Boewenn’s War

Lead up to the War
By the mid 1200s, formless anger and fear spread through the population of Neuth. Their leaders were worthless, and foreigners repeatedly bested them in war; Ercii swaggered like princes through the towns, while Elves suffered under crushing taxes. In this feverish climate, a new “chosen race” obsession flourished as an antidote for the spreading insecurity. To escape their imprisoning castes, some Elves fled the border; others joined bandit gangs in the deep woods. Royal administrators were mobbed and beaten to death. and caste members destroyed their places of work. The kingdom tottered on the brink of dissolution.

At last the fury and resentment found itself a leader. His name was Boewenn, of the Bard caste. He told the populace their anger was right and just, and called for the downfall of the corrupt prince. “A people’s prince!” became the cry as mobs gathered behind him.

When troops arrived to arrest Boewenn, his oratory seduced them and they also acclaimed him as high prince. A spontaneous march on the capital began; the government collapsed and fled for the borders before the mobs reached the gates of Ider Bolis. The feeble flight of a prince sanctioned by thirteen centuries of tradition proved how far the decay of the monarchy had gone. Boewenn took the Elven throne in 1297.

Boewenn liberalized the oppressive caste system. Officials of the former regime underwent public trials; the condemned became members of convict labor gangs. Boewenn broke all contact with foreign peoples and drove their traders out of Elfland. Worse, he ordered the expulsion of the Ercii minority. Most Ercii left to establish a precarious life in alien lands, although a large colony of them settled in the wilderness north of Hothior.

Boewenn commenced a rapid expansion of the army, admitting even females if they showed strength and fierceness. He set convict gangs to excavating the site of Letho in search of ancient magic weapons. Then, to test his power, he attacked and sacked Aws Noir in 1300, taking the stored treasure and rich mines for Elfland. But all this was only preparation for his dream—a war to destroy his human neighbors everywhere.

Boewenn's War
Boewenn's War officially began in 1302, with the Elfland invasions of Hothior and Mivior which were marked by significant victories on the Elven side. In 1303 Elven forces captured the Invisible School and proceeded to invade Immer with continued successes. Boewenn had captured both Addat and Tadafat, and laid waste to the entire country of Immer with a special vengeance. Much of the Immerite population was slaughtered in vicious cullings.

The Goblins then rose up and defeated the Elven host in a counter attack at the Battle of Twilight Moor. The loss at Twilight Moor set back the Elfland war effort decisively, and forced what was left of the Elven force to retreat to the capital and consolidate their losses. But the allied kingdoms were on the march. By the end of 1303, the alliance was at the gates of Ider Bolis.

Aftermath
After his initial victories, Boewenn was defeated. His corpse was identified among the slain in Ider Bolis after its sacking by an alliance of Boewenn’s victims. A greater loss was the ancient library of Neuth. Fortunately, Elfland’s conquerors were advanced and educated civilizations; many more books were carried off as booty than were destroyed. But the action symbolized to the Elves, more than anything else could, that unless they could come to terms with the present, the past they loved would be lost as well.