Cromwelute Wars
The Cromwelute Wars (Kiravic: Dyra Gromhélulya) were a series of wars fought between the Coscivian Empire and its Gaelic and Meridian Finn allies against the Cromwelutes of northern Ixnay around the turn of the 13th century anno Domini. Cromwelute raids on Kiravian shipping and settlements, and later conquest of territory in Great Kirav and Meridia by the Cromwelutes prompted retaliation from the affected populations, which was initially organised on the level of individual Coscivian colonies and coalitions of Gaelic and Meridian polities, but from 1210 onward came under the unified command of the Commonwealth of Arms, led by the Coscivian Empire. The series of Commonwealth offensives beginning in the autumn of 1211 successfully removed the Cromwelutes from Great Kirav, Meridia, and their adjacent islands, culminating in the Cromwelute Genocide.
| Cromwelute Wars | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Coscivian and Gaelic troops landing in Lataskia | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Coscivian Empire Gaelic Kingdoms Finnic Chiefdoms |
 Cromwelutes | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Emperor Kartikus V Selvur Kalarin Rory MacDunleavy Séan O'Callaghan Hekki Kekkonen |
Ulvar the Dæmonic† Engelfärt the Flatulent† Fubar the Dissolute† Saladbar the Cruciferous† Angmar the Sorcerer† Mällomar the Stout† Shagmar the Hoary† | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
~4,000 military unknown civilian | Possibly the entire population | ||||||
The wars are considered a foundational event in Kiravian history, responsible for solidifying Coscivian supremacy over Great Kirav and facilitating the peaceable integration of the Gaelic and Finnic peoples into the Coscivian Empire. The defeat of the Cromwelutes sparked a cultural renaissance in Northeastern Kirav, particularly Kiygrava and Ilánova, and cleared the way for Coscivian and Gaelic resettlement of the North Coast and Northwest.
Background
The Cromwelutes are generally believed to have originated in the Anglo-Germanic lands of Crona, and to have migrated by sea to establish settlements at various points along the coasts and islands of the Albion, Nordska, Coscivian, and Kilikas Seas. At the outset of the Depredations in 20366, there were Cromwelute settlements on the coasts of Lataskia, Rhuon, Śatmar, Devalōmara, Vôtaska, Intravia, and Vrykróva. The Cromwelutes made their living as subsistence farmers, fishermen, hunters, and whalers, and while they did fight with neighbouring Finno-Ugric and Rhūnik communities, their political control generally did not expand very far beyond their own villages.
It is unclear what caused the Cromwelutes to transition from this lifestyle to piracy and conquest, and historical inquiry has been hampered by the fact that the Cromwelutes left no written records. It is generally agreed that economic growth and development in the Coscivian-Celtic parts of what would become Kiravia and increased maritime trade in the region was a key factor, as it made Kiravian ships and settlements more attractive targets. Other proposed factors include possible changes to Cromwelute socio-political organisation that allowed for the rise of aggressive warlords, or the spread of a new, violent form of Germanic paganism.
By the time of the Depredations, Coscivian settlement in Northern Ixnay was mainly concentrated around the Kiygrava Watershed, Míhanska Bay, and Fariva Bay; and in Meridia, Ilánova, Wintergen, and Æonara. More remote settlements could be found along the coasts of Irovasdra, Kastera, Hiterna, Intravia, and the Íravokan Sea coast of Kiygrava. Celtic settlements were found throughout Northeast Great Kirav, Ilánova, and Vrykróva, while various Finno-Ugric chiefdoms and tribes inhabited the Northern Isles and Meridia. 150 years after the beginning of colonisation, the Coscivian colonies in Ixnay were now reasonably well-populated, well-developed, and prosperous, trading among themselves, with the Imperial metropole, and other societies, especially those in Levantia. Cordial relations had been established between the Coscivian and Celtic polities based largely on their shared tradition of Insular Christianity, and a symbiotic Finno-Coscivian cultural exchange had begun to take root in much of Meridia. This generally peaceful environment meant that, with the exception of Kiygrava, the Coscivian and Celtic polities did not maintain large standing armies, and relied upon (often poorly-trained and poorly-organised) local militias for defence.
Course
The first Cromwelute raids took place on the high seas, with merchant ships travelling between the Cosco-Celtic North Coast communities and the Kilikas Sea as the targets. From the very beginning, the Cromwelute pirates were known for their brutality, killing everyone aboard the ships they raided. Later, it became known that the pirates would kill ships' entire crews even if they surrendered without resisting.
The first recorded Cromwelute raid on land was led by warlord Shagmar the Hoary against Báile an Tí Beag, a small Gaelic town in present-day County Kalarin, Intravia, resulting in the slaughter of its men and enslavement of its surviving women and children.
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The war entered its closing stage with the commencement of the Lataskia and Rhuon Campaigns. Although the tide of the war had long since turned against the Cromwelutes and both campaigns were intended as "mopping-up" operations, the Lataskia Campaign proved deadly for both sides due to treacherous weather and terrain conditions for both sides, supply problems for Commonwealth troops, and highly effective genocide against the Cromwelutes. Even historians firmly in the non-annihilationist camp (see below) agree that Cromwelute losses during this stage of the campaign were likely total or near-total. Key battles were fought at Wehrabu and Prússabu, strongholds held by Mällomar the Stout.
The final battle of the Cromwelute Wars was fought at Hundbu in what is now County Reagan, West Rhuon, the last remaining Cromwelute settlement in the territory of the future Kiravian Federacy. A fleet of nine ships under the joint command of Vedonerus Sórskevarin and Ròmhnall Reagan engaged the malnourished and demoralised Cromwelutes under the command of Fubar the Dissolute, defeating them in under 2 þórr ( ~18 minutes) before continuing on to massacre the civilian population of Hundbu, at this point composed primarily of refugees from other settlements previously destroyed.
Aftermath
It is estimated that of the 12,000 Coscivian soldiers deployed to Kiravia during the war, less than 100 returned to Éorsa, with the vast majority of survivors settling in Kiravia, mainly along the North Coast, with many simply taking up residence on former Cromwelute farms near where they had been stationed.
Cromwelute Genocide
The general policy of Commonwealth forces was to extirpate any settled Cromwelute populations that they conquered, and records from the period attest to multiple undisputed massacres of Cromwelute civilians by victorious Commonwealth troops. Written orders from Kartikus V to General Kalarin state:
Their innate savagery having been shown in their proud hostility to the natural laws that govern the behaviour of decent barbarians, much less those adhered to by civilised peoples, there can be certainty that these Welutes will return to bring chaos upon our Dominions for as long as they are suffered to live and propagate their lineages. Anything less than annihilation of this people would be imprudent in the preservation of the peace; their total slaughter is hereby ordered.
— Emperor Kartikus V, Codex Valecanus
In the popular imagination, the treatment of captured Cromwelutes is usually imagined (and celebrated) as a complete eradication, with all Cromwelutes who survived the fighting either "chased" off of the continent or put to the sword. However, historians both inside and outside Kiravia have challenged the reputed totality of the eradication, its methods, and its consistency across different areas and phases of the conflict. Some scholars, termed "non-annihilationists" have pointed to records of forced deportation of civilians and the sparing of women and children earlier in the war, as well as longstanding Coscivian military customs relating to captives as evidence that the removal was either incomplete, not truly genocidal in nature, or both. Others, known as the "annihilationist" camp point to a consistent use of totalistic terms translating to "eradicated", "eliminated", "extinct", and "obliterated" in primary sources dating from later periods of the war, the near-complete unanimity of North Coast oral histories and folk traditions maintaining that not a single Cromwelute was left alive in Kiravia, and a body of passages from letters of the time suggesting that Coscivians did not regard Cromwelutes as fully human, as evidence that the removal was genocidal in nature and at least intended to be total. The North Coast and the Northern Isles also display a striking lack of Germanic toponyms: Only six geographic features listed in the Territorial Executive Gazetteer of Great Kirav and Adjacent Isles are identified by toponomasticians as having names of North Germanic origin. The etymologies of three such names are disputed, and two X PLACE and Y POINT, relfect the names of prominent Cromwelute chieftains killed there.
Genetic surveys have found that some 6% of Arnoriem Coscivians and 2% of Norboriem Coscivians living along the North Coast carry X-chromosomal genetic markers associated with North Germanic peoples. This has been cited in defence of both the non-annihilationist and annhilationist positions, with the former holding that the figure is consistent with the survival of some Cromwelute women and children who were gradually absorbed into the Coscivian settler population, and the latter holding that the markers are actually attributable to intermarriage with Gaelic settlers, who themselves had accrued Cromwelute genetic material after decades of occupation, raiding, and enslavement.
Local folklore in County Attern, Intravia maintains that the village of Tesdun, whose inhabitants exhibit an unusually high incidence of blondism, is populated by people of Cromwelute ancestry, reportedly descended from captured civilians who converted to Christianity. Residents of the village vehemently reject the story, claiming to be full-blooded Arnoriem Coscivians. This legend appears to be unique among North Coast oral traditions, the rest of which stress the complete eradication of the Cromwelutes as a major theme.
Legacy
The Cromwelute Wars occupy an important place in Kiravian culture and form an important part of its national mythos. The wars are regarded as a formative event in Kiravian history, securing Coscivian control of Great Kirav's coasts and engendering unity and solidarity between Coscivians, Gaels, and Finns. It is often cast as a victory of quintessentially Kiravian values such as monotheism and liberty over paganism, slavery, and foreign domination.
The years of conflict between Kiravians and Cromwelutes have become ingrained in the collective psyche of the Kiravian nation, and form the basis of Anglophobic, Germanophobic, and broader Anti-Western sentiment in Kiravia. Many scholars attribute Kiravia's historical animosity towards Anglo-Saxon and Germanic nations such as Helvianir and the Fakolan Empire as being rooted in the Cromwelute Wars. While the Federacy has come to enjoy good relations with Anglo-Germanic countries such as Loerneg and Kuhlfros, the legacy of the war lives on as anti-English provisions in the education policy and language policy of the Federacy and its states, as well as fierce discrimination against English speakers and most Germanic peoples in the Kiravian immigration policy.
Sāxna Būraktorsk Gromhélulya (English: "Feast of the Deposition of the Cromwelutes"), known in some states as Sāxna Þevitorsk Gromhélulya ("Feast of the Fall of the Cromwelutes") is a federal holiday occurring on 8 Evtilús according to the Coscivian calendar that celebrates the Commonwealth victory over the Cromwelutes and the eradication of the Cromwelute people from Kiravian lands. It is celebrated, particularly on the North Coast and in Meridia, with special bonfires reminiscent of Cromwelute funeral pyres, in which wooden "boats" filled with straw and cloth effigies of dead Cromwelutes are set ablaze in a public space, accompanied by drinking and the singing of traditional carols. The holiday is extremely popular in Kiravia, but is widely criticized abroad for its rather overt glorification of a genocide. Official recognition and patronage of the holiday has been denounced by nations of North Germanic heritage, such as Helvianir and Estacia, which has occasionally led federal officials to tone down the holiday's genocidal overtones and recast it as a celebration of Kiravian independence and national unity.
The vast majority of Kiravians continue to view the defeat and genocide of the Cromwelutes in a positive light. In response to a 21206 poll conducted by Agnālion University asking "Was the destruction of the Cromwelute people right and justified?", 39% of those surveyed answered "Yes", and 61% answered "Damn right, and we'll do it again".
Historiography
Modern historians are divided as to which factors were responsible for the Commonwealth victory. The orthodox position since the 21100s credits the war's outcome entirely to superior Coscivian naval technology, based on the reasoning that Celtic and Finnic polities had consistently failed to resist Cromwelute incursions prior to the introduction of the Imperial Navy and that Coscivian soldiers were not particularly effective against the Cromwelutes in land battles. However, in more recent decades, many historians have posited more complex analyses of the war emphasising the changes in organisational structure (independent Celtic polities fighting independently vs. a coōrdinated Commonwealth effort), health and logistical factors (hardier Coscivian potato cultivars and superior medical knowledge), as well as political failures within the Cromwelute polities (several regicides and leadership challenges took place during the war) as contributory factors to the defeat of the Cromwelutes.