Tuber Crusades

The Tuber Crusades are a series of battles that started in Summer of 292 TE. In the Tuber Crusades, Onion Aethochronists, Beetroot Aethochronists and The Sons of the Cauldron joined forces to defeat Tuberists.

Prelude
288 TE, Giant Roots burst out of the ground in the Tuberswamplands near the city of Port Solanaria. The Potato farmers of the swamp soon noticed that the roots were deadly to Potatoes, even causing blindness to people. Farmers in the nearby swamps lost their entire crop and fled into the city, bringing along rumors. The most popular of these theories was that these were Beetroot roots, as beetroots are considered to be the "Root of all evil" by the Tuberist majority of Port Solanaria. After the Elder Potatoes declared them as giant Beetroot attacking the holy land and began attempts to burn them, the news spread to Beetroot Aethochronists cults who believed this was their savior and swiftly marched to defend the Roots.

These cults amassed in the city of Yuzhen in Annunor Bay, using money gathered from the Bank of Annunor, gathering supplies and weapons for their campaign into the Tuberist Swamplands. Yet despite these preparations, the majority of their numbers would simply be unarmored street gangsters given a religious purpose.

The First Battle of the Roots - 292 TE
In the Battle of the Roots, Beetroot Aethochronist forces marched directly from the city of Virothen into the Tuberist Swamplands. They intended on intercepting a large Tuberist force that was heading towards the Roots in an attempt to defend them.

The Aethochronist attacks initially were succeeding in weakening some disorganized Tuberist divisions, but after their Chief Commanding Officer General Cedar, was wounded, they were pushed back to Virothen. However, some elements of Beetroot cults retreated into the Roots hoping that the blindness inflicted on all who entered would carry them to victory. These stragglers were slowly defeated one by one, making it a overwhelming Victory for the Tuberists.

The Battle of White Cliffs - 297 TE
After their defeat at the Roots, surviving Beetroot forces retreated back to Virothen to form up with their Onion Aethochronist cousins, biding their time before marching on another campaign to terrorize the White Cliffs, a satelite settlement of Port Solanaria. After looting nearby villages, the Aethochronist horde constructed a wooden camp on a bluff overlooking the Phagosian Sea.

Tuberist forces soon followed suit, but since many did not bother to join the march due to their overconfidence in their own forces due to the earlier victory. Amassed troops mainly consisted of Potato farmer volunteers, unarmored and mostly only bearing a simple sharpened scythe. They constructed their own camp behind the White Cliffs, trying to block the Aethochronist lines back to Virothen.

Forced into battle at the White Cliffs, Aethochronist forces marched out to meet the Tuberists. Tuberist troops were able to push the Aethochronists back to their own camp and seemed to be winning. However, Bardonian soldiers under the name of Dandelism swarmed the Tuberist rear, breaking their formations and forcing the Tuberists to flee. Once having managed to retreat, Admiral Salle di Italian't of the Tuberist forces instructed the newly crowned Doge of Solanum as well as most troops to retreat back to Port Solanaria while she led a small rearguard to cover the retreat.

Despite issuing the order to retreat, so many of the surviving Tuberist soldiers demanded to be assigned to the rearguard that only a small group actually left. This "rearguard" sallied forth, charging against the enemy formations which had now surrounded the camp. The Anti-Tuberist forces easily repelled the attack, slaughtering most of the participants and forcing a decisive victory.

Interlude
During this period both sides tried to recover their strength. Anti-Tuberist forces became too focused on the Bardonian civil war that was still raging between the Republic and Empire while Tuberists mainly returned to a pre-war state. However, angry sentiments towards each other persisted. Even though this hatred remained, only the most extreme edges of both sides were willing to fight, and so 4 years after the 2nd battle of the war, another one flared up.

The Second Battle of the Roots - 301 TE
Beetroot Aethochronist cults rallied their strength for the final time, but this time they only had a fraction of the size of the previous armies that they had mustered. This time they tried to march to liberate the Great Roots once more, to attack the walls of Port Solanaria themselves.

Onion troops had already secretly abandoned the Beetroots, having already made a secret peace deal with the Tuberists to get the die-hard Beetroot cults out of the picture. So for this final battle, the Beetroot Aethochronists were alone.

Kegor Eaglemore's Vision
In Spring 297 Te Kegor Eaglemore had a vision were he met with Michael Greenfell. They met each other in burning stones near Lobopolis. Michael told Kegor that he used to live in a Dandelist temple long ago, when the Astorians built their cities of stone.

Michael then stated “Blood shall be spilled. Farnau’s ghosts will rise from Hell. Angfang shall be rebuilt. “

Dark spirits split the earth open. They ate every living soul. Armies of men tried to stop them, Annunor Bay was being destroyed. Fire consumed everything.

Michael Greenfell disappeared, and Kegor was left alone in a field of Beetroots.

Aljana Greenfell's Vision
In Summer 297 Te Aljana Greenfell had a vision of war. In the vision, onions and beetroots spoke in fields that once were full of dandelions.

Aetho showed her the past. They showed her a glorious Empire. Aetho showed her the blood that was spilled on Riverrine by the Medici Dynasty. And he showed her the blood that her ancestors spilled at Anfang, when it was obliterated.

She was shown that Aetho gave birth to almost all living beings with his song, and that with his wings he protected them.

She was shown that Aetho created all food, however, he was betrayed by his creations by turning to false beliefs and that they worshipped beings that weren’t created by him. She was shown how people from Solanum, long ago, turned from Aetho’s ways and started worshipping potatoes.

She was shown that when Aetho gave food, he said to never eat potatoes because potatoes would make things sick. She was shown that Aetho's followers started worshipping Beetroots and onions, for they were Aetho’s gift to people. She was shown how people harvested them in fields while being blessed by Aetho.

She then heard "The Solanum scum have insulted us"

In response, she said “Yes. They have spoken against us. In their swamp cities, they plot our destruction. They hate us because we’re superior. They hate us because we’re right. They want to take our Holy Mountain, Mount Sylwesterrock. And we won’t let them do it. We shall defend our motherland! We shall stay together!”

In response to this vision, she headed to Virothen to meet Kegor Eaglemore to train armies to respond to any Tuberist Aggression. She also feared that Aetho wanted them to end Tuberists permanently.