This document contains the lore of the Vahren Imperium from when it was a mere village in the north to become the Kingdom of the North. Primarily taking place between Faustus Gabinius II Vahren and his heir, Vel Accius I. This is a timeline of nearly 150 years.
The Village of Rhenus
Seated in the far north within a small crater with only a single river that leads to the vast oceans. Rhenus began as a small fishing village on the lake of which the village was named after. Rhenus was one of the first villages within the region which made the population grow rather quickly over the next 30 years resulting in the first city plans to be drafted. Quickly reaching over ten thousand inhabitants the now city of Rhenus grew with wooden houses and buildings sprawled mostly sporadically around the lake. By this time Rhenus was ruled by an elective house of representatives that were divided into sections of the city. These sections held their own elections for who would represent their district and each representative met in the town hall where discussions of city development and issues took place.
Faustus Gabinius II
Rhenus prospered over and over throughout the next 40 years, however as the city grew, so did the districts and subsequently, representatives. The town hall was remodeled four times in the span of eight years and the city began to stagnate. Rhenus wasn’t well built for defense as the city grew far too quickly for walls to be permanently made, but not only this the mountains began to impede growth as people refused to move into them with their wooden shacks. This all would result in the first ever war the city partook in. Known as the first conquest the Vahren family conducted. Faustus Gabinius II Vahren took the city in hopes of becoming the next heir of Twerrin, a city located far west of Rhenus where the Vahrens were founded. This didn’t come to be, which Faustus took as an insult and founded the County of Rhenus with his new fairly large city.
Faustus would go on to create the Rhenusian Wall Line, the first permanent wall. Fearing an eventual war with his own family back in Twerrin. Nothing would come of this however but the walls would be completed. Faustus would go on to help develop the city in constructing stone housing to replace the wooden. Faustus would not see the completion of even the first district as he would die of illness leaving his heir, Vel Accius I.
Vel Accius I
Vel took the crown as Count Vel of Rhenus a week after his father’s death. Vel, with his new fortified city, began to eye up his neighbors hoping to expand the county and power of Rhenus to match or surpass Twerrin. Vel began his campaigns in the later half of Spring.
City of Serutil
The City of Serutil is a small city located just west of Rhenus, as the Rhenusian armies advanced into the city the elected official quickly submitted to Vel creating the first conquest by Rhenus.
City of Dertosa
The City of Dertosa was a city located just northeast of Rhenus. Similar to Serutil the city submitted to the overwhelming force presented to them.
City of Venusia
The City of Venusia was a slightly fortified city located southeast of Rhenus. Although not large at all the City held out a siege for nearly 2 months until it was eventually conquered.
City of Svaria
The City of Svaria is located southwest of Rhenus, fell similarly to Pirn and WIllsden as the city had no defenses at the time of Rhenus marching into the city.
Founding of the Duchy of Rhenus
Vel found himself now bordering the Duchy of Twerrin with his conquests. Twerrin had already sent him numerous warnings after the conquest of Svaria. Duke Placus was ordering Vel to stand down or risk war with Twerrin, Vel didnt take kindly to this and the final nail in the coffin would be the proposal of Placus inheriting Rhenus. Twerrin had a few allies in the region that surrounded the county of Rhenus. City-State Cornelii to the east and County of Vetera sat between the Twerrin and Rhenus. Feeling confident Vel proclaimed the Duchy of Rhenus and would officially declare war on Twerrin in late fall of that year begin the first ever strife between the two duchies.
War of the Vahrens
Duke Vel and Duke Placus began war which threw the region into conflict. Vel’s strategy for the war was to quickly end both smaller allies and block the Twerrinians from entering Rhenus’s borders.
Conquests of Vetera and Cornelii
Vel split his forces up into two to combat the two smaller allies. Vel had guessed Twerrin was not fully prepared for war like Rhenus was, this guess was correct as Vel quickly took the two with only a brief siege required for Vetera. With this Vel had firmly accomplished his goal within the beginning of the next year and had stationed his army on the border of the Duchy of Twerrin, laying in wait for the Twerrinians to show up.
The Battle of Vinovium
The first clash between the duchies began in late summer as Duke Placus and his army of 30,000 strong came to meet the smaller army of 24,0000 strong commanded by Duke Vel.
Vel had the upper hand however as he preferred to center his men on infantrymen and archers. Nearly 10,000 of the Rhenusians were dedicated archers. This would become deadly for the Twerrinians as Placus preferred huge scores of infantrymen with little missile support with 25,000 of his men dedicated to melee infantrymen.
The two armies prepared throughout the day as they both began battle strategies against one another. Placus had decided that if he were to break the center of the Rhenusian army, it would crumble and Vel decided to place large portions of archers behind the center, flanks and around the hills with an even amount of infantrymen to cover the front. Not only this but Vel ordered the creation of some ballista placements which only strengthened his strategy.
Placus would make the first move as he marched his army forward towards the well defended positions of Vel. As they came into reach the ballistias opened fire. Every few often a bolt would land right into the columns of infantry but the Twerrians pressed forward. Eventually coming into range of the archers. Vel ordered to hold fire until all archers could fire and once that moment came all 10,000 archers fired at the Twerrinian Army. What is recorded is the sun being blacked out by arrows as they launched into the air, covering the battlefield in hailstorms of arrows.
The devastating onslaught of thousands of arrows completely crippled the army long before they could even get into melee range. Due to this the Twerrianians broke and began to flee as Vel ordered another launch.
The fleeing Twerrians were forced to endure another wave of arrows this time as they were fleeing, with no shield to block most of the arrows the casualties began to rise quickly. Resulting in victory for the Vel and his army.
The Duchy of Twerrin
After the catastrophic defeat by Vel, Placus abdicated himself from Twerrin and before his heir could take the throne, Vel had siege Twerrin. With most of the army crumbled Twerrin surrendered in hopes of preserving the city. Vel would take the title of Duke of Twerrin for himself and the Duchy of Rhenus as his main title. The Duchy now spanned all across the northern region. Twerrin still held most of the Vahren Family by this point and as such, all became rightful claimants for the Duchy of Rhenus.