The Anarchy of Angularis

The Anarchy of Angularis
Date:	1635–the Present (Elw Calendar)
Place:	The Vale of Angularis (Elwynnese Union)
Casus belli:	The River War & re-emergence of the Dark Orchid Society
Outcome:	Ongoing.
Participants
Monarchist Elwynnese Union Amokolia (1635–1638) Alalehzamin and Utasia (after 1638) House of Ayreon-Kalirion House of Ettlingar Freyu Imperial and Emirati House of Osman (after 1636)		Nationalist Dark Orchid Society Brotherhood of LestImperial and Emirati House of Osman (before 1636) Simrani Faction (1635 only) Heretical Followers of Rrakanychan Separatist Amokolian Nationalists (after 1638) Israilovsky Kossars
Commanders
King Noah Fjǫrleif Llængjarla Thorgils Tarjeisson Anousheh Batmanghelidjh (P.o.W.)		Tokaray al-Osman (P.o.W.) Sighvat the Yardistani Jalal Nasser Muluk Khan†
Strength
Fleur de Lys-Longships Guard: 252,617 Union Defence Force: 919,892 Vanic Temple Guard:52,355 Corps of the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels: 157,000 Emirati Riddare: 11,045 Stratioti:19,600		Elwwehr: 200,000–250,000 ---Followers of Rrakanychan: 60,000 --- Army of the Third Republic: 25,000–50,000 Israilovsky Host: 40,000–45,000
Casualties
1635–1638: 1,441 killed & 6,100 injured 1639:		1635–1638: 306 killed, 4,500+ injured & 342 arrested 1639:
Notes

Prelude: a lawless time on the frontier

A terrible drought had struck the Vale of Angularis in 1632 and by the following year the food reserves had disappeared in thin air. The local nobles, loyally serving the Elwynnese state, had requested for aid, but even the relief that had been sent by their King Noah had been insufficient. Thousands of people had left their birthplace in pure misery to find a better life in the cities of the Hólmlendar, but there they only found even more poverty. Villagers became scared, as more and more peasants flocked together within the city walls. Groups of bandits made the roads unsafe and rumour even spread that one of those groups had sacked a village in Highpass.

It didn't take long before several men and women proclaimed that the leaders had failed and that new ones - preferably themselves - would guide the people to prosperity. Sighvat the Cruel, also known as Sighvat the Yardistani, had risen to fame after his attack on the Lichbrookian village and was feared by many. His followers, who sought to liberate the demon Rrakanychan, were fanatical. One after another villages swore loyalty to him or were wiped of the map. Stories about human sacrifices, slavery of those who resist and more spread like wildfire.

The House of Ayreon-Kalirion was gravely affected by the scandal of Miranda Simrani-Kalirion being seen to marry beneath herself to Frederik Anders, the UDF Brigadgeneral from the Western Marches, inspired her sister, Isabella Simrani-Kalirion, to a cold fury. This, combined with a desire to escape from a marriage match with the House of Ettlingar Freyu, inspired her to take a dozen of the family's retainers, a portion of the Simrani treasure-horde and a liberated main battle tank and to set off to Fiorecittà in pursuit of vengeance. The departure took place on Izillare 14 Vixaslaa, 1632, the date of a left behind for the attention of her step-sister Noor expressing, amongst other things, disapproval of conjugal relations with the Elfinshi.

Brushing past a weakly manned Tellian border post, Isabella swept into Fiorecittà and took the family of the city Burgomaster hostage demanding in return for their release the handing over of Frederik Anders and his family. After a tense stand-off, the Tellian state capitulated agreed to the hostage exchange which took place at an abandoned Ashkenatzim shtetl in the Green. After leaving her sister and nephews in the care of her faithful retainers, Isabella - with a kitchen knife in one hand - dragged Anders into a ruined barn. He was never seen alive again. The so-called Bloody Barn has become a scene of pilgrimage amongst the more morbidly inclined partisans of the House of Kalirion.

The severed head of Frederik Anders was sent to Noor as a gift and a symbol of reconciliation and the restoration of family honour on Izillare 20 Qinamu, 1632.

Isabella then took it upon herself to raise Miranda's children in the hope that they would become faithful servants of the family.

In 1634 the Patroness of Kalir reached an accommodation with erstwhile Steward of Elwynn and paramilitary warlord Tokaray al-Osman whereby she acquired provisions, a cache of weapons, laboratory equipment, forty Land Cruisers and pick-up trucks, as well as an entourage of one-hundred and fifty paramilitaries from the Dark Orchid Society. The security detail was intended to provide protection against brigands such as Sighvat the Yardistani who had attacked settlements in Lichbrook and was believed to be moving closer to the border with the Vale of Angularis.

In late summer of 1634, Isabella and her companions took over an ethnic Ashkenatzim village in the western districts of the Vale known as šiqqǔṣ Mišômēm, and having cleansed the populace established a headquarters and base for the mobile laboratory.

1635

The Dark Ocean Society, having spent years preparing and organising for the overthrow of the Elwynnese Monarchy, eagerly agreed to support the attack on Eliria by mercenaries loyal to Margana Win'Eth, that led to the River War. The timetable of the attack was accelerated when King Noah issued the Royal Decree of 18 Araroqpinu 1635 and ordered the deployment of Longship Guards, Cudgellers and local enforcement officers to the Bailiwick of Allswell, in response to an unrelated attempt on the life of Queen Noor by suspected agents of the Jingdaoese Tegong. Although supportive of the attack and embroiled in the subsequent fighting in Alalehzamin between factions of the Behsaz party the Dark Orchid Society was not invested in an Imperialist victory. It's main objective was to create a disordered environment in which it could continue its activities uninterrupted and slowly supplant the state power. With that objective in mind, it began to step up its activities in the Vale of Angularis, which was the least developed, at least outside the Pale of Angularis of any of the provinces of Elwynn, being the most recently incorporated into Shireroth following decades of anarchy after the fall of Ashkenatza.

Under the cover of suicide bombings attempted against hospitals and the garrisons of Gentlemen-at-Cudgels in Tielion Loki and Azeroth on the 9th of Elroqpinu 1635, the disparate terrorist groups and brigands sponsored by the society began a steady withdrawal westwards towards the untamed frontier with Minarboria and Tellia. There the Society began to try to organise the militants into the core cadre of what they aspired to have become the Elwwehr, a national liberation army, although shortages of manpower, weapons and munitions, means that this 'army' is scarcely equal to a division of light infantry, initially with around 18,000 men and women under arms, only a third of whom have undergone any formalised basic training. The best that most will hope for is to be given a gun and some rudimentary instruction whilst on the march to the west. The rebels for the most part attempted to travel by night and avoided settlements and main roads, reducing the risk of detection whilst considerably slowing their progress. Under orders from the society, no band is to be greater than one-hundred and fifty men in number whilst on the move until they reach the mustering zone, in an attempt - probably forlorn - to prevent the movement being compromised by having any greater number caught in security dragnets. The rebel groups are cellular in structure and currently known only to the leaders and their handlers who remain concealed in civil society, to limit exposure if any one band is captured and interrogated.

Situation in the Vale on Elroqpinu 1635

Sighvat the Yardistani, operating from the southern portion of the Forest of Angularis, remained aloof from the Elw led insurgency, focusing instead on his own depraved holy war, which still remained focused around trying to isolate and storm the Elwynnese administered Tellian enclave of Scoglitto. The Fleur de Lys-Longships Guard played a vital role in keeping the city connected to the outside world by air, maintaining an 'air-bridge' of munitions and supplies to the beleaguered garrison of Cudgellers and conducting regular sweeps by helicopter gunships that kept Sighvat's forces from establishing a permanent presence in the enclave. The siege and blockade of Scoglitto would continue until 1639.

In Nomeziooqu 1635, Isabella's purpose for acquiring laboratory equipment became apparent when she implanted in herself with a fertilised embryo made of genetic material cloned from her father. On Izillare the 20th of Nomeziooqu, 1635, Miranda also gave birth to her first child by Tokaray, Azardokht, whose name means 'Daughter of Fire' in Babkhi. A desire to secure these tenuous threads of genetic continuity, as well as mounting alarm at the power Sighvat was beginning to acquire in the Vale, led the Simrani sisters to begin to look for the means of effecting a reconciliation with their other sister, Noor, who was by this time Queen of Goldshire in her own right. At the same time, Tokaray al-Osman sought to distance himself from the Dark Orchid Society, at least for the moment, sensing, perhaps correctly, that they were moving too fast towards a direct confrontation with the Kingdom of Elwynn, which could ultimately call upon superior firepower, air support, artillery and the massed ranks of the Longship Guards, the Union Defence Force and the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels. As such his priority was to secure the removal of his newly acquired family and retainers out of the Vale.

1636

Whilst refraining from direct action, the Elwwehr grew in strength and coherence. The Dark Ocean Society began to establish its presence in the towns and villages of the Barrowlands and, while the attention of the Longship Guard was turned towards wearing down the forces of Sighvat, began to form what was, for all intents and purposes, a shadow government; one capable of 'taxing' individuals and businesses for protection money, cornering the market in illegal prostitution, drugs smuggling and racketeering, whilst at the same time offering a lucrative career path to youths in an agricultural society only a few generations removed from an era when the ability to fight and wage war was the sole criterion for status and respect.

1639

The Assize

Main Article: The Journey to the West

The Assize would see the Arandur complete a full circuit of the Vale of Angularis beginning in Eribazistaan and ending in Azeroth

Suspected of complicity in the refusal of the Warden of Ebarizstaan to render homage, the Mayor of the Bailiwick, Anousheh Batmanghelidjh, was placed under house arrest by soldiers from the 2nd Elwynnese Brigade (Alalehzamin) to await the culmination of the Arandur of Alalehzamin and Utasia's Assize in the Bailiwick when an inquisition into her conduct would be launched.

The Hjalmar Offensive Operation

An operation launched by the 10th division of the UDF, the Zjandarian Guards, to secure the internal border between Elwynn and Lichbrook and to restore land communications with Scoglitto. Resulted in a number of engagements with the Followers of Rrakanychan and was only a partial success.

Date	Location	Units Deployed	Opposing Forces	Summary	Loyalist Casualties	Rebel Loses
19 Elroqpinu, 1639	Gyndesford (6km west of Azeroth)	Elwynnsbrigad 2 Alalehzamin‎ Elwynnsbrigad 3 Utasia	13,000 Amokolians 100 improvised guns	Gyndesford, a crossing of the river Gyndes, held by Amokolian separatists behind three semicircular barricades and ditches. Negotations ended with militants dispersed by artillery fire.	72 injured.	2,383 killed 320 taken prisoner.