War of Intrigue

The War of Intrigue, also referred to as the War of Lycurgan Aggression and the Imperial Schism, was a major Elgenean conflict which resulted in drastic changes to the global balance of power and officially ended the Sister Kingdoms status of Samsonia and Lycurgia. Spanning from the 4th of April in 1724 until the 19th of August 1727, the war was the first major military conflict in Elgenea in centuries. The war began as an attempt by the rising Sasagian Empire to expand into Translavia, which the Samsonite Empire feigned support for. Upon the start of the invasion, however, the Samsonites allied themselves with the head of the Slavic Confederacy, Dagor the Elder, and turned their forces against the Sasagian armies.

The war was the first major use of espionage by the Samsonite Empire, and the consistent use of the newly-founded Samsonite Imperial-Royal Intelligence group led Wilhelm Gausling of the Gausling Brothers Playhouse to write the play which now serves as its namesake in 1732. SIRI agents frequently conducted sabotage operations against Sasagian military infrastructure prior to the war in a vain attempt to prevent the conflict from developing further. Once the fighting began, they were used to monitor Sasagian troop movements in northern Translavia and Moskhaar.

Background
For much of the history of the Samsonite Empire, the Kingdoms of Samsonia and Lycurgia operated under the Sister Kingdoms Accord, a declaration made by Kaiser Ulrich I in the 5th century AS which decreed that the Kingdom of the West (Lycurgia), would be treated as an equal of the Kingdom of the East (Samsonia). However, the two states bickered over the extent of autonomy that granted the Kingdom of Lycurgia. Lycurgans frequently argued that the Kingdom was only obligated to provide the Kaiser with military aid as a defensive ally and that unlike vassal Marches, they were not obligated to provide any tax or tribute to the Imperial government. How lenient the Imperial government was regarding this issue varied between monarchs, and the issue ultimately came to a head in the first conflict between the two kingdoms in 1078 in the form of Kaiser Konrad IV's 1st Inquisition, which sought to assert the authority of the Kaiser as both the supreme political and religious office over all the empire's territories.

The ensuing holy-war resulted in several losses to the Lycurgans which started a cycle of conflicts between the two nations created tension and distrust between the Samsonite and Lycurgan peoples. In 1444, the ascension of Kaiser Samson X began a dark period of Samsonite history as the fanatic Kaiser began to consolidate the powers of government and religion into the hands of the Kaiser and began brutally enforcing religious conversions and the destruction of Lycurgist texts and holy sites, as well as many others belonging to the pagan religions present in the East Outlands. Samson X's reign was remarkably violent in this regard and ultimately led to the 5th and final Inquisition in 1460 which resulted in the destruction of the Golden Taurus of Constantia, among several other incredibly-important holy sites of the Lycurgist faith. Samson X declared himself Grand Despot of the West, and the title remained inherited by the Kaiser until 1536 when Kaiser Friedrich I took the throne and re-established the Sister Kingdoms Accord in a bid to ease tensions between the two nations.

The Lycurgan nobility remained distrusting of the Imperial government thereafter, and while they would remain cooperative with more temperate Kaisers, tended to remain stubbornly neutral in Imperial affairs. During the reign of Laurentz IV, the title of Grand Despot of the West fell vacant without an heir. Laurentz IV placed a Rothringen noble on the throne of the West, under the name "Lysander." Lysander was a scholar and a tolerant leader who, while officially Unitarian, did nothing to encroach upon the religious liberties of the Lycurgist population and regularly funded the reconstruction of temples across Lycurgia. Despite this, he remained mostly inactive as ruler of Lycurgia, as did his heirs. Conspiracies began to circulate that his family was placed on the throne as an obstructive effort by the Kaiser to keep Lycurgia weak. By the reign of Lysander's son of the same name, much of the Lycurgan nobility were discontent with the Lycurgan government and began to quietly discuss independence.

In 1694, Andor Andravis, a West-Outlander arrived in Lycurgia, and purportedly recited his lineage from Leonello Calderara, a bastard son of one of the old Kings of Lycurgia before Samson X's reign. Andravis then challenged Lysander II to a duel for the right to rule Lycurgia. This was an old Lycurgist tradition and one which Lysander could not refuse for fear of providing a cause for his barons and governors to revolt. The ensuing duel was short and resulted in Lysander's death and the immediate ascension of Andor Andravis to the office of Grand Despot. This move greatly upset the aging Kaiser Samson XII, but in his illness, he was unable to act against it. The Kaiser would die on the 14th of November in 1714, leaving his 18-year-old son to contend with the rise of the pretender-king.

Samson XIII's transition into the office of Kaiser was not especially easy, as he was deeply uncertain as to how he would handle Andravis's illegitimate rule. However, as time passed and Andravis began to strengthen the fervor of the Lycurgist fanatics in his realm, Samsonist fanatics began to plea for the Kaiser to intervene. These please soon turned to shouts as fanatics began to question the Kaiser's leniency on the matter. Samson XIII used his status as Samsonling to quiet these protests, but that did nothing to stop those of a mind similar to his ancestors. Many still believed that Lycurgism was a dangerous heresy and that it needed to be stomped out.

Andravis, on the other hand, was beloved by his citizens for championing the spirit of Lycurgus and returning the nation to its core values. He began using this momentum to begin rapidly remilitarising the nation, planning to lead Lycurgia into a brighter new future and make himself the next in the great line of Elgenean warlords. This was unacceptable to the Samsonites, including Kaiser Samson, who accepted that war would be an inevitability. Samson XIII began remilitarising his own nation and simultaneously began researching the specifics of the geopolitical landscape around him, hoping to find allies or perhaps, unknowing targets that he might use to manipulate the situation in the Empire in his favour. He found himself taking a great interest in the comparatively primitive nations of Translavia, who were united in a complex confederacy headquartered in the fabled realm of Karlilych.

Samson viewed the Confederacy as a noble state, much more sophisticated than their reputation implied. In one of his memoirs, he wrote specifically of his interest in the diversity of its various member tribes, most notably that of Karlilych. Having read accounts by Samsonite Explorers describing Translavia and Karlilych in particular, Samson surmised that the region of Karlilych was in some way of great importance in religious matters. The tribe was ruled by an immortal as old as the Great Bannerlord himself, knowledgable in both war and peace, and surely someone who held within him a great deal of wisdom. Dagor the Elder was, to the Kaiser, an ideal ally, and one he intended to pursue.

Buildup (1718-1724)
In 1718, Kaiser Samson XIII commissioned the formation of a 10-man spy ring to operate in Lycurgia and provide regular reports as to the goings-on of the Lycurgan government and military. This organisation became Samsonite Imperial-Royal Intelligence, an organisation which have operated as investigators for the Samsonite government ever since. Throughout the war, SIRI periodically sabotaged the development of new military infrastructure as well as damaging existing fortifications in order to pre-occupy Lycurgia's forces and undermine Andravis's rule by creating chaos and unease.

In 1720, SIRI intercepted a courier travelling from the Lycurgan Capital to the fort city of Balboa on the border with the Chiefdom of Kladdek, part of the Slavic Confederacy. The letter this courier was carrying referenced an invasion opportunity to the "south," implying that Andravis intended to conquer Translavia, rather than pursue a hostile war with the Samsonites. SIRI immediately relayed this message to the Kaiser, who viewed this as a perfect pretext to begin negotiations with the Slavic Confederacy. In September of the same year, Kaiser Samson XIII had a courier memorise a dispatch to Dagor the Elder, seeking to establish urgent communications between the two nations regarding Andor Andravis.

The courier arrived in Mangate in December but found his progress sufficiently disrupted by local terrain and a lack of infrastructure. Lacking accurate maps of the region, the courier relied on directions from locals and didn't arrive in Karlilych until the end of January. Upon his arrival, he was denied entry into Karlilych's ashen keep, as the leaders of all the confederacy's member tribes were partaking in a war council. They had been anticipating war from the Lycurgans as well, and had been in deliberations for nearly a year to determine an appropriate course of action should war break out. After three days of seeking entry to the keep, the courier finally convinced a guard to speak with Dagor, who allowed him entry so that he could escape from the constant squabbling that took place in the council hall.

Dagor was unable to make alliances on behalf of the Confederacy but agreed to further negotiations with the Kaiser. Dagor was sceptical that the war council would come to a conclusion any time soon and knew that if Karlilych were to survive, having the support of the Samsonite Empire would prove incredibly useful.

Siege of Karlilych (1727)
Following a string of defeats, the Samso-Slavic coalition was encircled at Karlilych, maintaining a desperate siege while awaiting reinforcement. Samsonite forces began withdrawing from the siege when it appeared these reinforcements wouldn't arrive in time to break the siege, leaving behind only a small contingent of the Imperial-Royal Cavalry Corps who refused to flee the battlefield. These cavaliers would later be ambushed by the forces of Myaroszan Chief Zarko Polyakov, who made arrangements with Sasagian Marshall E. L. Dorne to expel the Samsonites from Karlilych in exchange for a guarantee of Myaroszan independence.