The Great Revolution in Neptaris

This is an article on the History of Feyworld
Years: 900 NC to 1000 NC
Age: The Third Age of Man
Continent: Duria
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The History of Neptaris
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The Rule of the Empire in Neptaris	The Second Cambrecian War

In the spring of 900 NC, the response to the Imperial edict that ceded Neptaris to Cambrecia came in the form of Hadrag of House Markos. Hadrag, despite his descent from nobility, refused to align himself with the Empire and found himself imprisoned for his volatile beliefs more than a few times in the last decade of the 9th century. In the winter of 899 NC, he was released from his most recent stint in the work camps only to start fomenting rebellion again. This time, his voice was heard and the people rallied behind him. In the elections of 900 NC, Hadrag and two of his strongest supporters, Richard Goldshield and Theod Maquin, were elected to the Supreme Assembly. After passing a measure to declare their independence from the Empire, Hadrag stepped down and was immediately named Marshall of Arms for Neptaris.

Immediately upon his confirmation as Marshall of Arms, Hadrag gathered together a group of soldiers who despised the Empire and sacked the Imperial garrison in Neptaris. He also arrested Imperial tax collectors, bureaucrats and naval captains as enemies of the state and had many of them executed. Those who were not executed were stripped of their properties and sent to Septarium wearing nothing but hair shirts.

The King of Cambrecia, Basran Sugurd, massed an army and prepared to march on Neptaris. His trip to the city was fraught with danger as rebellious agents within Cambrecia harried his every step. When he reached Neptaris, he had only 500 soldiers with which to attack the city. Unfamiliar with military tactics, King Basran chose to attack, despite being outnumbered. His men were slaughtered by Marshall Hadrag and his army. Hadrag killed King Basran himself in battle and the royal's head was sent to Septarium as a lesson to the Empire.

Unfortunately, the Pontifex of Zelos in Septarium got the message all too well. He used the opportunity to name himself Regent of Basran's young son and recalled the Imperial Legate, Zemarchus Comitas of House Gabinius from northern Ciritasnia to fight against the rebels of Neptaris. Legate Zemarchus at first chose to ignore the pleas from the Pontifex and continued fighting against rebels in Ciritasnia. The Pontifex tried to amass what military strength he could, but continued rebellions kept most of the Imperial forces busy in central Cambrecia. The Pontifex finally realized that Neptaris was a fortified city, not a small rebel camp, and decided not to march on the city with the small army he was able to amass. He did, however, command the Imperial navy to begin sinking any vessel that carried the standard of Neptaris. The navy did not share the Legate's apathy for the situation, and Neptaris found itself unable to trade with its neighbors.

Marshall Hadrag, realizing that he must take the seas if he was going to achieve independence for the city, commissioned Garen Taltosbane as the first Grand Admiral of the Seas of Neptaris. Admiral Taltosbane, a former pirate that Hadrag had met in prison, quickly mobilized not only the Neptaran fleet but many pirate vessels from Marosh and slowly took control of the waters around Neptaris. By 923 NC, most of the Imperial fleet had been destroyed. It was in this year, however, that Legate Zemarchus had finally answered the summons of the Pontifex.

Marshall Hadrag, who had received little real resistance from the Empire, was now faced with a mighty Legion that was well supplied and trained. Within a month, Legate Zemarchus had taken the city and executed its leaders. Marshall Hadrag was drawn and quartered and pieces of his corpse were hung from each gate. The Legate then set the city ablaze and locked the portculli of the gates into place, trapping the citizens within. The city burned for two weeks before the fires finally subsided. Almost three-quarters of the city's population died.

Legate Zemarchus, arrogant from his victory at Neptaris, decided to solve all of Cambrecia's ills by taking his army back to Ciritasnia by way of the foothills of the Cambrecian Mountains, the center of rebellious thought in Cambrecia. As he moved through the foothills, he razed many towns and villages suspected of supporting rebellion. Late in the season of 924 NC, while Zemarchus and his Legion were enjoying their latest rampage through a defenseless town, a contingent of dwarven troops suddenly swarmed out of the mountains. The dwarves, led by King Jormung of Derlos, decimated Zemarchus' Legion and sent the Legate himself sneaking back to Septarium. Upon his arrival, the Pontifex had Zemarchus arrested, tried and executed for his actions in Neptaris.

The Neptarans were not appeased by the actions of the Pontifex, however, and the farmers of the former Territories began attacking any Imperial dignitary or fuctionary they could find. Their attacks were initially met with failure, but they eventually began to wear down the military presence Zemarchus had left behind. On the oceans, Admiral Taltosbane continued to maintain dominance from Marosh and prevented reinforcement by the Empire. Meanwhile, King Jormung began to supply the rebels of Cambrecia with weapons, food and much-needed training. Acknowledging the dangers of a three-pronged attack, the Pontifex of Zelos traveled to the Cambrecian Mountains to meet with a dwarven delegation in 925 NC. He initially met with some success, but a diplomatic blunder on the part of the Pontifex ended negotiations rather abruptly. He continued to attempt a diplomatic solution with the dwarves for the next five years, until his death in 930 NC.

Meanwhile, Neptaris itself was still under Imperial rule, though the Territories were now in full-fledged rebellion. Admiral Taltosbane died in 929 NC, but he had selected Griori "Blacklocks" Burgden as his successor. Blacklocks was a former Warcaptain from Tamerynd, and not only did he understand warfare at sea, but he had some experience in marine actions as well. His ships moved up and down the Cambrecian coast, attacking naval vessels, merchant vessels and coastal towns with no small measure of success. Hadrag's son, Creos, established a government-in-exile, called the War Assembly, on the island of Marosh in 932 NC. He and the fellow members of his Assembly officially recognized Admiral Blacklocks and began to coordinate efforts to retake the city itself. Unfortunately, the vast distances between the three forces made just sort an effort almost impossible.

In 936 NC, a gentleman farmer by the name of Simon Perrenoth rowed into the Maroshan Sea in search of one of Blacklocks' vessels. Miraculously, he succeeded and established contact between the rebellious Territories and the War Assembly. Creos Markos sent Simon Perrenoth back to the mainland with encrypted battle information for the dwarves. By the end of that year, Perrenoth had succeeded in constructing a secret means of communication between the three forces.

It is notable that, in this year, Garimund of Ryard stumbled across a flying ship in Ciritasnia. After boarding that ship, he discovered the decaying corpse of a man in strange armor with a book lying before him. That book, which would later be known as the Koram, would late become the founding notion of the Koramian Heresy.

Perrenoth's Neptaran Underground was operating at full force by the fighting season of 937 NC. Over the next five years, dwarves, farmer and pirates fought on the land and in the sea to free Neptaris. In 943 NC, Admiral Blacklocks and Creos Markos penetrated the Imperial defenses in the Bay of Krios and landed in Neptaris. They were able to secure most of the city, but the Imperials had decided to hole up in Castle Zepharos. The Siege of Zepharos lasted ten months. In the winter of 943 NC, Creos Markos died due to complications from the extreme temperatures of that winter and his subordinates decided to lift the siege. Admiral Blacklocks limped back to Marosh with the few troops who had survived.

By 945 NC, the Imperial Legion had finally recovered from its disastrous defeat at the hands of the dwarves. Legate Sarapion Leo of House Valerius arrived after sneaking through Blacklocks' barricade. When he arrived at Septarium, the Pontifex of Zelos supported the concept that the King, now of age, should command the Legions attempting to take Neptaris. Legate Sarapion refused and began to march on Neptaris when crusaders from the Church of Zelos captured him and brought him back to Septarium to answer for charges of heresy. During his trial, the Legate escaped long enough to get a message to his troops. On the day he was to be sentenced, they attacked Septarium and within a week had breached the walls. Upon being rescued by his men, the Legate declared martial law in Cambrecia and had the Pontifex and the King arrested on charges of treason. Sarapion, however, was not interested in conducting a trial. With the Pontifex and King out of his way, he again ordered the Legion to Neptaris.

Legate Sarapion's disagreement with the Pontifex and King of Cambrecia took several months to resolve and it was late autumn before his Legion reached Neptaris. He proceeded to reinforce the battered walls of Castle Zepharos and ordered the construction of massive numbers of warships in Neptaris' shipyards. Unfortunately, finding food was a problem. None of the farmers in the Territories would send food to Neptaris and shipments over both land and sea more often ended up in the hands of his enemies than in the mouths of his soldiers. When the spring of 946 NC arrived, he found his food stores empty. Sarapion took the bulk of his Legion into the now-dangerous countryside near Neptaris and began taking whatever food he could find, executing every farmer he could get his hands on. The atrocities committed during this time are still legendary, and some suggest that it was not just beef that the Legion subsisted off of that summer.

Perrenoth was able to get word to Blacklocks of the Legate's movements and the Admiral planned a daring blockade of Krios Bay. With only twelve ships, he entered the harbor and pounded the Neptaran shipyards in the early morning hours. Fortunately, Perrenoth had succeeded in warning the Neptaran people and only six people died in the conflagration that ensued. Needless to say, the Legate was incensed by the bold attack and immediately returned to Neptaris. He executed some two hundred people that were supposed to be working that day for dereliction of duty, even though the vast majority of them were civilians. He spent the rest of the fighting season of 946 between rebuilding his shipyards and trying to locate enough food to feed his troops.

In the spring of 947 NC, the Pontifex and King were released from their imprisonment and sent a message describing their ordeals to the Emperor. Metius was enraged by the actions of his Legate and immediately issued an order to Sarapion that he was to return to Zeth for trial. Sarapion, apparently, never received that message. He continued to fight against the rebels in the Territories and Blacklocks' men at sea until 952 NC, when a member of his personal guard assassinated him. Despite his political blunders, Legate Sarapion was the most effective Imperial military commander of the Great Rebellion.

Upon Sarapion's death, the Pontifex appointed King Medeno II of Cambrecia to the position of Legate, despite the fact that, according to Imperial law, only the Emperor had such power. Medeno, unfortunately, took his time with Neptaris. More interested in fighting the rebels closer to his own center of power, he recalled most of the Legion from Neptaris and sent them into the foothills of Cambrecia to fight the rebels there and their dwarven advisors. In the spring of 954 NC, Admiral Blacklocks sailed his flagship into Krios Bay without any serious resistance. He and his troops easily took Castle Zepharos and re-established Neptaran rule in the city. The following month, Neptaris held the first elections that it had seen in over three decades. Both Admiral Blacklocks and Simon Perrenoth were both elected to the Supreme Assembly. Unfortunately, Blacklocks proved to be a better naval commander than politician. In the winter of 956 NC, he was imprisoned for murder after a bar room brawl in which he was involved got out of hand.

Despite this turn of events, Medeno still refused to march on Neptaris and take it back, despite the protestations of the Pontifex. For the next decade, he continued to move his troops in the northern and western regions of Cambrecia, only sending a periodic raiding party into the Territories to cause trouble. Finally the Emperor Semelius of House Furius, upon his ascension to the throne in 968 NC, announced the creation of the Second Fleet, which was responsible for assisting in the conquest of Ciritasnia, Cambrecia and Neptaris. He also appointed Tiberius Phocas, also of House Furius and the younger brother of the Emperor, Legate of the Cambrecian army.

Tiberius arrived in Septimius with his newly established Fleet late in 969 NC. King Medeno quickly turned over the Legion to Tiberius, despite the fact that many of its members were now native Cambrecians. Tiberius found the Legion ill-trained and poorly outfitted, by Imperial standards, and immediately set about preparing them for battle. Unfortunately, Tiberius would never actually face Neptaris in battle. In 970 NC, the Imperial Senate decided, with the support of House Zetar and the Legions near Zeth, that Semelius could not retain the title of Emperor, as he was only the son-in-law of the previous regnant. When the Senate chose Antonius of House Zetar as the new Emperor, few were surprised. Antonius immediately set about reversing most of his successor's decisions, including Tiberius' appointment as Legate. It is notable that he did not, however, disband the Second Fleet... he ordered new ships to be built and refocused the Fleet to pirate suppression. In a politically unusual move, the man he chose to lead the Second Fleet was his own son, Androcles.

Admiral Androcles immediately identified Neptaris as a safe haven for pirates and thieves and when his first major military action was to take the waters near Neptaris. By the winter of 972 NC, he had succeeded in blockading the city. Realizing that they could not defeat the Second Fleet, the Supreme Assembly pardoned Admiral Blacklocks of his crimes and recommissioned him as Admiral of Neptaris. Within a week, he had disappeared. With Blacklocks having fled the city, most citizens considered the battle for freedom truly lost. They tried in vain to break the Imperial blockade for the next year and a half. Finally, the Supreme Assembly began to compose articles of surrender late in 974 NC. Contemporary reports suggest that the first person to notice ships flying a standard composed of two black keys was the messenger carrying those articles. Admiral Blacklocks had returned and he had brought three major pirate fleets with him from Tamerynd.

The Battle of Lost Souls was tremendous in proportions. Admiral Androcles had over 200 warships in or near Krios Bay and Blacklocks had brought 160 pirate vessels to fight them. For three days, ships, seawizards and priests fought in and near Krios Bay. Finally, on the third day, Androcles retreated and Blacklocks sailed into Krios Bay, victorious.

Androcles was not so easily beaten, however. Realizing that he could not defeat Blacklocks on the ocean, he retired as Admiral of the Second Fleet and was given command of a Legion by his father in 975 NC. Burned by his defeat at the Battle of Lost Souls, Legate Androcles trained his men by fighting rebels in the hills of the Cambrecian Mountains for three years before finally deciding to again attack Neptaris. As Androcles raged across the Territories, Neptaris discovered that the Legate was a much better army commander than a naval one. He initially avoided Neptaris altogether, instead choosing to pacify the land that fed the city. In 979 NC, he was ready to besiege Neptaris.

The siege was initially successful for the Imperial army as they shattered Neptaran defenses. After two months of fighting, Androcles finally broke into the city itself as its defenders moved to defend Castle Zepharos. One man, however, chose not to flee to the Castle, citing the lack of taverns there. Castle Zepharos had been besieged only a week when Admiral Blacklocks, now in his early eighties, snuck into the Imperial camp and kidnapped the thirty-year old Legate.

The Legion was shaken to its roots when it realized that their Legate, who was also the Emperor's son and heir, had been stolen from their very midst. The Supreme Assembly sent a message to the Legion informing the soldiers that the Assembly was awaiting terms of surrender. Not knowing what to do, Androcles' subordinates sent a message to Zeth in the hope that one of them would be raised to the position of Legate and receive the honor of rescuing the Emperor's son. For almost a year, the Legion maintained a military presence in the city while the Assembly and their hostage waited in Castle Zepharos (food and provisions were permitted within, to insure the Legate's continued good health). The message they received from Zeth was even more shocking than the kidnapping of Androcles: the Emperor Antonius had died and Androcles must be returned home to receive his crown at all costs. The Legion took this to mean surrender and promptly did so, with the condition that Androcles would be permitted safe passage to Zeth. The Assembly readily agreed and Neptaran independence was finally regained in 980 NC. Within days of the surrender, Admiral Blacklocks died in a tavern due to excessive celebrations. Androcles returned to Zeth to be crowned Emperor and surprisingly upheld the terms of surrender his troops had signed. Contemporaries lauded the Treaty of Neptaris, but it would pave the way for over one hundred years of fighting in the next century.