Chapter 27: The First Syrámä War and the Fall of Mandapor
So it was that the armies of Amman, under the banner of Hakkan, marched against their neighbors and made war on them, for they were yet ruled by those who would once have called themselves Sáration and it was brought to the attention of the Emperor of Amman that they did plot against him and sought only to see Sárat stand proud again.
So the Amman armies crossed into Mandapor and there challenged those who claimed lineage to the Kings of Sárat of old and upon the Hills of Mandapor was a great battle fought between two vast armies and the battle swung first this way and then that and neither side seemed able to make a decisive strike. And the bodies of men were strewn across the battlefield, which was turned red, and neither side had yet purchased victory from this payment of flesh, until from Amman did the horsed warriors again make themselves known upon the battlefield and caught their prey in a deadly flank and ripped through their defenseless sides and the forces of Mandapor were routed and defeated and Amman were again the victors.
And to Hathait did they go, the great capital of all Mandapor, and there found the gates shut and they could not gain entry and there was a great rage upon them and they made a siege on the city while the land around fell under their bloody control until Hathait alone remained unconquered. For six years did the people of Hathait suffer and starvation and disease was rife and the streets were filled with the dead, until plague came to them and there was great misery. But also to the soldiers of Amman did this plague come and to them also was there great suffering and the pyres of the dead set an orange glow upon the walls of Hathait. Thus were the gates of Hathait opened to the enemy and the people defeated and to them was brought a great pain as the victors swept through the streets and brought with them murderous intent and the city was burned until it fell into the ground and was no more and all of Mandapor was vanquished and its people enslaved.
To Syrámä did the greater armies of Amman go as the siege was laid at Hathait, for there the tribes had mustered and in great numbers had declared themselves against all of Amman. And the First War of Syrámä was fought and the Syrámesse defeated and forced to retreat. And into the great expanse of the open grasslands did the Syrámesse disperse and were lost, and the great Amman army had nothing to conquer, since there were only small villages and tribes of people, who they killed if they could. So there they built a city, Belas, and they called it the capital of Syrámä, which they declared their own and claimed all of Syrámä conquered, though they ruled it not.