Battle for Whitoper

The Battle for Whitoper, originally named the Battle on Tikar River but changed by scholar's to avoid confusion, was a confrontation between the army of Seren under High General Ronigar and the army of Kura under General Joran Theven. It ended in a Pyrrhic Victory for Ronigar.

Background
In 534AB the armies of Seren fought and defeated the forces of Sula and Whitoper in The Battle of Chaos. Making Whitoper the target of his campaign, he began raiding their lands to goad King Zian into a fight.

The Whitoper Monarch began to raise a full army to face the horde but was surrounded in Yomero, which led to a short siege which caused the city to fall under Ronigar. See: Siege of Yomero

With no army or monarch left in Whitoper to stop him, Seren crowned himself King and began his campaign in Sula. The King of Sula at the time, Aymon, requested aid from Kura to face the evil army but was denied. Kura begun raising their own army to take back Whitoper and fight the horde of Seren.

In 535AB the nation of Sula fell to Seren, who named himself King of their lands as well. See: Battle on the Kailu Grasslands

In 536AB Kura finished their preprations, having a full army of 150,000 soldiers under General Joran Theven and begun their march into Whitoper. Seren, who begun his campaign into Defel, left Whitoper's defence to his respected High General Ronigar.

Ronigar marched into Whitoper once more and chose the location of the battle, the Tikar River, recruiting more soldiers along the way. General Theven led his army to meet the Half-Orc.

Tikar River
Tikar River was a large river that split the armies in two. Ronigar held the better position, creating a small fortification on the hill nearby.

High General Ronigar had a force of 275,000 soldiers, while General Joran Theven only held 150,000. The two forces begun resting their exhausted troops, while their leaders and tacticians scouted the land and the enemy soldiers. After a day of waiting, the two forces clashed.

Feignt Attacks, Ronigar's Stride
The initial battle was a series of feignt attacks from the side of Kura. They attempted to bait the monstrous units to cross the river and come into the range of their arrows. Ronigar saw the ploy and kept his soldiers in place, but did lose some to the tactic.

General Theven tried once more to make the ploy work, but failed to goat any more soldiers into attacking and waited for Ronigar to make his move. High General Ronigar had sent some of his soldiers to cross the river down further, outside of sight from Kura while they were distracted by their own feignts. Soon, his soldiers began baiting charges across the river, causing some of the Kura men to fire their arrows prematurely and others to run ahead and fall to arrows of Goblins and Orcs.

When his forces did cross they set up for the time, waiting for a signal to come from Ronigar and his troops. General Theven was quite impressed at the patience of the Half-Orc, but believed soon he would crack. He was correct and soon Ronigar called for his soldiers to leave their well-fortified position and cross the river to attack the enemy. At the same time, the cavalry and faster units that had crossed the river earlier set up their position.

Realising they were flanked, the Kura army set up a skewed formation to face the enemy, wasting time on their positions rather than firing arrows at the crossing troops. This gave time for Ronigar personally to cross the river with his two Giants under very light threat, though still lost a great amount of troops.

Clash of nightmares
When the two forces met it was a clash of bodies and blood. Orc's roared as they beheaded soldiers before being run through by spears, men were crushed by Ogre's fists, dragon's burnt through friend or foe. It was a bloodbath and more. But the formation of Kura quickly found their push, regaining compusure, they used their training carried over from Whitoper's Civil War to maintain distance and kill.

Ronigar saw his side losing and called for his cavalry to charge. He personally entered the battlefield, swinging the Royal Sword of Whitoper and slashing through his enemy. A confused Manticore even attacked him at a stage, but he quickly turned it back to his side. The Hill Giant bodyguards he usually had were crushing opponents but taking heavy damage from spears and arrows. When one fell, the other raged and began pushing through the enemy. Ronigar used the chaos to force himself closer to the enemy commander, killing many different men, elves and even halflings along the way.

When the cavalry hit Kura it send a thunderous effect throughout the muddled forces. Troops from both sides felt the impact and some even fell over. Pushing the entire battle over more to the west, the charge worked wonders. As many of the larger monstrous foes were falling to the experienced and trained troops of Kura, the various owlbears, gnolls and gnolls were able to overcome them with pure momentum.

General Theven saw the turn of battle and sent his reserves around to flank the charging forces, but left a small force at his Headquarters. Ronigar predicted the movement, and sent a Chimera to distract them. When the Eastern flank fell for Kura, the battle was over.

Ronigar and his forces used the falling flank to push with everything they had, each member being wounded in one way or another. When they broke through the chaos, they managed to reach the headquarters. General Theven and his reserves charged at Ronigar's bodyguard and melee begun. Kura's troops on the ground saw the clash at their headquarters and believed the worse, calling for a full retreat. Joran saw the outcome and retreated himself, avoiding Ronigar's sword by mere inches. With a full route, the victory was for Ronigar.

Aftermath
With the enemy retreating, Ronigar managed to capture a few of the higher nobles in the chaos. General Theven was able to escape, but many of his advisors had been found and either captured or killed. The High General was unable to stop the full wrath of his soldiers, and many more Kura soldiers were hunted down and killed for fun. When the Half-Orc managed to get the army back together, he counted his losses and headed to Robtikar.

Ronigar
Ronigar, with his captured Nobles, gained a bit of wealth through ransoming back to the enemy. He offered some to join his side, while others he simply beheaded and sent to their families. Once more he added a sword to his collection, taking the heir of the house Aurel's head and family heirloomed sword, thus wiping out their lineage completely.

After counting the losses of his army, he set forth to take Robitkar for Seren.

Losses
Ronigar (Seren): 107,000 Dead. 80,000 Wounded. Of 275,000.

Joran Theven
General Theven returned with the rest of his soldiers in a hellish retreat. Consistently followed by the enemy, they lost many more troops on the way home. When he finally did reach Kura, he was welcomed by the republic but also scrutinized for the loss of life. He was not demoted any rank though, as the people believed him the only person that had been so close to defeating the horde.

The house of Aurel hated him until their dying days, believing he was responsible for killing their only heir and thus their family.

Losses
Joran Theven (Kura): 89,000 Dead. 63,000 Wounded. Of 150,000

Whitoper
Many scholar's see this as a fight to actually reclaim Whitoper and keep it standing properly. As after this fight they lost their capital, and the kingdom turned to a form of ashes. Cities and Towns do not exist today due to the raiding of Ronigar and his men on their path to claiming the capital.

Kura
Kura was infact lucky that Ronigar held no current plans to invade their nation. With no organised defence, and a shuttering defeat, they would've faulted to Ronigar's smaller army and turned into what Whitoper currently was.

They became much more serious in joining the shared alliance, offering their sympathies and regret to Sula and Courler.