History of the Black Drake

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Tristior
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History of the Black Drake

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Very WIP

Durcorach, whose name means “Black Drake” in the Reach tongue, was born to the … tribe

The Reachman style of warfare was based on skirmishing and raiding, with little loss of life on both sides. Durcorach implemented a total-war mindset that employed line infantry and a range of tactics that were dangerously novel to both the Reachmen and their Nordic colonisers.

Durcorach developed tactics based on his namesake: a “black drake” formation, comprised of a “body” of medium infantry who would hold the line as the lighter “wings” flanked the enemy lines. As he refined this idea, a “tail” of cavalry riding horses captured from the lush Nord pastures was introduced, which would “flick” around and harass the enemy rearguard. A small “head” of witch-warriors were eventually incorporated into the body of the formation, to breath fire on the enemy centre in an attempt to force it to break.

After forcefully uniting the Reach tribes into a confederation under his banner, Durcorach waged a war of extermination on the Nord settlers, pushing them out of the Reach lands that they had occupied for so long. The Nordic holds, scattered and disunited, fell against the Reachman army and soon Durcorach has pushed deep into Falkreath and Whiterun. The only significant resistance was a rearguard action fought by the forces of several Nordic clans at a place called Rourken Ford. Although the exhausted Reachmen forces allowed the majority of these enemies to escape, it was the end of any significant resistance to the Black Drake’s expansion.

Through the judicious taking of hostages from conquered clans and towns, Durcorach was able to compel his conquered Nord subjects to both accept his rule and swell his forces with their own warriors. Although his control over them was tenuous, the Black Drake now controlled one of the largest armies in the north, as well as some of the wealthiest tributaries outside of Solitude itself. Rather than rest upon his success in ensuring an independent Reach, Durcorach turned his ambitions south and wondered just what this mighty descendant of the Red Eagle could achieve.

Rather than bog his army down in sieges of the much more fortified Colovian cities, Durcorach bypassed the squabbling lords of the Estates entirely and marched his army straight for the ill-defended Imperial City. By living off the land, his forces were swift enough to catch the Heartland nobility completely by surprise, and the erstwhile capital of Tamriel fell to this northern confederacy in short order.

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