Battle of Aezenfjord

The Battle of Aezenfjord was a side conflict in the Bardonian Wars, fought on January 19, 2021, between Aezenfjord, Escharien, and Posavaria on the defense, and Sørveien (and later Bardonia) on the offensive. It was one of many attempts at restoring the Valdreach Imperial Republic.

Declaration
See the sub-section in the Bardonian Wars article for more background context.

On the 18th of January 2021, the relatively new 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 their ambition to reconquer former VIR territory and declared war on Aezenfjord, the old capital of the defunct VIR, which was a protectorate of the Empire of Escharia.

The Republic of Posavaria and their allies in the Crescent Concordant came to the defense of Aezenfjord because of the direct threat that a VIR reconquest would pose to Posavaria, and because of Sørveien's alignment with Bardonia.

Because Emperor d3bi of Escharia could not be present for the battle, Sørveien agreed to leave their ally of Bardonia out of the conflict. Due to the historical nature of Aezenfjord, wanton destruction was also not allowed. The full list of rules was as follows:


 * 1) Neither Bardonia nor d3bi would participate.
 * 2) Other allies were permitted.
 * 3) Foreign volunteers were permitted.
 * 4) Paid mercenaries were NOT permitted.
 * 5) The use of invisibility was permitted.
 * 6) The use of end crystals was NOT permitted.
 * 7) Unnecessary destruction of structures and theft of foreign equipment were NOT permitted.

Preparation
The defenders gathered volunteers from Escharia, the Republic of Posavaria, the old VIR, and various other Crescent Concordant nations, reaching nearly 20 players by the time of the battle.

The overall strategy of the defenders was led by GiberCat, a citizen of the Republic of Posavaria, with strategic help from the caretaker of Aezenfjord, SirMisterPanda. The defenders were split into two groups - skilled warriors with good gear, and mediocre warriors with a wide variety of gear. By the beginning of the battle the defenders had grown somewhat numerous, but due to lack of preparation and last-minute recruits, many were fielded with nothing better than partial iron armor, and some even lacked weapons from the start.



The defenders built a cobblestone tower to protect their beds in the middle of Aezenfjord bay, connected to the cliffside by a thin bridge. Dragon's Teeth and other obstructions were erected around the city to hamper invaders. Aezenfjord's extensive fortifications, constructed by citizens long lost to time, significantly limited the number of locations that attackers could enter through.

When Sørveien originally declared war they boasted an army of 16 players, but only 10 showed up by the start of the battle, putting them at a significant numerical disadvantage. However, they were generally much better equipped than the defenders.

Shortly before the battle, a volunteer defender named HairySonic killed the Sørveien leader of Hiraeth who had been carrying the entire Sørveien stash of potions for the battle and a spare Protection IV armor set. While HairySonic had not been under orders to carry out this vigilante attack, his actions were generally applauded by the other defenders who were in need of potions. HairySonic later accused another defender of paying him to carry out the attack, which was roundly denied and sparked controversy after the battle (see Aftermath).

Initial Battle
List of Defenders:


 * SirMisterPanda (Aezenfjord)


 * bojijoy (Escharia)
 * yaykei (Escharia)
 * iChris4o (Escharia)


 * GiberCat (Posavaria)
 * Guge1403 (Posavaria)
 * guywivahat (Posavaria)
 * MineRabbit604 (Posavaria)
 * Sennacherib (Posavaria)
 * BatChatap (Posavaria) (only stayed for first assault)
 * EJ741 (Posavaria) (mostly participated as a builder)


 * MeatyHobbertson (Tvear - Old VIR)
 * darkwizard07 (Tvear - Old VIR)
 * TheRealOJOJ (Old VIR)


 * Meenit (Palaris)
 * BigG/Point (Palaris)
 * CommieCon (Palaris)


 * starlorde123 (Soumere)
 * Dumer (Soumere)


 * HairySonic (unincorporated Bardonia) (Was actually a double-agent)

List of Attackers:


 * BrydonThunder
 * CalamityTree
 * iivyz
 * ItsDomIGuess
 * j6oard
 * Ksukiyo
 * Me_Tarzan
 * MentalMarble (didn’t stay for full time)
 * Out_run
 * ShiiroDesu

On the 19th of January, 2021, the Sørveiens marched down from the northeast of Aezenfjord and entered the city through an hillside where the wall was unfinished. Some light skirmishes occurred until the Sørveiens reached the main defensive line of the defenders, where their progress stalled on the Dragon's Teeth and other obstructions. The defenders, while generally more lightly armed, held a numerical and defensive advantage and repelled the attack, forcing the Sørveiens to retreat back toward their camp. Several Sørveiens soldiers including CalamityTree, BrydonThunder and j6oard later boasted taking on 8 players each at the same time during this initial assault.

The defenders rallied a counterattack and engaged the Sørveiens, eventually causing them to rout and flee to their siege tower outside the city. Fierce fighting ensued around the tower and defenders were shot down from the ladder as they attempted to climb. The defenders hastily built a second tower beside the Sørveiens' tower, eventually gaining a vantage point to fire on them. Faced with defenders on the second tower and more climbing up the first, the Sørveien defense was broken. The defenders killed all the attackers and broke their beds to prevent them from respawning. The attackers' siege tower was cleaned out and partially dismantled by the defenders before they decided to return to Aezenfjord, having destroyed the enemy base and assuming the war was over. Several players left entirely.

Bardonian Intervention
List of Bardonian Attackers :


 * Call_Me_Realz
 * Dex_Og
 * ViewedMarquis
 * Unic0rnb0i
 * BacktotheHub
 * HairySonic (Switched sides)

List of Added Defenders :


 * McThuggin (Posavaria)


 * Comrade_Max (Palaris)


 * Jane_the_Bane (Carvay)

After losing the engagement, the Sørveiens suddenly claimed the defenders had broken the terms of the war, and in retaliation they would be bringing the Bardonians to help them assault Aezenfjord once more. Bardonia sent a 5-person detachment of their finest soldiers. The Sørveiens came down from the northeast again, this time all on horseback and crying "DEATH", their Bardonian allies not far behind. After regrouping at the ruined siege base, the Bardonians led a second assault on the city. This was the point when HairySonic turned on the defenders and revealed that he had actually been on the Bardonian side.

This time, the defenses were breached and Bardonia swept through the defenders. Many fought along the bay cliff to prevent the attackers from reaching the thin bridge to the bed tower, and others mined the bridge to prevent passage. Meanwhile, Bardonians picked off the defenders around the cliffs and began firing flaming arrows into the tower at the defenders inside, who were not successful in returning fire. Eventually some Bardonians breached the tower and scaled it story-by-story, killing the defenders in close PVP combat within the cramped tower rooms and breaking all the beds.

Some of the defenders outside the tower managed to survive and retreat while sparring with Bardonians, even setting off an explosion that killed several of the attackers. But most were killed and respawned far away, their beds having already been broken. Very few made it out of the city alive to flee to their hometowns.

The end result of the battle was a crushing defeat for the defenders, all of their defenses having been overrun and all of their gear looted, without managing to kill many of the Bardonians.

"From what I know, one of the terms for the war was no mercenaries. Aezenfjord brought mercenaries and Stor responded by calling in Bardonian reinforcements. At the time Stor had the upper hand in kills but was being pushed back by the massive difference in numbers. Then the Bardonians showed up, we duked it out, one of their guys betrayed them for us, and we fucked em up."

Surrender of Aezenfjord
The result of the war was embroiled in controversy because both sides claimed the other had broken the terms of the war agreement - Sørveien had openly done it by bringing the Bardonians, but they claimed the defenders had done it first by hiring mercenaries, which the defenders unequivocally denied. Many of the defenders believed they had beaten the Sørveiens fair and square, and that therefore Aezenfjord should not be surrendered because of agreement-breaking Bardonian interference. But the Sørveiens threatened to besiege Aezenfjord and raze it unless the defenders honored the agreement, forcing the caretaker of Aezenfjord to yield to the Sørveiens.

Aftermath
HairySonic, who had actually been a member of Bardonia before volunteering to fight on Aezenfjord's side, deserted to the Bardonian forces during the last battle. After the battle was over, he accused a captain of Posavaria of offering to pay him money from the beginning, which would have made him a mercenary. Sørveien explained that this was why they claimed the defenders had broken the terms of the war. HairySonic had not made the accusation public during the battle however, so the defenders never knew Sørveien's justification for breaking the rules nor had a chance to defend against the accusation until it was all over.

HairySonic alleged that the mercenary agreement had been conducted between him and the captain orally, and thereby no evidence could be produced. The captain in question denied these allegations. The Administrative Pos of Posavaria in charge of adding volunteers to the war room produced photo evidence that HairySonic had actually volunteered and 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.

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 victorious. The defenders, in turn, accused HairySonic of being a Bardonian plant in their forces, part of a plan to falsely accuse the defenders of hiring mercenaries to give Bardonia a reason to break the agreement and join the battle if Sørveien was losing. However, the only evidence the defenders could provide was situational, because any such secret plans would have been conducted in ways impossible to verify.

Two weeks after the battle, on the 30th of January, 2021, Aezenfjord announced that Sørveien had become inactive and declared independence once more. The Sørveien Empire expressed no objection nor put up any resistance. Future efforts to reform the VIR never materialized. While mostly inactive, the Sørveiens did continue to hold a grudge against the Republic of Posavaria, even suggesting that they had encouraged or participated in minor revengeful griefing. But otherwise, the whole region of Sparwood Minor and Cymru experienced a period of calm following the battle and returned to normal activity.

Not long after Aezenfjord's secession, Sørveien was completely annexed into the ascendant Imperial Archonate of Viodoxa, ending their claims to the mantle of the VIR.

Posavari Account
Shortly after the fighting ceased, Posavari officials released an official account, describing the defenders' perspective of the conflict and following controversy.