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* We expanded on the destruction of Vo Wacune at the beginning of Queen of
Sorcery and
during Polgara the Sorceress.
It must be candidly admitted, however, that through the closing
centuries of the third millennium and throughout most of the fourth,
it was a basic tenet of Tolnedran policy to maintain the balance of
power between the contending Duchies of Mimbre and Asturia.
From a practical standpoint, it was to the enormous advantage of the
Empire to encourage the friction between the two contending
houses, since a strong and unified Arendia would have made the
development of the Tolnedran Empire an impossibility. It is of
course a truism that the Arendish Knights are one of the most
awesome forces in the west. Had the Arends been united at any time
during the third or fourth millennia, the Empire would never have
been, and the whole history of the west would have changed. The
stalemate between Mimbre and Asturia lasted until 3793 when the
Mimbrates concluded a secret treaty with Tolnedra. In return for
certain military assistance from the Empire (largely the removal of
restrictions upon Cherek freebooters and Algar raiders and the
northward march of a column of ten legions from Tol Vordue toward
Asturia's southern border) the Mimbrates pledged a limited
allegiance to the Tolnedran Emperor. This opportunity arose when the
continual warfare in Arendia had become a nuisance hindering the
construction of the Great West Road and an interference with
normal commerce.
The four-pronged attack against her so stretched the defensive
capability of the Asturians that their supply of manpower dried up,
and the nation collapsed into that most useless (and most typically
Arendish) defense - the retreat into fortified strongholds. The details
are gloomy and need not be repeated. The results were inevitable.
Asturia fell. Vo Astur was laid waste. The last Duke of Astur fell in
battle, and his family was all but exterminated. Asturia as a
recognizable nation was no more. It was, however, a weakened Mimbrate
Duke who was crowned the first unchallenged King of Arendia, and
the Tolnedran design in the west was complete. Arendia was no
longer a threat.
Although a Mimbrate King sat on the throne at Vo Mimbre, he was
in many respects a puppet-king - albeit a dangerous one. The most
elemental of the rights of sovereignty, that of conducting one's own
relations with other nations, was severely curtailed by the
provisions of the Treaty of Tol Vordue. Arendish merchants were severely
limited in terms of what commodities and goods they could import
or export, and Tolnedra profited hugely from the arrangement.
The Kings at Vo Mimbre had other problems, however, which
did not give them time to brood about the possible injustices implicit
in their treaty with Tolnedra. Although the cities and strongholds
of the Asturians had been destroyed, the Asturian nobility and
yeomanry remained intact - although greatly diminished. The
nobles simply retreated into the vast reaches of the Arendish Forest,
taking the always-loyal peasantry with them. What they could not
carry off, they burned. Thus the Mimbrate King fell heir to a
smoking wasteland, empty and unpeopled. The fiefdoms granted his
loyal followers became a punishment instead of a reward, since land
without the people to work it is a burden. Whole villages in the
Duchy of the Mimbrates were uprooted and transplanted into the
north to work the holdings of their feudal lords, and their efforts
were largely to no avail since Asturian brigands crept from the