It is January, 578 BCE. The War of the Bisom Strait ended 2 months ago, pitting 2 countries against each other. The world has never seen anything like it before. One man, Fliner Damian, was returning to his home city of Decini after a trip to Galion, where he got to view the famed Galion Armystata. As Fliner rode home in his carriage, he thought about what he had seen and all the times that Decini had been passed over as a weak city. It was then that Fliner vowed that Decini would have its revenge on all those who had underestimated it in times past.

The Aftermath of a War

Immediately after The War of the Bisom Strait, a shift was felt throughout the continent. It became customary for every city to have its own armystata in case one of its neighbors chose to attack.

By far the strongest armystata belonged to the country of Galion — one of the participants in the War of the Bisom Strait. Only 2 months after the war, Galion’s military had grown to 1,250 people. They had also developed new weapons and armor that were better suited for warfare. The large majority of this military growth was the work of John Buchart, better known as Buchart the Militarist.

Buchartthe Militarist had created the first armystata and had won the War of the Bisom Strait. Upon his army reaching his goal of 1,250 men, Buchart invited wealthy businessmen to Galion to view its armystata, including a man named Fliner Damian. Fliner was among the only wealthy people from the city known as Decini. Despite this, Fliner felt a large sense of pride in his city and had been looking for a way to prove its true strength.

Upon seeing the highly trained army of Galion, Fliner became inspired. He envisioned a time where Decini would rule the continent using a massive army to destroy all who opposed him. It was this vision that inspired him on his carriage ride back to Decini. Upon returning, he decided to act on it.

A Man’s Dream

Fliner dreamed of a great Decini with a strong army and land as far as the eye could see. However, he quickly realized that this dream would not be quick to realize. First, he needed to gain control of the Decini government. He paid the king a large sum of money in exchange for the crown. Upon becoming king, Fliner began to crack down on the things that the previous regime was soft on. He created a small yet effective police force who began to crack down on crime around the city. He also used his own money to pay for the upgrading of infrastructure around the city. Along with this, he hired blacksmiths to create huge amounts of chainmail armor, copper short swords, and small forearm shields.

By February of 577 BCE, Fliner was the king of a city born anew. It boasted an army of 1,100 men, one of the lowest crime rates on the continent, and a population that enjoyed where they lived unlike those who had come before them. It was all of this progress that led Fliner to draft the plans for his first move to establish Decini dominance over the continent, the liberation of Zentr.

A City in Need of Relief

After the war, Zentr had fallen to a tyrannical dictator named Marno Misuo. Marno had suppressed the people of Zentr for, what most historians consider to be, his entire reign. This gave Fliner an excuse to invade Zentr, entirely under the pretense that he was going to liberate them from their tyrannical dictator.

Fliner also did something quite unusual at this battle and many future battles. Similar to Buchart, Fliner accompanied his troops to battle but he didn’t fight alongside them as Buchart did. Instead, Fliner sat at the back of his forces, watching the battle occur. Despite this choice, Decini did win the battle. This was mostly due to the fact that Zentr’s army had been limited to 150 men by Galion. The vast majority of these men surrendered immediately as most had been forced to join by Marno. The ones who stayed were outnumbered hugely by the 1,100 man large army of Decini.

The 2 forces met at the gates of Zentr. The Zentr forces were quickly surrounded by the opposing army and massacred. As the Decini army ushered into the city, Fliner followed close behind. He told his men to do as they wanted with the city while he and 2 guards made for the palace that had once been Zentr’s Congress House. Upon entering the palace, Fliner and his guards massacred all that they found, including Marno Misuo. Outside, Fliner’s soldiers burned buildings, killed civilians, and took valuables. This would later be known as The Massacre of Zentr, resulting in around 2,600 deaths.

As it would turn out, Fliner had never intended to liberate, he wanted to punish the world for underestimating Decini. By most historical accounts, Fliner was a far worse ruler for Zentr than Marno Misuo, causing almost triple the deaths that Marno had during his entire rule of the city.

This brutal occupation showed the world the brutality that an invading force could reach. It was due to his brutal occupations and his pride of his home city that caused him to later be known by the locals as Fliner Ascympio, translating to “Fliner the Bringer of Death”. He would also be known as history’s first dictator in the eyes of many historians.

The Creation of a Monster

The rest of the continent watched in horror as Fliner’s army ravaged the surrounding cities. He and his troops tended not to have much organization. They would typically attack in mobs, using their huge numbers compared to their enemy to overwhelm the opponent.

Wherever they went, they plundered the city to the fullest extent before raising their flag and claiming the territory for themselves. This style of war had been thought of by no one prior to this and was a complete breaking of the unwritten rules of warfare that people had followed before this.

As the Decini army moved from city to city they often forced people that they came across to join their ranks. This was largely because of their theory of strength in numbers. They thought that military training didn’t matter when you outnumbered your enemy in the way that they did. This monster of an army swept across the land west of Decini before returning to their capital and moving south in a brutal string of battles collectively known as The Campaign of a Thousand Cries.

This was the most deadly military movement that the continent had seen, resulting in the deaths of over 5 thousand people. These people were not only military either. Most were citizens who were accused of speaking ill against Decini in the past. These people were oftentimes either beaten in their homes or beheaded by the army.

The continent began to surrender to the fact that they would all be conquered by Decini. Their wave of invasions had taken the entire continent by storm. They had not yet moved across the Bisom Strait, but they controlled over 50% of the eastern part of the continent. There only remained 1 city in the current scope of the Decini army, Pantisio City.

The Last Stand

This was the last stand of the Pantisio people whose pride had been extinguished by the Decini army. This was the capital of the region, Pantisio City. Upon their arrival, Fliner ordered the surrender of the city, to this, an archer on the walls of the city, angered by hearing of his people being killed on mass by this army, fired as Fliner. The arrow struck him, barely missing his brain and gashing his face.

Fliner retreated, outraged. 1 day later, the Decini army moved in. The invaders surrounded the city with their masses, now numbering 2,500 soldiers. The defenders numbered 500, with 50 of those being archers. This was no shabby army, but it paled in comparison to the Decini forces.

The Decini soldiers rushed the gates, slamming into prepared and perfectly trained Pantisio soldiers. These soldiers held the enemy at the gates as their archers continued raining pain on their enemy. With the stockpile of resources they had built up since the start of the campaign, the city would be able to last over a month of the onslaught as long as their soldiers held.

The army of Pantisio held their enemy at the gates for 28 days. For 28 days the 2 armies clashed, one trying to defend their people from certain death, the other trying to inflict it. On the 29th day, the Decini army broke through the southern entrance and ushered in, killing all they found. The population of the city was reduced from around 20,000 people to 500.

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After this, the Decini flag was raised upon the citadel of the now barren city. Fliner then led his army back to their capital at Decini where he announced a change. In the capital, June of 575 BCE, Fliner announced that Decini was no more, and would now be known as the Vasni Empire. This was the world’s first empire, and it certainly set a precedent. This was the first empire and it controlled around 75% of the eastern continent.

Despite their seemingly dominant position, if Fliner wanted to get to the rest of the continent, they needed to control the Bisom Strait. This would not be easy because there was one man who was gearing up to destroy the country that he had grown to hate. The country to be destroyed was none other than the Vasni Empire, and the man, was known as Buchart the Militarist.