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forests by night, burning crops and villages with abandon. It was
also observed that Asturian bowmen routinely used 'brate
peasants for target-practice. This quite naturally caused the peasants to
avoid the edges of those fields which abutted on the forest, and in
time this grisly game developed in the Asturian bowman a
capability of phenomenal accuracy at unbelievable ranges.
The activities of the Asturian outlaws provided the Emperor at
Tol Honeth with the pretext for the formation of the Kingdom of
Sendaria in the north, which stripped the Arendish King of a little
more than a third of his nation. As the Emperor explained, 'Sendaria
will close the northern door to these outlaws. You may hunt them
down now without fear that they will escape to the north.' The King
of the Arends received this with a glum face, since 'hunting down'
well-armed men in a forest which stretches three hundred leagues in
each direction is rather like hunting down fish in the ocean.
For a thousand years, however, Arendish Kings mounted
expeditions against the Asturian brigands in the north. Whole generations
were swallowed up in the dim, silent stretches of the forest, and old
men woke screaming as they remembered the horror of the
expeditions of their youth. The forest became a labyrinth of caves and
tunnels and hiding holes. Dead-falls and pit-traps made the roads
impassable. (The sole exception being the Great West Road which
was patrolled by Tolnedran Legionaries and which the Asturians in
a secret treaty with Tol Honeth had agreed to leave open.) Asturian
archers, already the finest in the world, became even more
proficient, and the floor of the forest was littered with mossy bones and
rusting armor. Transplanted Mimbrate peasants plowed and
planted, and the Asturians came out of the forest and reaped and
gathered. Paradoxically, it was frequently necessary to import food
into one of the most fertile places on earth.
The situation in Arendia remained unchanged until 4875 when
Kal-Torak came across the mountains of Ulgoland and down onto
the Arendish plain. While it might have been expected that the
Asturian Arends would simply hide in their forest and watch the
destruction of the Mimbrates, such was not the case. Apparently the
persuasive powers of the Rivan Warder were sufficient to move the
Asturians to join with the Rivans and Sendars on their great march
southward to the Battle of Vo Mimbre.
NOTE
The battle of Vo Mimbre is the most celebrated event in the history of
the twelve kingdoms. The details of the strategy, tactics and the
individual heroism of various participants are too well-known to make their
repetition here necessary. Elsewhere in these studies is a portion of the
Arendish epic which deals with the battle. While the work is a bit
overpoctic for Tolnedran tastes, it is nonetheless, a fairly
straightforward account. In this respect it is unlike certain bardic productions
which literally seethe with enchantments, magic and unseen
monstrosities, all of which may be very well for the entertainment of
children and illiterate peasants, but has no place in a work which strives to
some seriousness.
At the conclusion of the Battle of Vo Mimbre, by unspoken mutual
agreement, the Mimbrate King and the Baron who had led the
Asturians through the final years of their endless war with the
Mimbrates adjourned to a quiet dell just east of the city,, and there,
without preamble, they fell upon each other with their swords. By
the time they were discovered, both were dying from innumerable