Part 2
Betrayal and Civil War
The King is dead! Long Live the King!
It was skink priest Makos, lord of the Firefly Legion who first discovered the truth behind the origins of the saurus slave-legions. Since his spawning both he and his fellow saurus slaves had been taught by their aelfin masters that they had been created directly by the prince now King Hextus, and through history lizard-kind had always lived in the shadow of their aelfin masters to do their bidding. Unlike the saurus however, Makos was born with an innate understanding of the saurian hieroglyphs that dotted the ruins of the spawning pools and the ruins spread throughout the Ulguland jungles that he encountered. Secretly from his aelfin masters, who had forbidden the use of saurian script amongst the legions, Makos gathrered notes from the far-flung sites and slowly began to learn the true origins of the lizard-people. He discovered they were not the creation of the aelfs but rather had ancestry amongst the stars and ages long past; that their race had helped build the World that Was and give birth to the aelfs and many other beings, and that their kind still existed to this day far above them in the stars as defenders of the realms. The skink priest kept this information secret from all those except Makam, the saurus-general, and the other saurus centurions of the Firefly Legion, teaching them too how to read the glyphs and scouring information from the jungle ruins until he had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth behind his discoveries and the lies of the King.
The day King Hextus finally died of old age sent ripples of shock through the saurus slave legions. Elves are nearly immortal by the standards of humans, but this is an altogether different standard when compared to the fully immortalized bodies of the saurus, who can functionally live forever until they are cut down on the battlefield. The saurus slaves slowly witnessed their aelfin masters grow older and older and finally leave the realms of the living, to be replaced by their offspring. All the while the saurus slaves continued to endure, under the descendants of their masters. The death of the King was different however. All saurus were property of the King, and now the King was dead.
The skink priest Makos then met secretly with Marshal Kaan Liteth, most preeminent amongst his saurian battle brothers and lord of all the Rayapan forces, to present to him the truth behind the origins of the saurus slave legions. Upon hearing these revelations, the Marshal’s anger was legendary. Never before had Marshal Kaan felt so much wrath, and he nearly killed Makos and his massacred the entire Firefly Legion as traitors on the spot. But the Marshal also recognized the truth of Makos’ discoveries, for he had long held feelings of mistrust and doubt about his masters in his heart. This doubt had only grown with the death of King Hextus and the rise to the throne of his son, the former Prince Cadraxes. King Hextus had always treated his saurian slaves with a measure of respect, given to them not out of kingship but recognition of their importance as the tools to his power and the foundation of his empire. This was very different from the new King Cadraxes, who if anything had been jealous of the importance of the great success of the saurus slave-legions, and made his arrogance well known. Since the early days of the campaign Cadraxes had remained at the capitol city far from the frontier wars that expanded the kingdom. Upon his ascendance to the throne he only remained in the capitol, never venturing forth to ensure the continued progress of his campaigns. As a result the aelfin interest in the campaigns waned and the conquests stalled; as the aelfin court grew increasingly self-centered and decadent.
Conspiracy to Rebel
Many days of agonizing occurred after the revelation was made, secretly and away from the watchful eyes of the aelf masters. Marshal Kaan, despite his disgust at the truth and his realization that he had lived his entire life a slave, was initially hesitant to take action. He had lived his entire life on the assumption that he had been bred to serve his aelf masters, and had done so faithfully and efficiently since his spawning. Now he stood at the crossroads, and at this vital junction he resolved to become the leader his enslaved brethren needed to revolt against their false masters, and fight for their freedom. With his Moon Jaguars legion at his back and Makos the skink priest and the Firefly Legion at his side, he began to secretly recruit his brothers to his cause.
- The savage Arkuha of the Scar-Totem Warriors, second-eldest of the saurian slaves and preeminent close-combat general of the slave legions was first to join the Marshal’s cause. Arkuha’s anger at the aelf’s had never wavered since his days in the gladiator pits of Esor at the bidding of his late master, and would only be too happy to refocus the anger of his legion against the forces of his master’s son.
- Lord Xalan, general of the Tree God’s Chosen, also immediately joined the side of the Marshal. Lord Xalan had long been a close friend of Marshal Kaan and had been his direct subordinate in many campaigns in the past before being assigned as the preeminent saurus general of Teiba. Likewise the forces of General Xibas of the Bone Centipedes and Izam of the Rain Serpents were also easy to convince once they too learned the truth of their origins as a species, having previously served alongside the Moon Jaguars on campaign.
- The dangerous and unpredictable Kotan of the Underworld Bats was also enticed come into the fold of the conspiracy, mostly due to that legions’ already dark reputation within the Ulgulands. The Underworld Bats were known for commiting many atrocities and savagery while on campaign, and their legionmaster did little to control them.
Marshal Kaan soon realized that not all his brothers would join him in his revolt, at least not at first, to break the chains that held them in bondage to their aelfin masters.
- Marshal Kaan knew the forces of Rotzal Tuun, the steadfast Praetorian of the Stone Hands, would never turn. These saurus slave-legionaries had been bred from birth to be personally loyal to the King, to an extent not seen by any other legion. These saurus were fully committed to their role in the defense of the capitol city, and would be very difficult to dislodge.
- Likewise the Marshal recognized it would be exceedingly difficult to win the forces of the Apostles of Khaine and the Sky Coatls to his side. The Apostles, led by Lord Oxwik, were even more conditioned than the Stone Hands to be loyal to the aelfs due to their religious zealotry, and were written off as a loss to either be crushed or to be manipulated. The Sky Coatls likewise had a reputation of complete and utter compliance to the rigidity of the aelfin slave-empire system, and the Marshal himself recognized that their sheer numbers would be a very difficult force to dislodge from the lofty jungles of Cazamul.
- The legions of Ta’al and Zaurum were far away from the Marshal’s forces and too far from his influence to make overtures to and grow the planned rebellion. The Marshal hoped these forces would join his side as he continued to add more legions to his roster, but all planning for revolt ended when the secrets were flung into the open by the Dark Jaguars legion.
Marshal Kaan had initially expected General Labakum, leader of the Dark Jaguars, to be counted amongst his most loyal of followers, but in recent years they had interacted only infrequently. Thanks to the great success of the Moon Jaguars they had overshadowed nearly all other saurus legions in campaign record and number of victories. Meanwhile the Dark Jaguars, known for their loyalty, were instead given guardianship of the frontier zones of southern Teiba, far from the capitol and any signs of glory, as mere peacekeepers and signs of the King’s strength to stem the tide of revolt within his realm.
Therefore when the Marshal, fully expecting General Labakum to come over to his side, was shocked when he was immediately rebuffed by his spawnbrother. General Labakum reacted with rage, damning the actions of the Moon Jaguars and their growing conspiracy as treachery and branding Marshal Kaan, the architect, as a traitor to the aelfin king. It was a sign of long respect to his elder brother that Marshal Kaan did not execute his own brother as an obstacle but let him and his legion contingent retreat out of Rayapan and return to Teiba, informing the new King Cadraxes of the conspiracy to usurp the power of the aelfin overlords.
Events transpired quickly over the next few weeks as cries for alarm, confused messages, and reports of rebellion and destruction circulated the panicked aelfin empire. The Marshal had showed his hand too early, and had not yet won more than a passing majority of the saurus slave-legions to his secret cause before it was revealed. Yet thanks to his cunning and planning, in this confused time the Marshal was able to achieve two stunning victories that fought back the forces of the King Cadraxes
Cazamul Campaign and Rout of the Apostles
In a stroke of strategic genius, Marshal Kaan and the skink priest Makos were able to intercept the initial reports and alter them, so that when the Apostles of Khaine received the reports of an imminent rebellion of the saurus slave-legions, they were told the forces of the Sky Coatls were the rebels and Lord Chakubaal was the arch-traitor. Marshal Kaan immediately dispatched both the enraged Apostles of Khaine, sheparded by General Izam of the Rain Snakes and General Makam of the Firefly Legion, to the jungles of Cazamul to deal with the ‘traitors.’ The Sky Coatls were caught completely by surprise and suffered grievous initial losses, but were quickly able to turn the tide and beat the Apostles, the Fireflies, and Rain Snakes back to the borders of their territory.
It was then that Lord Oxwik discovered the truth of his deception, and fully discovered the treachery of Marshal Kaan against the King. Turning on the traitor saurus legions to his left and right, Lord Oxwik led the Apostles of Khaine in a blood-soaked route of the Firefly Legion and the Rain Snakes. In a fury of violence the Apostles savaged the Firefly Legion, with Lord Oxwik personally beating General Makam in single combat. This battle resulted in the near destruction of the Firefly Legion as a whole, with the skink-priest Makos only just escaping in time to retreat and warn Marshal Kaan that their deception had failed.
The Rain Snakes meanwhile faded into the jungles at the border of Cazamul, remaining hidden and carrying out a campaign of guerilla warfare against the Sky Coatls throughout the rest of the rebellion, ensuring their formidable forces were never brought to bear on behalf of the aelfin king.
The Sky Coatls forgotten, Lord Oxwik and the Apostles of Khaine turned their legion around and marched back down into the jungles of Rayapan, savaging outposts loyal to the Marshal as they did so. Their legion had already suffered grevious wounds at the hands of the Sky Coatls, the Fireflies, and the Rain Snakes, and it was a testament to their religious fury that they were able to make it so far back into the Moon Jaguar legion’s territory before they too were stopped. Their saurus legionaries were captured, and Lord Oxwik was himself brought before Marshal Kaan and the rest of the rebelled and former slave-saurus generals.
During the start of this council, the defeated and chained Oxwik rained down every insult and curse upon his spawnbrothers, shaming them for their disloyalty to King Cadraxes and branding them all traitors. None of the well-crafted words of the Marshal, of Lord Xalan or the other assembled generals was able to change his mind; nor were the earth-shattering revelations of the skink priest Makos about the origins of their species. Nothing could shake the faith of the saurus slave-general, and in the end Marshal Kaan executed him for both his obstinency and the battlefield murder of General Maxam, and likewise purged the survivors of the Apostles of Khaine for the wounds inflicted on the ravaged Firefly Legion.
Battle of the Falls and Massacre of the Loyalist Legions
King Cadraxes meanwhile wasted no time in sending his forces against Marshal Kaan and the Moon Jaguars. In his arrogance, the king did not comprehend the true extent of the slave rebellion now brewing within his empire, and sent only a few legions to go “bring the rebellious Marshal to heel,” and “to the capitol in chains.” This force was led by General Huan-Jarak of the Obsidian Fists and General Yajax of the World Crocodiles, and both were quickly mobilized and moved upriver towards the valley of Rayapan and the territory now controlled by the Moon Jaguars and their allies. The forces of the Dark Jaguars were also tasked to attack the Moon Jaguars, but their forces never materialized during the rest of the campaign. Unknown to the other saurus-legions, the Dark Jaguars were rent with in half with their own internal power struggle, brought on by the revelation to their legion of the true origins of saurian-kind.
Marshal Kaan and his Moon Jaguars were prepared for the arrival of the legions sent to “bring him to heel” and met the forces of the King at Nekis Falls, the towering waterfall entrance between the valley of Teiba below and the valley of Rayapan above. Alongside the former enslaved forces of the Tree God’s Chosen, the Bone Centipedes, the savage Underworld Bats, and the brutal Scar-Totem Warriors, the traitors outnumbered the loyalist slave-legions nearly three-to-one, and also occupied the high ground above the falls to their advantage. To the shock of aelf overseers and the aelfin king back at the capitol, the loyalists were defeated, with nearly every saurus slave-legionnaire massacred at the base of the falls in the perfectly-executed deathtrap. The lord of the Obsidian Fists was beheaded in single-combat by Lord Xalan of the Tree God’s Chosen, while the general of the World Crocodiles was presumed dead on the battlefield, having been butchered by the Scar-Totem Warriors. The berserker warriors of Arkuha gained the moniker “the Cannibals” by the aelfs for their witnessed atrocities upon their battlefield.
With the defeat of the loyalist force ending in victory, and the Sky Coatls hemmed up on the frontier, the way was now open for the Marshal and his allies to invade deep into the heart of the empire. It wasn’t long before the forces of the rebelling saurus-slaves swept into the valley of Teiba and besieged the capitol city.
Siege of the Capital City
The siege of Esor, the Capital City pitted the might of the formerly unified and invincible slave-saurus legions versus the surging forces of the Marshal’s saurus traitors. Marshal Kaan brought the weight of his formidable Moon Jaguars to bear against the defense of the city. Alongside him stood his allied Tree God’s Chosen led by Lord Xalan, the horde of Underworld Bats let by Kotan, and the “Cannibals” led by the raging General Arkuha, who threw themselves against the defenses of the aelfs immediately upon arrival but were rebuffed by the defenders.
Loyal to King Cadraxes, Praetorian Rotzal Tuun led the resolute defense of the city’s fortress, and alongside him fought Lord Surat, the “Avenging Angel” of the Blood Jaguars recently mobilized up from Ta’al. Both these warriors exacted a terrible toll on the rebel forces from their superior defended position. The arrival of the White Hawks, led by Zouki’in, only broadened the scope of defense by raiding behind the lines of the rebel legion’s forces on the outskirts of the city.
But though the raiding parties of the White Hawks were brave and determined, the forces of the Marshal were too large in number and slowly began to starve the defenders out. With little help from the outside and no hope of relief, the only lifeline of the city for food and supplies remained the river itself along the flank of the city. In addition, the Marshal unleashed the forces of Kotan and his terror troops across the countryside to ravage and pillage all local villages and castles of supplies and butcher the local aelf populations to cower the capitol city into submission. Still the king did not yield.
As the situation behind the walls continued to deteriorate, the hope of the defenders constantly remained reinforcements from one of the other saurus slave-legions of the frontier to come and lift the siege. Many messages from the aelfin king were intercepted by the Moon Jaguars, but others still made it through, desperately calling on the beleaguered loyalist forces of the Dark Jaguars, the faraway Sky Coatls, and others. Marshal Kaan knew it was only a matter of time before reinforcements of loyalist saurus were to arrive, potentially tip the momentum of his campaign away from his own armies and allies, and therefore began to formulate a desperate and potentially catastrophic gamble.
Upriver from the capitol city were many great river dykes, built long ago by aelfin-driven slave labor, which controlled the flow of the great river and fed many massive tributaries and irrigation projects of the entire Teiba valley. The millions of gallons of water that passed through these feats of slave-built engineering was truly astronomical, and now the Marshal saw them as a potential weapon of war. Pulling much of his host away from the siege, far enough to be safe from the impending deluge but not too far as to give the defenders a reprieve, he set his legions to work weakening the dykes. When the king’s generals learned of this plan, they quickly realized they had to act immediately or risk the imminent destruction of the entire city and all their loyalist forces.
Sallying forth at the head of their host, Lord Surat and his Blood Jaguars led the charge with Zouki’in and the White Hawks and Praetorian Rotzal Tuun and the Stone Hands at his side. Only a token force of loyal saurus legionaries remained to continue to guard the city from attack, along with their king who refused to enter the fray with his slave soldiers despite the danger. Thrown into the fray, the united loyalist forces cut a bloody swath through the defender lines directly into the base camp of the Moon Jaguars. Yet for all their heroics they were unable to stand against the unbridled fury of the attacking rebel hordes and the power of their commanding saurus generals. Marshal Kaan cut down Lord Surat of the Blood Jaguars in single combat, while General Arkuha and his legion butchered the Praetorian and the Stone Hands with unmitigated fury. Surrounded and cut down piece by piece, only the White Hawks thanks to their incredible mobility were able to escape the slaughter and the impending doom.
The defender’s rally ended in failure, giving the rest of the rebel legions time to complete their work at the dykes. Finally succeeding in destroying the constructions, the Moon Jaguars breached the dykes and unleashed a flood of water, soil, and debris in an avalanche towards the capitol city. The walls were crushed and remaining defenders pulverized; the temples that lined the magnificent plazas were leveled, and the imperial fortress with King Cadraxes watching from the tallest tower collapsed into the river and was swept away.
