War of Northern Aggression
The War of Northern Aggression (also known as the Great Western War) was a war instigated by radical Oarfanists against all countries who harbored followers of non-Oarfanist religions. It was sparked with the Vailic Ultimatum, which demanded the so-called "heretic" states to convert to Oarfanism and hand over their heretical citizens, as well as bring forth certain political enemies for prosecution.
It remains one of the most wide-scale, destructive wars to take place on Elgeis (rivaled only by the Balkan War), with ten participating states, over 25 players engaged in active combat, physical devastation stretching to three regions/continents and five countries, and 9-10 withers released in total.
Timeline
Ultimatum
On 08/09/2019, an ultimatum was sent by King Vetous of Vailan to the non-Oarfanist world at large, with particular attention to their rival the Sylvian Union. It demanded the following:
- Dissolution of all other religions under threat of military crusade;
- The handing over of the Header of Montrose, FlyingGMM, for a military tribunal conducted by members of the Northern Alliance;
- In the event the terms are not upheld, for the Sylvian citizens to cooperate with Vailan to form a new government in the continent.
Reception
The night that the ultimatum was recieved, the majority of senior Sylvian leadership was gathered at a party and were too distracted to mount a response to the ultimatum. A plea was sent in response, informing Vailic leadership that an immediate response would not be feasible. The Vailic leadership graciously provided a 24 hour stay from their original deadline, which was midnight that night (EST).
The only country which accepted the Vailic Ultimatum as presented was VOC, a small recently-formed state led by dennypower which had seceded from Goomlandia and occupied a small portion of western Goomtown. As Goomlandia was a rival of the Sylvian Union, the SU had allied with VOC and vowed to defend them against aggression from Goomlandia, so VOC's refusal to defend the Sylvians in the war angered them greatly.
Vanskovich, a non-Oarfanist state following the religion of Christianity, sent a request for alliance to the Sylvian Union after reciept of the ultimatum. The Sylvian Union accepted.
The current Sylvian Consul at the time, Argetlam04, attempted to strike a deal with the Vailic crusaders in order to protect religiously unaffiliated citizens from the crusade. This consisted of a proposal to release the portion of the Sylvian populace that was not specifically targeted by the ultimatum from their obligation to protect their countrymen in exchange for their estates and lives being left intact. This was not received well by the rest of the Sylvian Union, almost all of whom saw this strategy as "selling out" citizens who had done nothing but exercise their religious freedom. Despite this, the Consul initially insisted on this course of action even in the face of backlash from other Sylvian officials. This resulted in argetlam04 being recalled as Consul, being replaced by his fellow Montrosian Abstacious.
The Sylvian Union called its allies to its defense. The following is said allies' responses:
- Vanskovich, Bagelonia, and Lucagrad answered the call immediately, declaring war on the Kingdom of Vailan.
- ToeGANG initially declined to go to war in Sylvia's defense, but at the time did not understand that holding an alliance typically comes with the expectation of mutual defense in time of war - once this was explained they also declared war and participated in wartime operations.
- Soraryius declared neutrality originally, and resisted the Sylvian requests to help in their defense. Eventually, they reluctantly declared war, but remained offline for the entirety of the conflict.
- VOC immediately capitulated to the ultimatum in full.
Oarfans, the player hailed as a prophet in the Oarfanist faith, heard wind of the war being fought in his name and returned to the server to participate.
Conflict
The conflict spanned three days. The first portion of this section speaks broadly of tactics employed by both sides, then delves into the events of each day.
Tactics
Pre-war, the Vailic crusaders constructed trenches and fortifications along and in northern Montrosian territory. On the Sylvian side, GoatWhisperer in particular was tasked with infiltrating the city of Fjall without being detected and peppering the city's buildings with eggs, spawning chickens which would be targeted by withers later on, hopefully increasing the amount of explosive skulls shot onto the buildings.
The Vailic crusaders made heavy use of elytra, allowing them to swoop in to intercept incoming Sylvian Bloc forces and retreat once they were in danger of losing their lives.
Sylvian Bloc forces were not as skilled with elytra travel, nor were the devices as widespread as they were in the Kingdom of Vailan, where ownership of an end portal made access easier and, more generally, their cultural significance was far higher. Most Sylvian forces preferred to travel by foot, although some wealthier soldiers hailing from Montrose travelled on horseback. Forces hailing from HUM were known to skirmish from a distance with bows as a preferred weapon of choice, heavily making use of enderpearls in a similar manner to the Vailic elytra, allowing quick travel and easy retreat from a losing skirmish.
Both sides employed withers, although with the lack of wither skeleton farms at this point in server history each side released approximately five withers, a sum nigh-unimaginable to the players of this time. In the case of Sylvian Bloc forces, these were mostly concentrated around the capital city of Fjall. Withers deployed by Vailic forces primarily were in mainland Montrose, especially surrounding Gabeford, although one was deployed on Rhett Island in the state of Rhett.
The Sylvian side made extensive use of TNT cannons, particularly against Vailic storages, while Vailan, despite using more TNT in the conflict, failed to breach anything that was faction-claimed. Vailan's strategy with TNT was to simply blow a "moat" around faction claims, which was annoying but resulted in little of value being damaged.
Day 1
First Battle of Gabeford
The initial phase of the war began with an attack on Gabeford. The Sylvian forces were joined by Vanskovich and Bagelonia, the former of whom took position in Gabeford's loft. Vailic forces surrounded the estate and began attempting to breach it. This attempt was foiled for two reasons: First, the Vailic forces struggled to construct effective TNT cannons and ended up creating more of a moat or crater in Gabeford's yard than damaging the building itself. Secondly, the building was mostly lined with obsidian and water, requiring either careful TNT cannon craftsmanship or use of a wither to breach. Vailic forces eventually moved to Castle Montrose and performed similar acts there. Eventually, counterraids on Fjall drew Vailic forces away.
Second Battle of Gabeford
The Second Battle of Gabeford was a disaster for the Sylvian Bloc. Many Sylvians were unable to participate due to lag, lessening manpower present on their side. Gabeford's loft windows had been left open because the Vanskovichans couldn't open and close them due to the Sylvian faction claims on the estate. Vailic crusaders enderpearled inside and massacred the defenders of Gabeford. AbstractEgg was returning from Rhett Island with ancient bows from the Water Boys to give to the Vanskovichan defenders, but did not realize the defense had been broken, and was killed when he got to the battlefield.
Overall, the Sylvian defense at Gabeford was fairly disorganized. Scattered reinforcements trickled in as quickly as they were able to respawn and re-equip, but had little in the way of overarching coordination, and many being peaceable players were no match for the MCMMO skills of premier Vailic warriors. For example, upon arriving to the battlefield, Hummites GoatWhisperer and Lucavario took on Vailanders Flashy10 and TheLemonZest. As the tide of the fight began to turn against him, GoatWhisperer dove into a cave exposed by a TNT crater, hoping to regroup and attack stealthily. Flashy10 followed him into the cave, and despite GoatWhisperer using all manner of implements available to attempt and make it an unfair fight, including setting off TNT as Flashy10 approached and trying to slow his advance using lava buckets, GoatWhisperer was killed nonetheless.
However, there were still Sylvian combat victories. GoatWhisperer famously killed Oarfans, soon after which he left and did not return for the remainder of the war. A number of other "minor" Vailanders were killed, such as ICUX by Lucavario, although Flashy10, vetous and other more well-known Vailanders remained unfelled. Argetlam04 utilized invisibility potions to recover much of the equipment lost from fallen Sylvian forces by sneaking out of Gabeford onto the battlefield, making the defeat at Gabeford less challenging material-wise than it was faction power-wise and morale-wise.
Lucagrad Raids
Lucgradian forces raided a Vailic settlement later that night, burning one of their villages (artificial, not inhabited by villagers) to the ground.
Day 2
Fjall City Guard
The next day was marked by sporadic clashes as Sylvian forces pushed into Vailan to begin counterraiding in retaliation. A small group of Vailic forces, led by King Vetous himself, were equipped with elytra and swooped down on Sylvian forces, slashing at them with swords and axes before flying off again under a hail of bowfire.
Destruction of Oarfans' Home
After being repelled by skirmishers patrolling the main city, Abstacious and FlyingGMM headed west toward Oarfans' original home. They successfully raided the building, and later used GoatWhisperer's Hummite engineering expertise to extend the range of TNT cannons in order to reach past the faction claims and completely destroy the cottage of the maligned prophet.
Destruction of a Vailic Vault / Redstone
Subsequently, after the Fjall city guard appeared to have dispersed, the Sylvian team returned to the city, joined by hongstoes and ongstoes of ToeGANG and Lucavario of HUM, as well as a number of others. Again using GoatWhisperer's TNT cannons, the forces breached a vault underneath Fjall, and destroyed the very meticulous redstone keypad used to open it (the loss of which made TheLemonZest, who had made the redstone, leave the server and lament about how unfair it was).
Destruction of an Argicultural Facility of Some Kind
Next, a facility apparently belonging to Magos_Aspace outside the city was raided with TNT, but after immense effort to build, aim, and adjust the cannon Sylvian forces were disappointed to find nothing but seeds and other agricultural products were stored within. However, holes in the ground due to stray TNT shells revealed an underground map room / subway system, whose maps and item frames were ransacked and rails were stripped from the tunnels.
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Day 3
Sylvian Raids in Fjall
The final day was less intense in terms of interpersonal fighting. GoatWhisperer and FlyingGMM continued raiding in Fjall, employing dispensers with fire charges to pepper wooden buildings in the city with flames and cause massive fires in claimed areas. The pair had a number of clashes with vetous, before they were separated and FlyingGMM was killed by vetous.
Cannon-House
Afterward, vetous came to fight GoatWhisperer in Fjall, but fled when GoatWhisperer broke his chestplate, running into a small claimed cottage and closing the door, leaving GoatWhisperer unable to harm him further. Perturbed at this act of cowardice, GoatWhisperer built an extremely elevated, faction-claimed TNT cannon with a small hut on the back. The cannon, dubbed Cannon-House, featured a wooden door that was used to shut vetous out and prevent him from harming GoatWhisperer in the same way vetous had done earlier. He proceeded to bombard King vetous' palace with TNT and inundate it with fire charges, retreating to the hut when vetous drew near. This was incredibly effective at preventing any harm being done to the operator of the cannon, and vetous could not simply stay outside the door to prevent the TNT cannon from being used as FlyingGMM was still at large elsewhere.
Destruction of HUM Proper
That night, Magos_Aspace finally was able to join in the war, and set to work detonating TNT around HUM Proper (modern day Properpolis), destroying much of Clap District, home to ClapYoThighs, and the Gateway to the West, which was also built by him. Due to much of HUM's aesthetic development being unclaimed, much like in Vailan, the crusaders were able to destroy much of the town center without much difficulty at all. The wooden towers, dock, and aesthetic designs of the HUM port were also torched, and the ancient twin towers in which Aquascissors once lived (later the site of the Aquascissors Memorial Governance Building) were set alight.
Outcome
The topic of the winning side in the war is subject to fierce debate.
For the Sylvian side, they maintain that they won the war due to Vailan completely failing to accomplished their expressed goals, while the Sylvians won by virtue of preventing Vailan from doing so, which was their entire goal for the war.
The Vailic side also maintains that they won the war, despite the state failing to secure their demands as outlined in the ultimatum, on the grounds that they had superior outcomes in combat, with some major members of the faction failing to be killed while participating heavily in the fighting.