Battle of the Concourse
| Battle of the Concourse | |||||||||
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| Beginning | 3316th day of the 37th decade of Kourend's timeline | ||||||||
| Place | Great Kourend | ||||||||
| Outcome | Death of King Shayzien VII, first appearence of Xeric, beginning of the Age of Strife | ||||||||
| Combatants | |||||||||
| Elder Warriors | Shayzien armed forces | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Unknown | King Shayzien VII | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| High | Very high | ||||||||
| Other wars | |||||||||
| Previous war | King Shayzien III's Coup d'État | ||||||||
| Next war | Age of Strife | ||||||||
The Battle of the Concourse was a coup d'état carried out by the Elder Warriors in an attempt to end the violent reign of King Shayzien VII, who was successfully assassinated in the ambush on the 3316th day of the 37th decade of Kourend's timeline.[1] King Shayzien VII had been a deeply unpopular king, regularly abducting the citizens of Great Kourend to perform experiments on them in the prison underneath the Tower of Magic which he had personally ordered be built.[2][3] Though killed in the ambush, his corpse was never found, which led to rumours that he had been resurrected by his followers in the direct aftermath of the battle, and taken on the form of the mage Xeric who soon after subjugated the kingdom and took power.[4] The Battle of the Concourse is narrated in the poem the Killing of a king.
History
Origin of the combatants and cause of discontent
The Elder Warriors were a specialist infantry regiment that had only been established a few decades earlier during the reign the previous monarch, King Hosidius V, in order to better protect the kingdom against such threats as the Wintertodt.[5] Surprisingly, this expansion of the Shayzien royal armed forces was made under the recommendation of none other than King Shayzien VII himself, who was then known as Lord Rickard Shayzien.[6][7] The discontent must have been great for the King to be overthrown by the very unit of soldiers he had helped create, and multiple sources indeed tell that his decades-long rule had been a violent one from the outset.[8][9] Although this had been the norm from the moment he took over power from King Hosidius V in the 33rd decade, it is not known what formed the immediate cause for the insurrection to take place in the 37th. It is possible that the tipping point may have come from the recent success King Shayzien had enjoyed in creating the Lizardmen: he had ordered an expedition take place to Mount Quidamortem during the 36th decade, with the goal of finding a suitable species for his experiments.[10] Upon discovery of the Lizardmen, he had all members of the expedition killed, and seems to have geared up to mass produce these creatures by the 37th decade.[11] The Elder Warriors, being a specialist unit hand-selected by the king, may well have known about these plans, and been dismayed by them to such an extent as to consider regicide.
Course of battle and immediate aftermath
By all accounts, the Battle of the Concourse was a swift one, though we are also told the combat was violent and bloody.[12] The Elder Warriors laid an ambush for the king and his retinue, which presumably was comprised out of a proportion of the rest of the Shayzien armed forces. We are not told whether the Twisted Archers and Kodai Mages participated in the battle, both of whom similarly elite regiments instituted at the same time as the Elder Warriors, nor do we know if the first generation of Lizardmen played any role in the fighting. In any case, the Elder Warriors quickly overwhelmed King Shayzien VII's protectors and breached their defences, proceeding to spare not a single one of their lives, if the poets are to be believed.[13] Amidst a blood-soaked battlefield, the chosen men of King Shayzien VII plunged a knife into his flesh, ending his life and reign.
Though he was slain there, his body was never recovered.[14] Only a few days later, the dark mage Xeric appeared in Great Kourend, whom was said to greatly resemble the late King Shayzien, ushering in the Age of Strife.[15] It seems that the remains of King Shayzien VII were somehow preserved in the aftermath of the Battle of the Concourse by his loyal followers, ostensibly the early Lizardmen, and used to resurrect him shortly afterwards.[16][17]
The location of the Battle of the Concourse
At first glance, it may be thought most likely that the name given to this battle refers to the location where it took place, that is to say some sort of concourse, an indoor or outdoor plaza adjacent to some building of public significance. Indeed, we can find a reference to 'the great concourse' in Ricktor's diary (7) as the locale of some kind of inn (either officially or colloquially known as "Madam Turner's") where Steklan Ricktor stayed before leading an expedition to study the Dark Altar.[18] Though it is not explicitly stated where it is that Ricktor stayed, it could be inferred that the 'great concourse' was found either in Kingstown, referring to the square in front of Kourend Castle (where the King presumably would have lived), or in Arceuus, referring to the plaza that lies at the centre of the city instead.[19] The second possibility could be seen as more logical due to its great proximity to the Dark Altar, as well as the fact that King Shayzien VII was known to spend a great deal of time at the Tower of Magic, to the extent of being called "the seat of power in Kourend" during his rule.[20]
Nonetheless, in spite of a 'great concourse' being known to exist in Great Kourend as a location around the same time the Battle of the Concourse occurred, we can fairly confidently reject the notion that this is where King Shayzien VII's reign was overthrown. In the first chapter of the Chronicles of Xeric, one can find the testimony of a first-person witness to the events that killed a king. In this account it is quite unambiguously stated that the battle took place "on the southern peninsula", just outside the gates of Shayziens' Wall.[21] Given that this is a military structure, surrounded with provisory buildings at most, and is thus unlikely to accommodate what we usually understand as a concourse, it is likely that we have to understand the term 'concourse' here in the less frequent sense of 'a confluence of people; a crowd'. Taken this way, the 'Battle of the Concourse' probably refers to the spontaneous way the regicides manifested themselves when ambushing the king; to the chaotic melee of soldiers all flying the same banner; to the fact that King Shayzien VII died trapped amidst a crowd.[22]
The location of his death being near Shayzien also matches the evidence that points to him being buried in the Shayzien Crypts, north of the tomb of Camorra Shayzien.[23] It is slightly puzzling however that it is said that "his body was never recovered" following the Battle of the Concourse, as the cheering overheard by the anonymous Lovakengj miner would suggest that many of the Elder Warriors witnessed him being slain at that location.[24] Even so, it could be argued that the pool of blood surrounding the Xerican tomb in the lower levels of the Shayzien Crypts is prefigured in the Killing of a king, albeit in a literary way, in the line "Upon the blood field / A spirit did raise".
References
| Wars |
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| Battles in Misthalin | |||||
| Battles in Asgarnia | |||||
| Battles in Kandarin and the Fremennik Province |
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| Battles in Morytania | |||||
| Battles in Forinthry and the Wilderness | |||||
| Battles in the Kharidian Desert | |||||
| Battles in Tirannwn | |||||
| Battles in Kourend |
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