Battle of Shadowcastle
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The Battle of Shadowcastle was the first engagement in what would be the Ithrun War. After the ascension of Sigismund as Holy Orenian Emperor the old Renatian Royal House Tarus declared with the support of House Silverblade and The Grand Kingdom of Urguan war on Oren to try and usurp the throne. The two houses had at first tried to amass support within the Orenian nobility but failed to do so due to their alignment with the dwarves who had years before dismantled the Empire after the Exodus.
Contents
Prelude
Without a foothold in Oren the Tarus rebels needed to find a route towards Abresi. To march through the Old Kingdom of Salvus was decided unwise as they would have to march a long distance and besiege the ruins of Kingston as well as numeral Orenian forts such as Baile along the old imperial roads. House Silverblade had however settled with House Colin and the Teutonic Order joined their cause both settled by the borders of Schattenburg, the home of House Stafyr. At first House Tarus tried to sway the Stafyrs into joining the rebellion but after a refusal from the young lord Farley Stafyr they instead levied an army consisting of mainly Dwarves and Teutons.
By conquering the Shadowcastle the rebels would gain control of the entirety of the southern coast of Oren and also have a road through the Shadowmountains straight towards Abresi with little to hinder their march. However Shadowcastle was a sizable fortress built to protect the Orenian south from dwarven incursions so it was no easy task ahead.
Battle
Preperations
The Rebels and their allies marched towards Schattenburg and built a siege camp within the Teutonic fortress of Kreuzberg, within eyesight from the Shadowcastle the dwarves begun constructing siege equipment just outside the large fort. During the same time the Vanders serving under the empire who would later form the Order of Saint Lucien begun constructing a secondary fort on the ridge above Shadowcastle, to use as a fallback line and placed down ballistas and trebuchets of their own to counter the rebels with.
Through the Shadowmountains Orenian forces sallied down to the keep from Kralta, Herendul and Abresi where they quickly begun to set up defensive lines, trenches were built along the walls and archers were placed out in the multitude of towers. After long drawn out preperations the both sides eventually clashed. The battle would begin with the dwarves beginning their push from Kreuzberg towards the Shadowcastle.
Siege of Shadowcastle
The battle commenced with a regiment of rebel troops marching down to the village of Feldkirch, just under Shadowcastle. There they sacked the village and set it ablaze, the villagers had long before been evacuated into the castle. The rebels had hoped to provoke the levy-men under House Stafyr to try and sally out to protect their homes but the Orenian discipline held firm and they remained within the safety of the castle walls. Once the village was ablaze the dwarven siege equipment begun to rain rocks upon the walls of the castle as the bulk of the dwarven and Teuton forces began charging towards the castle.
The dwarves and teutons were met with arrows from the walls of Shadowcastle but also hit by the siege equipment on top of the Vandorian Orders fallback line. It was a slaughter beneath the walls of the castle, but the dwarven catapults did plenty of damage on the walls of the castle. Destroying a the towers and killing many soldiers within them as they tried to find a way to breach the walls. The dwarves kept pushing upon the castle as the rebel soldiers from Feldkirch rejoined the main force between Kreuzberg and Shadowcastle. The dwarves unable to get close enough to the walls of Shadowcastle to ladder the walls decided that they had to take out the Vanders fort so the Teuton troops diverted north to charge up and take out the trebuchets on the ridge whilst the remaining dwarves and rebels continued their push towards on the walls.
Vanders Charge
As the Teutons began marching up the ridge line they expected to fight entrenched Vanders within the barricades erected and took the march as a time to rest from the heavy charge that had been done towards Shadowcastle. However as they approached the trenches they were met with a volley of crossbow fire before a sudden charge of Vanders came down the ridge, the unprepared Teutons were quickly routed by the Vanders and an unorganized route back to Kreuzberg took place as the Vanders cut down stragglers. Seeing this the dwarves and rebels quickly began to spread out their lines to stop the Vanders from charging down and flanking them.
Emperor Sigismund and Lord Marshal Heinrik saw this as the perfect time for the Orenian troops within Shadowcastle to sally out as the rebels and the dwarves lines had been thinned out. So under the lead of the emperor the amassed forces of Orenian men sallied out the gates of Shadowcastle and charged the rebel lines, together with the Vanders coming down from the ridge it didn't take long for the dwarves and rebel morale to falter and soon a mass route was reality. Most tried to make it into the safety of Kreuzberg but with the massive panic that had ensued the commanders of the rebels hadn't realized that the Orenian forces had managed to sieze control of the drawbridge of Kreuzberg.
Aftermath
Once the dust had settled it was clear that the Orenian forces had won a massive victory. On the fields between Kreuzberg and Shadowcastle rebel dead were littering the ground alongisde Teutons and dwarves. Not long after the siege, the Emperor died and Heinrik Van Roy was named Heinrik Carrion and crowned as the first king of the Holy Kingdom of Oren. The Tarus rebellion had been crushed and a peace was almost settled. However, the Orenian masses refused to accept peace with the dwarves, leading to the Siege of Thoringrad.
The rebels had however managed to cause a fair amount of damage to the County of Schattenburg. Feldkirch had been completely razed during the battle and the damage made onto Shadowcastle was beyond repair. The Stafyrs decided to tear down the ruined keep and instead moved down into the Shadowcoast where Feldkirch was rebuilt with a defensive wall rather then a keep, now that the rebels had been crushed and Kreuzberg abandoned the relative safety of the village made it prosper in the aftermath of the battle.
