| Battle of Heath | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Mage War | |
| Date | Estus 10, 3624AL |
| Location | Heath, Tasard |
| Result | Inconclusive |
| Belligerants | |
 Dröst Empire
|
 Kingdom of Corthin,Grand Duchy of Tasard |
| Commanders and Leaders | |
| King Caovas†
|
Prince Rohec†, Duke Delos† |
| Strength | |
| 246,000 Drösans | 192,000 Corthinians 36,000 Tasards |
The Battle of Heath (3624 AL) was fought by Corthinian forces under the command of Prince Rohec of Jaener along side the local Tasard forces under the Duke Delos against the Drösian forces under King Caovas of Escur. The battle ended in the destruction of both forces and was the final conflict of the Mage War.
The date of the battle was the 10th day of the month of Estus in 3624AL. The Battle of Heath was a draw and resulted in the ending of the Mage War, the destruction of Heath, and the creation of the Blasted Lands, and later, the Mage's Guild.
Location[]
The Battle of Heath took place in and around the small merchant town of Heath in the Grand Duchy of Tasard. The town had been a mining town in the past and there were many mining tunnels left over running throughout the area which Rohec used to hide is forces.
Corthin’s Battle Plan[]
The Mage War had been waging for nearly twenty years and both sides had been suffering from the economic and social strains of prolonged warfare. King Corthin decided that a way must be found to end the war soon, or the kingdom could collapse. Corthin’s advisors developed a plan where they would be able to circumvent the main forces of the Dröst Empire and strike at the heart of the empire forcing them to surrender.
Corthinian spies had reported that the Dröst Empire had negotiated with Saurunal for passage of a large force through the Strait of Sossel to land on the Corthinian coast. Corthin positioned several ships to intercept the fleet in the strait and prevent as much of the force from landing as possible. While the fleet moved to intercept, the Corthinian army was moved as quietly as possible to the town of Heath and hidden in the mining tunnels.
Dröst’s Response[]
The Dröst Empire discovered Corthin's plans through their spy network. They rerouted their army to assault Heath and sent a small fleet to sail around the island of Sossel, in an attempt to circumvent the Corthinian fleet. The Dröst Empire dedicated nearly their entire force to Heath, leaving them with a significantly larger force at Heath. The fleet would move around to the Corthin Peninsula and blockade Southport, preventing Corthin from remaining supplied and prepare it for a later siege.
Battle[]
On the morning of Estus 10, Caovas launched his assault on Heath. He moved a small force into the town and they began pillaging the town. One of the Corthinian regiments heard the commotion from the town and moved to destroy the small force. Once the regiment was flushed out of its hiding spot, Caovas moved his entire army in to destroy the exposed regiment believing it was the entire army. Rohec, seeing that his position had been revealed, launched a counter assault. He moved his army in to cut off any possibility of retreat for the Dröst army. He hoped to route the army to the south, and launch a rapid assault against Narrent before word could return to the Dröst Empire.
When the two armies met, the town became the battleground. Many buildings were brought down in the first few minutes of the battle. Shortly after the battle began, Caovas was struck down by an archer. The Dröst forces began retreating to the south to regroup. As the Dröst forces retreated, Rohec moved in to destroy as much of the army as possible before he headed north. Unfortunately, during the chaos, he was struck from his steed by a berserked Corthin soldier. Upon seeing their leader killed by one of their own, the Corthin lines began to collapse.
During the chaos that ensued, it became difficult to tell who was on what side. After several minutes, groups of magi on both sides began coordinating and combining their efforts. The magi began gathering as much energy as they could to release at the enemy. When both sides released their gathered energy, the resulting blast leveled the town of Heath and both armies.
Results[]
The blast left both nations with almost no armies and unable to continue the war. The Treaty of Bald was signed a few days later ending the war and establishing the lands between the kingdoms as neutral territory.
The town of Heath and several miles of land around the town were completely destroyed. What was left was a giant magical wasteland known as the Blasted Lands. The Blasted Lands coursed with magical remnants from the blast. The land became impassable as random magical effects went off throughout the area. Nothing has been able to grown there because any plant life gets fried, frozen, or otherwise destroyed before it could grow to a significant size, and the only other life is the randomly summoned elementals that appear all over the Blasted Lands.
A handful of soldiers, who happened to be in the tunnels or some other safe location, survived the blast. Most of them began pushing for some sort of regulation to prevent any similar catastrophe from ever happening again. Five years later, the Mage's Guild was formed with the Corthin kingdom and Dröst Empire being the greatest supporting nations.