Varicci di Corcosi
| |||||||||
King of Viamont on Ispar and father of Varicci di Corcosi II.
The campaign led by King Varicci against Roulea and Aluvia was the most ambitious and successful of all campaigns. The forces of Viamont issued forth from their peninsula once more and launched almost simultaneous attacks on Roulea and Aluvia. It was clear that Varicci had been biding his time and building up strength, enough to conceivably sustain wars in two separate countries.[1]
The Aluvians put up a tenacious resistance against the superior numbers of their old foe.[1] The aluvian master assassin Oswald attempted the assassination of King Varicci, but did not succeed.[2]
The Roulean empire, however, collapsed upon itself like a rotten fruit. Already weakened by the long-ago loss of their trade outposts, the Rouleans were in no position to defend their holdings. Their once proud imperial legions gathered for one last great battle, which ended with the annihilation of the imperial army and the Emperor murdered in his palace, pinned to his throne by a sword through the chest by the Duke of Bellenesse.[3][1] After their swift success in Roulea, the Viamontians turned immediately towards Gharu'n. The invasion of Gharu'n initially went well for the Viamontians. Within two years, after a siege by sea and by land, they took Tirethas. The Viamontians marched to the northern edge of the Naqut Desert, driving the Gharu'ndim armies before them. Finally, the resistance solidified around the city of Shiryaz, and there the Gharu'ndim fought the Viamontians to a standstill. [1]
A crisis at home compelled the recall of the Viamontian army. The problem came from a familiar source: a direct descendant of Bassano of the Bellenni. The Duke of Bellenesse, once King Varicci's most trusted warlord, turned against his master. The Duke's daughter slew the younger of Varicci's sons, Prince Renlen, in a supposedly friendly duel[4]. At the same time, the Duke launched a rebellion against his King, gaining the support of several other influential lords.[1]
Varicci approved of the plans of his son to extinguish the House of the Duke of Bellenesse.[2] After a series of royalist victories, the Prince Varicci brought his army into the lands of Bellenesse and laid siege to the Duke's fortress. In that battle, facing total defeat, the Duke took his surviving vassals and soldiers through a portal that had appeared within the castle. It did not take long for the Prince to take his own army through the portal to continue the pursuit.[1]
The betrayal by his old warlord, the death of his youngest son, and the disappearance of his eldest son along with most of his army blunted King Varicci's ambition.[1]