Locust Wars

The Locust Wars, or The Autumn of Locusts, was a particularly eventful - and, to most, terrible - period of Dornish history. The season lasted around a decade during the first century of the Coming of the Andals.

Background

The Six Kingdoms and the High Kings

Political map of Dorne at the beginning of the Autumn of Locusts.

For countless generations, Dorne had been divided between six great kingdoms - those of the Blackmonts, Daynes, Fowlers and Yronwoods in the Red Mountains, Brimstone in the desert and the Green Kings along the River Greenblood. In the early years of the Coming of the Andals, however, the balance of power between these realms was shifting; Olyvar Yronwood, Bloodroyal, had named himself High King of Dorne, and sought to back his word with force. The Greenblooders opposed him in this, raising their own High King, while the Daynes and Fowlers forged an alliance that isolated the Vulture Queen and allowed them to expand, unimpeded, into the desert clans. The spring and summer which preceded the Autumn of Locusts were characterized by these desert wars, and by the Bloodroyals attempt - and failure - to invade the Stormlands. Time, however, seemed to prove the fears and hopes of great change in Dorne to be misguided - the Andals remained quiescent, the Daynes and Fowlers stopped their expansion at those Clans which bordered them, and Olyvar Yronwood was taken by the Gods, long before his dreams could bear substantial fruit.

The Long Summer

The summer of Olyvar Bloodroyal's death was a mild one, but it was long in dying, stretching for many more dry years than most had expected. Many settlements found their summer stores stretched, and even the mighty Greenblood ran sluggish and low. Peasants, Lords and Kings alike waited anxiously for the rains, but when they came they came in force. The rainy season was long and generous - the Greenblood flooded its banks, and dryland, desert and mountainside alike bloomed with greenery. However, as any shaman, seer or sky-gazer worth their salt could tell you, a long summer and a wet autumn were signs to be on the watch for locusts.

The Locusts

As tradition warned it might, the rains brought locusts, grasshoppers which turned their green cloaks for brown and swarmed in sky-clouding masses. The Dornishmen are no stranger to locusts, and, at first, they were welcome - honeyed locusts became more plentiful than grain, and the people ate well in that first year. The swarms continued to grow, however, and when they had eaten the bush bare, they descended upon the fields and pastures. The harvest failed and the herds went hungry - the peasants, who had, in the wet season, gorged on what remained of their summer stores and put little aside of their early crops, soon followed.

An Andalic woodcut of the Locust Plague.

It is said that the locusts massed so thickly that they blocked out the sun wherever they flew, and that one could not see but a few paces when caught in their path. There are stories, even, of particularly numerous swarms that, upon descending on villages whose fields and granaries had already been eaten bare, would, in their endless hunger, devour goats, cattle, horses and the men themselves. Witches, Yronwoods, an angry Sal and an ascendant Locust God were blamed in turn, and offerings or curses deployed against each, to ward off or satiate the swarms. Nothing, however, seemed to work, and so Dorne suffered a season of hunger and fear.

History

The First Desert War

The Locust Wars describe two conflicts that engulfed Dorne during the Autumn of Locusts, involving five of the Six Kingdoms. In the west, tensions that had resulted from the Mountain Kingdoms' expansion into the Desert resulted in a long and bloody conflict, known to future generations as the Desert War, later to be called the First Desert War.

The Scorpion and the Sun

Eight years prior to the Autumn, the House Dryland had invited into their hall and sphere Conran Qorgyle, an Andal warlord newly arrived from across the sea. They had made promises of friendship and cooperation with the man, and eventually decided to strengthen that bond with marriage - Milona Dryland, second child and eldest daughter of King Lucifer, was betrothed to Ser Conran Qorgyle. After her fifteenth nameday and during the early years of the fall, Conran and his host arrived in Hellgate Hall to claim his bride, and to deepen their ties with the Drylands. During this visit and before the wedding, the andal knight met with Prince Vorcan Dryland, the heir to Lucifer. They agreed, in secret, that they would cooperate to remove the Red Marchers from the desert, and that they would raise eachother up as brother-kings - this pact would become known as the Bathouse Oath, named for the location in which it was sworn. During the wedding ceremony, Vorcan and Conran called on the attending headsmen of the tributary clans to rise up with them. They then conspired to place Lucifer under house arrest, and raise up Vorcan as King, after which they declared their joint intent to push the Fowlers and Daynes from the desert.

First Phase

Neither Brimstone nor the Qorgyles had, however, yet ascertained the seriousness of the locusts which had then begun to afflict all of Dorne. The early attempts to muster the armies of Brimstone, and for the host of Conran to march west across the desert, were delayed significantly by swarms of locusts devouring supplies and descending upon villages. When the host of Conran did eventually march west and into the lands of the Daynes, the armies of Brimstone remained home, plagued still by the insects and either unable or unwilling to yet leave the side of their river. The Dayne armies assembled but did not seek battle, and for the better part of the year there was no real fighting - barring border skirmishes on the edge of Clan Parch - despite an acknowledged state of war existing between Brimstone, Dayne and Fowler, and despite the Clans Serpent, Maltrevar, Spiny and Dust having stopped sending payments of tribute.

The Battle at Narrock

The Stale Hills, which separate the lands of Clan Dust from those of Clan Seep. The Battle of Narrock was fought near it's eastern slopes.

Eventually, Prince Ferris Fowler struck out with the armies of his Kingdom, marching on Brimstone. The Andal army marched back east, seeking to stop them, pursued in turn by the Daynes. The Fowler army, upon hearing of this, turned back northwards, seeking to return to their own lands, while the armies of Brimstone marched north as well. However, the Fowlers were caught by Conran Qorgyle on the far side of the Stale Hills which separate the Dustbowl from Pronghorn, at a stretch of desert called Narrock. The armies of the Brimstone, along with the army of King Caswyn Dayne, would join the battle from the north and south, respectively. In all, the forces led by Ser Qorgyle numbered 3663, those led by Prince Ferris and King Caswyn 5296. Despite this disparity, the Andal-Brimstone alliance won handily after several days of pitched battle, slaying 899 while losing 181 and sending the Fowlers and Daynes both into a rout. The Fowler army did not recover, and for the rest of the war engaged in a campaign of harassment along Brimstone's northern border.

The Siege of First Well

First Well, seat of Clan Wells. The fortress of First Well is noted for lying at the border of three lordships. In the age of the Locust Wars, it and it's Clan were sworn to the Fowlers.

With the armies of their enemies temporarily scattered, Conran led his forces north, to First Well - a settlement on the edge of the Stale Hills which swore fealty to the Falcon King. He laid siege there with the men of Brimstone for several months. King Caswyn Dayne believed a victory possible, if his army and those of the Fowlers joined to smash Conran against the walls of First Well - however, while the reformed Dayne army rode into battle, their allies did not join them. Outnumbered, the Dayne army retreated after a short battle in which they lost a few hundred men, and Conran continued the siege of First Well.

End of the War

With the Dayne army twice defeated, Conran Qorgyle began negotiations with the Kings Caswyn and Caswald. He initially pushed for the enemy armies to acknowledge the superiority of their Andal enemies by walking under a gate of their broken spears, which Caswyn refused. He then asked that Caswyn personally bow and make obeisance to him, but the Dayne King again refused, challenging Conran instead to a duel. Unwilling to chance a battle against Dawn, Conran eventually agreed to lay down his own arms if the Daynes and Fowlers forswore any claim to tribute of the Clans, and vowed to never again return to the desert. To this, they agreed, and the war was thus concluded.

The War of the Scourge

While the Desert War raged in the west, a far bloodier conflict began between the two great powers of Dorne, the Yronwoods and the Greenbloods.

Tensions on the Border

While some saw the death of Olyvar Yronwood as heralding an era of peace for Dorne, others viewed it as an opportunity. The lords of the Greenblood had raised a King to oppose the ambitions of the self-proclaimed High King, but they did not consider the threat of Yronwood over with his passing. The Green King perceived Olyvar's heir, King Castor Yronwood, as weak, but believed that so long as the Yronwoods held the Scourge - the sacred source of the Greenblood conquered years ago by Olyvar - then they could not be secure. As the river swelled with the early autumn rains, Greenblooder warbands began to probe the border.

Prelude to War

The headwaters of the Scourge. On the left are depicted two then-Greenblooder border forts, Russet Heights and Brittlebrush. To the right is depicted the Yronwooder stronghold known as the Scourge Hold.

In the early years of Castor Yronwood's reign, he spent much time and effort on securing his borders through words rather than swords. He sent a mission north, to the Storm King who had humbled his father in battle, and successfully made peace with the Durrandons. He sent another delegation south, to the Greenblood, but unbeknownst to him, Willem Wade's council had already resolved to march on Yronwood and retake the disputed Scourge. When they turn away the peace delegation, Castor recognized that war was near. Both the Green King and the Bloodroyal sought the aid of Andals, the Greenblooders of House Qorgyle and the Yronwoods of House Allyrion and House Martell. However, the Qorgyles were occupied with their own preparations for the Desert War, and both Allyrion and Martell demanded more land than Yronwood was willing to give. As the locusts began to plague the land, the Green King declared war.

The Battle for Red Dunes

The Red Dunes, where the Scourge War was mostly fought. The fortress of Old Glory sits across the Greenblood from the Bramble. Neither stronghold was taken during the Locust Wars, but many battles were fought nearby.

Though the Greenbloods initiated the Scourge War, the Yronwoods were able to gather their army more swiftly. Joined by his bannermen, House Wyl and House Rylthorne, King Castor Yronwood crossed the border and laid siege to the border forts of the Red Dunes, the western frontier of the Greenblood Kingdom. The Green King gathered his own army at the stronghold of Old Glory - when the Yronwoods marched on the fortress, the army of the Greenblood sallied out and defeated them, sending the Yronwood army bloody and reeling back to the border. However, Castor returned to Red Dunes within a few moons, his army reformed - battle was joined again with the Greenblooders, this time nearer the border. The forces of King Wade were outmaneuvered and isolated from their Lake and Shell allies, and obliterated - the other forces of the Greenblooders were destroyed or scattered in turn. Some attribute the Yronwood success to a swarm of locusts which, they say, descended upon the battlefield and split the Greenblooder army in twain - others, on Yronwood magics, or the unexpected tactical genius of King Castor.

The Slow War

The war would continue beyond the defeat of the Greenblooder army, though - their forces would reform, and draw blood from the Yronwoods in a series of desperate battles in the Red Dunes. Despite the war being to reclaim their western lands, however, the men of the Greenblood were never again on the offensive. When the fortress Brittlebush fell after many moons of Yronwood siege, the two High Kings came to terms; Brittlebush would be ceded to the Yronwoods, and 100 talents of gold paid to King Castor. With the land devastated by locusts and war, and thousands dead of starvation or battle, however, there was little feeling of triumph to go around.

Aftermath

Political map of Dorne after the Locust Wars. Thousands of lives were spent for little change in borders.

The Autumn of Locusts shifted into a quiescent Dornish winter - the men and women of the peninsula outlasted insects and wars both. The Locust Wars reaffirmed the Greenblooders continuing need for a King, and solidified Bloodroyal Castor as the steward of a still vital and strong realm. The Green King Willem Wade perished not long after his defeat - to succeed him, the men of the Greenblood chose Edred Lake, magnar of Goldpeppers. A martial and warlike man, Edred had fought well during the Scourge War, and his father had perished many years earlier doing battle with Olyvar. In the west, the balance of power had shifted, but the Daynes and Fowlers remained strong, if humbled. Three of the western Clans - Maltrevar, Spiny and Ruthvan - would, in the years which followed the Locust Wars, elevate Conran Qorgyle to the position of High Lord of the western desert, in exchange for promises of land, glory and protection from the mountain kings. Conflict would return to the west of Dorne within a few years of this unification with the Second Desert War, a conflict far vaster, more brutal, and bloody than the First.