Dandelion War

The Bardonian Wars are a series of conflicts surrounding the rapid expansion of the Republic of Bardonia after the dissolution of the Trillium Alliance in the wake of the Great Rathnir War which was fought between the Trillium Alliance and global coalition lead by Yimmu-Audal. The Bardonian Wars are dated as commencing with the announcement of Bardonian Mobilization, made by Chancellor Unic0rnb0i on January 14th, 2021. The Chancellor voiced Bardonian's ambition to unify all of Rathnir 'under a single banner of true peace.'

Hostilities were ceased on January 20th though no formal agreement was made. As of August 27th, the status of the conflict is uncertain.

Looting of Urnu-Arrak
The Looting of Urnu-Arrak took place on January 17th, 2021. The Council of Elders of Yimmu-Audal refused to accept Tzseu as Empress and elected Gray_Is_Yes as Emperor instead, despite the terms of the peace deal of the Great Rathnir War which stated that Tzseu was to ascend to the throne. Bardonia, citing a breach of the peace treaty as their reason, subsequently declared war on Yimmu-Audal and laid siege to Urnu-Arrak only eight days after the Battle of Urnu-Arrak ended the Great Rathnir War. The war was swiftly ended when Gray_Is_Yes, the only member of Yimmu-Audal to participate in the war, was shot by Bardonian forces.

Attack on Dorasterrock
In the night from January 17th to January 18th, multiple players using invisibility potions headed to the Bardonian capital, Dorasterrock, and blew up various buildings as a means of guerilla warfare. Shortly after the attack, Bardonian officials accused the Industrial Workers of Rathnir of being behind the attack, announcing that 'anyone involved will be executed and any nations or towns they are part of will be annihilated.' While the IWR feigned ignorance, a representative of the I.W.R. announced that they sponsored the attack on January 20th, 2021. The announcement stated that the IWR 'intend[s] to keep sponsoring such attacks' and that Bardonia should '[e]xpect more attacks in the future. 2021.

War of The Last Bastion
On January 17, Dex_Og of the Last Bastion declared a lands war on an Escharian town, likely Lileanen. Escharian Emperor Emeritus Siegfried von Aspach responded to this by denouncing the declaration as an 'aggression from a Bardonian'.

"Escharia has done nothing but antagonize me for my entire time on this server. I have been a bardonian [sic] for only a little while, and this would have been coming regardless of Bardonia. Mark my words. Escharia will be mine. Scorched and ash or regal and tall, it will be mine. I'll rule coals and pebbles if i have to. Blood for the blood god baby!"

Due to negligence of crucial documents regarding the war declaration by Dex_Og, the so he had to be declared a second time on January 19th.

Battle of Aezenfjord
(For more information on the tactics of the battle itself, see the Battle of Aezenfjord)

The battle of Aezenfjord was a side conflict in the Bardonian Wars. On the 18th of January, 2021, the relatively new nation of the Sørveien Empire declared that they had done a sacrifice to the Blood God and in return, had received a message "telling all those whose witnessed this ceromonial [sic] event that the Sørveien Empire is the holy successor of the Valdreech [sic] Imperial Republic" (Brydon). As a result, they announced they would begin their reconquest of the old VIR, starting with Aezenfjord, which was currently a protectorate of the Escharien Empire.

The announcement was initially met with scorn from the previously enemies of the VIR. But it was also opposed by some old members of the VIR, including most prominently the Republic of Posavaria. They announced their intention to defend Aezenfjord because of the direct threat that the Sørveien Empire's reconquest posed to them as a former member of the VIR. It was also quickly discovered that the Sørveien were real-life friends with many high-ranking members of Bardonia, and that Bardonians would be sending a detachment of their best soldiers to help their friends. This caused a panic in global politics as many began to realize that the Sørveien Conquest of Aezenfjord was probably a subconflict of Bardonia's plan for world domination.

The Republic of Posavaria and the Sørveien Empire briefly engaged in negotiations to end the conflict, with Posavaria requesting that Sørveien give up their claims to Posavari territory and realign with the regional alliance instead of Bardonia. Sørveien countered by offering Posavaria protectorate status under their empire should they win the battle. The peace talks subsequently stalled.

The Escharien Empire also engaged in negotiations. The leader of Escharia, d3bi, could not be online at the time of the battle, which was a great detriment to her troops. She sought to reschedule the battle. Brydon could not reschedule, but instead offered to keep Bardonia out of the battle if d3bi would stay out. Up to this point, Sørveien and Bardonia had been receiving public ire for allegedly metagaming and committing failrp. This agreement was beneficial to both sides. The final terms of the battle were:


 * yes allies
 * yes foreign volunteers
 * yes invisibility
 * no mercenaries
 * no end crystals
 * no griefing
 * if d3bi does not fight, Bardonians do not fight

Shortly before the battle, members of the Crescant Concordant (of which Posavaria was a part) also joined the battle on Aezenfjord's side because it was clear that Sørveien and Bardonia had future plans together, which threatened the openly anti-Bardonian alliance.

On the 19th of January, 2021, the Sørveiens attacked from the northeast of Aezenfjord. The battle was not long. The initial Sørveien assault was repelled by the defenders and the attackers were chased back to their siege camp tower. Following another short skirmish, the Sørveiens were all killed, their beds were broken, and the siege camp was cleared out. Having won, the defenders returned to the city to wait out the remainder of the land war timer.

Not long after the siege camp had been eliminated, Sørveien leaders began to claim in the chat that the defenders had broken the terms of the war by hiring mercenaries. None of the defenders knew who this was referring to, and Sørveien leaders did not explain. Sørveien then invited their Bardonian friends to join the battle on their side. This caused outrage among the defenders, who complained that Sørveien was violating the war terms. Bardonia led the next assault on the city, quickly breaching the defenses and killing all the defenders and breaking all their beds, eliminating the entire defense.

While the defenders of Aezenfjord were initially victorious, the end result of the conflict was another crushing defeat against Bardonia.

Much controversy followed the end of the battle, with coalition members indignant at the last-minute inclusion of Bardonia against the war terms. One member of the coalition, who had actually been a member of Bardonia before volunteering to fight on Aezenfjord's side, sided with Sørveien and accused a captain of Posavari forces of offering to pay him money to fight, which would technically have made him a mercenary. This accusation was only made after the battle was over though, and the agreement alleged happened in a voice chat where no evidence of it could be produced. The captain denied such an offer. The Administrative Pos of Posavaria, in charge of adding volunteers to the war room, produced photo evidence that the Bardonian had actually volunteered at first, not been offered pay. Additionally, the Posavari claimed that their captain could not have offered to hire anyone because he was not authorized to create monetary agreements like that. Lastly, the Sørveiens only claimed that the war terms had been violated after they lost the initial battle, putting their motivations into doubt. Also after the battle, photo evidence was produced that the Bardonians were simply joining Sørveien's side because they saw they were losing, regardless of the war terms, essentially meaning they had only planned on following the agreement if their friends in Sørveien were winning. In return, Sørveien continued to claim that the coalition had broken the war terms first, and said the battle was unfair because of how many defenders there were in contrast to their forces. Aezenfjord had previously been a 1-person population city, but had swelled up to  ##  in preparation for the battle. In comparison, the Sørveiens had only brought  ##  to assault the city.

Many of the defenders did not wish to surrender Aezenfjord to Sørveien as agreed because Sørveien had not followed the initial agreement, thereby voiding the result of the war. Additionally, many defenders believed they had actually won the battle, and that Bardonia's interference after Sørveien's defeat should not count. However, when Sørveien threatened to repeatedly attack Aezenfjord and forcefully declaim the city if it was not ceded to them, the caretaker of Aezenfjord yielded. This controversy caused much toxicity among players on both sides, possibly becoming one of the final events that led to Bardonia's cessation of hostilities.

Defender's perspective: Posavari Account of the Battle of Aezenfjord

Ending
The end to the Bardonian wars came on January 19th, when the Bardonian Senate voted to end the world conquest campaign due to the toxicity that much of the rest of the server wrought onto them. This saw players BacktotheHub and Unic0rnb0i leave Bardonia.

At the time of its end, the Empire of Bardonia looked like this: