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The War of Unification was fought and won over eight-hundred years ago in Imperial Years(IY) 1180-1185, but it really began much longer ago than people realize. The war started at the very tail end of 1180IY, but trouble had been brewing in that disjointed Fódlan from as far back as 1179IY.

A rift had been forming between the Adrestian Empire, the oldest of Fódlan’s three powers–the others being the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and the Leicester Alliance–and the Church of Seiros for years before the war actually started. The enrollment of the then Imperial Princess Edelgard Von Hresvelg to the officer’s academy at Garreg Mach Monastery, the headquarters of the church at that time, in 1180IY gave people hope that the rift could be closed.^[1] It was a false hope, however. Soon Princess Edelgard would be Emperor Von Hresvelg, the woman who first declared war in that very same year.

The beginning of the year started like any other. Bandits ran rampant in 1170-1185IY, and 1180IY began with a fairly average number of bandit attack reports.^[2] The bandit attacks would increase dramatically however, under the direction of Emperor Hresvleg, who was hiding behind the moniker “The Flame Emperor '' at the time.^[3] The attack at Zanado, the Red Canyon on the 31st of the Harpstring Moon was the first of the seemingly unrelated strikes that were later discovered to be instituted by Hresvleg.^[4]

One other such battle was Lord Lonato Gildas Gaspard’s revolt. Though it was known that Gaspard was working with the unstable Western Church at the time, his cooperation with the Flame Emperor came to light not long after.^[5] After Gaspard’s defeat, the Western Church’s plot against the Central Church continued, in which Hresvleg’s subordinate Jeritza Vin Hrym–then known as “The Death Knight”–made an appearance, formally connecting the two agendas.^[6]

Hresvleg began to reveal her Flame Emperor persona durning the Horsebow Moon of 1180IY. Hrym, using the front of the Death Knight, kidnapped the sister of a high ranking monastery official, who was rumored to have a very rare crest. In the ensuing battle to rescue the girl, Hresvleg appeared in her Flame Emperor disguise for the first time to Church of Seiros officials and made herself a target.^[7]

After the girl's rescue, all seemed quiet from the Flame Emperor for the next month or so, though this peace would not last long. Reports from the nearby Remire village began coming in during the Red Wolf Moon of that year telling of an unusual disease. Men from the village began quickly losing their minds and brutally attacking one another. Under further investigation, it was no disease, but a curse designed to catch the Church of Seiro’s attention. The monster behind it was an Agarthan magician known as Solon who had been disguised as the monastery’s librarian since the end of 1179IY.^[8]

There were very few Agarthans left by 1180IY, but those who were had a fragile alliance with Emperor Hresvleg and her cause. In a note he left detailing this alliance, Hresvelg’s advisor Hubert Von Vestra refers to the Agarthans as “those who slither in the dark,” revealing the uneasy nature of the empire’s relationship with them.^[9]

Solon was not the only Agarthan to infiltrate Garreg Mach Monastery. An assassin called Kronya had disguised herself as a student from the previous year and had been “rescued” from the Death Knight’s clutches along with the monastery girl.^[10] She revealed herself in an attack on the ruins of one of the monastery’s old chapels on the 26th of the Ethereal Moon, 1180IY.^[11]

Kronya and Solon quickly returned in order to attack whom they viewed as their biggest obstacle; the future Archbishop and ruler of Fódlan, Byleth Eisner. Their attempt on the then professor’s life failed immeasurably. It resulted in both their deaths and the backfiring of the spell which only added to Eisner’s power.^[12] Due to the important part Eisner would play in the resulting war, that failure would doom the empire before the real fighting even began.

The Pegasus Moon of 1180IY would become the biggest turning point in Fódlan’s history. In a raid of the Holy Tomb at Garreg Mach Monastery, the Flame Emperor’s true identity is revealed, throwing the world into chaos.^[13] Hresvleg, along with her closest officers (including Hurbert Von Vestra and Ferdinand Von Aegir) had killed their fathers to take their places, quickly and efficiently usurping the Adrestian Empire’s government.^[14]

With her identity and intentions no longer hidden, Emperor Edelgard Von Hresvelg declared war on the Church of Seiros on the 29th of the Pegasus Moon of 1180IY. Both the current archbishop of the time–Lady Rhea of Fódlan–and her future successor Byleth Eisner disappeared during the war’s initial battle, later called the Siege at Garreg Mach.

The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus was quick to join the church’s side, but their unsteady royal family situation and still-recovering infrastructure from the 1176IY Tragedy of Duscur made them poor allies. The kingdom quickly began to crumble under the Empire’s might. For the next five years the Church and the Kingdom desperately pushed back against invasion while continuing to look for Archbishop Rhea. Under the leadership of Duke Claude Von Reigan of Leading House Reigan, the Leicester Alliance remained as neutral as possible as they faced threats on all sides, from the Adrestian Empire to the west and the then unfriendly Almyra to the east.^[15]

With the return of Eisner on the 25th of the Ethereal Moon, 1185IY, the Alliance was finally ready to join the war. On the day that would have marked Garreg Mach’s Millenium Festival had no war been started, Riegan and Eisner, along with other close allies, retook the crumbling, bandit infested monastery in the name of Leicester.^[16]

There was much infighting however, and even with the Alliance’s newfound advantages, many of the lords whose territory bordered the Empire did not want to risk their positions. Without the support of every noble house, the Leicester Alliance would not have the military might required to over power the Adrestian Empire.^[17]

Reigan and Eisner’s army was led by the former students of the Golden Deer House of Garreg Mach Monastery’s officer’s academy last year of operation.^[18] Their best bid for uniting the lords against the Empire was to take the Bridge of Myrddin, which served as a fortress as much as it served as a bridge, that sat on the border between the Empire and the Alliance.^[19]

As the Alliance army moved towards Myrddin, they made a detour to Ailell to join with Lord Judith Von Daphnel of House Daphnel. This was a time of great importance for Reigan’s forces; she brought reserve troops and supplies to a fledgling army, turning it into a real threat to the Empire. The army is ambushed in Ailell, but with the addition of House Daphnel, it was a short battle.^[20]

Myrddin was taken quickly. The army was larger by then, but still relatively small (approximately 10,000 men, as opposed to the Empire’s nearly 40,000). The size of the invading forces made it easy for the Alliance Army to keep the element of surprise.^[21] The retaking of the bridge also resulted in the death of Ferdinand Von Aegir, Emperor Hresvelg’s Prime Minister at the time, striking a fatal blow to the Empire’s leadership.^[22] With this success, the threat level to Alliance territory lowered significantly, and the Alliance lords were a united front once again.^[23]

The war continued into 1186IY. The year started with the first battle fought within Empire territory, The Battle of Gronder Field, in which King Dimitri Alexander Blaiddyd of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus (who had been previously assumed dead) reappeared with his forces in an attempt to push back against Hresvleg. In the chaos of battle, the Kingdom’s forces fought any and all soldiers who were not their own, including the Alliance Army, despite their aligning goals. The Alliance army managed to defeat the Empire’s present forces, but not before Blaiddyd and his army were wiped out.^[24]

Despite their continued success, the Alliance army was not strong enough for continued invasion of Empire territory. Exploiting some of Claude Von Reigan’s connections, they gained the assistance of Nader the Undefeated of Almyra, despite Fódlan’s uneasy relationship with our neighbors at the time. With the bolster of Nader’s forces, the Alliance army made their way to Fort Merceus, the Empire’s last line of defense before Enbarr, the capital.^[25]

The Siege of Fort Merceus on the 31st of the Harpsting Moon, 1186IY, is majorly successful. The Alliance army captured the fort, but not for long, as the Agarthans destroyed it in one fell swoop to prevent it from being used against them.

On the 29th of the Garland Moon, 1186IY, the Alliance army reached Enbarr. They battled their way through the capital, killing Vestra and Hrym as they went. By the time the army reached Hresvleg in the Imperial Palace at Enbarr, the Empire’s troop levels were fatally low. Emperor Edelgard Von Hresvelg, at the hands of Byleth Eisner, brought about the end of the Adrestian Empire and the Fódlan revolution.^[26]

Vestra’s letter led the Alliance army to where Lady Rhea was being held hostage and to the headquarters of “those who slither in the dark.”^[27] The destruction of the underground Agarthan city Shambhala and the extermination of the last of the Agarthans brought Fódlan a new age of united peace. Eisner was appointed the first ruler of the United Kingdom of Fódlan.^[28]

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Seteth and Flayn C. Cichol of the Garreg Mach Archives at the Garreg Mach ruins visitors center for letting me review the incident and minutes reports from the war. I couldn’t have written this paper without the both of you.

Thank you.

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