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 Sorveien and Bardonia on the offensive.

For more context surrounding the battle, see the Bardonian Wars.

Declaration
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 declared war on the Escharien Protectorate of Aezenfjord, the old capital of the defunct VIR.

The Republic of Posavaria and their allies in the Crescent Concordant also 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 the leader of Escharia could not be present for the battle, Sørveien agreed to leave Bardonia out of the conflict.

Preparation
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. 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.

Not much is known about the Sørveien preparation for battle. Their troops were mostly equipped with full enchanted diamond and even some netherite, outclassing many of the poorer defenders.

The Battle
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. They were turned back and retreated toward their base outside the city.

The defenders rallied a counterattack and engaged the Sørveiens, eventually causing them to rout and flee to their bed 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 line was broken and the defenders killed them and broke their beds to prevent them from respawning. The attackers' bed 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. The defenders had faced some casualties while trying to scale the bed tower, so the Sørveiens had a slightly higher kill count, but the defenders had entirely destroyed the invasion force and retained all of their gear and beds.

Bardonian Intervention
After losing the battle, the Sørveiens 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. These reinforcements were Call_Me_Realz, Dex_Og, ViewedMarquis, Unic0rnb0i, and BacktotheHub. 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 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

Uhh then the Bardonians showed up, we duked it out, one of their guys betrayed them for us, and we fucked em up"

- Interview with one of the Bardonians

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 keep attacking Aezenfjord, and possibly doing more damage in the future, until the city was theirs, so the caretaker of Aezenfjord yielded to the Sørveiens.

Aftermath
The controversy of Bardonia's involvement was potentially one of many factors that led to the end of their world conquest.