365-354 BCE / 1071-1082 AA

After the war against the Déan Enli the Ongin found themselves free of their greatest and most dangerous foe. However, peace was not to last for a new enemy came to attempt to destroy civilisation. The Seberians, who lived north of the Ongin, were known for the uncentralised nature of their kingdom and it was common to see them fight each other in a manner similar to that of the Ongin during the Duri Period. At first this didn’t concern the Nalarites, for they couldn’t care less for the problems of barbarians outside of their borders but when the Seberians started to grow bold and raid northern Ongin towns during their quarrels Hewaladi decided to bring destruction to those savages.

Trade with those tribes raiding Nalari was stopped and only those that had maintained peaceful relations with the Ongin were granted protection and got to keep the flow of Nalarite goods. This caused those small tribes to progress and grow richer in gold, albeit not in land while their rivals were forced to raid them to steal those luxuries that were unavailable to them. Chief among the Ongin allies was the city of Catarinia, which saw grew in both wealth and power due to its privileged status with Nalari. Despite being attacked several times by tribes in both Northern and Southern Seberia it managed to emerge succesfully due to Ongin interventions that consisted on subduing Catarinia’s rivals and forcing them to pay tribute to Hewaladi while the Cataranites and other allies tribes got to annex some of the neighbouring land.

This plan worked well until 1080, when the Nerin, who hadn’t been heard of since the Great Drought, returned westwards to settle in the lands of their ancestors and encountered the Great Wall in their way. Choosing the most logical course of action they decided to go around it only to find that, during their centuries’ long absence, another people had settled there and wasn’t willing to give up the place they considered their rightful home. War ensued bewteen the eastern Seberian tribes and the Nerin, with the former being defeated and sent in disarray in all directions which meant that some of them tried to take refugee in Nalari, only to be refused by the Ongin, who feared the horde of displaced people raiding Nalari to keep their families fed while they looked for another place to settle down. The refugees were quickly killed or captured and turned into forced labour¹ while the Mansa-Tagin closed on the defenseless Catarinia, which begged the Ongin for help.

Shortly afterwards, after the city lay besieged by the Nerin after being defeated on the field by the Nerin an Ongin army composed of twenty thousand men arrived, forcing the Mansa-Tagin to break the siege to avoid being trapped by the two forces.

The Mansa-Tagin army marched southwards along the river to meet with the Ongin while the latter recruited soldiers from the local populace to boost their numbers and, having been told that the Nerin were on their way south by their scouts, had camped in the village of Arusia, a location that had a historical significance for the Seberians, as that had been were their chief Lyonidi had stopped the Heconuni invasion ages ago. However, Turimadu Gengi, leader of the Ongin forces and the most important Laputu in the Parihuni was not willing to let the invaders besiege the town, so he came out of the village to face the Nerin in battle.

The nomads, unwilling to give their foes the terrain advantage, seized a nearby hill that commanded the area and made up for their inferior numbers. Turimadu knew that should he lose the battle Arusia would fall and with it all Seberian faith in the Ongin and so he offered to parlay with the Nerin. The talks were long, but in the end neither the Nalarites nor the Seberians could accept the Mansa-Tagin’s demands and the latter were not willing to compromised either and by sunset it became clear that bloodshed was unavoidable.

At night, those men in the Nerin camp could hear a great deal of noice coming from the allied armies, followed by the movement of many torches, as if an argument was taking place there. Shortly afterwards a great number of torches departed from the camp going southwards and away from the battlefield. When morning came and the sun once again lit the world only the Seberian forces stood to oppose the Mansa-Tagin.

Apparently Launuci had decided that he could not overcome the force located on the hill and instead of fighting a battle he was bound to lose he chose to retreat. The Seberians, on the other hand, were unwilling to leave a place of such importance to them to the Nerin and they chose to stay and fight their foes to their last breath, an honour the Mansa-Tagin were not going to deny them.

War horns sounded and a rain of arrows poured on the tiny Seberian army. Men rose their shields to protect themselves from the deadly projectiles but many fell to them nonetheless. The attack was followed by the thundering gallop of horses descending downhill. The Seberians, lacking any sort of cavalry support, did their best to form in a circle of sorts to endure the Nerin’s wheel charges as best they could, but their shorter spears proved useless against the Mansa-Tagin’s and many fell nonetheless. Their ranks were thinning and soon some men started to break and run for their lives, only to be run down by the swarm of Nerin cavalrymen that surrounded the Seberian army. The Second Battle of Arusia would be remembered as an absolute defeat for the forces of civilisation.

After a while a faint sound could be heard on top of the hill, dwarfed by the battle below but still persistent enough to cause some of the combatants to look up. Then the Nerin observed in dismay how their archer cavalry, which had remained on the higher ground to have a better view of the battlefield, was cut down by the steel-clad Ongin cavalry, while columns of infantry emerged from the forest east of the river and advanced in order towards shores. The Mansa-Tagin had fallen into a trap.

They wheeled their horses and tried to flee southwards only to discover that another cavalry force was waiting for them on the road. Both forces clashed and fought bitterly, but in the end the Nalarite’s superior armour proved too much for the leather-clad Nerin and the nomad invaders were sent to the river.

While a victory by all accounts, the war proved costly to all sides involved, particularly the Seberians who, instead of being hailed as allies and thanked for their sacrifice, were brought in front of Turimadu and forced to swear fealty to him or face slavery. Few chose the latter. The Ongin army, now reasserted as the strongest force in the region then marched on Catarinia, forcing all villages and towns in their paths to bow to the Nalarites or face destruction. Defenseless and too burnt after the Nerin invasion to fight the new threat the Seberians kneeled to the new overlords. The mighty city was no exception and its gates opened to welcome the victorious Launuci.

Alyvrin of Catarinia was allowed to retain control of the city, under the condition that his daughter married Turimadu, who would become his direct liege over the Nilawi at Hewaladi and that he publicly endorsed Anin-Lei and the Unautu, a proposal he accepted thus bringing all of Seberia under Turimadu Gengi, Laputu of the Parihuni.

¹ Definitely not slaves ;)