Kaodsi

John Matrouni besieges the city of Mesuesta, Chronicle of the Golden Horn, 9th century.

The Kaodsi (Messarian for "chaos") was a period in the history of the Mengriian Peninsula which lasted from 762 to 1507. The majority of the period was marked by warfare between the various states of the peninsula, including mainly the kingdoms of Ingria, Zyguria, Makhuria, Meretia and Odakhia, three incidents of the reestablishment of the Messarian Kingdom (only one of which was successful in permanently unifying the peninsula), and the Kuratid invasion of 1210.

The beginning of the Kaodsi is usually placed at the Ingrian king John I Matrouni's besieging of the Meretian city of Mesuesta in 762. John did so over the succession of the Meretian crown, which he had a claim to through his wife, Theodora of Metrokhi. The siege was successful, and Mesuesta fell after eight months. Peter II, the Meretian king and also John's brother-in-law, who was in Grajara at the time, sent an army to pursue Matrouni's force, which was laden with plunder from its sacking of Mesuesta and subsequently moved at a slower rate. However, Matrouni caught word of this and called on his cousin, the Zygurian king Menelaus Savili for aid. Menelaus did so, and the combined forces of John and Menelaus met Peter's army at the Battle of Okrovelo, which resulted in a decisive victory for the Ingro-Zygurian force. Peter, however, escaped to Tskhyra on the Mereto-Odakh border, and from there sent his son, Gabriel Borvedze, to the Odakh king, Bataines Orumli in an attempt to forge an alliance.

The incentives behind the conquests undertaken vary from monarch to monarch. Most revolved around the succession of a kingdom, the acquiring of resources, or territorial expansion. A select few, such as the brief Playwright's War (named for its later usage in the poet Aëtees' popular comedic work, ''The King of the Pastures'') waged by Aslavakh I Tamardze of Makhuria (who was later given the Greek moniker Otrellos; "The Mad") against the small Greek kingdom of Chalkia in 1300, had no conventional casus belli. According to Luke IV, bishop of Besuesta, Aslavakh was bored of the peace and prosperity Makhuria was experiencing, and so decided he'd start a war to entertain himself. However, he was ambushed and defeated by a smaller Chalkite force in the Battle of Lagos Pass. The war ultimately lasted only a week.

Historical Background

Breakup of the First Messarian Kingdom

The Messarian Kingdom was first established by the Soter brothers in 199 BC after Aristomenes VI, the last member of the Aristomenid dynasty to rule over southwestern Mengriia, formally ceded the province of Messaria Proper to the Soter brothers' rebellion. The kingdom lasted up until 499 AD, when the sons of Teucer IX divided the kingdom into six different administrative regions (themes); one for each brother, and one more for a deputy of his choosing. Collectively, these themes functioned as a single polity, but operated more like independent states. Gradually, these themes became sovereign states without any shared identity which bound them together; hence the crowning of the themes' governors as kings by their aristocracy.

Mengriia Gloria

Mengriia Gloria was a term coined by Messarian historian Atvan Gelkhani in his 1912 work of the same name to describe the resurgence of the belief in a unified Messaria from the 8th to 16th centuries. John I Matrouni was said to have expressed support for the idea prior to his invasion of Meretia in 762, which would explain the otherwise arbitrary instigation. However, John was not the most prevalent subscriber to Mengriia Gloria. Stephen the Great is commonly accepted to be the most fervent believer in the ideology throughout the entirety of his 32-year reign. Following him came a series of likeminded, less-successful monarchs until the ascendance of Levan Adheri to the throne of Egritria and his later founding of the Fourth Messarian Kingdom.

Lines of succession

By the start of the 6th century, the family trees of the themes' respective governors were already heavily intertwined with each other's. Each deputy was a man related by marriage or blood to the sons of Teucer, and the sons of Teucer were blood-related brothers themselves. John I Matrouni had a claim on the throne of Meretia through his Meretian wife, who was the sister of Peter II. His claim is one of two possible reasons which would've led him to besiege and sack Mesuesta. Teuvan Kladas, king of Makhuria, waged a series of espionage campaigns against his half-brother Simeon Kladas, the king of the smaller kingdom of Setia, for the Setian throne. While both men shared the same mother, queen Helena of Seto-Makhuria, Teuvan was the result of her first marriage with David Aslan while Simeon was a product of her second with Aeacus the Greek.

Kaodsi

Beginning of the Kaodsi

In the spring of 762, John Matrouni left Zvoula with a force ranging in number from 9,000-12,000 men (depending on the source). According to Simeon Artemos, a noble who led a contingent of archers in Matrouni's army, John had not disclosed his intentions to his subordinates nor had he given any prior notice that his army, which had been idly garrisoning Zvoula for the winter, would be departing from there. John was reportedly informed he'd trespassed across the Meretian border by one of his subordinate commanders, which he ignored, and ordered the army to press onwards. When he reached the ridge above Mesuesta, John sent word to his commanders to set up a siege camp. Some of his commanders questioned this order, feeling uneasy about abruptly besieging a city belonging to a kingdom which they were not at war with. However, John remedied this by rallying the poorer soldiers of the semi-mutinous contingents to him with promises of the treasures of Mesuesta. John later punished those who'd questioned him by denying them a share of Mesuesta's riches after the city's sacking.

Mesuesta fell after eight months, and John gave his soldiers two days to plunder the city, on the conditions that no churches were to be touched, and no passive residents of the city were to be harmed. After these two days, John withdrew his force from the city and began the march back to Ingria. Unbeknown to him, however, word had reached the Meretian king, Peter II, of the attack. Peter led a force reportedly larger than Matrouni's (exact figures remain unknown) from Grajara in pursuit, catching up with the Ingrians at Okrovelo. Despite their force's smaller size, the Ingrians were unable to outpace the Meretians on account of the large amounts of plunder they'd taken. The two forces clashed the following day, and John, with the aid of his cousin Menelaus, emerged as the victor. Peter escaped capture and fled to Tskhyra, from which he negotiated an alliance with Odakhia, forming a coalition against the Ingro-Zygurian alliance.

Kuratid invasion and the first reestablishment of the Messarian Kingdom

Crossing of the Karubans

The Kuratids, a nomadic people from beyond the Karuban Alps invaded Mengriian lands in the summer of 1210. A sizeable horde lead by Khan Kurat - hence the name "Kuratids" - crossed over the alps and quickly overran the mountain tribes and small kingdoms that dwelled in and around the range. Prior to the invasion, the Karubans, which traditionally marked the extent of Mengriian ancestral lands, were thought to be uncrossable and subsequently unfortified. The invasion shattered this notion and resulted in the implementation of large garrisons at the foot of the range from 1302 to 1509.

The Kuratid army ravaged the Karuba, making it as far as the Sherkess River, where their advance was halted by a defense organized by a pseudo-king of the region, Artan Chavach. Chavach's force, which was comprised of both professional soldiers and various tribesmen of the Karuba who had been displaced as a result of the invasion, managed to successfully fend off a Kuratid attempt at crossing the river. While this cost the Kuratids their initial momentum, they suffered no great loss and retained what lands they'd gained in the Karuba, establishing a Khanate which stretched from the southern highlands of Mengriia to beyond the Karubans.

Following Chavach's victory, a delegation of individuals from various groups went north hoping to secure aid in dealing with the Kuratid threat. The delegation failed to get any real help from the northern kingdoms, though a single ship of Tari volunteers departed from Gures to join the Karuban forces out of their own free will.