In the early hours of 45-29-3, on the morning following the coronation of King Loghain I, four Asrian Legions crossed the northern border near Dallechaen. They swiftly overran the settlements along their path toward the capital city of Caorran, as the majority of the Caorrani nobility had gathered at Royal Palace of Caorran for the Council of Lords convened to bring an end to the Civil War.
Shortly after their advance began, the Imperium Asraniae formally declared "The Caorran Crisis". In this declaration, Imperator Aurelian Aeternus Avalon, alongside Consuls Balfreid Sigerica II and Gniewomir "The Unifier of The Hus", bypassed the Senate to authorize what they termed a "military intervention" in Caorran, claiming it was to "restore lawful order and civic stability, prevent further foreign subversion, protect the lives of innocent Caorrani citizens, and preserve peace in the West."
Such claims bore a bitter irony, for it was they who cast the West into total war. More ironic still was their assertion of protecting Caorrani lives, when at the first sign of resistance from King Loghain I, the Imperator ordered the mass execution of more than a dozen Caorrani nobles, including the King himself, and even a Cardinal of his own Church, scarcely five weeks after their Legions first crossed the border.
Upon receiving word of the unauthorized incursion by the Asrians, King Loghain dispatched urgent letters to both Fairshore and Ascalon, invoking their alliances with Caorran and calling for aid. Their response was immediate and resolute: they marched without hesitation.
Yet, they would not arrive in time. With four Legions at their command, the Asrians rapidly secured the North and laid siege to the capital.
Though the King commanded no more than two thousand men, perhaps two thousand two hundred, according to some accounts, he took to the walls himself and led the defense. It was not enough. Though he held the city for nearly a full month, the capital ultimately fell, and the King, alongside a dozen loyal vassals, was taken captive.
Aurelian's terms for peace were simple: Count Bryce was to ascend the Throne as ruler of Caorran, which would thereafter become an Imperial Province under his governance. Furthermore, all alliances with Ascalon and Fairshore were to be severed.
King Loghain's answer was without fear: a resolute refusal.
At that moment, Aurelian descended into a fury bordering on madness, much as his father had done before him on several occasions. He ordered the immediate execution of all prisoners of war, including the King, and with his own hand beheaded a Cardinal of his Church on 45-34-2.
For a brief moment, the Kingdom was cast into disarray. Yet not all had been present at the capital. Duke Eoghan of Gallaran, former King of Caorran, was still en route with his forces and thus spared, as was Duke Avalon of The Vale of Hope, along with General Alasdair the Ironwall, both of whom had been assembling their armies and marching toward what would become a massacre.
Also spared was Loghain's son, Maelric Eilean, who, though young and inexperienced, was swiftly appointed Prince-Regent of Caorran. Guided by Dukes Eoghan and Avalon, he led the Caorrani people through the remainder of the war.
Following the fall of the capital, the remnants of the Caorrani army regrouped with the forces of Ascalon and Fairshore, marching eastward until they joined the full strength of the allied host. Together, they advanced upon the capital. Though the Asrians had deployed four Legions, the allied forces, led in large part by Ascalon, moved with decisive force, numbering well over ten thousand men.
By the time they reached the capital, most Asrian forces had already fled westward, fearing annihilation at the hands of Ascalon's armies. The city was liberated, and soon all of Caorran was freed from occupation. Simultaneously, the Asrian capital itself came under threat, encircled by even greater allied forces, revealing the Empire's grave miscalculation in waging war against a realm allied to the most powerful nation of the age.
With the Kingdom secured, Caorrani forces marched West to aid in the final defeat of the Empire. Amid the chaos, Aurelian's own sister, Esclarmonde Aeterna, was captured near Jeunaibrook while attempting to flee by the hand of Elara von Rivacheg on 45-35-6. She was burned alive at the side of the road, a grim act of Burned Grief, which, to many among the Caorrani, carried a sense of harsh justice. For while the Imperator himself had fled into exile to escape judgment, his blood did not wholly escape consequence.
On 45-60-6, Count Bryce was convicted of high treason for conspiring with Aurelian. He was beheaded in public upon a raised platform in the capital's city square. The act was carried out without ceremony by his uncle, yet with grim resolve, as Duke Eoghan delivered the sentence himself, declaring that no bond of kinship could outweigh justice, and that betrayal, even by blood, demanded consequence.
Following his execution, Bryce's body was quartered by order of the Duke. His remains were set upon the four gates of the capital, a warning to all who would seek power by inviting foreign hands onto Caorrani soil. No titles were spoken, no honors granted, no rites observed. Such was The Price of Treason. In time, as flesh gave way to bone, his skeletal remains were left in place, enduring to this day as a silent testament to the gravity of his crime.
As for Aurelian, the young Imperator abandoned his people, leaving the Consuls to answer for the war. Though they initially agreed to terms of peace set forth by the alliance, Aurelian, from exile, sent word rejecting the treaty and denouncing it, accusing Ascalon of warmongering, even as his own Empire stood guilty of countless atrocities.
With the refusal made formal, the Empire's fate was sealed. City by city, town by town, hamlet by hamlet, it fell, until by the end of the 46th year it was fully dismantled by the tripartite alliance. In its place, the Old Kingdom of Idraei was restored, the Mark of Südostland reemerged, and the Grand Duchy of Vatesia declared independence, the sole Imperial Province to endure, its ruler Barnabas Domitius having accepted the alliance's terms.
As reparations, Sigerica was granted to Caorran. Though the Kingdom had no desire for expansion, and many within that province still viewed the Caorrani with hostility, governance was entrusted to The Bright Custodians, both to pacify the populace and to gradually root out lingering Imperial loyalties.
In the wake of the executions, among them Cardinal Rhiannon Cousland, Solar Ecclesiarch Helia I remained silent, as did the entirety of the Asrian Ecclesia. The Caorrani people, seeing either indifference or, even worse, complicity, began to abandon the Church in great numbers. Many turned instead to The Holy Covenant, a syncretic Solisian faith that rose to prominence through the fervent example of Harmand, the Prophet during the siege of Caorran.
He stood beside King Loghain and Cardinal Rhiannon. When they fell, he did not. In their memory, he said A Prayer Upon the Walls of Caorran, and held his ground until the very end, until The Last Light. By what many would call a miracle, he was captured when the city fell, yet spared, for the executions had already been carried out, and perhaps the weight of their deeds had begun to dawn upon the Asrians. When the city was later liberated, he emerged alive and unbroken. On 45-40-3, he consecrated the Cathedral of Caorran, blessing a place of great sorrow with the light of Aeternum Solis.
At the same time, The Custodian Rebellion was proclaimed by First Custodian Eileen Mac Mairtain, declaring the Order's independence from The Ecclesial States.
In the months that followed, the Caorrani people left the old Asrian Church in droves, turning instead to the teachings of Harmand. Yet when they needed him most, he disappeared on 46-36-2, a cruel turn of fate. Thus, the Caorrani clergy gathered at the Cathedral of the Sun in Àirde as the war approached its end, where they resolved to establish a renewed Church, free from Asrian corruption and influence, inspired not only by the teachings of Harmand, but by his faith and courage, and in doing so, to return to the true Light.
And so was The Caorrani Solisian Church born, and he who writes these words was chosen as the successor of Harmand, and became the First Shepherd of this new Church, even though I am no prophet, nor martyr, only a witness. I walked beside Harmand when his staff defied the Legions, and I read by candlelight with Rhiannon when her heart still beat for Caorran. If my words carry weight, it is only because I have carried theirs.