A great battle has been fought in the Hammerdeep Vale of Auruxol. Hundreds of orcs lie dead, joined by many dwarves and leveemen from the imperial heartland. The Imperial Oculus, Hydrophis Schoolman, in command of the relief forces dispatched by Miles has made use of a cunning strategy to draw the orcish foe out of the mountains. Two hundred or more of these foul beasts came ravaging through the countryside on the evening of the 15th of Festing. While the rest of the empire celebrated the Summerfeast, Hammerdeep frantically prepared to receive their guests.
The orcs, led by the worg-mounted chieftain Azok, launched an all-out assault on the town of Cardun, home to both dwarves and men. The Ironbreaker serjant, Sieur Lucian Martel (Lucanus Martellus in Varan), raced to Hammerval to summon the dwarven militia and instruct the Knights of Miles to garrison themselves in the town. When the orcs came howling out of the mountains, burning and thieving as they went, it was only to meet the combined arms of thirty knights, alongside the famous Knight Militant, Sieur Thetis.
As the Knights of Miles twice attempted to throw back the orcs, the Hammerval militia (under the leadership of the Gaethaff Sveila Whiteaxe) moved in behind the orcish lines and made fast the dwarven shield-wall. With a great clangor the dwarves beat their blades upon their shields and made themselves known to the orcish foe. The orcs, realizing they were caught between two forces that were maneuvering to annihilate them, turned about and threw themselves with frantic desperation against the dwarvish lines, hoping to escape.
Azok was one of the many felled, and most of his Companion Warriors. The southernmost camp of the orcs has been completely destroyed, scattered to the winds. This represents a massive blow to the orcish plans to lay siege to Hammerval. However, the war may not yet be won.
Across the sea, during the last month of spring, the Sacred Armies are on the move. Vagrysj the Lion has suffered repeated losses along the borders of his slave-empire. For all those victories, the Sacred Army itself has suffered setbacks; the cities of the goblins are notoriously untrustworthy. Mamil al-Tyfir has raised an army of its own to ensure the Sacred Armies do not lay permanent claim to goblin lands. Even so, clerics of the Northern Rite have constructed a temple-necropolis in the Moon Kingdoms and threatened to withdraw their forces if the goblins threaten it. The alliance of the Sacred Armies thus threatens to dissolve even as they punish the ogre king for his hubris.
Essad, this spring, was rocked with discontent and rebellion. The slave uprisings in the Agricon have become an endemic threat to Thurayn and the Masters who command it. It seems these slave risings may be funded by Dorlish coin, for none other than the master scholar Reynarius di Llun has volunteered to lead an assault on the forces of the Iron Guard of Thurayn from the Dorlish border with the hopes of burning down the southern slave camps and ending the reign of the Rex Exactor.
In the west, the elvish reavers have been quiet for another year, striking but rarely against the Ralashite borders and, by sea, not at all. Some turmoil has been heard in Tailimisia concerning the continued rule of the Hierophant. In Silversong, King Anundarien Towerborn has called a council of the nobility of that kingdom for the purpose of determining where that kingdom stands in relation to the Elvish Question.
And lastly, in Agstowe, it is said that plumes of smoke have been seen curling from the maw of the Wyrmburg, indicating that perhaps the great Wyrm of Agstowe is stirring in his sleep.
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