War of the Quadruple Entente

Acràlian civil war (1923-1924)
Middola after its capture by Auroran forces, december 1910
Date 1907-1912 Location Acràlia, Aurora Result Ocralian war reparations
Belligerents
Acràlia	Quadruple Alliance : Aurora, Florentia, Garindina, Mavran
Commanders and leaders
Basiliu di Campana
Strength
300,000	600,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown, likely 1,200,000-1,600,000 soldiers and civilians	~275,000

The War of the Quadruple Entente (1907-1912) was a conflict fought on the Cashari Island, especially Ocraly and Aurora, between Ocraly and the Quadruple Entente made of Aurora, Florentia, Garindina and Mavran. It is one of the deadliest and bloodiest inter-state war in Alharun history. Ocraly sustained extremly high casualties, annihilating about half of its population, though even the approximated numbers are disputed, some estimations going higher. The war began in late 1907 after an Ocralian invasion of Aurora. While initially successful, the advance halted when Florentia, calling in its ally Garindina, invaded Ocraly to reclaim its lost possession. Finally, following the sinking of the Mavrainai ship Lysitania by the Ocralian navy, Mavran joined the war in early 1908. To formalize this temporary alliance, the four nations created the Quadruple Entente against Ocraly, hence the name of the war.

After Ocraly was defeated in conventional warfare, it conducted a drawn-out guerilla resistance, which proved to be catastrophic and further decimated the Ocralian military and civilian population. Much of the latter died due to battle, occupation, hunger and disease. The guerilla lasted for nine months until Generalissimo-Admiralissimo Basiliu di Campana was captured by Auroran forces in the battle of Collina Cora on September 1912. After a failed suicide attempt, he was forced to sign the Treaty of Middola at gunpoint. Auroran troups occupied the border city of Middola until 1915.

Background

A few years after its independance from Mantella, Ocraly was invaded in 1801 by Florentia and became an autonomous Kingdom under a cadet branch of the House of Asmavie. Subjugation lasted until 1878 and the coup d'état of general Basiliu di Campana at the start of the Florentian civil war. After the abolishment of the monarchy and the independance, di Campana established a totalitarian, ethnonationalist and fundamentalist regime. At the first meeting of the Ocralian Party, he proclaimed the start of a "crusade against individuality, as His Excellency Basiliu di Campana is the very embodiment of Ocraly. Everything within His Excellency, nothing outside His Excellency, nothing against His Excellency." Basiliu di Campana's fanaticism, militarism and autarchic measures alienated all of its neighboors.

Opposing forces

Ocralian forces

Ocraly's military, led by Generalissimo-Admiralissimo Basiliu di Campana himself, was highly centralized. The Ocralian military doctrine focused on shock and awe-style tactics, designed to overwhelm enemies quickly with cavalry. The army consisted of roughly 600,000 soldiers at the onset of the war, many of them poorly trained but highly disciplined conscripts, while its navy was comparatively weaker but used asymmetrical warfare tactics and undiscriminate trade blockade, including the infamous sinking of the Lysitania.

Despite its initial successes in Aurora, Ocraly's forces were hampered by shortages of resources, a reliance on obsolete equipment, and a lack of cohesive long-term strategy. As the war dragged on, Ocraly's overstretched forces crumbled, forcing di Campana to resort to guerrilla tactics.

Entente forces

Auroran forces

The Auroran military was initially disorganized and poorly equipped. However, the threat of a total Ocralian occupation galvanized the Auroran leadership to reform its army and mobilize its populace, though desertions and internal strife plagued the effort. By 1909, Auroran forces had reorganized and were playing a key role in the Entente's counteroffensive, especially the siege of Middola.

Florentian forces

Florentia's military was well-equipped and professional but riddled with internal divisions and incompetence due to the decentralized nature of its command structure and its lack of social mobillity.

Garindinan forces

Garindina’s military was large but ill-disciplined. Despite its internal instability, Garindina contributed significant manpower and naval power to the Entente, though it relied heavily on Florentian support for logistics.

Mavranai forces

Mavranai forces were mostly concentrated on naval warfare, though a small contingent of infantry was sent on the Auroran front.

Course of the war

Ocralian offensive

The regional tensions sparked when, to celebrate the soon-to-come 30th year of the regime, the dictator began an invasion of neighbooring Aurora, the 10th of November 1907, hoping to end the war by Christmas. Ocraly's expansionist ambitions were well-known, and di Campana viewed Aurora's corrupt and unstable republic as an easy target. The Ocralian military, though less well-equipped than its future Entente opponents, was highly disciplined and fanatical, making up for material deficiencies with aggressive tactics and fervor.

Ocralian forces quickly crossed the Auroran border and captured key cities, including Porgo, Anverra, and Castillon, within the first three months of the war. The Auroran army, already weakened by internal corruption and political instability, was unable to mount an effective defense. The Ocralian shock attack caught the Auroran government by surprise, leading to widespread panic in the capital, Tavares.

However, Ocraly’s lightning advance soon overstretched its supply lines, and the brutal nature of its occupation led to significant resistance from local populations. In January 1908, despite the rapid territorial gains, Ocraly’s forces began to face guerrilla actions in the newly occupied Auroran territories. The initial momentum of the Ocralian offensive slowed, giving time for the other nations to react.

Entente counterattack

Invasion of Ocraly

Florentia, jumping on the opportunity, responded by mobilizing its military in December 1907. Though the Florentian Empire was politically decentralized, its military was well-trained and equipped, especially compared to Ocraly’s conscript-based army. Florentia’s primary goal was the reclamation of Ocraly, which had declared independence during the Florentian Civil War decades earlier. With the sinking of the Lysitania, a civilian Mavranai ship, Mavran would the war in February 1908. Aurora, Florentia, Garindina and Mavran would then form the temporary Quadruple Entente against the Ocralian menace.

In April 1908, Florentia’s Royal Armies of Saint-Isidore, Coayard and Narizonia, under the command of Prince Eugène de Varèse, Duke Charles-Théophile de Ditard and Marquis Alexandre de Villette, launched a coordinated invasion of Ocraly from the north, while Garindina simultaneously attacked from the southwest and challenged the Ocralian navy to prevent reinforcements from Fasaìl from crossing the Arcadian strait.

The dual invasion forced Ocraly to retreat from its Auroran conquests in order to defend its homeland. Ocraly’s densely forested terrain initially provided a defensive advantage, but the combined weight of the Florentian and Garindinian forces began to push deep into Ocralian territory. By late 1908, Florentian forces had captured the strategic cites of Bellarossa and Plassis, threatening the heartland of Ocraly.

Siege of Middola

The siege of Middola, a major fortified port on the Ocralian-Auroran border, became the longest and bloodiest engagement of the war. As the door to the road to Fangosa, a key logistical hub on the Rossi river and a symbol of Ocralian resistance, di Campana ordered the city to be defended at all costs. Ocralian soldiers and civilians alike were conscripted into the defense of Middola, leading to brutal urban warfare.

For over a year, Auroran and Mavranai forces bombarded the city while attempting repeated assaults on its defenses. The Ocralians used their knowledge of the city’s layout to launch guerrilla-style counterattacks, but as food and supplies dwindled, desperation set in. By the end of 1910, disease had ravaged both the military and civilian population trapped inside the city. Auroran forces finally breached the walls in December 1910, marking the fall of Middola after one of the most grueling sieges of modern history. The death toll was catastrophic : estimates suggest that nearly 90% of Middola’s population perished during the siege.

Siege of Fangosa

Bombing of Fangosa by the Mavranai navy, august 1911

With Middola in Auroran hands, the Entente turned its attention to Fangosa, the capital of Ocraly. The fall of Fangosa would effectively end Ocraly’s ability to fight a conventional war. Entente forces began their advance toward the capital.

Fangosa, nestled in the swampy lowlands of the coast, was a natural fortress, surrounded by rivers and marshlands that made direct assault difficult. Di Campana, knowing that Fangosa’s fall would be the last crippling blow, concentrated the bulk of his remaining forces in the capital. The siege began in January 1911, with the Entente laying down a relentless artillery barrage from both land and sea. The defenders, outnumbered and undersupplied, relied on the city’s natural defenses to hold back the Entente's advance.

Throughout 1911, both sides suffered heavy casualties in the swamps and trenches surrounding Fangosa. The siege became a war of attrition, with neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. Florentian forces, frustrated by the slow progress, resorted to scorched earth tactics, destroying villages and farmland around the city to starve the defenders. By late 1911, with the Ocralian military’s morale in shambles, Fangosa’s defenses began to collapse. Di Campana, seeing the inevitable defeat, ordered a retreat from the city in December 1911, abandoning Fangosa to the Entente.

Guerilla warfare

After the fall of Fangosa, Ocraly’s conventional war effort was effectively over, but Basiliu di Campana refused to surrender. Retreating with his remaining forces into the Greater Fangosa wetlands, he ordered a nationwide guerrilla resistance against the occupying forces. Di Campana believed that Ocraly could bleed the Entente dry through a prolonged insurgency.

The guerrilla war, which lasted from early 1912 to late-1912, was a brutal and chaotic phase of the conflict. Ocralian partisans launched hit-and-run attacks on Entente supply lines, ambushed patrols, and sabotaged infrastructure, but the toll on the civilian population was immense. The Entente responded with draconian counterinsurgency measures, executing suspected guerrillas and burning down villages believed to be aiding the rebels, which would be known as the rape of Ocraly.

Despite their efforts, the Entente struggled to completely suppress the guerrilla fighters. However, by mid-1912, Ocraly’s capacity to continue the insurgency was rapidly diminishing. With the countryside devastated by war, famine, and disease, popular support for the guerrillas waned.

The guerrilla resistance effectively collapsed after the Battle of Collina Cora in September 1912, where di Campana, attempting to rally his forces for a last stand, was captured by Auroran troops. His capture marked the end of the guerrilla war and, effectively, the war itself. When forced to sign the peace treaty on the 18th of October, Campana attempted suicide by defenestration but failed because the negociation room was at the ground floor. After his second capture, he was later that day coerced into signing the Treaty of Middola at gunpoint, formally ending hostilities.

Casualties of the war

The War of the Quadruple Entente resulted in unprecedented casualties, with total estimates ranging from 1.2 to 1.6 million deaths for Ocraly. The latter suffered catastrophic losses : over half of its population was killed, which includes both military and civilian casualties. The sieges of Middola and Fangosa were the deadliest engagements of the war, with tens of thousands dying from combat, starvation, and disease.

Florentia, Aurora, Garindina, and Mavran also paid a heavy price, with about about two hundred thousands soldiers killed in the brutal fighting. Civilian casualties in Aurora were also important, though not as high as Ocralian ones. Many Ocralian villages were completely wiped out while entire regions were left depopulated by the war’s end, especially the rural south-west. Disease and famine, exacerbated by the destruction of farmland and infrastructure, claimed even more lives than the fighting itself. The war left a deep scar on Aurora and Ocraly, and led to decades of instability for the Campanist regime.

Consequences of the war

The war complety crippled the Ocralian economy and population. To repopulate Ocraly, di Campana allowed polygamy.

The economic and humanitarian consequences of this war also led to a general dissatisfaction from the population and the military, with the charismatic field marshal Marziale Marziale becoming the main opposition to di Campana's rule. While di Campana's grip on society was too tight to allow any form of large-scale revolt, its death in 1922 would spark the Ocralian civil war of 1923-1924, paving the way for Florentian domination and the absolutist rule of King Orphée I.