Gizenatter War

The Gizenatter War, fought briefly in 4098 ED between the city of Gizenatter, backed by the powerful Irhmeti Empire, and the Yilireti Empire, was an extremely short but extremely important conflict in ancient Hiereti history. The war led to the fall of the Irhmeti Empire and indirectly caused the fall of the Yilireti Empire, fracturing Hieret into many city-states. The central battle in the war involved over thirty-five thousand combatants, making it the largest battle per number of combatants and deaths at that time. The war was a great victory for the Yilireti Empire and they gained three cities and a large tribute from the greatly-weakened Irhmeti Empire. Conversely, it destroyed the Irhmeti's military and economic power, making the Yilireti Empire unrivalled in the whole world for several decades.

Cause
There were a number of reasons for the outbreak of war in 4098 ED. The most apparent reason was the sack of Dhivethāḥitheb by Ateter nomads who were fleeing from a famine in Gizenatter. In 4112 ED, heavy flooding affected the areas of the Hidesh River around Gizenatter, destroying the irrigated land around the city. Many Ateter fled south in great numbers, surviving through foraging and through raids of Yilireti farmland. This raiding persisted for several years, culminating in the destruction of the third-largest Yilireti city. Emperor Vāthigēth VIII assembled a large host and drove the Ateter north, out of Yilireti lands.

As compensation for the destruction of Dhivethāḥitheb, the Yilireti emperor demanded a large repayment from the city of Gizenatter. The priests of the city refused his demands and the city was attacked by the Yilireti Empire. The priests were banished from the city and many prized artefacts were stolen from the city temples. It was thought that Vāthigēth levied such a heavy tribute against the Gizenatter, not purely as compensation for the sack of Dhivethāḥitheb, but to provoke the Irhmeti Empire into war. The Irhmeti Empire had eclipsed the Yilireti Empire in terms of economy and manpower, but was not able to employ these advantages due to civil dissent and heavy decentralisation. The sum demanded from Gizenatter was unpayable and Vāthigēth would have been aware that attacking the city would have forced the Irhmeti King Sanko II to honour his empire's alliance with Gizenatter.

Sack of Gizenatter
Following the sack of Dhivethāḥitheb, the Ateter nomads were forced north, back into Ateter and Irhmeti lands. The Yilireti emperor pursued them with a host of over thirty thousand men. This army marched on Gizenatter and upon arrival, Vāthigēth issued a set of demands to the priests of the city. Among these demands was a large annual tribute of gold and grain which the city, still reeling from the recent famine and flooding, was not able to afford. As a result, the city was attacked. Gizenatter, at this time, was a small city and could only muster a few thousand troops to defend the boundaries. This army was quickly butchered and the city was looted. Thousands were killed during the sack, and the city's population was reduced to a few thousand. The farmland around the city was burned, causing even more destruction. The priests of Gizenatter were disposed (and some of them were slain) and were replaced by Yilireti priests, an act which horrified the Irhmeti king.

Preparations for Battle
The surviving priests of Gizenatter fled north, into Irhmeti lands, arriving in Irbid. They requested a meeting with the Irhmeti king, who looked favourably upon them. King Sanko II, having recently come to power at expense of his weaker father, had been looking for a way to fight the Yilireti Empire. For over a decade, the Yilireti Empire had taken an increasingly-belligerent towards the Irhmeti Empire, and their annnexation of Gizenatter, an undisputed Irhmeti vassal, broke the uneasy peace that had existed between the two empires.

Sanko desperately tried to raise an army from around the empire, but was rebuffed by his priests and governors in most cities. Only the governors of Adirem and Irem raised a force on behalf of the king, meaning that the Irhmeti ruler had only eight thousand native troops. Some mercenaries from the north bolstered his army slightly, but the nine thousand men under Sanko's command was greatly-less than he had expected. The population of the Irhmeti Empire was such that one could have expected at army upwards of thirty-five thousand men, superior in number to even the Yilireti army. Still, the force at the king's disposal was well-trained and professional, and Sanko's skills as a general, though largely untested, were notable. The king continued with his plans for war despite his small force.

When Vāthigēth realised that the Irhmeti king intended to continue the war, he was forced to move north to meet Sanko in Irbid. The Yilireti emperor sent a small force of rafts up the Hidesh River towards the enemy capital, to arrive at the same time as his army and thus make the Irhmeti soldiers have to fight a landing party and an army marching from the south. Irhmeti scouts patrolling the southern regions of the Irhmeti Empire, however, spotted the rafts several days before their arrival in the city, and brought news of this to Sanko. Sanko prepared some rafts of his own and deployed them upon the arrival of Vāthigēth's army.

Battle of Irbid
The Yilireti army met their Irhmeti counterparts outside of the imperial capital of Irbid. The Irhmeti scouts had reported the approaching army several hours before their arrival, and King Sanko II had arranged his forces on a hill in front of Irbid's walls. Though heavily-outnumbered, he had the advantage of height. He positioned his scouts to the rear of his lines, out of sight from the enemy.

Vāthigēth advanced to give battle upon his army's arrival outside the city. He had a great numerical advantage and his army were skilled from their conquest of Gizenatter several months prior. King Sanko II had presented a weak centre to the enemy force, and the Yilireti general compelled his forces to concentrate their attack on this region of the line. Thousands of Yilireti troops marched up the hill, into a semi-circle formed by the Irhmeti lines. When the Yilireti force met the Irhmeti army, the other sections of Sanko's army closed in, trapping a large amount of the Yilireti army. The cavalry, kept in reserve, launched their attack, smashing into the rear of the opposing army, and causing many Yilireti soldiers to rout.

However, the Irhmeti army was not large enough to completely surround Vāthigēth's troops, and the Yilireti general was able to rally his retreating forces. Sanko had seen his army heavily-depleted throughout the battle, and, though they put up a continued resistance, they were unable to overcome their rejuvenated foe. The battle proved a victory for the Yilireti Empire and Irbid was sacked.

Continued Resistance
King Sanko managed to escape from the battle, with a small force of five hundred men. He fled to Adirem, where he was able to gather more soldiers to fight the Yilireti Empire. By this time, however, Irbid had been sacked and many of its inhabitants had been put to the sword. Yilireti soldiers raided farms around Adirem, destroying irrigation and killing farmers. Irem was similarly attacked, through indirect strikes aimed at starving the populace. The Irhmeti king was captured while on his way to Tabid, where he intended to rally a larger army. He was forced to sign a peace treaty with the Yilireti Empire, one which signalled the end of the Irhmeti Empire.

Aftermath and Analysis
After the war, the cities of Gizenatter, Irem and E'Dabbi became members of the Yilireti Empire, greatly disrupting Irhmeti trade and heavily reducing their population. With these cities now exempt from trading with the Irhmeti Empire, the trade networks which the Irhmeti Empire had developed over centuries, involving distant parts of Hieret and the greater world, collapsed. These economic difficulties were expanded by a heavy tribute that the Yilireti Empire enacted against their defeated foes. The Irhmeti Empire were forced to make an initial payment of gold, jewels and grain and an infinite annual payment of all these goods.

The effect these tributes and payments had on the Irhmeti Empire were massive. When a series of rebellions shook what remained of the empire, the empire was unable to cope, and splintered apart. The Irhmeti Empire went from the most powerful force in the world, to a collection of a few famine-stricken cities. In 4012 ED, the Irhmeti Empire collapsed and the Yilireti Empire became unrivalled in the world. The collapse of the Irhmeti Empire, however, had some lasting effect on its rival. With the fall of the empire, and a great famine in Irbid and Irem, many people fled south to Gizenatter and Adirem, which were overwhelmed by the massive influx of migrants.

The war proved both the superiority of the tactically-innovative use of distinct organs within armies over the employment of armies as a central body, and the superiority of centralised government over less strict unitarianism. While the Irhmeti Empire's troops were better-trained, better-used and better-instructed, the empire suffered from troop shortages, as governors of individual cities refused to send troops to assist the central government. The Yilireti Empire, in which governors were related to the emperor, bribed for loyalty or coerced into supporting the government in Jiyteb, did not suffer from such problems, and was able to raise a massive army proportionate to its population. The Irhmeti Empire, despite having a larger population than the Yilireti Empire, was unable to field an army even half the size of the enemy force.