Treaty to the Hounds

In the year 1006, an army of the Hadrian Empire began crossing the treacherous desert known as the Dragon’s Maw. After countless deaths and many years spent constructing a massive scaffolded elevator, they ascended the previously unscalable Waste Wall and entered the March.

There was an immediate incursion to the nearby city of Goldenfold - culminating in a clash between a small Hadrian scouting party and the Goldenfold militia. Although stories vary on who was the aggressor, within a week, the area was under siege by the full strength of the Hadrian expeditionary force. It didn’t take long for the city to fall, but by then, word of the invasion had reached the West Rivlans. The war between Empress Elizabetha’s red and white Cerberus banners and the alliance of Rivlan Earls lasted a decade. Battles and skirmishes left no road unbloodied. Wildflower fields choked through the piles of dead.

In 1021, a decade after the Hadrians first appeared in the March, Earl Tormand Artur made a plea for peace. A lasting drought had seen the three Eastern Rivlan holds essentially abandoned, their Viscounts and Earl fled west. The Treaty to the Hounds was signed and the war was over. Goldenfold was ceded to the Hadrians and the West Rivlan lands - Whitehurst and Westfork - began operating as a vassal state of the Empire. The Hadrian legion in Goldenfold soon began to rebuild and fortify the region, and garrisons were stationed in Whitehurst and Westfork. The Middle Rivlans and East Rivlans agreed to a non-aggression pact but remained independent.