vercy. Warlord Urgg achieved this primarily by feats of personal strength, though the absolute loyalty and excellent services of Tribe Black-Bone, who served as his law enforcement, and the effort of the White One to bring the warlords into the fold also played a role. In any case, Clan Big - whose emblem was a huge banner of red and black, gorged in the blood of Urgg's enemies - had the loyalty of tens of thousands of orcs, and a huge army began gathering in a new camp deep in the forest. Clan Big's central authority and its military potential was strengthened by large shipments of metal weapons and some armor arriving from Clan Humansmash, a western Vercy clan.

The dwarves' strategic situation, meanwhile, was growing increasingly worse. Losses of equipment and manpower were constantly rising; some roads were lined with the wrecked remains of carts. The winter did not make anything easier. As costs rose, it grew clear that even on this limited front line, the armies of Thar were overextended: there were simply not enough soldiers to guard the sizeable land area Thar controlled, so raiders continued trickling through and logistical issues continued to increase. Though the front-line camps' demands in food and matériel could still be met, some staff officers feared that troops were so thinly spread out that would they face a concerted enemy attack, they would likely be too badly outnumbered and immobile to put up much resistance.

Ironmont's Southern Campaign

The idea was floated to retreat; some thought falling back to the old borders of the Three Vales would be better than continuing this costly and, as was becoming apparent, pointless war. Ironmont knew that time was the enemy, and so sent orders for all dwarven forces to make ready to march; but he had not decided where to yet. He held a war council on the 2nd of Nassa, discussing with his officers, the mercenaries, and freed delegates from oversees what course of action to take; it was agreed that retreat now, while the enemy was stronger than ever, would be both political and strategic suicide. So it was decided: the dwarves had to win somehow, and the longer they waited, the weaker they would be at the decisive moment.

Ironmont's entire army, in total 1'200 strong, marched west. They passed by the front-line fort and entered the woods, cutting a good road where cavalry or wagons could easily follow. The plan was to strike deep into orcish territory, deeper than ever before, and defeat Clan Big on the field of battle; this would be the strike to end the war. The army advanced slowly, carefully sweeping the woods on either side to wipe out any and all orcs; mounted soldiers and fire were useful tools here. After four days' march, 30 km from the front-line camp and relatively near Clan Big's camp, the army built a huge fortress of wood and earthworks; Ironmont would take no chances and protect his footing, fearing mid-sized raids on an open camp. He called this fortress Ironfort, and perhaps even hoped Clan Big would mimick Killdwarf's disastrous Battle of the Two Forts by throwing its troops against the staunch wooden walls.

Even on this short-term forward base, logistics was a huge problem. Ironmont soon realized that Clan Big was much larger than his own force - around 2'000 warriors in the camp itself, and at least a thousand more in loose units spread throughout the surrounding forest - and would not come out from its camp to seek battle all too soon. So supplies would have to be brought in, and the dwarven army went to great lengths to make this possible. Mounted units regularly patrolled the road and chased down any sign of orcish units, while engineers made it into a real highway. One difficult point was the fording of Moonlit Creek, a dwarf-hip-deep but very wide stream in which wagons were very vulnerable to attack. After two convoys were each attacked despite heavy guard, the engineers built a pontoon bridge crossing the stream out of heavy wooden logs, and constructed two fortified watchtowers on either end of the bridge. Other units cleared the woods on either side of the road, or lit a huge forest fire which burnt down much of the woods north of the road.

Ironmont's daring advance was not supposed to be the only part of the dwarven offensive. Further north, Bluerock had sent 200 infantry to bolster the now 900 strong Royal Army; it consisted almost exclusively of heavy infantry, with few badeep cavalry or scouts. Marshal Icerock marched his force west from a camp south of Dirhkom, in the intention of taking Clan Big in the rear. For the better part of the first day, this force marched through the desolate land of wet ash, a huge expanse of burnt-out wood. Some soldiers were described as "grey wraiths, burnt-out husks of their former selves" after the grueling march. It was then, at dusk after an exhausting march and before the army even reached the forest proper, that it was attacked by a well-organized force of orcs. Though the numbers were about equal, the dwarves were wholly unprepared for the devastating rain of arrows facing them. Many were Icerocks who had served their lifetime in the tight confines of the Caverealm or on garrison duty; they did not know how to hold a line, and the army fell apart. The Battle of Burnt Trees on the 8th of Nassa ended with a great orcish victory, and Marshal Icerock himself was killed, his head placed on a pike.

Two days later, the great host of Clan Big's marched out of its camp, drawing up on the large Shimmering Fields before the Ironfort. They were looking for battle, and Ironmont had to give it to them: there would be no supporting forces from the Royal Army or anywhere else, and he could not sit in his fort indefinitely. However, he was extremely cautious, deploying in a closed formation near the fort and keeping a large number of soldiers detailed to guarding the Ironfort, patrolling the road, or making sure no other force approached from the flanks. This extreme caution was quite a jarring divergence from his daring reputation; some believed the foray had been mostly planned and motivated by experienced Carrotian commanders, while Ironmont listened more to himself and his dwarven officers during the Battle of Shimmering Fields. Thus, a force of 750 near-exclusively infantry faced off against 2'000 orcs arrayed in open formation, with fenrir cavalry on either side.

In the first clash, the dwarven army held its lines, eventually winning the encounter by throwing off the less disciplined and worse-armored orcs. But, as the infantry fell back in a disordered fashion and some dwarves pursued, the fenrir cavalry advanced, shooting at the dwarves but staying well out of melee range with their mounts. The dwarves, unable to engage them, were slowly wittled down, and their formation grew increasingly disordered. Seeing that his force would soon fall apart, Ironmont blew the retreat; but hordes of orcs fell upon the soldiers before they could make it back to the Ironfort, killing many. Knowing he was defeated, Ironmont retreated as fast as he could; on the long journey back to the front line, he was harassed by hundreds of light infantry and fenrir cavalry.

Aftermath

The two defeats at Burnt Trees and Shimmering Fields heralded dwarven defeat. Though Ironmont tried rallying his army again in the front-line camp, the center collapsed; with the marshal dead and the army essentially wiped out, there was no one left to defend Plainvale, and thousands of people fled towards Kamman and into the Icerock enclaves. Ironmont, commanding a disorganized and demoralized army, heard a 2'000-strong force was marching towards him and decided to retreat, abandoning all his fortified positions and retreating to the Deepanvil enclaves.

Warlord Urgg and most of his officers marched north, growing their ranks along the way with many hundreds of warriors. On the 16.1, a force of 2'800 attacked the forts of Bluerock's Army. In the 2nd Battle of Two Forts, during which the dwarves first defended the forts in the intention of driving off the orcs, and then to cover their retreat, Bluerock was expulsed from his camps. Much of the Seavale and Bluevale were already retreating hastily, but Commander Bluerock twice gathered his troops and fought off the orcish frontrunners, buying time for the Valers to enter the mountains. The soldiers of Bluerock were the last dwarves to leave the Three Vales, in late Nassa.

The end of Vercy War saw a very changed regional makeup. Of course, the Three Vales were now orcish territory, but there were also profound social changes among both factions. The Thar Kingdom was now more united than ever, ruled by a strong king. However, the King had also run up high debts with the white-robed strangers, to a point where they exerted considerable influence on the kingdom. Meanwhile, down in Vercy, the orcs were likewise far more united than they had ever been before; the woods were essentially carved up into just two clans, Clan Big and Clan Humansmash. Culture had changed extremely quickly as well: the firbolg druids, who before had been the orcs' spiritual leaders and form of government, were all but gone, replaced with fanatical shamans of a new faith, the Cleansing Flame.

Trivia

Faction Heraldry

This table is an overview of the heraldry of several of the involved factions and units. Note that unit deployment and hierarchy, as well as actual heraldry, changed over the course of the war, and that this table makes some necessary abstractions to present the information in an ordered manner.