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Battle of Liarswood
Part of the First Elven War
Liarswood on a Foggy Autumn Day (1927 AD)
Date 3 Dale 1022 A.D. Location Liarswood, Allia 41°18′23″N 16°7′57″E Result Decisive Elven Victory (see Aftermath) Territorial changes Elven forces gain foothold in Allia
Belligerents
Allia Allied Human Kingdoms: Erraia Dulth Kassa Eiaran Mercenaries	Sallia Eiaran Mercenaries
Commanders and leaders
King Wenan dur Osis † Prince Nafkan dur Osis † Olanis Afarinis † Licus dur Ivris	Halab of Aelam Deinab of Una Kasbal an Iol †
Strength
86,400 men • 80,000 infantry • 6,400 cavalry	40,000 men • 30,000 infantry • 10,000 cavalry
Casualties and losses
67,500 • 58,200 killed • 19,300 captured 8,000+ escaped	4,700 killed

The Battle of Liarswood was a key engagement of the First Elven War between the Allian Kingdom and Sallia, fought on 3 Dale 1022 A.D. in the ancient forest of Liarswood in Western Allia. The Allians and their allies, led by Kasbal an Iol, ambushed and practically annihilated a larger army of Allian and other human soldiers under the King Wenan dur Osis and Prince Nafkan dur Osis. It is regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and one of the worst defeats in the history of post-imperial Drakaia.

Having managed to defeat the elves at Dragon’s Roost, the Allian and allies soldier once more rallied, seeking to inflict a final, devastating defeat on the invading elven forces. It was decided that the humans would attack the elves at Liarstown, with approximately 86,000 soldiers. Before the Allian and allied forces could attack the city, however, the elves managed to ambush the army as it camped in the Liarswood outside of the city. Unprepared and disorganized, the majority of the human army was slaughtered, with only few managing to escape. The battle marked one of the single most lethal days of fighting in post-Imperial Drakaian history.

As news of the defeat spread throughout Allia, a panic began to take hold, as people fled the cities in droves, hoping to find refuge on the other side of the mountains to the east. Allian authorities began to resort to increasingly extreme measures to prevent citizens from fleeing, and to maintain order in the kingdom. Furthermore, a wide-scale reform of the army began to take place, aiming to avoid any such disastrous defeat ever again, and scrape together a force to avoid total defeat for Allia in the First Elven War.

The battles legacy was a show of force of the utter power of the old magic, in spite of its dwindling relevance to the modern day. Though many had though magic a thing of the past, given the decimation the Order had faced in the previous centuries, the Battle of the Liarswood served as an important reminder of the power of magic when present.

Strategic background

Halab of Aelam and his army crossed the Durine River during the summer of 1022 A.D. marking the beginning of the First Elven War. The crossing was the first time since the Imperial Doom that Elven forces had marched on the human kingdoms, and quickly spread a panic throughout the human kingdoms, who quickly mobilized an army to meet the Elves at Allatown. Halab and his army managed to win a decisive victory at Allatown, quickly dispatching the human army, and seizing the town within a matter of days. Within the course of only a few months, the elven army had further seized victory after victory. By the end of winter, the elves had laid siege to the town of Dragon’s Roost.

Meanwhile, the slew of defeats had prompted the ascension of Olanis Afarinis, a young general who had risen through the ranks by virtue of all his superiors dying or resigning in disgrace. Afarinis managed to gather a large army of 100,000 men, with whom the general managed to lift the siege of Dragon’s Roost.

Following the heroic victory at Dragon’s Roost, several members of the royal family, most notably King Wenan and Prince Nafkan, took charge of the army. The royals hoped to, themselves, find some glory and victory against the enemy, now when they appeared weak, to rebuild some of the confidence in the crown which had been lost during the prior defeats.

Allian command

Though the King and Prince were nominally in charge of the army and bore much of the blame following the battle for the disaster, it is questionable how much command the royals truly had. Modern historians believe that the royals, lacking much military experience, acted more as rallying symbols and figureheads, and made few of the tactical decisions which would lead to the defeat. Traditional Allian military command had always emphasized a great deal of autonomy among lower-level leaders, and had always been relatively democratic, with officers throughout the army oftentimes having a say in the tactical decisions made. As such, the question of responsibility is now considered much more murky and uncertain.

Prelude

In the spring of 1022 A.D. following a long retreat from Dragon’s Roost, the elven army halted their route at Liarstown. The city had been occupied by Sallian forces at the beginning of the conflict. The well-protected and stocked settlement was decided as a good place for the elves to regroup and once again face the humans, now on more favorable terms. Furthermore, the elves wished to avoid a full-scale retreat across the Durine River, as such would have forced difficult battles across the river in the event of further offensive campaigns into Allia.

The decision to hold at the city of Liarstown, in turn, infuriated the humans. Though Dragon’s Roost had been a devastating defeat, the inability of the Allian and allied armies to fully expel the invaders from the human kingdoms remained a mark on the pride of the kingdom. Most of all its royalty saw the continued occupation of the town as an insult, and now demanded the capture of the town before the new year, only thirteen days away. In order to meet this deadline, the human army began to forced march toward the city, spending as little time for rest as possible.

By the 1st of Dale, four days until the end of the year, the human army had reached its position outside the city, encamped in the Liarswood. The exhausted and enormous army had divided itself into twenty-two smaller encampments, which spread out throughout the forest and nearby plains outside the city. Meanwhile, the officers began to make preparations for the assault, planned for the day before the new year (the 4th of Dale). Though many of the soldiers were in desperate need of rest, they were nonetheless put to work cutting down trees, and building ladders and siege towers, further tiring the human forces.

At the same time, the elves, having carefully managed to watch the situation through a combination of divination spells and traditional scouting, remained divided on their next course of action. Many within the elven command demanded further retreat, fearing annihilation of the army at Liarstown would open the door to human invasions of Sallia itself. Others advocated simply staying put and waiting for the human assault to eventually come, while a final section advocated attacking, to capitalize on the exhausted and weakened state of the human forces.

The stalemate between the various elven commanders was finally broken by the arrival of the legendary war-mage Kasbal an Iol on the evening of the 2nd of Dale. Having finally returned from his studies in Shakha, the war-mage commanded an aura of reverence among the entirety of the elven army. With his decision to side with those advocating for a preemptive strike, the debates were ended.

Battle

Armies

Beyond the divide between the two armies seen in their different races, the divide in army composition played a large role in the differences between the two armies. The human kingdoms, having long since embraced the invention of the firearm in combat, had for the most part phased out cavalry as a fighting force. What remained of the human cavalry was either used for scouting, or as dragoons. Instead infantrymen, wielding muskets and bayonets, dominated human warfare and doctrine.

Meanwhile, elven army composition was much more traditional, reminiscent of how armies might have been constructed in earlier periods of history. As a result of the long lifespans of elves, many of the higher command of the Sallian army were slow to adopt change, and generally quite conservative and traditionalist. Elven armies tended to field cavalry to a much greater extent than their human counterparts, and also remained reliant on edged weaponry over newer weapons such as guns. While in previous battles this more traditional style of fighting had often caught the humans off-guard, and the elven cavalry had managed to use their mobility to outmaneuver their opponents, following the Battle at Dragon's Roost, human tactics began to evolve to counter the elven style of warfare.

The Encampments

The Allian and allied armies, which together numbered just shy of 86000 soldiers, were divided into 22 camps, spread throughout the woods and plains surrounding Liarstown. Though the camps, for the most part, were roughly equal in size, the main camp at Esorum - a small clearing in the woods east of the city - was significantly larger than the others, and was the location of human headquarters. It is here where the royalty made their camp, and the highest-ranking officers drew up their plans for battle.

Nonetheless, all 22 camps were structured in a very similar way, as was typical of human war camps. Reminiscent of those of the ancient Imperials, the encampments were arranged in a square, and surrounded by a small wooden palisade. Crude gates guarded the entrances, and could be barricaded shut at a moment's notice if need be. At the four corners of the camp, watchtowers kept lookout over the woods, and a small stretch of trees was cleared between the walls of the camp and the rest of the forest (both to provide wood, and to allow for the watchmen to better spot approaching enemies). Within the camps themselves, the different sections were organized neatly. In the center stood the mess tents, armories, tents of the high-ranking officers, and the shrine. Meanwhile, the outer sections of the camp were reserved for the quarters of the soldiers.

Battle

On the night before the 3rd of Dale, the elven army crept under the cover of darkness into the forest. Using a spell of darkness, which rendered the elves invisible to the eye in the darkness or moonlight, Kasbal was able to hide the army. Silently, the elves managed to infiltrate the various camps, before each regiment began their own attack, wiping out the human army one camp at a time. With the sentries unable to spot the enemy, the soldiers inside the palisades were rendered totally unprepared, and at the full mercy of their elven assailants, who oftentimes showed very little of such as humans were slaughtered and taken prisoner in the thousands.

Though the first seven encampments were taken in near-silence, by the eighth camp the humans had begun to be alerted. Stragglers who had escaped from the various ambushes rushed to their comrades, warning of invisible assailants in the night, who could be seen only by firelight. Nonetheless, the humans remained unprepared and unable to adequately respond. The confusing warnings only served to create chaos within the human camps, chaos which was further intensified as a result of the exhaustion facing the human soldiers. Though men were no longer killed in their sleep, they were not spared either, now being killed as they ran about the camp in confusion, attempting to save themselves from what seemed to be devils coming to attack them.

By the first light of dawn, only 12 regiments of the army, together numbering approximately 10,000 men, stood standing. These were the twelve artificer-regiments, recruited from the gnomes of the far north. Having proved themselves quicker and cleverer than their human counterparts, the gnomes had armed themselves with torches and fire, and lit great bonfires over their camp, finally revealing to them the elven attackers. Through disciplined fighting, the gnomes managed to hold their line long enough to resist the initial attacks, before conducting a much more orderly retreat to the north, when daylight came. It was during this fighting that, through a lucky musket shot in the dark, a gnome managed to hit the mage Kasbal in the head. Though the mage was rushed to the healers, carried away from the battle by elven warriors, they were unable to save his life, and he would die only a few short hours later.

Though the twelve-artificer regiments had managed to escape, nearly all of the rest of the human army had not been as lucky. By the end of the 3rd of Dale, the humans had been delivered an absolute defeat, and been totally driven from Western Allia, on the back foot once more.

Aftermath

Further information: First Elven War

The chaos within the city was nothing like I had ever seen before. Men, women, and children fled the city in droves, fearing that the army of Allia now stood totally unable to defend them. All the way, through the Serpent's Pass, and to the sea, the roads are clogged with wagons, as so many attempt to escape elven attacks. The ports, too, are filled with refugees, trying to find their way onto ships away from the city. Men say that it is only fools who, today, are not fleeing for their lives.

— Astus, on the people of Allatown's reaction to the defeat

For a short period, the humans were in total disarray. The armies were destroyed, the remnants severely demoralized, and the royal family decimated and discredited. According to contemporary sources, there was not a single person who was not either related to or acquainted with a person who had died. In reaction to the defeat, many began to flee the cities near Liarstown, especially Allatown, fearing that the Allian army no longer could protect them, and that they now stood at the complete mercy of the Sallian invaders. Others began to resort to increasingly desperate and superstitious members, in hope to finding some path to victory, some even trying human sacrifice (a ritual banned centuries prior) in order to reverse the fortunes of the humans.

In spite of the devastating defeat the elves had managed to exact upon the human armies, they remained unable to capitalize on their victories. Though they had managed to deal significant damage, the Sallian army had yet to fully reecover from the damage it had been dealt at Dragon's Roost. Furthermore, the death of Kasbal an Iol created a severe morale crisis among the elves, as many wondered whether they could continue to find victory in this war following his death.

On the orders of Halab of Aelam, the army spent the remainder of the month in mourning, and waiting for reinforcements and supplies to finally once more arrive at Liarstown. Many point to this lull in the fighting as the true turning point of the First Elven War - a point when the elves proved themselves unable to capitalize on their victories and draw a surrender from the humans. By the time Halab's army emerged from Liarstown, though it was doubtlesslessly stronger and better supplied, it once more faced a regrouped and reformed human army, a challenge it had not expected to see so soon.