The 9th Elf War, also known as the First Continental Conflict of Mauenel, was a war between the Bromalnor Empire and the elven communities of northern Balebu, led by the City of Mauenel-Mythal.

Premise

Since its victory in the 8th Elf War, Bromalnor was the uncontested major power on Balebu. Its dominion stretched from the Northlands in the north to near Derlusk in the south, and even reached over the Troll Mountains into the Lake Plains. It had recently won yet another campaign in the Tanhills and Urgash Reaches; the empire was at peace, and large forces guarded the border.

The Governor of the Lake Plains had reestablished his authority over the orcish Evverlag using the diplomatic force won by victory in the south in 4’141, and spent the following years establishing a new provincial capital and shipyards in the Evverlagian Kyroburg.

On the opposite side of the Lake of Stars, the elven communities had noticed little of the Elvish Wars. They were largely at peace, exisiting as their autonomous, primarily wood elven city-states. In the northeast, the cities stood in a strategic alliance controlled by a War Council, whose purpose was to defend the border from their aggressive ogre-orcish neighbors. The high elven House Mystraleth, which had formerly de facto ruled the region, only had one officer sitting on the Council; in fact, there weren’t even any Mystraleth forces deployed under the alliance.

Further west, on the coast, led the wealthy metropolis of Mauenel-Mythal. It was the largest city on the shore of the Lake of Stars; it had once been a jewel of the wood elves, but it was now ruled by Elevate Urbarch Ivonne Mystraleth. Under her leadership, Mauenel had acquired a respectable fleet; half composed of old Continental Legion warships (she was one of the two individuals holding command of this Mystraleth force; the other was further west, and had most of the infantry), and half of newly built ships. With these, Mauenel exerted its domination of the vast Lake of Stars, effectively operating as pirates; any trade ship not granted Mauenel’s protection was fair game, and more likely than not to be plundered.

War

Bromalnor’s emperor was not happy to accept the elves’ control of the lake. Bromal ships couldn’t dare sail from the Evverlag to Nekker without paying for expensive Mauenel patronage; and more than once, Bromal military or diplomatic ships were attacked. In a rare move, the young emperor convened his Lord of War and his generals all together in Hardtower. The subject matter was simple: should massive resources be invested into a ninth war with the elves? The officers all agreed that this was necessary. The goals were simple: to end Mauenel-Mythal’s dominion of the lake, and to plunder that wealthy city and its surroundings.

The emperor announced that Bromalnor was once again at war with the elves; he did not, however, send a direct missive, relying on traders to carry the news. It was also not made clear who exactly was the object of Bromalnor’s ire; most elves would assume that just Mauenel was meant.

Preparations

Preparations to build a fleet in the Evverlag had already been underway for some time, and a handful of new galleys had been built. But now the Lord of War crossed over the Kaarven and oversaw a massively increased effort; ten thousand legionaries, and triple that number of workers drawn from locals and across the empire, were put to work felling trees all across the Evverlag and above, and assembling ships in the Ar Muyl. Most vessels were simple flat-bottomed oarships, designed for troop transport; but there were also near two-hundred ships of war, galleys with one or two layers of oars, built. Construction of the fleet lasted for two years.

In 4’137, in th early blossoms of spring, the Steadfast Banner, the Lord of War’s massive flagship, entered the waters of Ar Muyl. It was a four-layer-oared galley, topped with an outer and an elevated deck, and adorned with no less than seven fighting towers. It was a symbol of strength, more than any practical warship; though no Mauenellian vessel would be able to board it.

Warships began sailing our of the Susyan already in winter of 4’139, while trade was down and few pirates were out. The Bromals slowly dared their way out into the water, often staying close to shore. There were some skirmishes over the years, though the Mauenellian pirate ships – never more than three together – disengaged rather quickly when easy victory was not apparent. In summer 4’137, there was the first and only naval fight: a Mauenellian flotilla of sixteen attacked and sunk two Bromal galleys, raided the port of Terkieburg, and sailed away again.

Throughout the winter of that year, final preparations for an invasion were made; quite a few ships sailed out of Evverlag and docked to the south, in Nerkynburg, and in Terkieburg. Officials traveled across the land, preparing a new levy.

In springtime, thousands upon thousands of soldiers were raised throughout the empire. A handful of legions were sent to protect the borders, but the vast majority of the forces – 60’000, all in all – were assigned to the Lord of War.

Invasion of the Elvenlands

One thousand ships sailed unopposed across the Lake of Stars in early summer of 4’136.

They landed in two locations, secured a tenday earlier by a scouting flotilla: on a flat shore with lots of cultivated plains beyond, and in the nearby port of a newly allied elven city. The eastern wood elves, who laid outside Mauenel’s direct sphere of control and were not used to fighting, hoped to simply offer friendship to the goblinoids.

But they were not spared the horror of war. Some cities, which did not unconditionally surrender, were brutally invested and pillaged; some were put to the torch for no discernible reason. The Bromal aim was to establish an initial foothold in the east, and secure the lake route to bring in more troops, before marching over land towards Mauenel-Mythal. However, they faced resistance from some towns, and both the Penienvale alliance and Mauenel sent infantry to bolster some fortified towns, and skirmish cavalry to harass the goblinoids. There were several bloody, small-scale battles to maintain Bromalnor’s control of its dominion.

After three years of bloody conflict, at great cost in materiel and lives to Bromalnor, the Penienvale alliance withdrew from the fight, fearing to face the now adjacent Bromalnor in a field battle. Control of the lake was still not decided: through Bromalnor’s naval supply route largely functioned, its fleet had not yet managed to best Mauenel’s, and was not able to blockade or even approach the elven city.

Pillage of Mauenel

The Lord of War marched his field army – 50’000 soldiers, the largest part of the huge number serving in the fleet, and in garrisons – overland towards Mauenel in 4’134. The elves chose to meet the goblinoids in a field battle, in a mellow stream valley; they believed that with a powerful Mystraleth pelleniae formation of 10’000 fixing the center, and various troops covering the flanks, they would have a better chance of decisively routing the Bromal army than by allowing them to erect siege fortifications around the city.

The battle was won by the numerically superior Bromals, especially thanks to the strength of their auxiliaries including orcish cavalry and wyvern scouts. The surviving elves withdrew into Mauenel-Mythal, and Bromalnor began its siege. The goblinoids had very rarely attempted to invest a mythal fortified city, and even more rarely succeeded at this.

The siege lasted a long time. Aside from a few small testing attacks, the Bromals did not attempt to take the city by speed; the mighty walls and magical wards made this all but impossible. Lacking the ability to batter down the mighty fortifications from afar, they relied on slow but methodical siege-works; these efforts were unfortunately hampered by the insufficient number of disciplined, experienced legionaries who had siege experience in the mostly fresh-levy army. Progress in making siege trenches and building a ramp up to the wall was extremely slow. Meanwhile, though Mauenel was cut off from its usual supply of food, its continued freedom to move in the water allowed its ships to sail further west and bring in supplies for the six-digit population.

When winter came, the goblinoids forced the siege on. Troop numbers were somewhat reduced, and many forces had to be dedicated to bringing in food from the surrounding elven lands, but the siegeworks were held and continued to be built. Finally, in thaw of 4’133, with Mauenel slowly running out of food, earthen ramps leading right up to its battlements, and the magical defenses hammered down by hobgoblin warmages, the city was clearly lost. Ivonnel and many Mystraleth troops actually fled westwards, and the remaining elves asked the Lord of War to surrender.

He happily marched his troops into the city, but he did not grant the Mauenellians safety. He ordered the pillage of much of the town, and especially the burning of the remaining docked ships. After two days of horror, and more than a little street-fighting, the Lord of War finally agreed to meet with the house leaders and broker peace.

Aftermath

The peace made in Mauenel-Mythal ended the war, aside from a few last skirmishes.

Bromalnor had strethed its forces very thin: it could not sustain the effort of an “overseas” war indefinitely, and the size of its army – well around 80’000 all in all – was als on the verge of unsustainability. Despite their defeat, the Mauenellian houses were still quite powerful, and they would not bend to Bromal overlordship. Additionally, there were many more elven forces; the Penienvale alliance still stood, there were other cities to the north and west, and even further west laid Mystraleth. Thus the goblinoids sued for peace, and withdrew their forces from most of the Elvenlands.

Mauenel-Mythal’s power was shattered; in fact, some of its defences were permanently broken. More importantly to Bromalnor, its naval power was gone, and now the goblinoids ruled (most of) the Lake of Stars. A half-dozen eastern cities stood under Bromalnor’s protection in a new pact, which included the stationing of two legions in a new fort.

The Bromalnor Empire from 4’130 onwards was at a historic peak of territorial control and raw state power. It held influence over practically all Northern Balebu, and would only very slowly lose its power in future centuries to unrest in the outer provinces, border problems, and political turmoil.