The Cleston War

The Cleston War is misleadingly named. The fall of Cleston is the trigger and the namesake, but the war itself was a much larger Castal-vs-Magelaw clash that Prince Tavard had intended to fight in secret for two weeks before anyone in the Magelaw knew it was on. Viscount Terleman, by accident of being on the road home from another errand, broke that plan in three days.

Tavard's secret war

Prince Tavard, Duke of Castal and Count of Wilderhall, had quietly declared war on the Magelaw, intending to hold the declaration sealed for two weeks while he positioned forces. The Magelaw's offence was, depending on whom you asked, the conquest of half the Wilderlands, the embarrassment of Count Anvaram, or simply the existence of Minalan as Royal Marshal Arcane. The plan called for proxies along the entire frontier; Astyral was simultaneously attacked by the Count of Dendra over a separate Gilmoran dispute (see Astyral's Gilmoran War).

The Lord of Cleston, a minor Castali border lord with delusions of curry-favouring his way into Tavard's good graces, used the not-yet-public declaration as licence to raid the Magelaw frontier. He captured a Magelaw patrol led by Anjak, Terleman's squire and (per common rumour, and the Imperial culture he was raised in) Terleman's lover. Anjak was beaten "as a lesson." A herald arrived at the frontier the next morning under truce demanding four hundred silver for the patrol and another hundred for Anjak.

Terleman happens to be in the saddle

Terleman was at that moment leading his entire three-thousand-man army home along the road after escorting Count Anvaram back to the Castali frontier from the Eastern Bank campaign. The Lord of Cleston did not know this, because, as Terleman put it, "knights are too stupid to properly scout." Terleman's answer to the ransom demand was that the Lord of Cleston should expect a visit shortly.

Cleston is a small castle: large bailey, stout keep, several towers, sustained mostly because it sat at a convenient halfway point between Vorone and Wilderhall for tournament traffic. Sandoval's remark, on hearing the news at Vanador, was that "Terleman could take Cleston by himself." Terleman essentially did. Within a day of the ransom demand the castle had fallen, the Lord of Cleston was dead, and Terleman had sent word back to Pentandra not to negotiate a ransom but to instruct Brother Bryte to file a Writ of Conquest claiming the Castali domain of Cleston for the Magelaw.

The Writ went to Vorone, not to Wilderhall as protocol dictated. That was deliberate. It put the question of Cleston's sovereignty in the lap of the Alshari court, in front of Anguin and Rardine, while Tavard was still pretending the war did not exist.

Walkurjurik in a single afternoon

The Lord of Cleston's overlord, the Baron of Walkurjurik, learned of the fall within hours and reacted exactly as Terleman expected. He marched his castle garrison out to "drive the magi from the town," apparently believing he was facing a few wizards with no real army behind them. Terleman's warmagi laid a ward-field across the line of march; the entire Castali force, more than two hundred knights, squires, and sergeants including the baron himself, tripped the wards and dropped unconscious in the field. No casualty on either side, beyond a few broken legs from falling horses. Terleman rode into Castle Walkurjurik unopposed by sundown, raised the Magelaw banner over it, and instructed Bryte to file a second Writ. The town of Growar fell with the castle.

Harton, with actual blood

The next day a Gilmoran neighbour, the Baron of Harton, sent men over the frontier into Walkurjurik to reinforce the resistance. Terleman captured them in turn, then used the incursion as legal pretext to march on Harton itself. Castle Harton was smaller and less defensible than Walkurjurik and was caught completely off-balance; this was the first engagement of the war in which anyone actually died, five Gilmoran men-at-arms killed on the keep wall before the baron surrendered "through a new hole in his keep." Third Writ of Conquest filed by the next morning.

Strategic outcome

Three days after Cleston, Terleman held a Castali border lordship, a Castali Wilderlands barony, and a Gilmoran barony. Tavard's secret declaration of war was no longer a secret. The Alshari court was openly thrilled: Rardine called the conquests "brilliant," noted that they had pre-empted Tavard's entire plan, and observed that more than a few Castali and Gilmoran counts were quietly pleased to see Tavard humbled. Anguin was diplomatically uncomfortable but accepted the legality of the Writs, which Bryte had prepared meticulously under the right of conquest in Duin's Law.

Pentandra spent the next several days begging Terleman to please stop conquering people for long enough to let the political situation catch up. Terleman, raised to Viscount of Spellgate by the Alshari coronet for his trouble, agreed reluctantly to pause, then went on to bring in the Vorone Free Company mercenaries (Royal Third Commando veterans, plenty of them) to garrison his new acquisitions. He pointedly made no promise that future provocations would be ignored.

Anjak, beaten badly but recovering, lived. Terleman was, by Pentandra's account, in a cold rage about him through the entire campaign and the speed of the conquest is broadly attributed to that rage rather than to any extraordinary military advantage.