First Stonish War of Unification

First Stonish War of Unification
Bjarn Von Stone accompanied by the Szŧōnɉōnzī Warriors amidst a battle against the Taverkny Clan
Date 1216-1232 Location Flatstone Result Northern Ivili Victory Reintegration of Taverkny Clan Reintegration of Southern Ivili Clan Ou expulsion from Īnbā and the Northern Bīgōzōsī Islands Establishment of The First Kingdom of Flatstone
Belligerents
Northern Ivili Clan	Taverkny Clan Southern Ivili Clan Ou Clan
Commanders and leaders
Bjarn Von Stone Harald Jensen Gert Koch	Ejvind Taverkny Stefan Daugaard Sophus Kvist Kristen Ou
Strength
7,300	11,000
Casualties and losses
700	3,600

The First Stonish War of Unification was a brief period in which the four clans that make up the modern Kingdom of Flatstone declared their independence from the Order of Flatstone, founded little more than a century earlier. The war would go on to result in the unification of the First Kingdom of Flatstone under King Bjarn Von Stone.

Early Stages of the War

Just six years after the ceasefire had been introduced by the Northern Ivili Clan, Bjarn Von Stone made his way through it's ranks and seized power for himself. Almost immediately and against the wishes of his peer he revoked the treaties mandated in 1211 and funded the recruitment of an army in 1213 to be used in his campaign against the Taverkny Clan, which at the time of the treaties rebuttal had indulged itself into a triple-alliance with the Southern Ivili and Ou clans against the Northern Ivili clan, entertaining the typical "strength in numbers" doctrine in hopes of deterring the young king from embarking on any major conquests throughout the archipelago. However, Bjarn had other plans for the alliance forged against him. Sometime after the recreation and reformation of a proper Northern Ivili army, Bjarn introduced the idea of creating an elite type of warrior army comprised of both captured enemies and peasants kidnapped from neighboring kingdoms. These enlists would then be forcefully converted to the Geologist faith and essentially brainwashed into a sworn loyalty to Bjarn through forced labor and intense training. After having rallied a sizeable amount of men, their indoctrination began. Bjarn assigned the bunch the name "Szŧōnɉōnzī", meaning "Stone Pirates" in the Stonish language. It is likely that this name was chosen because of the Szŧōnɉōnzī's tendency to participate in exercises regarding the Northern Ivili fleet and it's merchants. The men involved in the group had additionally been taken from coastal regions in the Taverkny clan, in coordination with the wishes of Bjarn who had assigned his army to target these regions specifically. By December of 1215, Bjarn's dream of an elite mercenary army at his disposal had come true, and enemy armies quickly began to come to the realization that their disorganized and unfit farmers were no match for Bjarn's army of kings. This would give the Northern Ivili a significant advantage over their superior foes who possessed armies larger then their own.

The Gala Dinner

In 1216, five years into the conflict, Bjarn Von Stone entered into negotiations with his Taverkny neighbors. Over a dozen officials and representatives from the clan were invited to a Gala dinner hosted by Bjarn himself in the archipelago's capital of Szlād. Ejvind Taverkny, at the time the Ōd of the Taverkny clan, refused to attend likely out of fear for his own safety. Despite this, many of his peers attended the dinner in hopes that they could coax Bjarn Von Stone into returning the stolen Taverkny lands seized from prior to the rule of Bjarn Von Stone during the warring period between the city states of the north. These attempts would ultimately be unsuccessful, as Bjarn Von Stone failed to inform the attendee's that he would be interrupting the event with his armies, taking many of the representatives captive and having others executed. Accounts of the incident state that Bjarn had initially intended to put the corpses of the representatives on display outside of the palace in which the dinner was held, however he feared that in doing this he would lose the respect of the Northern Ivili people and ultimately decided not too. Instead, those who were killed were returned to the Taverkny clan in order to spread fear and notify Ejvind of his example. Those who were taken captive were offered back to the Taverkny clan in exchange for a sum, and if the Taverkny clan refused, they would then be offered to the other two kingdoms in exchange for a sum. If no kingdoms accepted, the person in question would be executed and returned to the Taverkny clan dead. In the end, this event caused outrage amongst Taverkny nobles, many immediately turning to war as a resolution. Ejvind, refused these demands against public wishes and was subsequently overthrown by his peers and imprisoned, leaving the Taverkny clan without a true ruler as the clan had previously adopted a system in succession, and Ejvind had no legal heir. Bjarn would learn of the mutiny and would thus declare war on the kingdom, dragging the Southern Ivili and Ou Clans into the war with it. Because of this ultimatum, Ejvind was released from his imprisonment on the condition that he would serve as a general rather then a king, and the regency would be maintained until an heir could be produced. Ejvind accepted this offer, and was thus returned control of his army.

Coastal Terrorization

Map showing areas primarily affected by coastal raids conducted by Bjarn and his fleet

Bjarn immediately began to map out a plan of action, participating in discussion with many of his peers and members of the nobility. This is likely because he felt that this was the easiest way to gain the trust of his peers, who had urged him to avoid war with the neighboring clans, and thus many had became outraged upon hearing that Bjarn had went against these wishes, engaging in war on his own terms. It was decided by Bjarn that engaging the enemy directly on land was unwise, as the Taverkny and Southern Ivili armies had likely entrenched themselves in the mountains, where they had expected to meet the bulk of the Northern Ivili force. This was simply untrue, and quite literally the opposite of the ideas that Bjarn had founded his army on. However, this misinterpretation by the Taverkny can be explained by the fact that much of the fighting that went on between Taverkny and Northern Ivili contingents during the warring period between the city-states of the North and the independent Taverkny Clan occurred in these mountains, and it is possible that generals of the Taverkny clan underestimated the tactical abilities of Bjarn Von Stone. Bjarn left the majority of his army positioned along the Taverkny border in order to maintain the status quo while he reorganized his many Szŧōnɉōnzī warriors and prepared to have them embark from Szlād in 1217. He planned to dispatch over a dozen raiding parties consisting of roughly 200-300 men each across strategically important locations across the Taverkny coastline, most importantly of which was the city of Ūmūdīn, which had served as the nations main economic hub, profiting the most off of trade coming in from nearby settlements. The city had played an important role in Erik Slaten's war of Unification a century earlier, and would play a similar role in Bjarn's war, as control over the city would allow for Bjarn and his army to dictate the flow of supply into the northeastern holdings of the Taverkny and Southern Ivili clans.