An uneasy peace lay between the Aztec Empire and the Iron Throne. There was an unspoken agreement dictated by the balance of power, plain and simple - the Iron Throne would spend its vast resources on maintaining its world Empire whilst the Aztec armies entrenched themselves in the cold North and the fertile riches of the Riverlands. Of the hundreds of thousands, the Aztec legions - they were highly disciplined, ferocious, resourceful and brave. Two thirds of them sat in the Riverlands and the rest in the North, ready to put down any insurrections. They had created the finest logistics system for their army Westeros had ever seen.
In the south the Eunuch King of the Reach and the Stormking of the southland mountains and deserts maintained their independence for their armies were large, their assassins keen and neither Empires wished to overstretch their forces and leave them vulnerable to invasion by the other. If the Aztecs invaded the Reach, they stood to have their supply lines cut by the Vale and the Iron Islands. If the Iron Throne invaded the Reach, the Aztecs would be able to take advantage of decentralized command of the grand war effort. Things could have persisted without either side making a move, but they wouldn't. The Aztecs had built their dragon pits and the Iron Throne had dragonstone, their dragons weren't going anywhere and both sides were hatching them in the droves.
Things could not have persisted without either side making a move, because the Miroslavs were in power, and the Miroslavs suffered not the Aztec to live. As a consequence the war for the Sun was declared.
The Serbian warplan was executed flawlessly. 10,000 Gusars and 12,000 levies of the Eyrie marched from the bloody gate to pillage the riverlands near Cracklaw point. 15,000 auxiliaries of the Vale led by Lord Paramount Djordje Miroslav followed closely behind, to lay siege to the northern approach to the Neck, cutting off the North from the Riverlands. In the south 10,000 Gusars and 10,000 Unsullied led by King Nikodim spearheaded the assault, accompanied by 16,000 slave soldiers of King's Landing, 15,000 pirates of the Stepstones, 5,000 heavy-infantry of Storm's End and 12,000 guardsmen of the Crownlands. They blanketed the Riverlands with sieges, with no less than four dragonriders at their command - King Nikodim fighting atop Viserion the mad and the three Valyrian Knights and Warriors fighting for Nikodim atop dragons of Serbian, Aztec and Targaeryan origin, escaped beasts tamed by the natives of Dragonstone. The rest of the world mustered their forces to sail on the Aztec Empire, the longer the war went on the more fronts would open up and the more raids and sieges would take place until they collapsed from the sheer weight of soldiers.
The Aztecs responded in a way I dreaded. They mustered all of their forces for war, bringing their northern garrison south, their riverlands garrison south, their standing armies south, their levies south - they wished to smother the Crownlands before the armies from the Iron Islands to Asshai and the Shadowlands could even so much as touch their capital. Which given the quality of their forces and the quality of mine, was entirely possible. The Serbian forces were plagued by desertions, plague and execution, whilst the Aztecs suffered no such attrition - they were blessed by their Sun, their Emperor, their god-dragon. And at any rate they had nowhere to run to, it was fight here or be driven into the cold waters of the sunset sea to die. They also happened to have a freakishly large armada of dragonriders, with their Emperor riding what some rumour to be the descendent of one of their sky gods Quetzalcoatl; over 2 centuries old and twice as strong as even Viserion the mad or Drogon the black.
They marched south en masse and forced the Serbians into battle, beginning the battle of Chyttering Brook. A small Serbian raiding party led by the King's Guard were establishing a beachhead for the rest of the Miroslav soldiers to fight. Crossing the river with only 1,600 men, the soldiers encountered 34,000 soldiers and an aztec dragonrider. They were slaughtered, and two of the King's Guard were captured and sacrificed by the Aztecs. All the same, the efforts of the King's Guard had not gone in vain, as all of the Serbian forces converged on Chyttering Brook to deliver a crushing blow to the Aztec forces. What was most surprising was that there were 11,000 soldiers of the dead and two white walkers leading the flanks; the armies of the dead fought alongside the Aztecs to try and ward off the Serbian invasion.
The southern hosts clashed, Aztecs upon Serbs. The Aztecs had one great advantage in the unity of their command, but King Nikodim was ruthless and efficient. Outnumbered by the Aztecs, King Nikodim led his men across Chyttering Brook lest attrition lay waste to his armies. Tens of thousands of both Empire's most elite soldiers, led by their greatest generals - even hundreds of thousands of soldiers, fighting for days on end bore witness to the Dance of Dragons.
At first it seemed honourable enough. Cuetlachdi and Aemax of the Aztecs were mature, adult dragons. On the Serbian side Razys and Viserion the mad stretched their muscles for a true fight. Viserion the mad admittedly was the superior of any of dragon alive bar the god dragon and Drogon the Black, but it was still two for two. Cuetlachdi and Aemax soared towards King Nikodim, ready to sink their teeth into the Iron Throne's dragons.
All the same, Eberron and Viserion remained stationary.
Cuetlachdi and Aemax ascended into the sky - yet all the same Eberron and Viserion remained stationary.
When at last Cuetlachdi and Aemax swooped down, flames striking down like thunder, the dragon Razys slammed into Aemax as a third dragonrider of the Iron Throne ambushed the bastards. Razys and Eberron turned their attentions to Cuetlachdi, while Viserion the mad turned his attention to Aemax. Viserion began a quick messy dispatching of the fool. The Aztecs brought another dragon to the fore, Maekal - a great fire red beast. Viserion turned on Maekal, stunning the fiend with a terrible strike. Razys followed up, diving into them at great speed. The two of them crashed into the ground, but only Maekal was left dazed, torn to pieces before it could arise. And then Drogon the Black arrived.
Aemax alone stood against Eberron, Razys, Viserion the Mad and Drogon the Black. Aemax was torn asunder, Eberron dealing the killing blow. That left three Aztec dragons dead and none of the Iron Throne's dragonriders for the worse.
More dragonriders of the Aztec Empire arrived to fight the ever-growing battle of Chyttering Brook. Arrax of the Aztecs burned Lady Alaenys of Dragonstone alive, Drogon the Black flew off in rage. King Nikodim rode Viserion the Mad headlong into Arrax's neck and avenged Lady Alaenys, Arrax's lifeless corpse sprawled charred on the ground. This left the Aztecs four down for the Iron Throne's one, and their army crumbled against the searing might of the remaining dragons. 190,000 men fought in the first battle of Chyttering Brook, and 70,000 had died; 27,000 Serbian forces to the Aztec's 43,000. The Valemen divisions of the Serbian forces were marching south, but so too were over a 160,000 Northmen, Rivermen and Aztecs. King Nikodim pressed his men onwards to slaughter the fleeing rabble - 41,000 Aztec soldiers had survived the battle of Chyttering Brook, and the plan was to reduce that number to nought.
57,000 soldiers harassed the rear columns of the Aztecs and the Riverlands, until at last their forces were cornered in the battle of Mosborough. Over 22,000 Aztecs were slaughtered, and only 2,300 Serbians had died.
And then the messengers arrived. 10,000 elite Gusars and all the Valemen had been ambushed at Rayonet by 90,000 Aztec screamers, their commanders sacrificed to their dragon god - not a single soldier left alive to tell of what happened in those fields. The great dragon god had arrived, and the Sun Emperor was leading his Aztecs to war. Another division ambushed the rear column of King Nikodim's host at the battle of Sow's Horn, 76,000 Aztecs destroying 14,000 of 20,000 Serbs in the rearguard. King Nikodim was deep in the hostile Riverlands, his more undisciplined army elements deserting or executed by fire for negligence by the thousands; slave rabble. He led his elite Gusars and Unsullied to where the Dance for Dragons began - ready to meet the full combined might of the Riverlands, North, Winter and the Empire of the Sun.
Soldiers from the free cities were the first to arrive, 16,000 Pentoshi sacrificed to stall the largest Aztec host. Many more free cities men landed in the North alongside the Iron Islanders, who reaved the Aztec colonists of Stony Shore. The Aztecs were losing ground rapidly, and this was only compounded by the old crone Lady Meliana Karstark joining the Serbian forces - bringing the resources of Winterfell to bear against the Aztec foe. Lady Meliana Karstark had lived to see the reign of a Karstark King, two Lannister Kings, one Tarly Eunuch Warrior King, two Miroslav Conqueror Kings, the Long Winter, her own Queen rule, the two arrivals of the Aztecs - and now the war for the Sun. Meliana Karstark was always a friend to Miroslavs, though I could never quite fathom why. The friendship was rarely reciprocated, the Miroslavs every time just told her to do what she wished. Perhaps that is why she always looked favourably on the Miroslavs. She exacted a terrible price on her conquerors.
The second battle of Chyttering Brook opened well. 50,000 Serbian forces fighting 55,000 Aztec shriekers and heart-rippers on the brook of broken bones and dragons. 14,000 Myrese auxiliaries, a combined force of 23,000 Rh'ollor fanatics and sellswords marched to reinforce the dwindling Miroslav host. Later on the battle grew so desperate that even a meagre extra 2,600 knights were hired to throw into the melee. The Aztecs had 90,000 soldiers marching from the eastbank of the Chittering Brook and 40,000 of the Northern Aztec garrison to the battle, with the bulk of their forces only held at bay by the sacrificing of many tens of thousands of free city auxiliaries. Their quality was altogether quite worthless, but their deaths did slow down their dragon riders. There was only so much even a sky god could cook per day.
The inevitable could not be delayed. As Razys, Eberron and Viserion the Mad cooked the Aztecs under a false constellation of fiery suns, the Aztecs brought their best and strongest to bear. King Nikodim rode Viserion the Mad to face Tlalli, the Aztec's champion dragonrider sitting atop Caedarys the Envenomed. Even with Razys and Eberron beside him, the melee was uncertain and vicious. The dragons clawed at each others flesh, talons digging into scales. Several times Viserion the Lunatic nearly fell from the sky, and Tlalli lunged in for the kill. Eberron attempted to save Viserion, but something far greater than all of them had arrived.
Rhaenyral the progenitor of the Aztec dragons, dragon of the Sun Emperor and the greatest dragon to grace Westeros with its beauty had arrived. Its wings shed black shade on the grounds below, its voice silenced the din of a hundred thousand men dying in a tumultuous barrage of thunder and fire, its head was graced by the halo of the sun and there sat the Emperor in his plumed glory.
King Nikodim resolved himself then. He determined that he was going to kill him, his dragons, his people and his gods.
King Nikodim and Viserion managed to escape the clutches of death, recovering themselves. Rhaenyral chased after Eberron, who escaped burnt and bruised - but also alive. Rhaenyral was purposeful and graceful in his pursuit of Eberron, never ceasing to snap at the heels of the smaller flying lizard. Viserion the Mad turned the tables on the Champion Tiliat and Caedarys and chased after him. Tiliat withdrew, pulling up hard, Caedarys trying to escape the hideous laughing balefire that Viserion vomited. Tiliat did not know that he was not the target, nor do I think King Nikodim fully knew either. Viserion was a mad flying serpent.
Viserion flew high into the sky chasing after Caedarys, yet when Viserion reached the dizzying heights of the heavens Viserion dove down painfully hard, his powerful wings straining under the pressure of the legendary forces of gravity and dragon voodoo. Rhaenyral was still chasing the dragon four times smaller than him, the poor Eberron, when Viserion the mad crashed into Rhaenyral. They plummeted, the two like iron bricks in the ocean, and they hit the ground hard.
Nikodim fell, torn from his harness. Viserion the Insane was wounded. Tlalli Itz the insane leper Aztec Champion looked on in horror as Nikodim rose from his feet, Viserion clearing a fiery perimeter from the terrified Aztec clubmen. Rhaenyral, the dragon from which all Rhaenyralid dragons descend, did not arise. The sky god was dead. Still strapped to the back of the corpse god, King Nikodim walked over to the Sun Emperor - who miraculously still breathed, and brought him to Viserion. Caedarys and Tlalli did not hesitate to try and kill Nikodim, but Razys warded the bastard off from saving his liege Emperor, getting slightly singed in the process.
Once Nikodim was back in the saddle, Viserion launched himself at Caedarys. Tlalli was beset upon by fire and claw. Caedarys was ripped apart. The Serbians were heavily outnumbered but King Nikodim resisted, setting generations worth of Aztec, Riverlands and Northmen nobility ablaze. If they fought for the Emperor of the Sun nothing of value was being lost. Although in retrospect, most of the Lords could probably have justified their war efforts under self-defence and self preservation, caught in the crossfire. At any rate the Miroslavs had won, the Sun Emperor was in their control. King Nikodim bid his soldiers continue fighting, and the Aztecs were in their greatest bloodlust seeking to exact bloody vengeance on the Serbs, or perhaps believed they could rescue their Emperor. They could only do so with a dragon at their behest. And so it was that 160,000 Aztecs began to make a messy work of the last 31,000 Serbians, and the last three Serbian dragon riders made a messy work of the 140,000 Aztecs left. King Nikodim got what he wanted. The last Aztec Dragonrider, sitting atop Whiteclaw Rhaenyralid attacked. With the full force of the Aztecs at his back, maybe he actually believed he stood a chance. He was picked apart, Rhyzal tore off his wings and Eberron did the rest. Viserion the mad just watched. The Aztecs lost 20,000, the Serbs lost 17,000. All the same only 15,000 Serbian soldiers survived - most of them mercenaries and conscripts, all the Gusars and Unsullied long since having died.
That mattered not. King Nikodim had achieved his goal. Every single last blasted Aztec dragon was dead, wild or flying for the Serbian Throne. The armies of the world were now in the North and the Riverlands, and all the Aztecs under the sky had moved south to fight on Chyttering Brook. The Aztec dynasties, families and their entire Empire had suffered a crippling blow from which there was no recovery. Whatever remained of their large army was quite worthless, as against the armies of the world, the dragons that ruled the skies and the Mirolslavs that ruled the dragons - there was nothing that could be done.
Lady Meliana Karstark was made warden of the North. The Gusars and Unsullied were slowly rebuilt, but were so shattered at that point that they served only a mostly ceremonial role. It mattered not.
King Nikodim rode Viserion the Mad. His left arm was Qoherys Ilvar, master of Razys. His right arm was Belicho Ilvar, master of Eberron. His third eye Trianna, Master of Moonshadow. His Executioner was Rhae, master of Drogon the Black. And then there was Maelor Velaryon, master of Rhaegal, Viserra Velaryon, master of Shrykos and Patrician Horonno, the spice lord and master of Greencomet. All the untamed dragons in the world resided in the Iron Throne's lands. All the wild dragons resided in the Iron Throne's lands. Of all the dragon eggs, all were held in Miroslav hands or retainers loyal to Miroslavs. Only one was held by the Lord Paramount of the North, the former Sun Emperor - and he lost that when the assassins came for him, and the North was given to Lady Meliana Karstark.
Storm King Cortnay of the Stormlands was told bend the knee or die. His personal power was highly limited, he controlled only one castle and was subject to the whims of his supposedly subservient vassals. When they told him to join the Iron Throne he had no choice but to listen. Queen Amarei of the Reach was more unusual; she was a westerman babe no more than 3 years old who had somehow inherited everything from the Tarly Eunuch Warrior King, right down to his ancestral sword. Her regent was wise enough to bend the knee too.
With all the dragons in the world, the world fell under Miroslav dominion. The King of the Iron Throne and Emperor of the Sun was Miroslav. The King of Sothyros was a Miroslav. The King of the Summer Islands was a Miroslav. The King of Moraq was a Miroslav. The Lord Paramount of the Vale was a Miroslav. The King of Hyrkoon was a Miroslav. The King of the Basilisk Isles was a Miroslav. The King of the Basilisk Isles was a Miroslav. And then there were the Lords, the Lords everywhere - so many Miroslavs. They did not have the level of control the Miroslav families did in the old world, the families in the game of thrones were considerably more stubborn and the merchant republics considerably more resilient. But with the dragons of the world at King Nikodim's command? The new age had begun. An Empire greater than Valyria, one without an end.
THE EMPIRE OF OF THE SUN AND SERB
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2112532 times)