Many years past the Hanoit people had broken into what the world today calls civilization. Through trade with the Grellene people to the west and the Roma to the northwest, they were taught the planting of corn, the domestication of cattle, and the smithing of bronze tools and weapons. The seasonal camps were turned into permanent villages and the population centers gradually shifted from the forests to the plains further west. This soon gave birth to friction as there began to be disputes over the land among the farthest settlements of the Hanoit and Roma pioneers. This friction did not lead to war. At least, not directly.
Instead war broke out further west between the Roma and the Grellenes. The historians and the scholars will point to plenty of different causes for the war and squabble over which was more important, but the fact is, war was inevitable. On both sides the population was booming and the old ways were crumbling as both people groups went through what Roma scholars today call "the breaking of the first age". As specialization and trade rose to the fore, the Venatti, the river that served as the boundary between them, became more and more important. Competition led to conflict. Conflict led to war.
Officially the Hanoit people claim they did not take part in the war, but the truth of their treachery can be seen just beneath the surface. Hanoit bandits with Grellene weapons began raiding and destroying Roma homesteads. Trade to the northwest ground nearly to a halt while trade with the Grellenes expanded at a record pace. Beyond that, many of the reckless young Hanoit men, with official censure and tacit approval, left home to join up with the Grellene levies.
It was this Hanoit aid along with the Grellene's occupying the southern, more defensible, side of the river that caused them to be winning the early stages of the war. In fact, at the Roma capital, the cowardly Circle of Elders was already debating what terms they should request in suing for peace when a hero rose from the ranks. Titonius, the son of a blacksmith, had a keen eye for tactics as well as a very sure opinion of himself. These traits helped him catch the attention first of his squad leader and later the general. He was given command of his own squad that he reformed into an elite team that never lost a battle. When the Roma army was crushed and the general killed at the Vorence plains, the Circle of Elders tried unsuccessfully to place a few different leaders at the head of the army. Each in turn declined in favor of the impetuous young firebrand knowing he was their only hope to survive the war. Finally the stubborn Circle bowed to fate and made Titonius general but they first made him take an oath that put severe limitations on his power and authority.
For nearly a year the Roma army managed to avoid conflict while the young general took the tattered remnants, rebuilt them and taught them a new system of discipline and maneuver. While Titonius was busy with the main army, he sent his former squad, now called the Titons, deep into the heart of Grellene territory to engage in a new kind of warfare. While the main Grellene army tried to hunt them down, the Titons targeted corn fields, livestock, and bridges. Whenever they came across a group of people, they would kill just one young man and graciously let the rest go with this message, "As long as your leaders insist on burdening both our peoples with this war your young men will continue to die."
By the time the Roma army was ready to fight the Grellenes were not. Weary from the wild goose chase, hungry from always finding their crops and livestock destroyed, and with sedition growing in the ranks as the common soldier began to recognize the injustice of their aggression, the Grellene army was destined to fall. Titonius expertly chose his battlefield and forced the Grellenes to retreat into a narrow valley. With the main army advancing like a flood down one side and the Titons holding the narrow pass on the other, the Grellene army had nowhere to run and were killed to the man.
Titonius, in his wisdom, knew that as long as the Grellene nation remained, the threat to the safety and security of Roma would remain as well. So from west to east he leveled every city, town and village he could find. Every child under ten was made to be the first of Roma's many slaves while every adult was killed. Many futilely tried to mount a weak defense and many more fled east into the lands of the Hanoit. At Titonius' order, the Circle demanded the return of these fugitives from justice, but the Hanoit had the audacity to ignore this demand.
For the next few years Titonius was busy demonstrating to the Circle of Elders that he was the one destined to rule the Roma, not them. When this lesson was learned, the newly titled emperor was finally free to bring the Hanoit traitors to justice. While it was easy to conquer the plains, the legions of Roma found it was quite another matter to root the cowards out of the forests that were the Hanoit's first home. Years turned into decades and it seemed that the war was at a stalemate. Fortifications were built up around the edges of the forest and occasional forays were made but little came of these efforts as Roma sought to expand its glory in other directions.
It wasn't until the eighth year of Florenius that a plan was brought to the emperor by which the Hanoit and Grellene snakes could finally be pulled from their hole. Slaves and the lower class were brought by the thousands to the edge of the forest where a great work was begun cutting and burning the harboring woods. While the forest was pushed back mile by mile, the formerly hostile land was converted into farmland to support the continuing growth of the cities to the northwest. The plan was advancing well and would have succeeded had it not been for the meddling of those sorcerers who call themselves the Society. A group of representatives from there gathered together the ragtag survivors from that receding forest and led them across the shifting desert. When Florenius heard of this treachery he made a decree that stands to this day that speaking magik in Roma lands is a crime punishable by death.
"The Duplicity of the Hanoits in the Grellene War"
