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Annual Wars were a series of yearly border skirmishes between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire, staged by the latter to weaken the former in preparation for a full-scale invasion. However, the latest one turned into an all-out war when the newly founded Sorcerer Kingdom joined the conflict on the Empire's side, resulting in the Kingdom's total defeat.
Background[]
Previous Wars[]
After ascending the throne of the Baharuth Empire, Emperor Jircniv's main goal was to create a great nation that would survive the test of time. To this end, he set out to conquer the neighboring Re-Estize Kingdom.
The Kingdom's nobles downplaying the war
However, rather than declare all-out war on the Kingdom, the Empire instead chose to engage them in small territorial skirmishes at the Katze Plains every year. These skirmishes mostly followed the same pattern: The Imperial Army would engage the Royal Army, there would to a short scuffle, and then the Imperial Army would retreat. Because of this, the Kingdom's nobles viewed the Annual Wars as nothing more than a "parade."
The Empire's true aim with these skirmishes was to slowly weaken the Kingdom while waiting for an opportunity to conquer them with minimal losses. While the Empire used career soldiers, the Kingdom relied on draftees. Thus, by invading during harvest seasons, farmers would be separated from their fields, causing crop failures that would eventually result in famine. By the time the Kingdom realized this, it had already fallen into decline.
Furthermore, many of the Kingdom's nobles failed to realize the true gravity of the situation, coupled with the fact that there were moles hidden within their ranks acting as inside collaborators for the Empire who placed those corrupt traitorous nobles to secretly provide sensitive information about the state of the country's internal divisions amidst the ongoing disputes between the two rampant political factions.[1]
The wars caused the two nations to be held in contempt by the neighboring nations, seeing as they had some nerve to even think about waging war in a place like the Katze Plains. This was due to the Annual Wars giving bodies of the dead to the cursed land like tossing logs on a fire, or like a bird feeding its chicks. Even ignoring the matter of the undead, there were no other places that better fit the geographical requirements for the two armies to square off.[2]
Workers Invasion Aftermath[]
Baharuth Empire and Nazarick forge an alliance
Following the Workers Invasion, Emperor Jircniv was forced to travel to Nazarick and apologize to its ruler, Ainz Ooal Gown.[3] Desperate to avoid war upon learning of the tomb's strength, the Emperor proposed an alliance to aid them in claiming the fortress city of E-Rantel, which Ainz accepted. Afterward, the Emperor realized that Ainz had caused the workers invasion to arrange this meeting and concluded that Court Magician Fluder Paradyne had betrayed the Empire from the very beginning. Knowing the Empire couldn't defeat Nazarick alone, the Emperor began making plans to form an alliance with the surrounding nations against the tomb. To show the other nations of the danger Ainz posed, the Emperor intended to have him fight and unveil his power during the Annual War.
While the Emperor believed Ainz was a mastermind, it was actually Demiurge's plan to declare Nazarick's existence to the world. However, Ainz had not been informed that the goal was to declare war on the Empire, causing him to agree to the Emperor's alliance. While the Floor Guardians were initially confused as to their master's intentions, Demiurge assumed he was using the Empire to gain legitimacy and quickly convinced his fellow Guardians of take advantages of this.[4]
Re-Estize began preparing for decisive war against the conjoint alliance of the Empire and Ainz Ooal Gown
A short while later, an envoy was sent to the Kingdom, demanding they cede E-Rantel to the newly founded Sorcerer Kingdom. However, the Kingdom's nobles dismissed it as a mere Casus Belli and refused to take Ainz seriously. Only Gazef, Raeven and King Ramposa himself took the warning seriously, the former having personally witnessed the undead player's impossible exploits beforehand of being able to annihilate one of the Six Scriptures' secret military orders within the Slane Theocracy with such ease, but their concerns were not enough and the Kingdom proceeded to declare war on both Ainz and the Empire anyways. Having gained extremely high morale since the Demonic Disturbance, the Kingdom was now determined to strike a decisive blow against the Empire and send an army of 245,000 strong to the Katze Plains while Crown Prince Barbro led a smaller force of 5,000 strong to Carne Village to gather information on Ainz.
Battles[]
Third Battle of Carne Village[]
Carne Village rebels
Angered by the meager task entrusted to him, Crown Prince Barbro hatched a plot to use inhabitants of Carne Village as hostages against Ainz. However, upon arriving, said villagers did not know who to trust and the Prince eventually resorted to threats after losing his patience, causing the villagers to side with Ainz and rebel.
While the Prince's forces initially had the advantage, a turning point came when Carne Village's Chief, Enri Emmot, used her Horn of the Goblin General to summon a huge Goblin Army. This army then easily repelled the Crown Prince's force and forced them to retreat. Afterwards, Ainz had Lupusregina Beta finish off the survivors who escaped the battle.[5]
Katze Plains Massacre[]
The Kingdom suffers a catastrophic defeat
Unfortunately, both the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire gravely underestimated Ainz's sheer power, as he ordered Shalltear Bloodfallen to send him a massive army of Death Knights and Soul Eaters using a [Gate] spell off-stage. Marquis Raeven immediately ordered the Royal Army to retreat upon witnessing the Sorcerer Kingdom's overwhelming forces. However, it was already too late to take immediate action, as the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown used a super-tier spell to wipe out the Royal Army's right flank and summon Five Dark Young before they get to do anything. The Kingdom's battle against Empire and Sorcerer Kingdom was over before it even began.
What followed afterwards was an absolute massacre, as the Dark Young wiped out what remained of the Royal Army while they ran for their lives. The carnage was so great that, despite being allies, even the Imperial Army ran in fear.
Gazef personally challenges Ainz to a duel
The Kingdom's Warrior Captain, Gazef Stronoff, attempted a last-ditch counter-attack by challenging Ainz Ooal Gown to single combat. However, the Warrior Captain was killed off instantly by one of Ainz's instant death spells before he too can do anything. Out of respect for Gazef, the Sorcerer King then ordered the Dark Young to cease their attacks and left the battlefield while urging Re-Estize to yield on his demands by asking Climb and Brain Unglaus to tell King Ramposa III to surrender the territory around E-Rantel without delay, or else the Overlord-Player would have the Dark Young trample on the royal capital.[6]
Aftermath[]
The Sorcerer Kingdom is founded
The latest Annual War ended up with a clear victory towards Nazarick. The Royal Army and its soldiers' morale are utterly destroyed and the Kingdom was forced to cede the fortress city of E-Rantel and its surrounding lands to the would-be Sorcerer King, creating the foundations of the nascent city-state of the Sorcerer Kingdom. On the other hand, despite the Baharuth Empire won the war, the reports of the incident visibly terrified Emperor Jircniv, and he arranged plans with the equally-shook Slane Theocracy in hopes of dealing with the monstrosity that is Ainz Ooal Gown.[7]
With the Empire later willingly turning itself into a vassal state of the Sorcerer Kingdom and the Kingdom eventually reduced to a pile of rubble, the Annual Wars between Baharuth and Re-Estize have ended, as there is no longer any need for them.
References[]
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 2: Preparations for the Battle
- ↑ Overlord Special Edition 01 Chapter 1
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Prologue
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 1: A War of Words
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 3: Another Battle
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 4: Massacre
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Epilogue