The Battle of Lötreck

The Battle of Lötreck is a great battle that took place in the final days of the summer of the year 29 A.S, near the village of Lötreck, in the Northern Continent of Suler. This battle marked the beginning of The War of the Three Lords and saw the three leaders of the Sulirien Republic - Malar, Maekar and Pax - fight their first battle against one another.

THE MEETING OF LOTRËCK
On the eve of battle, on the 11th day of Marelion of the year 29 A.S, the three leaders of the Sulirien Republic met in the tavern of the village of Lötreck. The tavern, named The Cracked Tankard, was at the center of the village and therefore was deemed neutral ground by the three leaders. Malar arrived first with two of his best guardsmen, followed a few minutes later by Maekar with a small escort. Pax arrived an hour late with his concubine and an entire escort which displeased both Malar and Maekar greatly before even the negociations started.

Malar offered pardon to Maekar as no ill between the two of them had yet been done and advised Pax to retreat and leave Suliri with his men to search another planet to live on as Malar would have nothing to do with him anymore. Maekar refused the offer, stating that Malar was too weak to be the ruler of the Suliriens who needed someone strong and firm to deal with people like Pax. He offered Malar to surrender his army to him in which case he would be pardonned. He would lose his place as leader of the Republic but would remain an advisor to Maekar as he would continue to lead their people alone. Pax then pointed out that his numbers were far greater than his two opponents and that he would have no difficulties smashing their armies. After that, he would execute both of them for treason against the Sulirien people before resuming his campaign to eradicate the Elenniens out of Suliri.

Malar and Maekar both threw back Pax's threats to him, naming him traitor to the Sulirien Republic and promising him a swift death after the battle. No agreement was then reached and the negociations were cut short. Pax left the room first with his men and his concubine to prepare for the battle at hand. Malar and Maekar left at the same time, wishing each other good fortune in the upcoming battle.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE BATTLE
At daybreak, on the 12 days of Marelion of the year 29 A.S, the three armies marched against one another on the fields, south of Lötreck. The battle would take place only two hours later. Pax had brought an army of over eighteen thousands strong, Maekar had brought twelve thousands men and Malar had brought the same number aided with another thousand of Elennien troops.

Malar had taken position on a hill, south-east of Lötreck, and digged trenches around it to protect his men. Knowing the facts that Pax had more men than he had and Maekar was a military genius, he preferred using a defensive tactic over an aggressive one. Laying traps around the hill and placing sharpshooters near the trenches, he placed his best infantery men behind the barricades of the trenches to be able to push back any attacks on them. Behind all the lines, in the reserve, waited three thousands mounted men with Malar and his personnal elite guard surrounding him. Maekar had positionned himself near the village to be able to retreat back behind the walls if need be. There he would have a powerful defensive position with walls, spikes and time to deal with any threat that came up against him. If the walls were breached, Maekar knew he could draw the fights into very narrow streets where his cavalery of five thousands men would crush any opposition while his infantery would take the remnants of the armies in the rear, cutting off their retreats. Pax had placed his army west of the village in a gigantic march order. His infantery was standing in the first lines with pikes to receive any cavalery charge. His sharpshooters were close behind to be able to exchange the first lines with the infantery and send a volley on the enemies. The cavalery was on the sides to prevent any flanking on his troops. Pax was leading the bagage rear, not thinking of having any part in the battle.

After two hours where the armies waited the orders from their leaders, it became clear that neither Maekar nor Malar would give up their defensive advantages, therefore forcing Pax to make the first move. Wishing to finish the fighting as soon as possible, he decided to split his forces in two in order to strike both against Maekar and Malar. This turned out to be a terrible decision as Pax's army could not advance on Malar nor Maekar without horrible casualties.

THE BATTLE ON MALAR'S HILL
"'The hill roared with the screams of thousands of souls. The swords were raised as the Albis charged and were met with steel, lasers and blood. Four times they charged and four times they were sent back until the green grass of the hill and dark earth were soaked in the crimson of blood and death.' - Elyas Darmont, survivor of the Battle of Lötreck."Pax thought that Maekar would be much more difficult to defeat than Malar. Indeed, Maekar was a soldier and gladiator slave, brought up to be a machine of war. He was clever, cunning, brave and had the complete loyalty of the men following him. Therefore, when he glimpsed the mass of Malar's army perched atop the Green Hill, Pax decided that the biggest portion of his army would fight Maekar's host and sent one of his most trusted lieutenant to deal with Malar.

Lieutenant Yolreck Elkroz commanded the vanguard of Pax's army, near two thousands strong, each man mounted on Albis. As Pax was too far to be able to have a distinct view of Malar's defenses on the hill, he did not see the trenches, spikes and positions of his enemy clearly and assumed that a charge of his best men would be enough to ride them down and send them fleeing. Eager to please his general, Lieutenant Elkroz charged blindly towards the hill. As both the Albis and riders were heavily armored, the charge required a lot of efforts for the poor creatures and the first mistake of Elkroz was to make them charge from the other side of the battlefield. For five minutes, the Albis ran as fast as the wind towards their target and when enventually they reached it, they were completely exhausted.

Malar observed Pax movement of troops and had anticipated his choice of sending his vanguard to him while the main host would go to Maekar. He commanded his sharpshooters and pikemen to lay low and hide in the grass so that the enemy would think his number to be far fewer than what they were in reality. To Malar's greatest satisfaction, Lieutenant Elkroz charged blindly towards him.

The choice of the hill for Malar was not a total coincidence. Apart from giving him a vantage point to observe the battle, it was a position easy to defend and above all Malar had taken position on the eastern side of the battlefield. As the sun rose, the two thousands of men rushing towards Malar's host were against the sun. Blind to their movement and numbers, they could only glimpse shadows on the hill which worked to Malar's advantage. As soon as Elkroz was at firing range of his sharpshooters, Malar gave signal for his men to shoot three volleys against them."'The distance between our sharpmen and their riders was so thin that we did not even need to aim at them. They were coming at us, roaring curses and shouting war cries... We answered with blaster lasers and fury. On the first volley, hundreds of men and riders had been shot. The riders were falling like flies and were crushed under the hooves of their own brothers at arms. By the time the second volley was done, a quarter of their number had been dealt with and by the time the third volley was shot, those who had not been wounded or killed were upon us... or so they thought...' - Elyas Darmont, survivor of the Battle of Lötreck."Lieutenant Elkroz quickly realized his mistake when he saw that a third of his men had been brought down before his charge even reached the hill... but the worse was yet to come. As soon as the riders came upon the lower levels of the hills that they were greeted by Malar's pikemen, hidden in the trenches. Stabbing the bellies and throats of the Albis, they sent the riders tumbling down into the trenches where the rest of the men dealt with them with laser swords and daggers. Elkroz decided to retreat then and reform his men into larger ranks so that the shooters could not bring them down as easily. Meanwhile, the men they had left in the trenches were being butchered, overwhelmed by the numbers of Malar's infantery.

Lieutenant Elkroz tried a different approach to the problem at hand. He needed to take the hill and he was sure that it would be unprotected on the sides. He ordered half a thousand of his men to dismount and advance on the enemy lines head on while the rest of the mounted men, about six hundred riders would separate into two groups and flank the enemy's position. As the men advanced in the middle, the riders began their approach only to realize that the trenches had been dug on every sides of the hill with only very slim and few causeways where only two riders could ride through at the same time. Meanwhile, Malar, who had a front row seat on the enemy's positions, ordered his sharpshooters to harass the enemy's flanks at they were making their way around the hill. The men fired at will causing dozens of men to fall from their mounts, instantly killed by the lasers aiming at the weak points of their armors or directly at their Albis.

As the Lieutenant was seeing that his men could not break through the flanks, he ordered the five hundred men on foot to charge the enemy pikemen and take the trenches while the riders would harass the sides of the hill to keep the shooters occupied. This caused a gigantic melee into the trenches as the five hundred men faced Malar's infantery of five thousands strong. However, the lack of space worked at Elkroz advantage as the five hundred men were pushing the five thousands backwards, abandonning the trenches to the enemy. This forced Malar to charge with his full reserve, a force of eight thousands strong all mounted on Albis, directly onto the enemy. The charge resulted into a disaster for the Lieutenant's men as they were completely unequipped to face a charge of mounted soldiers."'They had taken the lower trenches and were singing already as if they had won the war with a single charge. Then the warhorn sounded and we all knew they were done for. We opened our ranks to let the riders pass... I will always remember, the sun shining on leather and steel and the deep blue of the laser swords on the red and purple colour of the sky. Pax's men made a brave show at first, taunting the riders to approach but soon we heard the crashing of steel on flesh, the cries of dying men and smelled the scent of blood as the riders rode the footmen down. Malar was at the head of the column, armored in gold and silver, golden antlers on his helmet, holding a beautiful laser longsword. In minutes, the footmen lost all courage as their host was being cut to pieces. Most of them tried to retreat in order while some of them yielded, dropping their weapons, and begging for mercy. Some were granted their wish, most of them were not.' - Elyas Darmont, survivor of the Battle of Lötreck."Lieutenant Yolreck Elkroz had lost more than two thirds of his vanguard but would not listen to the pleas of his men, begging him to retreat. Seeing an opportunity in the charge of Malar's reserve, Elkroz thought he had began to pierce their defenses and had forced Malar to give everything he had to protect his center. Convinced of his advantage, Elkroz charged with his full strength against Malar's forces. The numbers alone were far against him as he had only four hundred men against an army of almost twelve thousands, strongly armed and ready for his charge.

Malar knew that he had won the fight but would not risk more of his men into a useless charge. He pulled back his reserve and placed his pikemen in front lines followed by his sharpshooters. Kneeling down and presenting their pikes to the enemies, the first lines waited the upcoming charge calmly. A few seconds later, Elkroz riders crashed against the shield and pike wall of Malar's defense lines causing most of the Albis to fall immediately. The sharpshooters then opened fire on the rest of Elkroz men, bringing them down to almost nothing. As Elkroz mount was killed in the charge, he rallied a dozen men to him and decided to form a last stand against Malar's reserve that came charging down on the last hundred men standing."'As the riders came down the hill to deal with the few enemies trying to flee, I saw a dozen men surrounding a beautiful young lad in bright copper armor. They sang bravely as they faced death but the riders rode them down anyway. When I looked among the corpses hours later, I found the copper amored man again. He had been pierced by dozens of spears and terrible blows at been dealt to his once fair face. His armor had drank his blood and was now shining red and bloodied. He could not be older than twenty and he died foolishly. - Elyas Darmont, survivor of the Battle of Lötreck."Elkroz last men were quickly cut to pieces as they had nothing to shield themselves with. Elkroz himself was slain during the charge, his body would be found at the end of the day among his twelve men. His body would later be returned to Pax, cleaned from the blood of the battle. Malar had won his first victory on the Green Hill and Pax learnt that day that his former friend would not be so easily destroyed.

THE BATTLE UNDER LÖTRECK'S WALLS
While Pax's vanguard was charging Malar's Hill, his main host was moving against Maekar waiting for them under the walls of Lötreck. Pax decided caution would be wise against Maekar as he had a good number of men both under and on the top of the walls of Lötreck with a strong defensive position. Adding to that advantage, Maekar was a seasonned warrior and very capable commander of troops.

Maekar was waiting on Pax troops as he knew Malar would not leave his strong defensive position anytime soon and wasn't planning on fighting him on this battle. For Maekar, this battle was all about Pax and a possibility to remove him from the field on the first day of the war. Taking position in the village of Lötreck, Maekar placed his best sharpshooters and men at arms on the walls while the pikemen waited in front of the gates and walls. His reserve was mainly made out of Albis riders and a few thousands pikemen to send where they would be most needed.

Opposite of Maekar was Pax's host with a very strong force of infantery and cavalery but lacking good sharpshooters. Positionning his infantery to take on the pikemen, he would then try to overwhelm the walls with his numbers and wait for the gates to open to charge in with his cavalery and crushing Maekar's reserve who was largely inferior in numbers.

The battle started with a huge melee under the walls of Lötreck where the infantery of both armies met with sword and spears. Pax's army had numbers however Maekar's lines of pikemen where some of his best men, known to be both ferocious and resourceful. These men, helped by the sharpshooters on their vantage points on the walls, were holding their own quite well against Pax's infantery who couldn't pass the shield and spear wall that was blocking their way. Pax tried a different approach by using some of his sharpshooters to fire on the flanks of the shield wall. The surprise attack worked for a few minutes where the pikemen started falling, allowing Pax's men at arms to come closer and attack them with their blades. Upon seeing this, Maekar sent a few hundreds of his pikemen from the reserve to support the men outside and appeared on the wall to scream encouragements to his men. When seeing their general and leader, Maekar's men took heart and reformed their ranks into a square.

Pax, upon seeing the gates opening to let reinforcements out, ordered a charge that broke off immediately when the enemy took a square formation as the horses would not jump over a shield wall and had no space to go around the formation to get to the door. Pax was then forced to call off the attack after hours of unsuccessful fightings and decided he would take a few days to bring his siege weapons forward to be able to take the city by storming the walls.

Maekar had lost two hundred of his men while Pax had lost more than half a thousand. When seeing his enemy retreating, Maekar brought back his men inside and prepared more defenses and a plan for retreat as he knew that this was only but the first test of the knife and the final thrust would be much more difficult to push back.

THE NIGHT OF FIRE
The first day of battle had just passed with none of the three lords taking a real advantage on the two others. Pax's army had taken severe casualties with his vanguard completely smashed by Malar's army and the walls of Lötreck were still standing, protecting Maekar hauled up behind them.

Malar knew that his position was a risky one if he were to be attacked by both Maekar and Pax and decided to extend his fortificaitons around the Hill his army was stationned on. Using the night to his advantage, his men dug new trenches and planted spikes all around the small hill. Bigger fortificaitons were added on the hill, slowly turning it into a small wooden fort.

Maekar observed those movements during the night but did very little to prevent them, deciding to focus his attention on Pax's army which was still larger than both Maekar's and Malar's. Using the inn as his headquarters, Maekar decided to carry out a plan of action that very night to weaken Pax's army. The meeting that started The Night of Fire was transcribed in a letter by one of Maekar's junior officers, Captain Raymund Torelm."'The air was full of smoke from the longpipes of the generals and lieutenants and it felt like we would suffocate from this before the night was out. The day had been long and difficult. Some of us had minor injuries or scratches on the arms or face but we all smiled widely for we he had held on the gates of Lötreck and the two usurpers had been beaten by our forces. Maekar had a plan to make our victory on the fields of Lötreck a swift and sudden one. Malar was of no concern to us for the moment for he was sitting on his hill, waiting for the fight to come to him rather than face us like a real Sulirien. Maekar dispatched Lieutenant Taribell and ten of his good men to enter Pax's camp and wreck havock there. Once again, this showed us that we had wisely decided to follow Maekar The Strong and that we would win this war very quickly...'"

Maekar's plan was an easy one. Dispatching some of his men into Pax's camp, they would slain the camp sentinels, set fire to the food and fuel reserve, frighten the Albis for them to run away and trample tents and soldiers all around. This tactic would ensure that Pax's siege of the city would be impossible for they would not be able to hold in the long run.

Lieutenant Nyn Taribell was a young but respected officer that was one of Maekar's closest advisors and friends. He commanded the rearguard of Maekar's army and was an efficient strategist and commander of troops. Nyn Taribell was also known to be a very fair player in battle, allowing the enemy to retreat and taking prisonners rather than slaughtering everyone else. He was respected by his peers and also by most of his enemies and was a good choice for a commando mission. With ten of his best men, he headed towards Pax's camp in the dark of the night to accomplish his mission.

In Pax's army however, the morale was low. The men had taken quite defeat and the vanguard had been crushed by Malar. Pax's rage upon his officers had been harsh and brutal and soldiers could hear him yell at his war council from all over the camp. Pax believed that he had been betrayed by some of them for the battle to have turned so sour. He regrouped his officers in his headquarters and interrogated them for hours. On the thirty officers of Pax's army, five were hanged that very night for suspicion of High Treason.

In the middle of the night, in the first hours of the 13th of Marelion, Pax's camp was awoken in great panic by the sight of a huge fire spreading through the camp. The food storage was burning and the water tanks had been spilled. The first soldiers to emerge from sleep were almost trampled by the Albis, running scared everywhere in the camp, to be then murdered by the swords of Maekar's eleven soldiers who were trying to slay as much enemies as possible before running away from camp.

Pax woke up and took arms, rallying his men around him to push back this attack.Lieutenant Nyn Taribell knew that the time for retreat was upon them and ordered his men to seize as many Albis as possible to ride towards Lötreck in all haste."'The fire spread into the camp, like a firestorm... Tents, wood, animals and men burnt and the screams rose high in the night sky. From afar, we could see them moving like frightened ants as the sounds of the alarm horn echoed in the darkness. Nothing seemed to stop the hungry fires from destroying Pax's camp and in our hearts we cheered and wept, for good men were burning that morning for no reason other than a quest for power.' - Malar Suliri"

Lieutenant Nyn Taribell cut his way through the soldiers trying to prevent him to leave and managed to get back to Lötreck, slightly wounded at the leg by a spear that broke into his upper thigh. On his ten men, only four managed to get back alive as the others were caught by the soldiers or died in the raging fire. But Maekar's plan had worked and Pax's position on the meadow of Lötreck was becoming quite difficult to maintain without proper support and reserve.

In Malar's camp, some soldiers had awoken to watch the fires from afar. Malar himself is said to have gazed upon the burning camp for a good part of the night. He would never forget the sight of the men burning as he named the night of the 12th to the 13th of Marelion, "The Night of Fire."

THE DAYS OF THE STRANGE WAR
On the 13th of Marelion, the day begun in a very cold wind and harsh rain, making the meadow in front of Lötreck and putting out the last fires from the previous nights. Fat rain drop came crashing down on the meadow making it very uneven and dangerous for Albis riders.