The Books of Blutora

10 : The Centrical War

Through the course of time as we know it, events take place all across the world at every given moment. These events can have absolutely no effect on the future, or a very large effect on how things play out from that point on. Life as we know it in Blutora has been molded and shaped in certain ways through the eras, specifically relating to the Ongrah people of Yustreia. 

The province of Yustreia has not always been open to travelers and merchants of neighboring lands. There was even a time where outsiders were allowed within the awe inspiring cities of the Ongrah. To understand how and why everything changed so drastically, one must understand the history of a specific conflict early in the B-era, known as The Centrical War. Named accordingly, this conflict took place in the the midlands of Blutora. Conflict came to be when the Arberi to the south began to seek expansion and to conquer more of Blutora for themselves. 

The Ongrah are one of three races of people that originated on the continent of Blutora, rather than arriving at some point in history from other places. Over the entire history of their people, they have called the midlands of Blutora home. The amount of land and reach of their influence has changed with the times and eras. At the start of the A-era the Ongrah inhabited all of modern day Yustreia and Mel Alari north of the jungle, as well as modern day Elabet, and the warmer southern lands of Struetan and Izheka. By the start of the B-era in time, the Ongrah called home the modern day provinces of Yustreia and Elabet, as well as southern Struetan, and west Izheka.

In the early portions of the B-era, specifically the year B-94, early signs of conflict quickly escalated into full blown war between the Ongrah and Arberi. At the time, the Arberi resided in and called home the modern day province of Moorufell, and their vastly growing population and influence called for more lands to take as their own, or so they thought. Having already had previous conflict and peace following made with the Wurika, that left the Ongrah of the midlands as the people holding the land they could take next. With their eyes set specifically on the lands of modern day Elabet, and no chance for peaceful negotiations in their minds, the Arberi began to amass an army of warriors to march on and take the lands by force. By late in the year B-94, the Arberi had their army in the low thousands and began marching on an unexpecting Ongrah people of the midlands.

Taking the unsuspecting midlands people by surprise, the Arberi cleared through southern Elabet with ease, tallying minimal losses and successfully razing the cities of Aiphalia and Nautabu. At that point however, word had gotten to some of the Ongrah leaders who began to quickly form an army to counter these attacks. Early in B-95 the Arberi army that had settled into southern Elabet to regroup quickly found themselves on the backfoot rather than the other way around. Using the cover of the southern Yustreian jungle to their advantage, the Ongrah army of just under a thousand strong caught the Arberi completely off guard and dwindled their numbers by the hundreds before they were forced to retreat for losses of their own. While the Ongrah had the advantage in weapon and armor quality due to their legendary smithing abilities, the numbers and previous battle experience played into the hands of the Arberi. The battle of Elastreia lasted a single day, and unfortunately for the Ongrah, would be the only battle that they held their own for the most part. 

The Ongrah army retreated through the jungle to their city of Laabel on the opposite side of modern day Yustreia. Rather than stage an immediate counter attack, the Arberi regrouped and began planning to move north, taking the remaining lands of Elabet, as well as Ongrah controlled Izheka and Struetan. By the time the Ongrah army had successfully made the trek through the jungle and arrived at Laabel, the Arberi were already marching north and wiping out small Ongrah villages and settlements that dotted the landscape. With the highest concentration of Ongrah fighters amassed within the army sitting in Laabel, taking more land proved easy once more for the southern Arberi warriors. By mid-year B-95, the Arberi held the entirety of modern day Elabet and were in the process of seizing control of west Izheka and south Struetan.

Roughly halfway through B-95, while the Arberi marched through Izheka, the Ongrah army had begun to march north in preparation to meet the Arberi army once more face to face. The two armies would meet finally in the city of Cylabel in southern Struetan. As the Arberi approached the city from the east, the Ongrah army had already evacuated the city and set up defenses and position within the settlement to the surprise of the Arberi. Outnumbering the Ongrah by north of four hundred soldiers, the Arberi did not hesitate to continue their attack and charge the city. The battle of Cylabel lasted three days, with both Ongrah and Arberi forces gaining control and losing it shortly thereafter multiple times over the course of the battle. By the end of the third day, a third of the buildings in the city were smoldering ruins, and hundreds were dead from both sides. As the sun sat on the war-torn city in southern Struetan, the leader of the Arberi army spared the Ongrah leader and sent him to their people's leader in Yustreia with the news of the newly Arberi controlled lands. 

By the end of B-95 the Arberi held the modern day provinces of Moorufell, Elabet, eastern Izheka, and southern Struetan. The Ongrah people were pushed back to the confines of modern day Yustreia. After the battle of Cylabel the Ongrah leadership made the decision to approach the Arberi in hopes of bringing an end to the conflict. The Arberi, having conquered more land than they originally intended, were happy to bring an end to the conflict. Both sides agreed that the Ongrah would stay within the borders of Yustreia, a newly founded province by the Ongrah people, and that the borders would be entirely closed to all outsiders. Peace was to be brought to both sides who would no longer pursue conflict with each other, and thus ended The Centrical War. 

The Ongrah of Yustreia would carry on with closed borders for quite a notable period of time, from the end of the war until C-311 where they decided to open their provincial borders for trade and travel, while keeping the cities closed to outsiders - a rule that stands to this day. 

The Arberi would soon after the war find more conflict, however with the elves of the north rather than the previous Ongrah or Wurika. These conflicts would result in the Arberi being pushed back south to the confines of modern day Elabet and Moorufell, rendering their capture of west Izheka and south Struetan fruitless in the end.

The Centrical War is the single turning point in history and reason for the extreme distrust of others and reclusiveness of the Ongrah people. The war took an irreversible toll on their people, and while they did not seek to get revenge at any point since then, they look upon the Arberi people with extreme distaste and distrust.