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 | |||||||
| |||||||
| 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
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.
Victory in Sūnŧūgā Bay
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Despite a string of victories against coalition troops garrisoning vital ports lining the archipelagos coast, the last Szŧōnɉōnzī would be expelled from the south, where they had occupied land during their coastal terrorization campaign, when the twenty-day long occupation of Īnbā in Ou territory came to an end. Bjarn and his fleet embarked from Īnbā, temporarily docking in occupied Southern-Ivili territory in order to assist a defensive headed by Gert Koch, a noble that had been tasked with defending three vital ports in the south, all of which were crucial for maintaining naval supremacy in the south. Gert Koch's defensive would ultimately be successful, allowing for Bjarn to maintain his spree as he had planned. This time, it was decided that the Taverkny capital of Sūnŧūgā would be seized, theoretically making for an easier target, being on a sparsely populated island off the coast of Szŧōnzōsī that lacked any proper defense. However, the Taverkny had managed to maintain the presence of it's navy in the Sūnŧūgā Bay, likely because of the threat that the norths fleet poised on their vulnerable capital. However, at this point in the war, resistance by the Taverkny and their allies was practically futile. The majority of the archipelagos populace was in favor of reunification, this is likely because the only time that the nation had seen peace and prosperity was when it was unified under Erik Slaten. Although, Erik's theocratic government had been flawed in more ways than one. When Bjarn's fleet arrived in the south of the Sūnŧūgā Bay, they discovered that over two dozen Taverkny ships were actively engaging with each other. Bjarn, confused as to how he was supposed to approach the situation, would come to realize that the Taverkny fleet had degraded into a state of civil war, divided between those who were attempting to maintain control and those who were trying to defect to the north (in support of reunification). Bjarn's comparatively larger fleet intervened in the affair, swiftly crushing those who were attempting to divert the mutiny. The majority of the Taverkny fleet was incorporated into that of Bjarn's, as well as it's crew. Fewer then five vessels would manage to escape the encounter, all of which likely returned to the port in Sūnŧūgā. Despite this, their safety would be short-lived, as immediately after this, Bjarn landed on the easternmost coast of the island, pillaging three different fishing villages and robbing their residents of their reserves and valuables. From there, Bjarn would march approximately twenty-one kilometers to Sūnŧūgā itself, briefly laying siege to the city before it's inner-garrison surrendered itself to Bjarn, with the city welcoming him and the Szŧōnɉōnzī with open arms. Shortly after the fall of the city, the Southern Ivili, no longer able to bear the losses sustained after the capture of it's trade-rich southern coast by the north, seceded to the North and was incorporated, being granted vassal-status until the end of the war when it would be annexed into the greater "Kingdom of Flatstone", proposed by Bjarn for hypothetical reunification. In 1231, Taverkny would agree to cede it's territory and the remainder of it's fleet to the north, officially putting an end to the war in Szŧōnzōsī.
Annexation of the Northern Bīgōzōsī Islands
Bjarn had successfully managed to reconquer all of the lands controlled by Erik Slaten after his death; however, he was not yet ready to put his ambitions to rest. In mid-late 1232, only a few months after his Northern Ivili victory over the rest of the archipelago, Bjarn's health began to quickly decline. The reason as to why this happened is unknown, however it is believed that it came with age and it is entirely possible that it was the biproduct of an unknown medical condition possessed by the newly-crowned king. Autopsies preformed on the remains of the king found traces of TB (or Tuberculosis), leading many to believe that it was his cause of death. Despite this, Bjarn would not end up passing until 1237, many years after the end of the First Stonish War of Unification. The Ou Clan had been in a constant state of decline for the past three centuries, gradually losing it's cultural territory in the south and many of it's islands in the Bīgōzōsī archipelago to the Southern Ivili Clan. Flatstone had inherited all of the lands conquered by the Southern Ivili as well as their claims in it's treaty of surrender, allowing Bjarn, who possessed an army much larger then that of the Ou, to enforce the claims established by the Southern Ivili on the northern Bīgōzōsī islands. The two islands would subsequently be occupied and annexed with little to no resistance by the army of the Ou clan, which had received warning of the occupation prior to the arrival of Bjarn's army.
Expulsion of the Ou Peoples
Just five days after the decision to occupy the northern Bīgōzōsī islands was finalized, Bjarn published a rough-draft of a plan to forcefully migrate and/or expel the Ou minorities living on and around the southern coast of Szŧōnzōsī and the northern Bīgōzōsī out of Stonish-controlled lands into the few islands still controlled by the Ou Clan. While Kristen Ou was initially hesitant to accept this demand, his freedom of choice was short-lived as Bjarn threatened military occupation if he were to decline. The expulsion of the Ou peoples that inhabited southern Szŧōnzōsī was an uncalled-for cultural catastrophe that still scars the south of Flatstone to this day. What remains of the Ou Clan remains politically and culturally isolated from the rest of Flatstone to this day, often encouraging various paramilitary organizations throughout the Ou Clan to take military action against the Kingdom of Flatstone in the name of secession; an idea that is considered by many to be extremist in nature.