Half the seed of Pelagea, one by one

[Myroria]

One can imagine Indorin Nerevroth after the War; perhaps on, say, November 6, 1948 - the fiftieth anniversary of the start of that splendid little war - sitting in his library, sipping on a glass of scotch as any bitter old war veteran should. He would be sitting there in his deep red leather chair, speaking in an almost unintelligible croak, describing his first battle on the gently sloping land along the southern border of Myroria.

This battle will be called by historians the "Battle of Vrerevot" - "Green hills" in the old Myrorian - but Indorin will know it as the day that, to quote his battalion commander, "The Americans would be very disappointed in us."

The battle was the first between Myrorian and Neustrian forces, about thirty miles inside Myroria, and occurred on the fifteenth of November, 1898 - only two days after the official declaration of war upon Myroria by Neustria. Indorin was a member of the 1st Quarrovth Battalion - sent there to meet the advancing Neustrian force. Indorin was serving as a courier for the Myrorian brass, delivering orders from commander to commander. Only one of the commanders present at Vrerevot, Fendryn Quarrovth, actually had experience in battle - and it was with Fendryn that Indorin witnessed the slaughter that took place on the green hills of Vrerevot that autumn day.

Fendryn Quarrovth was, at the time of the battle, a minor House Quarrovth noble whose only claim to fame was being one of the few noble officers who didn't resign when Myroria outlawed the sale of commissions. Additionally, he was probably one of the few officers in the Grand Army of the Empeureum who had both experience and skill. He was Lieutenant Colonel at the time of the battle, commanding the 1st Quarrovth Battalion that Indorin was a member of.

Fendryn Quarrovth will also, in 1935, be chosen by the Council of the Great Houses to succeed Nelvil II Moomintroth to the throne of Myroria. His son-in-law, Peté Tar-Ilium, will be the second Myrorian monarch to be impeached. But that is neither here nor there.

On the first day of battle, Quarrovth's headquarters was atop one of the many hills at Vrerevot, and Indorin had been ordered by the commanding officer of the Myrorian forces present at Vrerevot, General Hort Orvas Hlaatrith, to deliver orders for the initial assault on the Neustrian position to Colonel Quarrovth. It is at this point that it becomes clear exactly why the Americans would be disappointed in General Hlaatrith's plan - because they tried it on the fields of Pennsylvania and it failed just as miserably there.

Hlaatrith's plan was, of course, a full-on charge upon the Neustrian position. This was not the trench warfare that would characterize the war within a few months. This was the first Myrorian battle against a belligerent nation-state since their last war with Neustria, in 1785. "Horribly incompetent" would be an understatement for the majority of Myrorian commanders at the beginning of this war. Even Fendryn, the most experienced officer at Vrerevot, had not fought a professional army. He had fought natives on the eastern border of Nouvé Resdaynea, not a Neustrian force armed with modern guns and heavy artillery.

That being said, even battles with natives had proved that against rifles, a charge would be nothing but futile. Fendryn was sending his men to die - a charge, in 1898, against men with bolt-action, modern rifles? Indorin handed Fendryn these orders, he read them, and the first thing out of his quickly whitening face was:

"The Americans will be very disappointed in us." Quickly handing the orders back to Indorin, Colonel Quarrovth rushed over to his field desk and scribbled out a response:

Hort, such an order is madness. Charges became folly 60 years ago. My men will be slaughtered if this order is carried out. I urge you to reconsider.

Lieutenant Colonel Fendryn Quarrovth

Indorin was nothing if not swift with delivering messages. The reply came as the first rays of sunlight appeared on the horizon.

Colonel, these are the orders that you have recieved. The commanders of the other battalions have not questioned my orders. This plan will lead to a quick victory over the Neustrians. I recommend that you carry out your orders without delay so that the charges can be accurately coordinated.

General Orvas Hlaatrith

Colonel Quarrovth's hands clutched the note so firmly that the edges got wrinkled. After rereading it for what seemed to Indorin at least five minutes, Fendryn turned to him.

"I recommend you stay here, courier. This will get ugly."

[Myroria]

"Let me read this," began Nelvil II. He was short for a Myrorian, at only 5'10'', but he was a broad man like his father and was an imposing figure, especially on the skinny general standing before him. Nelvil had personally rode out on a train to the Myrorian headquarters north of Quarrovth to review General Orvas Hlaatrith, and one could tell the Empeurer was not happy.

"Let me read this. This is from a report by Colonel Baladas Loque, 3^rd Pelagian. 'General Hlaatrith ordered my regiment to take part in the charge on the Neustrian position at Vrerevot. My Pelagian division marched on the entrenched Neustrian force in an attempt to force them further south, away from the town of Vrerevot. Of the 2,350 men under my command, 1,434 were casualties from the assault - 967 deaths, 122 wounded, and 45 captured by the Neustrians.' Oh, oh, and how about this report, from Lieutenant Colonel Fendryn Quarrovth - 'Although I warned Hort Hlaatrith that the charge was futile, he demanded that it continue regardless. My division of 1,400 men charged the Neustrian position, and of those, there were 433 deaths, 30 wounded, and 79 captured by the Neustrians.'. Or maybe this one, Hort - from General Rervis Priltroth and his Quarrovth Division - 'Of the three regiments in my division, all suffered over 40% casualties and one suffered 75% casualties in the charge ordered by Hort Hlaatrith.'

"General Hlaatrith. The Neustrians crushed our force at Vrerevot and captured the town. 5,000 Myrorian citizens, killed, raped, and abused. Now they are shelling the city of Quarrovth. This war is hardly a month old and already the enemy is halfway to Resdaynea. Indiorith's Weekly is demanding your resignation, general. And I'm seriously considering demanding it myself. If you are not going to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while. I am sending you to overview the fortification of Traval City. Can I trust you with that, Orvas, or will you charge out of the city to meet any attacker? General Priltroth will assume command of the Army of Quarrovth. I recommend to you, Orvas, that you hope this charge does not have more serious consequences than what has already occurred. You are dismissed. I hope that I shall never have to call on you to defend Myroria in battle again, General Hlaatrith."

[Myroria]

Indorin had a fondness after the war of calling the Quarrovth Campaign "one long flanking maneuver.". After the illustrious General Hlaatrith was removed from command, his replacement, Priltroth, did show some semblance of competence by managing to remove the enemy from Quarrovth. The city was fairly shaken from the shelling, but the citizens there remained under the Myrorian flag. The success of Priltroth's plan though, could more likely be attributed to luck than any sort of higher tactical thinking on his part. The battles were in close enough succession that the Neustrians could not adopt their typical plan of entrenchment - a tactic developed by the Neustrians-Austrasian alliance in battle with various tribes and city-states south of their borders. The trenches that the Neustrians did manage to construct in the single peaceful night that most often took place between battles were not very advanced earthworks, and were easily breached by Myrorian men in, again, "one long flanking maneuver".

But now the Quarrovth campaign had ground to a halt. The armies were now not more than fifteen miles north of Myroria's most embarrassing spot, Vrerevot, when the armies stalled, again with the Myrorians at one end of a long field and a Neustrian-Austrasian force at another.

Indorin's brief tenure as a courier for the Myrorian forces had ended. He had gained a reputation among command for having an oddly large number of horses shot out from under him, so they send him back to the lines to fight with the First Quarrovth. It was about 6:30 on a cold Myrorian night in early January - the fifth to be exact - that Indorin saw a lieutenant approaching. Immediately he feared the worst, as did many of the men gathered around the campfire. This situation was almost identical to the one at Vrerevot just weeks earlier, and when they saw any officer approaching, they had a rather natural reaction of extreme nervousness. The men were about to stand to salute the officer when he waved his hand.

"Though I wouldn't get too comfortable," the lieutenant began as the men who were about to stand readjusted themselves on their stools. "Word from command. We're taking a hint from our oh-so-honorable enemies the Neustrians and entrenching. Temporarily, of course..." if sarcasm could drip, then this officer's speech would be dripping worse than a cheesesteak. He removed his pale maroon forage cap and scratched his head as he continued: "If you work hard," he said, looking behind him to a similar group of men standing and beginning to dig. "we might have a completed trench by morning." He smiled cynically and replaced his cap. He relished the expression on the men's faces before turning his gaze to the campfire behind them. "GENTLEMEN!" he shouted as he walked off.