Ervëa

From Almeopedia

Ervëa [ɛr ˈvjɛ a] was the greatest of the Caďinorian emperors, the conqueror of Munkhâsh. He also had the longest reign of any emperor— 88 years.

Early years

Bronze statue of Ervëa

Ervëa was born in 1592 in Tevorandos, a city on the upper Eärdur where his father Antaevon II maintained a palace. His given (and official) name was Aervehas. Eärdur province had been restive for centuries, since the conquest of Cuzei; Antaevon, himself raised there, married a noblewoman of Cuzeian descent and had Ervëa raised there, in an attempt to bind the empire closer together. The residents of the province indeed took to the boy, adding the Cuêzi diminutive to his name, forming Aervilleas or Aerivileas, the origin of the Ver. form; he cemented his popularity there by learning Cuêzi. All this however rendered Ervëa and his father unpopular in Ctesifon.

He was in Eärdur when his father died, in 1604; his uncle Sevurias declared himself emperor. He had the support of the Ctesifon establishment; as he was also commander of the army, he seemed to to have an impregnable position. However, when he sent soldiers to arrest Ervëa, the garrison in Tevorandos arrested them, stripped off their uniforms, and sent them back to Ctesifon with a drubbing. Ervëa himself was spirited off to Octinila (Ožnëa), the capital of the province, where he was proclaimed the rightful emperor.

Civil war

Sevurias sent an army and besieged Octinila, but it was too small to do the job; the provincial army counterattacked and dispersed it. A second force actually mutinied rather than fight their fellow soldiers. There matters stood for several years, as Sevurias conducted purges in the army and attempted to consolidate his authority in other areas. In this he was a failure: Araunicoros and Sereor did not oppose his entry or his authority, but the local nobles— and the provincial armies— refused to fight Ervëa. Sevurias attempted to build his reputation by conquering Flora (1608), but this too was a fiasco, as the flaids soundly defeated both his army and navy.

Ervëa, just twelve years old at the time of the usurpation, had to assert his own leadership as well; this he did with unusual smoothness. He grew into a handsome, cheerful young man; of necessity he spent much time with the provincial army, and won their affection and loyalty by training and fighting with them; at the same time he was able to charm nobles and priests, who invariably remarked that he had a maturity far beyond his years. His only major conflict with his advisors was his refusal to marry; in this as in many things he would prove to have the larger vision.

Nonetheless the core of the country, the Svetla valley, was solidly behind Sevurias, and his army was perhaps three times the size of Ervëa's. The civil war resumed in earnest in 1611. Sevurias marched his huge army to Octinila, only to find the city empty; while he dithered there, Ervëa's forces mounted a series of attacks on the rich estates of the middle Svetla— a move which not only took the battle to the enemy's ground, but helped him build up his forces. In 1617, while continuing to harry Sevurias and hold off counter-attacks, he had a large enough force to occupy Cayenas, with just enough force to secure its loyalty. This was an important move, as it cut Sevurias off from the sea, and established Ervëa's support outside the Eärdur, both among those opposed to usurpation in general, and those who disliked Sevurias for his heavy-handed ways.

In Cayenas, for the first time, Ervëa encountered the armies of Munkhâsh, which had recently conquered most of Awoilas and Leziunea. Ervëa understood the threat immediately, and focussed his diplomacy on it: Sevurias had not only usurped the throne, but done so in the face of a threat from the demons of the east. (This was a fair enough point, though the lack of vigilance extends as well to Ervëa's own father Antavon.) Perhaps because of this, perhaps because it saw Ervëa on the rise, Araunicoros joined the loyalist side in 1620.

Sevurias was now surrounded, and the loyalists now switched to a frontal attack, besieging Ctesifon; in nine months it was theirs (1622). Sevurias fled toward Scormais, which his counselors felt was safe; but Ervëa's armies reached it first. Sevurias’s inner circle realized that their cause was lost, but hoped to save themselves: they murdered Sevurias themselves, and brought his head to Ervëa (1625). Ervëa thanked them, then had them executed, with the explanation, Disclaeteci disai, “Oath-haters, I hate.”

The Munkhâshi war

Before Ervëa could return to Ctesifon, Munkhâsh invaded, counting on the devastation and dissensions of the civil war to facilitate their plans for continental domination. Their initial progress was rapid, as the Caďinorian armies were small; but Ervëa had no trouble establishing unity and raising armies in the face of an invasion of the 'demons'.

The story of the war is best told in the Historical Atlas.

Rise of the empire: Ervëa was responsible for the last wave of expansion

The war proceeded in two stages: 1625-29, when the initial invasion was foiled; and from 1641-67. The low point for Caďinas was the siege of Ctesifon, from 1644-45; but this was relieved by the entry of Attafei, atej of the Tžuro, into the war. The eventual victory was by no means assured, but it was complete-- Munkhâsh was entirely destroyed, its territory divided between Caďinorians and Tzuro, and the surviving ktuvoks placed under military control.

At every stage Ervëa proved to be a master of strategy. When the enemy invaded in force, he sought to check them without offering direct battle. At all other times he sought to retain the initiative-- moving his armies quickly, he attacked in unexpected places, bypassing strongholds in favor of encircling maneuvers or advances deep into enemy territory, tying the enemy down with strong points and skirmishes. As a leader, he was decisive without being domineering; he was noted both for his personal courage and for his generosity.

Alone of any Caďinorian emperor, he received the help of 200 ilii in the war. As in the invasion of Cuzei, they assisted chiefly in artillery and in training human troops to fight the ktuvoks.

The arts of peace

Ervëa married a Ctesifon noblewoman, Melinoctis, in 1643; by this time he was well accepted in the heartland, but a marriage to Eärduran woman would have been divisive.

He constructed a ring of fortresses around Eretald, notably Arcaln and Erruk. These have been strong points for two thousand years, and both good engineering and strong magic were used in their construction.

After the war, Ervëa renamed Munkhâsh Sarnaure (Sarnáe) and encouraged Caďinorian settlement there; this would prove highly successful in the nearer regions, which became Caďinorianized. He founded a new capital for the province, Ilďaneas, named after his son.

Ervëa retained a fondness for Eärdur, and it remained specially devoted to him; indeed, some versions of the Count of Years give him a heroic role sanctioned by Iáinos. He removed the remaining restrictions on the Arašei, gave them trusted positions in his army, and created the first Arašei nobles.

He also began a thorough revision of Caďinorian law, but this was not finished in his lifetime, and so is named after his son.

He died in Ctesifon in 1692, just short of his hundredth birthday.

Etymology: Caď. Aervehas 'south-love', diminutive Aerivileas, Ver. Ervëa, Ismaîn Ŕvilea, Bar. Ârvila, Keb. Erivilaḣ.