The Hibernial Wars

The Hibernial wars refers to two wars during the Beta of Dying Horizon between New Rome and the Knight's Hibernal. The first war began on the 22nd of July 2016, with the conclusion of the wars on the 5th August 2016 when the Knights Hibernial Disbanded. The war was the first national war in Dying Horizon with the Western based Knights attacking the Eastern Based Romans with the majority of the fighting based around the central states of Great Highlands, New Prairie, and Edom.

The First Hibernal War
The first Hibernial War (Also Known as the False Crusade) began with the creation of the game when the leader of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night, John Molotov, demanded that New Rome join them or die. On the second day, after tense talks over border disputes, the first crusade was declared by The Knights Hibernial against New Rome. An alliance between the Knights and the Elucidated Brethren formed quickly due to a mutual enemy.

The First war amounted to little more than a skirmish with relatively small engagements. The main combatants were New Rome's first Triumvir Lykos, against John Molotov and UndeadSparkz. Lykos was originally defeated at the hands of UndeadSparkz but rebuilt enough to destroy both UndeadSparkz and John Molotov forcing an end to the war. UndeadSparkz fled east to avoid attacks from former ally John Molotov. The war ended on the 24th of June 2016, Two days after it began. The Knight’s Hibernial Denied any involvement with the actions of UndeadSparkz who had been the sole combatant in the skirmish, labelling him a rogue member. The cause being the fact he had launched an assault before the rest of the alliance had begun to mobilize causing disorganization within Knight ranks. A Non-Agression Pact with a 24 hour Cooldown was signed between the two parties to prevent further violence.

The Battletoad situation
BattleToad, a beginning member of New Rome was situated in The Knights Hibernial's homeland of West Navajo. The Knights saw this as an invasion of their territory. As a consequence of this, Knight Commander Abrican and another Knight raided him before demanding that he leave. New Rome then demanded reparations for the attack but the Knights claimed to not know he was a Roman. The Knights also demanded that Battletoad leave west Navajo or it would be seen as an act of aggression. New Rome swiftly complied with the demands and BattleToad was moved to the capital in Great Highland, using gas and vehicles that were donated by John Molotov and Shlomo Shekelstien, leader of the UKIP Banking Clan.

The Molotov Situation
Between the first and second war tensions rose up between New Rome and The Knight’s Hibernial over John Molotov’s residence in Great Highland. The Great Highland was New Rome’s Home state and in reaction to the earlier attacks in the first war, the Roman Triumvir requested Molotov leave the state immediately. Knight Commander Abrican did contact John Molotov regarding moving, but Molotov personally declined and all communication on the matter subsequently ceased.

Unfair Trade
After several days since the BattleToad and Molotov situation tensions began to rise once more after the failure of John Molotov to leave Great Highland and the failure of The Knights Hibernial to pay the agreed reparations. New Rome saw this as a slight against them as they had moved their member as soon as possible yet the knights would not return the favour. During Discussions New Rome stated that if Molotov did not move then they would be forced to kill him to resolve the threat. The Knights stated that they considered such a move to be voiding their NAP. Molotov still refused to move.

Declaration
On the 30th of June 2016 the Knight Commander of the Knights Hibernial Abrican declared the First Crusade on New Rome for NAP violation. Abrican stated that the threats of New Rome to “Kill my man within the day” voided the NAP between them and as such allowed them to strike first. New Rome stated that this was in violation of NAP agreements between them and that they were acting the same way the Knights had during the BattleToad situation.

Attack
The first surprise strike by the Knights Hibernial was devastating to New Rome and occurred immediately after war was declared. Within two turns, the entirety of the New Roman Triumvir was left devastated. The knights were aided by a hired mercenary from UKIP who completed his service shortly after. Over the course of the next day, most Romans residing in the Highlands were destroyed, forcing a full retreat from the Roman capital towards eastern states. Peace talks were sought by both sides, however the Romans had little left to lose and refused peace talks.

Stagnation
Within 24 hours after the attack the two surviving New Rome members began to raid the surrounding knights in an attempt to salvage resources to rebuild the retreating Romans for a counter-offensive. Meanwhile the leadership of the Knights was in question as acting Knight Commander Abrican wanted to hand power back to Knight Commander Toxyca earlier than planned. This caused a lull in fighting as New Rome did its best to recover and the Knights dealt with its Leadership issues. Eventually Toxyca was returned control of the Knights Hibernial two days earlier than planned.

The Romans looted and destroyed the Knights in the most eastern states of Arcadia and Nataqua using their few remaining weapons. They then moved west to reclaim the Highlands and began raiding weaker knight members.

During this period of raiding the UKIP mercenary was raided in retaliation, despite the mercenary having returned to Neutral UKIP Bankers. New Rome claimed that because UKIP had lent one of its members to another party, it voided its neutrality. In addition to this, claims were being laid by New Rome that UKIP was funding the Knights. The following raids on the bankers of UKIP by New Rome members had left the bankers without supplies to trade, or the population to recover. Over 700 casualties were recorded by Shlomo Shekelstien, leader of UKIP.

Roman Offensive
On the 4th of August 2016 the Roman Offensive began. Seeking an end to the war; the Knights reinforced Molotov while the Romans reinforced Onyx Dust, their heavy in the Great Highlands. In response the Knights pulled Molotov back to the Navajo region, but Onyx pursued him and launched the largest offensive thus far before Molotov could set his walls back up. The result of the battle decisively favoured the Roman forces with the initial combat report indicating 153 casualties in John's combatant forces, compared to 34 of Onyx's combatant forces. This marked the final major offensive in the Hibernial war as the remaining caches of weapons possessed by the knights were being utilized by John's deceased forces.

=== Collapse of the Knight’s Hibernial === After the crushing defeat of John Molotov New Rome finished the job by systematically depleting the manpower and supplies of all remaining members of the Knights as quickly they could. They were determined to not provide the opportunity to let the knights recover and avoid peace. Once the knight's resistance had been shattered; members started to flee north to join The BoardRoom or joined UKIP to escape. Surrender terms were offered by the Triumvirate. Knight Commander Toxyca was appalled by the peace terms and after a short negotiating session publicly announced they were quitting with immediate effect. Abrican refused to retake the leadership role so Toxyca announced the end of the knights and disbanded the Alliance on the 5th of August 2016.

Aftermath
On the same day that the Hibernial was disbanded a Non-Agression pact with a 48 hour cooldown was announced between New Rome and The UKIP Bankers to cool down relations after tensions rose during the raids.

The Majority of Knights Hibernial Members joined the UKIP Bankers alliance, whose membership swelled from 10 to 18 after the war. Many Also Joined the Neutral BoardRoom, who increased in size from 10 to 14 after the war. New Rome managed to pick up several New members from those who had joined in the Reddit Recruitment but had not joined an alliance yet, swelling to 20 members and becoming the Largest in the Game.

The End of the wars also meant that of the original 5 powers only 3 remained. Blood Oath and the Knights Hibernial had Collapsed which had allowed UKIP and New Rome to absorb members in both the east and the west, becoming truly national powers.