Sundering Wars

Sundering Wars
Acrean and Symmerian troops clash near Sveta, 799 CE.
Date 726-867 CE (141 years) Location Sundering Sea Eracura Siduri Result Grand Dissolution Collapse of the Acrean Empire Crisis of the Ninth Century
Belligerents
Symmerian Empire	Acrean Empire
Commanders and leaders
Khaeremon Menekrates II Izabella of Heves Torkom of Aszód Kalkhas Jyldyz Taizong Xuan Zufar al-Baksh Lương Ðình Toàn	Bjørn Ragnarsson af Svaíar Skallagrímr Ragnarsson Êve Ragnarsdóttir Ivar Haakonsson Leif Hallbjornsson Gustaave Hallé Audosson Vjenceslav af Svinien Velek af Njegovan Valko af Czerny
Units involved
Ancient Symmerian army Ancient Symmerian navy	Acrean Imperial Army
Strength
Presumed millions	Presumed millions
Casualties and losses
Heavy	Heavy

The Sundering War, also known as the Acrean-Symmerian Wars, or the Siduri-Eracuran Wars, were a series of military conflicts fought between the Acrean Empire and the Symmerian Empire in the 8th and 9th Centuries.

Having achieved continental hegemony at the end of the Hegemonic Wars in the 7th Century CE, the Symmerian Empire enjoyed relatively few challenges to its power base in Siduri. In Eracura however the Acrean Empire was beginning to undergo a period of civil unrest owing to increased warlordism and infighting within the western provinces of the Empire. This slow but steady degradation of civil order gave rise to raids by Nordic marauders and bandits, many of whom crafted longboats and sailed south to Siduri in search of wealth and plunder. The first Nordic raiders, or Vikings as they came to be known, began in the late 6th Century but didn't reach significant numbers until the 8th Century. The threat of raids resulted in the Symmerian navy increasing patrols throughout the Sundering Sea and connected bodies of water.

Raids from Æþurheim were a particular problem due to their close proximity to the Sanguine Sea, resulting in raids against Syara, Chryse, and Symmerian holdings in Górska. Following the conclusion of the Sabrian Wars, Symmeria began retaliating with punitive expeditions targeting major coastal settlements along the southern Æþurian coast. These actions provoked a strong a strongly negative reaction within Acre, who demanded retaliation against Symmerian incursions. In response an Acrean army marched from Svinia into Górska and razed the Symmerian garrisons along the Borean River, triggering the First Sundering War. Symmeria responded by mobilizing an army under the command of Basileus (king) Khaeremon, who marched north from Symmerian holdings in Górska and invaded Acrean-controlled Svinia. The Acreans, who had never encountered a Symmerian pike phalanx before, were defeated in a series of battles throughout southern Svinia. Khaeremon captured the port of Podolínecin 727 and later sacked the city of Váhom. The Symmerians then captured Sveta and Trnava, but were decisively defeated by an Acrean army under Gorm Þorarinnson after attempting to besiege Hrabské in 728. Khaeremon withdrew and sacked Sveta before returning to Symmerian Górska, ending the war.

Tensions remained high between the two powers for the period of peace that followed, which resulted in increased numbers of Viking raids, especially around Serikos and Chryse. The greatest of these raids in 764 extended south into Quenmin in the east and into Syara in the west. An Acrean army under Skallagrímr Ragnarsson raided and heavily damaged Sena in 765, leading Eurymakhos (r. 755-781) to respond with an invasion of Tournai in 766, kicking off the Second Sundering War. Invading the province of Tournai adjacent to Venetia, the Symmerians saw initial successes that allowed them to advance north into Venetia. The Acrean armies raised in response to the invasion were local levies from Tournai; they were used effectively as fodder delaying the Symmerian advance as professional legions were marched from the north and east. Eurymakhos reached as far north as Rouen, the first major city encountered, and began a siege. However, the appearance of a major Acrean force forced him to engage in a pitched battle near the nearby town of Tours. The exhausted Symmerians suffered a defeat but avoided destruction of their army due to a careful withdrawal. Unable to initiate another battle or push further towards Acre, Eurymakhos made the decision to withdraw, beginning a long march south during which the Symmerian army was pursued by several Acrean armies. Unbeknownst to the Symmerians, the Acreans had surrounded the bay in which they made their landings. The ensuing hasty withdrawal to the sea saw the Symmerians losing many of their ships. Unable to achieve his original objective of striking at the Acrean heartland, Eurymakhos returned to Syara and mustered a second army, this time invading into western Eracura. The Acrean armies in the region avoided direct confrontation with the Symmerians, who marched into Æþurheim and sacked several cities and settlements across the coast, including the future site of Tritonsberg. Acrean ability to resist Symmerian incursions into western Eracura had been significantly hampered by the Siluan expansions that had begun in 759 and broad unrest in the west, allowing the Symmerians to march uncontested through some regions. Eurymakhos withdrew from Eracura in 773.

The much briefer Third Sundering War occurred in 785 when Orestes V began massing a fleet of warships in the waters of the Sundering Sea, intent on using them to transport an invasion force that would land along the coast of the Gulf of Seyne. Manufactured largely in Serikos and staffed by Han sailors, the expedition ended in disaster when the fleet was ambushed by the Acrean navy in the waters off the Acrean coast. The ensuing naval battle, one of the largest in history, ended with the loss of nearly the entire Symmerian fleet and the death of Orestes V. The unexpectedly decisive victory prompted the Acreans to weight a counter-offensive aimed at removing the threat of Symmerian naval-borne invasions of the Acrean homeland.

Construction of an expanded navy began in 790 and culminated in the joint invasions of Serikos and Ruvelka in 794, marking the Fourth Sundering War. The scale of the war quickly eclipsed that of any prior conflict, fought with larger numbers than any previous war to include the Symmerian-Hannashka Wars, the Discovery Wars, or the Sabrian Wars. The war was typically fought on three "fronts" which included nearly the entirety of southern Eracura and northern Siduri. Protracted naval warfare occurred in the Sundering Sea where both sides vied for control over the critical body of water. Land warfare occurred on a massive scale in the western and eastern portions of both continents. Both sides mobilized resources and manpower from across the domains to support their war efforts. The Acreans fielded predominantly Nordic troops from across the expanse of Eracura, while utilizing foreign mercenaries from other nations. The Symmerians conscripted levy troops from all regions of their empire to include Ruvelkan, Syaran, Mansuri, Shirvani, Adamdar, Biểc, Cham, Hmong, Karvelebi, Sadi, Kazarakhai, Khiyzan, Han, Hayren, Scythian, and Saridak troops. Mercenaries from the Sabrian Empire and Rideva were also employed extensively by the Symmerians, to include the introduction of elephants into Eracura for the first time in history.

Situated close to their homeland in Eracura, the invasion of Serikos went well with support from local Han rulers who fermented rebellion against their Symmerian overlords. The invasion of Ruvelka however ended in disaster for the Acreans, who's fleet was lost in a major naval battle just outside present day Mátészalka. The Acrean army that had arrived in Ruvelka was subsequently destroyed by the Symmerians, who responded to the invasions with joint campaigns of their own against Serikos and western Eracura. Basileus Kalkhas mobilized a massive army from across western Siduri and invaded through Svinia as Khaeremon had done 71 years earlier. In 799 Kalkhas had captured Sveta and advanced as far north as Reznik before launching raids into Shalum between 801-806. In 807 the Symmerians defeated the Acreans at Danka and began pushing east, besieging and eventually capturing Marshak in 812. In comparison to the war in Eracura, the Serikese front had become a virtual stand still, with neither side able to gain the advantage. Symmerian efforts to cut off the Acrean navy from sailing across the Struer Strait were repeatedly defeated, leading to the loss of hundreds of Symmerian ships and tens of thousands of sailors.

With the Stórahelvítisfljót River cut off by the Symmerians, the Acreans were unable to effectively support their forces in western Eracura. The Symmerians took advantage of this by razing much of southern Shalum and eastern Æþurheim. In 816 the Symmerians sacked Glize-Rijen and cross through Maldoria into Liam and Fjelldende before moving north into Gallagher, culminating in the sacking of Valemur in 820. The Acreans attempted to regain the initiative in 823 but were defeated outside Pasic, after which Kalkhas began marching east intent on invading Acrea itself. In 825 Kalkhas marched on Waclaw and began preparing for an invasion of Acrea, which the Acreans responded to by mobilizing a massive army west of Linz, intending on stopping the Symmerians before they could cross into Vöehringen.

The climactic battle of the Eracuran campaign never occurred. In 825 the Burning Plague struck Syara; within a year it had devastated the land and killed nearly 25% of the population. Kalkhas died while attempting to return to Syara and was succeeded by Menekrates II, who abandoned Boreagros save for small holdings in southern Górska. The plague, combined with the cost of the war and the ongoing fighting in Serikos, directly led to the Crisis of the Ninth Century. Between 825-867 roughly half of the Empire would break out into open rebellion. Most of the Empire was reconquered by Aristoxenus, who concluded the final act of the Sundering Wars by eliminating Acrean holdings in Serikos that had remained after the Fourth conflict. Although the Empire would regain most of its territory, it would never recover from the crisis which marked the beginning of the Later Symmerian Empire.

Acrean hopes to take advantage of Symmeria's downfall were dashed by open rebellion in western Eracura, whom after decades of warfare and the costs imposed by war had little collective desire to remain loyal to Acre. Belatedly the Acreans gradually abandoned their western holdings to their fate, withdrawing back to the Acrean homeland over the course of a century before the empire was officially dissolved. The collapse and recession of the two empires is often marked by historians as the "Great Dissolution", ending the period of near universal continental hegemony, while also ushering Tyran into the "Medieval Era".