It was during the SECOND HORBITE DYNASTY that the full impact of the South Caravan Route began to be felt in Tolnedran commerce. With an apparent sudden change of heart, the laconic Murgos became almost overnight keenly interested in trade with the west, and caravans soon were moving in both directions along the South Caravan Route. Murgos, Thulls and even occasional Nadraks became common sights in the streets of Tol Honeth. They also began to appear in Vo Mimbre, Camaar and Sendar.
This healthy expansion of east-west contact by way of the South Caravan Route offset the decline in commerce resulting from the turmoil in the Alorn Kingdoms.
The outstanding diplomatic achievement of the SECOND HORBITE DYNASTY was the mission to Ulgoland and the ultimate concluding of the Treaty of Prolgu—although, to be candid, there has been only small commercial advantage in the severely limited trade with the Ulgos. The achievement can be measured more in terms of increased knowledge than in profit.
It was, incidentally, the opening of contact with the mysterious Ulgos that sparked the theological debate which has raged throughout the west for centuries. (See the History of the Ulgos for further discussion.)
THE SECOND RANITE DYNASTY 4483–4742 (259 years, 17 Emperors)
The SECOND DYNASTY of the short-lived RANITES saw enormous increases in trade between Tolnedra and Cthol Murgos. Indeed, one merchant observed sourly, ‘You can’t look anywhere anymore without seeing a Murgo.’ While this is perhaps an exaggeration, it is certainly true that Murgo merchants were to be seen on virtually all roads in the Empire, and it was not uncommon to encounter them in Arendia and even the remotest village in Sendaria. One curious fact was that no Murgo, insofar as we can tell, ever visited an Alorn Kingdom and that none even attempted to penetrate Ulgoland.
Gradually the situation to the north began to stabilize, and commerce once again proceeded normally.
These perhaps were the golden days of the west. With the exception of the bickering of the Arends in the north of their country, conflict was almost non-existent. Trade flowed smoothly east and west along both the North and South Caravan Routes, and Tolnedra profited in almost every transaction. The Ranite Emperors were too preoccupied with their own health problems to engage in any Imperial adventures, and an able and conscientious bureaucracy developed to maintain roads and ports, standardize fees and bribes and generally see to the day-to-day ordering of the thousand details upon which the stability of the Empire rests.
THE THIRD BORUNE DYNASTY 4742 to date (626 years, 23 Emperors)
When the last Ranite Emperor died, Tolnedra turned once again to the Borunes. One can only conclude that, while in some of His choices for Emperor, Nedra may have drowsed, in His choice of the Borunes to guide the Empire through the troubled times of the last years of the fifth millennium our God was surely with us.
Through the reigns of the first three Borune Emperors, the world proceeded normally, much as it had during the Ranite period. Ran Borune IV was crowned, and for ten years all seemed well. Then, quite suddenly in 4864, without explanation, the Murgos closed the South Caravan Route and the Nadraks severely curtailed eastward movement along the North Route. The following year the reasons became painfully obvious.
In the spring of 4865 the Angaraks invaded Drasnia. In the forefront of their assault were Nadraks, Thulls and Murgos, and behind them in a human sea that stretched from horizon to horizon came the hordes of the Malloreans. In the center of the host, borne upon the shoulders of literally thousands, was the huge black iron pavilion in which rode the dreaded Kal-Torak himself.
History is unclear concerning the precise relationship between Kal-Torak and other Angarak Kings, but there can be no question that Kal-Torak of Mallorea ruled over them with almost god-like authority.
The civilized world stood aghast at the destruction of Drasnia. Though the other Alorn nations attempted to aid their cousins, their efforts were fruitless. It quickly became evident that Kal-Torak came, not as a conqueror, but as a destroyer. The cities of Boktor and Kotu were literally pulled down, and the smaller Drasnian towns and villages were put to the torch. Worse still, the population of this prosperous northern nation was systematically exterminated, and what few captives were taken were turned over to the dark-robed, steel-masked Grolim Priests for the unspeakable human sacrifices which are such an integral part of the Angarak religion.
A few battered and bloody elements of the superb Drasnian Army escaped southward into Algaria, and a few others were taken off the islands at the mouth of the Aldur River by Cherek warships, but the bulk of the army was simply smothered by the uncounted hordes of Malloreans who swept across the land. Members of the general populace who were not slain or captured fled northwest into the empty reaches of the Drasnian steppes or into the vast marshes at the mouth of the Mrin River. Some few survivors who fled to the north eventually made their way across the River Dused in the far north and thence down the coast to Val Alorn in Cherek. For those who sought refuge in the fens and marshes, however, there was scant hope for survival.
Once Drasnia had been crushed, the Angaraks turned southward and struck into Algaria. Here, of course, they met a different foe. Algar horsemen, the finest cavalry on earth, continually savaged the flanks of the horde, littering the Algarian grasslands with Angarak dead. In retaliation—or perhaps as a part of a preconceived plan—the Angaraks slaughtered the Algarian herds, both horses and cattle, and glutted themselves on the meat. Finally, fed to the point of satiety, they simply killed the animals and left them to rot where they fell. The sky over Algaria grew black with vultures and ravens as the Angaraks passed.
The occupation of Drasnia was one thing, but the occupation of Algaria was quite another. With the exception of the reindeer herders of the far north, the Drasnians live in cities and towns like other civilized people. The Algars, on the other hand, are nomadic horsemen. The central Algarian plain is a vast, empty grassland. To speak of occupying such an expanse is much like speaking of occupying the ocean. The Algars simply permitted the hordes of Kal-Torak to pass and then fell upon their rear in the vicious hit and run attacks which are so famous in Algarian legend and song.
Although the horde suffered hideous casualties in their march southward, Kal-Torak did not falter. He laid siege to the Stronghold, the traditional seat of the Algarian King and the closest thing to a city in all Algaria. The Stronghold of the Algars is one of the most unassailable land fortresses in the world, not because of any particular difficulty of the surrounding terrain, but quite simply because of the unbelievable height and thickness of its walls. Because those walls reach higher than the tallest tree, scaling ladders cannot be built to permit assault over the top of them, and because the walls are thirty feet thick, no siege engine can breach them.
The Angaraks hurled themselves at this man-made mountain for six months until they realized the futility of their attacks and settled down for a protracted siege.
That siege was to last for eight years (4867–4875). The impregnability of the Algarian Stronghold gave the west the time needed to mobilize.
In the late spring of 4875, disgusted by the futility of his efforts against the Stronghold, Kal-Torak turned west and began his march toward the sea. Once again he was pursued by Algar horsemen and vengeful Drasnian Infantry units. In the mountains he encountered yet another problem. By night the Ulgos came forth from their caverns and butchered the sleeping Angaraks by the thousands. It was a diminished horde that came down upon the plains of Arendia, but a horde nonetheless. It has been estimated by reliable witnesses that Kal-Torak mounted his attack upon Vo Mimbre with at least 250,000 men. If the reports from Drasnia during the early days of the Angarak invasion may be believed, the horde numbered in excess of a half-million. If these figures are at all accurate, then we may assume that the campaigns in Drasnia and Algaria and the trek across Ulgoland cost Kal-Torak nearly half his army. (This of course does not take into account occupying forces left behind in Drasnia and the substantial number of Malloreans who were to maint
ain the siege of the Algarian Stronghold.)
Thus the stage was set for the titanic and bloody struggle which men have come to call the Battle of Vo Mimbre.
Stopping only briefly to rest and regroup after the perilous passage through the mountains of Ulgoland, Kal-Torak proceeded immediately down the River Arend to the city of Vo Mimbre. It was immediately apparent that his intention in Arendia was the same as it had been in Drasnia—the total destruction of the nation and its peoples. Horrid evidence of this marked his trail down the River Arend. Atrocities too ghastly to describe here were his common practice.
As the horde drew near the city of Vo Mimbre, the west prepared to close with the Angaraks in the ultimate battle.
The preparations had been long and difficult and had been accompanied by grave doubts as to the eventual outcome. Kal-Torak seemed invincible. Moreover, though it was assumed that his intent was to strike south toward Tol Honeth, no one could be certain exactly where he would emerge from the mountains. Thus it was necessary for the forces of the west to hold themselves in readiness until Kal-Torak committed himself to battle.
During the eight years of the siege of the Stronghold of the Algarians, the generals of the west had studied a hundred possible battlefields and prepared a strategy for each. It was during these preparations at the Imperial military college in Tol Honeth that it became evident that Brand, the Warder of Riva, was a tactical genius. Assisted by the oddly assorted pair who advised him, he devised tactics that took advantage not only of terrain features, but also of the contrasting strengths of the widely varied armies of the west.
NOTE:
At the time certain discreet inquiries were made as to the identity of Brand’s advisors, but without success. The man appeared to be aged but vigorous and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of not only the west but of the Angarak Kingdoms as well. The woman, a strikingly handsome lady with a silver lock at her brow, had the uncanny gift of instantly perceiving the weaknesses and strengths of any given situation. Although her imperious manner offended many of the generals, they soon came to respect her intuition in such matters. It has been widely assumed that the two were Rivan nobles, but sketches of them made surreptitiously during the extensive meetings reveal that they have none of the racial characteristics of Rivans. Unfortunately, their identities are forever locked in the vault of time.36
In the early summer of 4875 the Angaraks deployed for the assault on Vo Mimbre. This was the commitment for which Brand and his armies had waited. Though Tolnedran strategists had long believed that a second Angarak force would strike west along the South Caravan Route out of Cthol Murgos and had built a line of fortifications in the mountains to meet that threat, their fears proved groundless. As the woman who advised Brand pointed out, ‘Vast armies cannot fight in the mountains—they require open spaces. And Torak is too arrogant for subterfuge. He will smash you, not trick you.’ Thus, virtually at the last moment, Emperor Ran Borune IV withdrew the bulk of his forces from the eastern mountains of Tolnedra and returned his legions to Tol Honeth.37
Then it was that, for the first time in history, a huge land army was transported by water to the scene of a battle. A huge Cherek fleet arrived at Tol Honeth, and the legions embarked. The swift Cherek vessels conveyed the legions down the Nedrane, north along the coast and thence up the River Arend to a point some ten leagues west of Vo Mimbre. The two-hundred league forced march from Tol Honeth to Vo Mimbre would have taken more than a week, and the legions would have arrived exhausted on the battlefield. The Chereks deposited fresh troops on the north bank of the River Arend almost within sight of the battle in two days.
On the morning of the third day of the battle, the forces of the west closed with the Angaraks. The Battle of Vo Mimbre has been analysed in great detail, and the study of the moves, countermoves, deployment and so forth will, of course, be presented by the faculty of the Department of Military Arts and Sciences. For Historians, a rough sketch is adequate.
Upon a pre-arranged signal, the Mimbrate Knights issued from the city and attacked the Angarak horde from the front. Then, when the Angaraks were concentrating on this direction, Algarian Cavalry, Drasnian Infantry and the Ulgo irregulars attacked Kal-Torak’s left; the Tolnedran legions, accompanied by Cherek Berserks, assaulted his right. Attacked on three sides, Kal-Torak committed his reserves. Then it was that the Rivans, the Sendars, and the Asturian archers came upon him from the rear.
The battle raged for hours, and the issue was still in doubt when Brand issued his challenge to Kal-Torak to meet him in a single combat. This duel was the decisive incident in the battle. The loss of either leader would so confound and demoralize his army that the victory would fall easily to the survivor. In the end, though he seemed the stronger of the two, Kal-Torak faltered, and Brand, taking advantage of his foe’s momentary confusion, struck him down.
The leaderless Angaraks, surrounded and demoralized, were then systematically cut to pieces by the combined armies of the west. The few elements which escaped fled back across the mountains, raised the siege of the Algarian Stronghold and struggled into the wilderness of the mountain range which marks the boundary between Algaria and Mishrak ac Thull. The occupation forces in Drasnia withdrew back into Gar og Nadrak, and the war was over. The Malloreans had been destroyed in the battle, and the Nadraks, Thulls and Murgos were so decimated that they would never again pose a threat to the west.
It was at this point that Tolnedra’s greatest peril arose. The other nations of the west, overwhelmed by the enormous victory Brand had given them, hovered for a time on the verge of crowning the Rivan general Emperor of the west. It was only through the extraordinary efforts of Mergon, Tolnedran ambassador to the court at Vo Mimbre, that this disaster was averted. At length he restored the balance of good sense, and the proposal was dropped.
In return, however, the western kings imposed a humiliating condition upon the Empire. While Brand himself indicated no desire for such a fortuitous marriage, the assembled kings decreed that the Rivan King should have the hand of an Imperial Princess in marriage. This, of course, is an absurdity, since the line of the Rivan Kings died with Gorek the Wise when he was assassinated in 4002, but the kings were adamant. Thus it is necessary for every Tolnedran Princess to make the arduous and often dangerous journey to the fortress at Riva upon her sixteenth birthday and to await there for three days a bridegroom who will never come.
Ran Borune was infuriated by this humiliation, but Mergon pointed out that the combination of Alorns, Ulgos, Arends and Sendars could easily overthrow the legions and impose their will on Tolnedra from the throne-room in Tol Honeth itself if they chose.
In his last act as overgeneral of the west, Brand directed that the lines of Asturia and Mimbre be joined by marriage to bring the Arendish Civil War to a final conclusion. It was impossible for even the brilliant Mergon to head off this wedding, and Tolnedran policy in Arendia took a disastrous defeat. Since that policy for two millennia had been to keep Arendia divided and therefore weak, one can well imagine how the news of the unification of the houses of Mimbre and Astur was greeted in Tol Honeth. Mergon, however, advised the Emperor that the Alorns were feeling burly following the battle, and that wisdom would seem to indicate that graceful acquiescence might be a course preferable to forced acceptance.
Ran Borune agreed and wryly observed that a united Arendia might prove troublesome at some future date, but a united Aloria with an army in the field not two hundred leagues from the gates of Tol Honeth was all the trouble that he needed at that particular moment.
The years following the Battle of Vo Mimbre ushered in a period of economic disaster in the west. The destruction of the Algarian herds by marauding Angaraks forced the Algars to suspend their customary annual cattle-drive to Muros in Sendaria for the decades required to rebuild their herds. The vengeful Drasnians closed the North Caravan Route against Nadrak merchants, and the Murgos sealed their border, cutting off all trade along the South Caravan Route. Thus, in additio
n to a meat famine in the west, trade with the east became impossible except along those secret trails far to the south known only to Nyissan slave-traders. And so it was that, while it was distasteful, Tolnedra had no alternative but to increase its trade with the snake people. By virtue of her monopoly of eastern trade, the unwholesome influence of Queen Salmissra increased enormously in the west. Dull-eyed Nyissan merchants began to appear in the major ports along the west coast, and their dealings, always deceitful, began to color virtually all aspects of commerce in the west. Nyissa prospered enormously, and the luxury—even opulence—of Sthiss Tor soon began to rival even that of Tol Honeth itself.
The recovery from the years of economic depression which followed the Angarak war was slow and painful. It took the efforts of three Borune Emperors to finally persuade the Drasnians to reopen the North Caravan Route, and in the first years the resulting trade was disappointingly meager. The Algarian herds began to arrive at Muros again, but in nothing like their former numbers, since the Algars steadfastly held back their finest animals for breeding stock. The reduction in the supply of beef, however, provided an opportunity for the development of a new industry in Sendaria. The raising of hogs became a national preoccupation. The hog, of course, has one enormous advantage over the cow in terms of trade— his meat may be cured. Thus, while cattle must be driven enormous distances to their ultimate markets, hogs may be slaughtered and cured on the farms of their origin and the tasty hams and succulent bacon may be shipped quite easily without fear of spoilage. Fortunes were made in Sendaria, and many a Sendar noble began his upward climb to position and respectability as a hog-baron.
And then, perhaps a hundred years ago, the grim-faced Murgos suddenly relented and reopened the South Caravan Route. Amazingly, these harsh and war-like people seemed to have developed an almost insatiable urge to trade. The caravans from the east were long and literally piled high with those very goods for which the rapacious Nyissans demanded their highest prices—silks, spices, curious tapestries and the fine Mallorean carpets that are almost never seen in the west.
The Rivan Codex: Ancient Texts of THE BELGARIAD and THE MALLOREON (The Belgariad / The Malloreon) Page 14
