Prelude

The Circle Clan took over the shattered realm of Phrygia and was left to pick up the pieces. A nation on the edge of the world, Phrygia could perhaps have sustained a pastoral lifestyle for centuries had its people been content with this status ; but they yearned for more, aware of the vast riches that were being amassed by their fellow men beyond Phrygia’s vast borders. But through Phrygia passed no great trade routes ; few merchants stopped to bring wares from beyond - only a few solitary Boreans who had endured the traditional route down the Bolgas which had once connected the Esthuemoi and Byzantion. Athenai had strangled any hopes that Phrygia had of foreign trade, blinded by her petulant rage when the Basileus had turned down her offer of vassalage. The loss of life following the failed invasion of the West had done nothing to improve the condition of the Phrygians ; nor had the loss of fertile land to Athenai and the Liakids. And the situation was only worsened by a particularly harsh winter the year after the Circle Clan came to power. Convinced Phrygia was a doomed realm, Narsês despaired. But as he was poring over ancient Eastern archives in Elephantinê, a particular document caught his eye : the report of Arsakês’ expedition to the realm of the Persians.

Arsakês scouts’ had explored a realm in as great a state of turmoil as Phrygia’s. They had found very little resistance against the passage of a band of armed horsemen, and the lands they had scouted seemed fairly fertile. They soon learnt that this had formerly been the dominion of Pangiristan, one of the Davakan kingdoms that had formed part of the Great Coalition during the Conquest of Neazeon. This had once been a realm as wealthy as the great Empire of the Davakans, which ruled all of the lands of the Sunrise ; this was but the most meagre part of its ancient dominion. To the East lay a range of mountains - quite tall, admittedly, but many passes existed and good roads led through them. And beyond this mountain range lay a land of great fertility, in which all manner of crops could grow, including that most valuable sugar which Arsakês had been after. And that land was filled with elephants (this, thought Narsês, must surely have been an indication from God). The locals were friendly and seemed cultured ; they used a script similar to that of the Bactrians and built buildings that would have seemed quite familiar in style to the court of Elephantinê.

Narsês read this account and his mind soared. He must lead his people to the new realm. Here, they would be able to break with the endless cycle of poverty that had plagued them. Here, there were no Athenians. Here, one bad crop would not propel their civilisation toward the brink of destruction. Narsês would unite the Phrygian realm with this new purpose : to seek out a new land, a new home for the Hypsianistarians. And he would assemble the greatest horde that Phrygia had ever seen.

The Hypsianistarian Horde

Narsês spent the next months gathering the support of most of the Phrygian clans. He assembled a great boulê, as Hippolytos Gordias had all those centuries ago ; the Boulê unanimously appointed him to lead the Hypsianistarians to the new land. Narsês now raised his great army : a hundred thousand horsemen. He organised them into a new system : as the Byzantine tagmata had been split into successive powers of two, Narsês’ horde would be split into powers of ten. The base unit of the army - a decade - would be composed of ten men ; the next would be itself composed of ten such units, in order to total a hundred men. A tagma would include a thousand men. In each decade, six men would be horse archers and four would be heavy cavalry ; this would apply for most of the army, apart from one special engineering corps, which would be in charge of the mobile hippoballistrai and of assembling siege weapons on the spot of a siege, as well as other construction tasks required by the moving nation. The horde would march ahead of the main body of Phrygians, which would be led by Narsês’ sister Narsinê, and subjugate the land into the Phrygian realm. Supplies would be transported by the soldiers or gathered from the land. Behind them came the rest of the Phrygians, carrying whatever meagre possessions they had. But ahead of the lot came a small but élite corps of rangers, who would scout the lands of Pangiristan and gather whatever information they could, disguised as merchants or lost explorers.

The army departed from Neasthuemia and marched toward Oretarker, the first major city that had been encountered by Arsakês’ scouts.

Oretarker

In Oretarker, Narsês found an easy target. The city had once had walls but they had now degraded significantly, with no central authority extant or willing to spend money on restoring them. Only a small corps of Phrygians was required to storm the surrounded city ; its messengers were unable to make it past the surrounding Phrygian army. Its citizens were treated humanely ; Narsês conferred with the local leaders, who told him of the geography of Pangiristan. He was not far from Kaboul, the capital of the Pangiristani Empire. They also informed him of Pangiristan’s new political situation. The nation had fallen apart at the seams and even in the lands still nominally subject to the rule of the sovereign, his authority was weak. A decisive strike toward Kaboul would decapitate the kingdom and from then on Narsês would find that most of it would be easy pickings. If he moved fast enough, the Davakans would not receive the cry for help in time ; past a certain point, they would probably judge Pangiristan’s cause lost, and Narsês would be able to move unopposed.

Narsês’ grand army made for Kaboul.

Kaboul

Riding on swift and resilient horses, the Phrygian army was able to move quite a lot faster than most ; and thus Kaboul received very little warning of the incoming assault. But what they had received was enough to muster a small force to meet the Phrygians as they came up the road. They were outnumbered, but they were able to put up a good fight. They were unfazed by the initial attempts at deploying shock tactics ; their line held against the charge of the heavy cavalry. But their flanks were weak, protected by light cavalry which was no match for the Phrygian counter-cavalry cavalry. Artillery fire was soon focused on the exposed flanks and a renewed charge ended the stalemate, routing the infantry.

The army reached Kaboul and the siege began ; but before preparations were made, a courier was sent, offering terms of peace : Kaboul surrenders and all lives are spared. Kaboul resists and the siege will be bloody but short ; no guarantees will be made concerning the survival of its citizens. The terms were rejected. Circumvallation lines were constructed and the body of the army was protected by thorough scouting and keeping a rigorous lookout for approaching enemies. They ensured that there would be no communications from Kaboul outward. Siege engines were erected and the walls were bombarded. Eventually, a breach opened and the nomads prepared to pour in. But the Pangiristanis were resilient. They sallied through the breach ; and with them came elephants that had been kept in the city stables.A brutal battle ensued ; the blood of Croats, Hellenes, and Davakans was spilled on the ground around the city. But the Pangiristanis were outnumbered and their ranks were eventually broken by a well-executed charge by the Order of St Mikhaêl. Kaboul had fallen.

The next few weeks were spent in Kaboul preparing for the invasion of the rest of Pangiristan, and for what would follow.

Bannou

The Army marched on the road from Kaboul to Bannu. Unexpectedly, no army met them at the mountain passes. They reached the walls of the city unopposed. But the city itself possessed strong walls and would make use of them. Narsês presented them a new offer : surrender and be integrated into the benevolent and strong administration of Phrygia, or resist and face destruction and a life of slavery. The city decided to resist. When the city was stormed, Narsês kept his promises.

Ioneiakake

When the army reached Ioneiakake they presented the same offer. This time, having heard of the destruction of Bannou, the city surrendered and opened its walls to the Phrygian army.

Now Narsês decided to split his army into two halves, which would each continue their conquest along two main directions : an army would march toward the south, to conquer the cities up to the ocean, and the other to the East, advancing as far as they could.

The Army of the South

The Army of the South advanced city by city along the main road. They offered surrender before each siege began, hoping the tales of Bannou had spread far and wide ; however, they did not subject the conquered cities to the same fate, not wishing to turn the population irreparably against them. And eventually they found another land along the coast. And they recognised this land as the land of Davaka, the mythical realm of plenty on the other side of the ocean. Here, the Phrygians stopped their conquest. The lands that were occupied were now prepared for an eventual Davakan counter-invasion.

The Army of the East

The Army of the East advanced in a similar way to the Army of the South. However, they were faced by a much stronger resistance, and their advance was quite a bit slower. Fortifications had to be built frequently, using the new pattern devised by the Liakids. And eventually the Army of the East faced a big problem : the population here possessed some quantities of black powder, which they were able to use effectively as a shock tactic ; it was most useful in scaring the Phrygian horses, and often the Phrygians found it more useful to dismount to face this threat themselves before bringing in the cavalry ; or organising swift charges between reloading. This weapon had been absent from Kaboul and the Army of the East soon gathered that the Pangiristanis had been planning a counter-offensive, withdrawing many of their forces beyond the mountains. They had not counted with the speed of the Phrygian advance, powered (as mentioned earlier) by the Phrygian horses. Their counter-offensive lay in tatters but resistance was strong enough to lull the Phrygian tide. And eventually the Army of the East decided to stop advancing in order to consolidate the gains it had made.

A New Realm

The grand boulê was assembled once more at Kaboul and it confirmed its decision to appoint Narsês as Ethnarkhês. He would spend the rest of his life consolidating the gains that had been made, quelling rebellions, restoring order, replacing the failing Pangiristani administration that had not been able to secure the prosperity of its citizens, resettling the Phrygian nomads, and forging new ties to the nations of the region.

The Lands we Left Behind

The gap left behind by the Horde was filled in much of the West by the sedentary Byzantine Hellenes whose families had lived there for centuries. But much of the remainder of the realm came under the control of a powerful force : that of the Croatian nomads.

Map of Expansion

Map of Panjshiristan for reference

Panjshiristan is inactive and I was told it would probably be removed for the next map so I'm migrating into some of their lands. (If their claim is maintained I'll forfeit my expansion for this week)

Chronologically this takes place after the Zeonite civil war