Askerr War
| The Askerr War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Gilgamesh's War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Hexarchyallied Askerr | Dromosker Lugals | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 12,500 men various vehicles two lightning dragons one fire dragon | 65,000 (est. combat strength) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 56 Hexarchians 2,500 natives | 34,500 | ||||||
The Askerr War was the conflict fought in the wake of The Hexarchy's settlement of the island of the same name, or otherwise known as Dromosker Island. The conflict was fought between the settlers of the island, who were from various places of The Hexarchy (and elsewhere), and the natives of the island, who had proven unable to be subjugated by past settlers of the island. The natives, prone to cannibalism and constant warfare with others, successfully resisted all prior incursions deep into the island and instead practiced cannibalism on the very people claiming to be their colonial rulers.
The Lugal on the Hexarchy's side, Chief Eru Tepesh was having none of it, especially after his emissary's murder at a feast supposedly held in his celebration. If anyone were to die on his side, it would be those sentenced to a fate involving certain death. With Ereskigal Forest so far away, the Askerr would normally prove up to the task of replacing it. However, they seemed to be intent on eating his best people alive, instead of his worst. That said, it was obvious that these natives were under the impression that their "mana" gave them strength.
He was determined to send the permanent message that their concept of greatness was barely a drop in a very, very large bucket. The conflict, while lasting only a few months, was likely the bloodiest by far in the history of the island. Almost half the combat strength possessed by the natives was destroyed in violent dragon attacks that drew ire and criticism from home, namely in that dragons had never been used in an aggressive campaign against civilized humans in the history of The Hexarchy. However, Eru Tepesh still kept his post, and added the title of Lugal to his name -- in deference to the ones who first sent him to the island.
The Bloody Banquet
Interactions[1] between these settlers and the original inhabitants of the island, initially amicable, quickly broke down following an unfortunate banquet held on the lake-island settlement of Calēkhōpraksis which ended in an emissary's spilt entrails roasting on a grill before his eyes whilst native braves wetted their spearpoints in the gaping abdominal wound. The culinary redistribution of mana that ensued helped to embolden the lugals of the seven inter-connected 'swamp valleys' radiating from the lake in preparation for the interesting times ahead.
Instead of a war waged to eliminate these indigenous peoples, the Chief of the settlement, Eru Tepesh, had a more... interesting idea. Although the loss of a diplomat was always a sad event, in reality the man the settlers sent was of little consequence, himself being one of the indentured servants that arrived during a later wave in the settlement. Anticipating a rough time with the islanders, he had arranged for the secret transport of a pair of dragons along with a cluster of their eggs from the mainland. When the lizards were revealed to the public (which are normally very illegal to export outside of the mainland), the Chief simply rationalized that the lizards were there as a cultural artifact.
Releasing the deadly lizards into the wild, the Chief then sent another such messenger to the natives upon discovering the meaning of their practices: Just as the natives wished for mana, so did the settlers -- except they derived it from their dragons. Thus, they sent the dragons out to "collect" the weakest of the natives. In return, the natives would receive their own mana in kind from the settlers on a regular basis, at the Chief's sole discretion. Should the natives get greedy, so too would those giant, heavily-armored lizards able to spit the very power of the gods from their maws.
The Chief hardly bothered with issuing negotiations of any sort. He knew the natives would get the message almost immediately, once the dragons started their initial rampage to establish their own territory. And, if by some miracle, they possessed enough advanced weaponry to deal with the rough equivalent of flying nukes with armor, there was a whole other cluster of eggs about to be hatched in the settlement. It allowed for the Chief to deal with two of the emerging settlement's biggest issues:
Firstly, the carrying out of executions directly by one's own hand remained illegal throughout The Hexarchy and all of its territories, as even an execution of a heinous criminal was considered murder -- regardless of its justification. Thus, freely sending one or two people to the natives to deal with in their own fashion would provide a way for the Chief and the Council to rid themselves of undesirables normally deserving of the ultimate punishment, while still following the spirit and letter of the law back home. (On the mainland, a similar practice is followed in Ereshkigal Forest, where the condemned are sent unarmed into a forest filled with deadly flora and fauna at nearly every step.)
Secondly, it would provide additional justification for the active suppression of these natives, should the Chief resort to more extreme measures, such as provoking the dragons to completely destroy the countryside. Unfortunately, such an action would land the Chief a ticket to the Forest due to the sheer violence that option would entail. The mainland government intended the colony to be a much more peaceful settlement, after all, and committing such an atrocity would be unconscionable -- at least on paper. On the other hand, should the natives accept the new status quo, then both sides could remain both secure and satisfied, in which the Chief's tenure as paramount leader of the island would be cemented for life.
As the dragons flew off to do what they did best, all the settlers had to do was prepare themselves for a possible defense of the town. Should the remaining natives go completely berserk instead of cowering in fear after seeing the dragons, the town still had to prepare for a native attack on the town before it was fully fortified, in the likely event that some would survive the nuclear option. Meanwhile, a letter was sent informing the government that the island's unstable nature resulted, in a time, its lack of recognition of the island's rulership.
