The land of the dragons had been unstable for a very long time, the eastern Jin dynasty that ruled it till the year 385, just collapsed and the lands are now divided between the northern Wei dynasty in the north and the Liu Song dynasty in the south.
From the year 415 to 416, the dragons of the Liu Song began invading the Northern dynasty of Wei which was ruled by humans but during December. When the dragons nearly conquered, a palace coup happened in Canton killing emperor Wu of Liu who had been the ruler since the year 400, and declaring the new Qi dynasty.
Chang'an, 1 January 417:
Unfortunately for the Northern Wei, the change of power would prove disastrous for them as the dragons used combined air and dropped firebombs, destroying the city and uniting the entire dragon nation as one under the Qi dynasty.
When Emperor Hongwu of Qi moved toward his new capital, he began drafting plans to start great invasions and unite the dragon race into one empire.
When Emperor Hongwu of Qi moved toward his new capital, he began drafting plans to start great invasions and unite the dragon race into one empire.
The new Qi emperor and his court spent the entire month planning for this invasion and started to prepare for war, once the month finished the armies were ready and plans were prepared.
Byzantium, from January to February 417:
dissatisfied with foreigners ruling their empire and the migration crisis with the elves appeared after the leak of the secret decree to kill the elves at the borders, pissed off the elves moreover alongside slaves that had enough and wanted freedom.
Protests immediately started in the capital, people shouted: "DOWN WITH THE EMPEROR, RESTORE THE SENATE AND DEMOCRACY OF THE REPUBLIC" and began burning anything related to the imperial government.
Meanwhile in the imperial palace, panic spread in the government with the emperor calling his ministers to meet.
Imperial Palace of Byzantium:
The meeting began promptly, with the emperor addressing the attendees and emphasizing the urgency of finding a solution. "We must take action immediately," he declared. When Theodosius offered a suggestion, the emperor warned him not to advocate for leniency towards rebels and protestors. Theodosius chuckled in response, clarifying that he recommended the elimination of anyone who opposes the regime.
The emperor immediately started a vote, to see any opposition, and no one voted against the idea.
The army was ordered to mobilize and prepare for a possible anti-protest operation and was ready when February started.
Byzantium the capital:
When the protestors arrived near the imperial palace and demanded to see the emperor, the army was already prepared. As soon as the emperor stepped outside wearing his armor, the protestors realized that their lives were in danger. However, they refused to give up and continued to demand his downfall. They hoped that the army mages would join them, but they were unaware that the mages were completely loyal to the emperor. Alex gave the signal to fire spells at the protestors, resulting in the cavalrymen slaughtering hundreds of them. As a consequence, the emperor decreed that anyone who opposed the current regime would be executed.
He and his government hoped that they established law and order however Samantha told her emperor that it would trigger a big revolt but he didn't listen, little did he know that she would be proven right when one of the intelligence agencies reported the province of Semetia, Syria province, and Anatolia revolted triggering the first byzantine civil war.
The loyal governors sent a message to their emperor offering their eternal support.
"Here it is my official order: to all generals, this war is just a war of conquest, you have a free hand and you must allow the soldiers to loot rebel cities, kill their men and children, and assault their women and for the non-humans especially the Orcs unit of our army are going to have a feast tonight and for the dragons, do what you do best; that is destroying anything in front of you" then he sighed and said: "Now I understand why Kahn decided to destroy the rebels so brutally that would shock anyone!"
The Byzantine Empire, from February to June 417:
Extensive preparations were initiated by both sides of the war, each side recruited troops, and mages and made weapons that could help them win the war.
During the last day of March, the Byzantine loyalist forces within the Balkans completed their training, moreover the new emperor of Khorran Filian sent thirty thousand orcs and barbarian humans to support his ally against the rebels and Alex summoned the demons and the undead soldiers..
In Africa, Samantha contacted the governor of Egypt and offered to coordinate an attack so devastating it would destroy everything the rebels own.
Byzantine Empire, Imperial Palace, September 417:
After several discussions, the emperor forced his officials to adopt his war strategy of destroying everything and treating it as a war of conquest and even forced them to allow the Orcs to kill citizens.
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The army and the navy were prepared, one of the first decrees written by the imperial was to halt all Grain exportation and launch a naval blockade on land provinces and land blockade from Egypt seeking to starve the population of the rebel territory.
The second decree is that he made all the people of the rebel lands enemies of the state and allowed for their blood to be shed, meaning he encouraged people to kill anyone who was a sympathizer to the opposition forces.
Byzantine empire, Naval front, Land front:
After organizing themselves, the rebels formed the Third Roman Republic and launched a naval attack on the imperial navy.
Admiral Michael Pandreas, a nobleman from Thessaloniki and a loyalist who is the commander of the navy, he saw through the rebel's plan and began his own offensive targeting the Bosphorus cities such as Nicomedia and the Bithynia region.
The rebels realized what the loyalists intended and brought most of their navy to the Bosphorus Strait, the battle started with the rebels bringing a hundred ships and the loyalists bringing the same amount.
While the Naval battle was extremely fierce and bloody as mages and ships kept destroying each other, the emperor who personally took command decided to launch an airborne assault on Nicomedia, this surprised the enemy as thousands of Orcs, Undead, Humans, and dragons descended on the city from the sky burning everything and everyone until they descended to the ground.
It was a pure slaughter. Everyone was fighting ferociously, even citizens fighting to defend their freedom from the tyranny of the imperial government.
The fight continued for several hours until the imperial army killed the enemy commander, slaughtered half of the population, and razed the entire city to the ground.
Alex decided to move to Nicea but he was greeted by the governor of the city who chose to surrender saying he desired to spare the city from a destructive battle.
Byzantium, October 417:
Egypt:
The Republican forces launched multiple surprise attacks on Egyptian Sinai, the governor, and Samantha's preparations and were forced to retreat to Memphis.
General Postumus of the republican army blocked the capital, he then ordered his mages to bombard the capital and the defenders responded.
Every part of the city was mined with trap magic and traps were prepared to greet the attacking force once they entered.
The intense bombardment destroyed the walls. killing the mages on top of the walls.
Hordes of rebel troops tried to enter but the traps and defenders kept striking them left and right, this battle lasted for several hours and even days nonstop as both armies kept slaughtering each other till the enemy forces were destroyed and their general was killed in battle.
Samantha decided to launch a counter-attack to recapture all lost lands.
Pergamum:
The Byzantine emperor issued the order to destroy the city and slaughter its inhabitants, many thought that the emperor became Unhinged as there was no one capable of stopping him but they obeyed and advanced from Nicea.
The senate realized this as the teenage emperor was angry at their rebellion so they prepared for a fierce defense of their capital.
Once the Byzantine troops reached the city, a hundred thousand undead began trying to breach the walls but failed and kept trying relentlessly but failed.
Meanwhile, Zagrios returned after a long absence straight to Pergamum.
"Someone tell me what the fuck is going on?"
"Well protests throughout the empire erupted because they wanted a restoration of the senate which means democracy, so I ordered the army to kill almost thirty thousand civilians and that triggered the civil war as governors of Anatolia, Syria, and Semetia to rebel against me". Answered Alex carelessly.
Zagrios was livid and extremely angry: "SO BECAUSE OF ONE SIMPLE DEMAND OF DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH, YOU DECIDE TO TRIGGER A CIVIL WAR!"
Alex: "Democracy creates instability, Parliaments do nothing but fight each other. Just look at what they had done when the great Julius Caeser rightfully took their power, they fucking stabbed him twenty-six times! Now if you want to talk about democracy, it is the most dysfunctional system, this is just an excuse to disrespect the authority, and oh I would like to add that during the military anarchy that destroyed the Roman Empire, the so-called Representatives of the people were so corrupt that they kept sucking the cock of whoever usurps power until every province declared independence and Rome was divided.
I will crush this rebellion and with it, I shall crush any dissenter, and I shall be the best Roman Emperor"
Zagrios decided to not carry on the conversation and began teaching him a new spell to help him with his goal.
After three months, the siege of Pergamum ended in a disaster for the imperial army, and Alex decided to retreat to the capital.
Byzantium, imperial palace January to March 418:
The Byzantine emperor barely calmed down after retreating from the battlefield, desiring to know the situation in other fronts. He asked about the report of the Egyptian front and when he got it, he was shocked because couldn't believe that both the governors of Egypt and the Africa province
were caught off guard by the rebel attack, he then met with his war council to decide on a new strategy.
"Alright, we have to start focusing on a single Anatolian region, and since Nicea switched sides, we will focus on taking black sea coastal villages and cities such as Sinope till we reach Trebizond while we fortify our gains" Suggested Flavius Theodosius to the emperor and he liked it.
"Kid, you are a genius and now tell the imperial navy I believe they keep failing to take Cyprus to redirect their effort to the black sea, and as for Samantha and Constantine the governor of Egypt, they are going to fight with their resources". For the next two months, preparations were made and a new army of hundred thousand troops composed mostly of human soldiers and undead soldiers to reinforce the current three hundred thousand troops fighting in the civil war.
After two months of preparation for battle, and as he was about to leave the palace, a messenger from General Belisarius came with a letter and he opened it:" My emperor, after our failure at Pergamum, I decided to launch a new attack in coordination with the dragon king Filipe and I will say it was a massive success and by success, I mean raising the cities of the Bosphorus strait and slaughtering half of the citizens because I kept losing battles against the enemy forces and I won in the end, thanks to the air assaults". The emperor couldn't finish the letter because he could guess that his generals killed thousands of people and turned three thriving cities into ghost cities.
He realized that it was too late to fix his mistake and left for the battlefield to finish the civil war once and for all.
On the road to Sinope:
In the beginning, the advancing imperial army captured one village after the other and it was very easy as the battle for the Bosphorus cities weakened the Republican forces severely.
Unfortunately, this easy advance wouldn't last as things got worse for the emperor. He kept getting ambushed left and right to the point that he was forced to stop his advance and deal with the rebels and then, he lost his orc forces when the commander told him that they have to go home to fight a rebellion and an invasion against their homeland.