The Battle of Traitor’s Tears
Probably the most seismic battle in Tirneach’s recent history took place in Baol. It was the culmination of a plot that had gone on from the reign of the previous Réig and erupted in the early years of Maeláine Uí Chonchobhair’s accession to the crown, in the year 792. What had been an internecine affair of skirmishes, assassinations and raids became full-scale warfare, with gallóglaigh bands taking one side or the other, not for coin but for promises of wealth and power.
The Iarla of Baol, Gearóidín Nic Ardal, had joined the other Iarlas in a sense of growing discontent during the reign of Airt Ua Chonchobhair. Her towns were under constant harassment by the highlander Clanns, the Réig’s courtiers imposed higher and higher tariffs on trade through her Realm, and Kriegerish privateers flying the flag of Bruid were constantly harrying ships along her coast. Out of desperation she even challenged the Réig to a duel, using a technicality of her oaths that even the hoariest scholars had to scratch their heads about, but no answer was forthcoming. In the end she took the law into her own hands.
The Baolach trade guilds have always maintained armed guards for their caravans and chapter houses, but now the Iarla issued a charter demanding that each supply a standing militia for the use of the Realm, to restore order and peace during a period of emergency. Some were only to happy to oblige, and they were intrigued by the demand for secrecy. No word of this mobilisation was to leave Baol.
Of course it did, and rapidly. The Réig’s courtiers were alarmed, but in the declining years of Airt’s reign little could be done, with so many crises around the Five Realms shouldn’t they be grateful one Iarla was taking control? The trade guild militias held back the Clanns for a raiding season and normalcy was restored. Réig Airt died in 790, and Réig Maeláine rose to the throne. Gearóidín Nic Ardal travelled to Corroch and spoke the oaths with the other Iarlas, and the problem seemed to have gone.
Still operating as an open secret, Iarla Gearóidín was expanding her trade guild militias and looking beyond her borders to the north and south. She was encouraged in this by the Happy Harvest Trade Guild, friends of her family for many decades, and the Guild with the largest and most widespread militias. The Iarla and the Happy Harvest hatched a plan together: declare Baol to be a sovereign Realm, leave the other four Realms to their benighted Ua Chonchobhair dynasty, seize whatever territory they could in the ensuing chaos, and reap the rewards.
It was an ambitious plan, and one that very nearly worked. Iarla Gearóidín had fought as a gallóglach herself, and was widely known and respected. Her agents approached several thanes and whispered in their ears. Those thanes who refused to break their oaths were dealt with, leaving their bands in disarray. The bands that turned traitor swiftly mobilised and made their way to Baol, joining the trade guild militias in the Green Marches and Lakelands to stand against the rest of the Realms.
To the surprise of the whole of Tirneach, when the news came of Baol’s rebellion, it was the Réig who stood up and took action. She rallied those bands that were still loyal, and rode to the borderlands with Baol herself at the head of a column of mounted Drakeblooded, loyal guards of House Roaring Thunder. She was met there by six bands of loyal gallóglaigh, and they faced the numerically superior traitor army on the high ground above Loch Cleamh, with a steep drop to the north.
Many hundreds lost their lives in what was swiftly afterwards called the Battle of Traitor’s Tears, as the skies opened and the rain tore the foothills into a muddy and treacherous marsh. Things looked grim for a time for the Réig’s army, until two things turned the tide. First, a surprise assault came from a band led by the human highlander thane Gríosla Mac Niamha, who scaled the cliffs by the side of Loch Cleamh and attacked the rebel army from behind, allowing the Réig’s forces to regroup from the first assault. Second, the Réig herself called in a voice like thunder, using the power of the Shaper to overpower the storm itself, to condemn the traitors and proclaim they had broken their oaths.
The traitor gallóglaigh had already been fighting below their full strength, the First Oath broken as soon as they took the field against the Réig herself. Now they were completely undone, the power that the Five Oaths granted had abandoned them. They were now no match for the loyal gallóglaigh bands, who had already outclassed the trade guild militias and now rounded on their former comrades-in-arms. The Creidhe thane Tríona Nic Eibhlín fought fiercest of all, standing alongside the Réig, and slayed the traitor thane of the Red Wolf band.
The loyal army won the day and forced the rebels to surrender. The traitor gallóglaigh bands were disbanded, their oaths already broken. The Happy Harvest Trade Guild had their charter revoked and their assets sold to their rivals. Iarla Gearóidín Nic Ardal was stripped of her title and sent into exile, while in her place for the first time in living memory a highlander was sworn in as Iarla, one Dalles of Clann Niamha, the famous Drakeblooded warrior. The thanes of the loyal gallóglaigh bands were richly rewarded with Ridings and political power, and Réig Maeláine Uí Chonchobhair had struck the first blow in dispelling the legacy of her uncle.
The Siege of Lobhan
Every Siabhlach with noble blood claims descent from one of the Hundred Heroes. The central legend of Siabhal is the Legend of Lobhan. Lobhan was, until recently, a mid-sized town in northern Siabhal. The Legend speaks of Finian the Brave, the Hundred Heroes and their great victory over the Gwyllt which made Siabhal a comparative haven for mortal people in the centuries before the arrival of the first Réig. Lobhan no longer exists.
In the declining years of Réig Airt Ua Chonchobhair’s reign, starting in the late Autumn of 787, the leading family of Lobhan, named House Mac Éanans, proclaimed that they were some of the most prominent Hundred Heroes reborn. They produced the famed relics of the Heroes, many of which had been thought lost. They spoke and acted as if they were the Heroes of the Legend and even reproduced some of their great feats, for example the daughter of House Mac Éanan who claimed to be Siún Who Leapt the Flaming Wall was able to vault over houses and the town walls.
Claiming to be figures from legend and magical feats are one thing, but the Mac Éanans and their followers did not stop at that. Soon they began to speak of restoring the glory of Siabhal, with them as the natural leaders of the restored Kingdom of Siabhal of course. Even in the wayward years of Réig Airt’s rule this treachery could not stand.
The gallóglaigh bands were mustered and marched on Lobhan. When they arrived, the gallóglaigh found the town gates sealed, and the populace madly in support of the Hundred Heroes Reborn, as they were called. More and more of the Mac Éanans and their associated relatives took on the roles of the Heroes, until the whole band out of the Legend were represented.
It was weeks before the siege formally began. Gallóglaigh thanes first called on the town to surrender, but whenever they would negotiate with the town’s leadership, they would first become sympathetic and inevitably would enter the town and not return. A month had passed before the danger was recognised for what it was and the order went out that only written communication was allowed to pass between the gallóglaigh bands and the besieged. Even then every night the gallóglaigh camp would find that more of their number had deserted.
Details of what happened inside Lobhan are sketchy, but from survivors’ accounts it seems the Hundred Heroes Reborn were dedicated to recreating their famous battle out of legend, with the gallóglaigh bands outside cast in the role of the Gwyllt. A few skirmishes took place, with horrible casualties on both sides, but the ranks of the besieged were soon replenished. Despite the best efforts of the besiegers, countryfolk were still deserting their farms and gallóglaigh abandoning their posts, daring to enter the town of Lobhan and act out the strange play within.
As 787 lumbered into 788, morale was low among the gallóglaigh bands. The Thanes had even begun to discuss whether some accommodation could be reached with the Mac Éanans and their fanatic followers. Things changed when the Golden Knives arrived at Lobhan. Led by the Réig’s niece Maeláine Uí Chonchobhair, this band had won great fame in fighting in the deepest tunnels of Draíod against the strangest and most fearsome of foes. It was said that every gallóglach in the band had walked the Way of Wisdom, fighting every step of the way.
Maeláine called a council of the thanes, claiming that her uncle the blessed Réig had dispatched her band specially to end the siege and bring peace to northern Siabhal. The other thanes scoffed privately at this, as it was common knowledge that Réig Airt was suspicious of his niece and her ambitions, and had refused to grant her an audience for many years. They began to listen however as Maeláine outlined her plan: sending gallóglaigh into Lobhan to take it from within.
Surely this was madness, as everyone who entered the town fell under the spell and began to act out the Legend of Lobhan? To counter their protests, Maeláine introduced Solatas, her cinnire-at-arms and a famed ritualist. Solatas told the assembly that he had studied the reports of the siege and had created a ritual that would shield a small group from the influence that had struck all within the town. With this protection and other boons bestowed by the Shaper, the gallóglaigh would be able to steal within Lobhan, open the gates, and put an end to the whole affair.
Although they were dubious, the thanes agreed to this plan when Maeláine said it would be her own Golden Knives that would make the attempt. Solatas led the rituals along with the cinnirí-at-arms of the other bands, bestowing the blessings of the Shaper upon the ten gallóglaigh who had volunteered to break the siege. When the ritual was ended, they ventured forth into the night.
Hours passed, and nothing was heard from the town. No attacks harried the gallóglaigh lines, but the gates did not open. The bands had begun to murmur amongst themselves that the attempt had failed, when a terrible cry rose up from the town, as if thousands of people were suffering a fate worse than death and had full knowledge of it before it befell them. Afterwards there was dead silence, and not even the birds sang as dawn began to break.
Finally, a lone figure appeared atop the walls of the town, and clambered down to the outside. Her livery was torn and she was battered and bloodied, but a cry soon went up from the Golden Knives as they recognised Maoithneasa the gallóglach. She began to walk back to the besieging bands’ lines, but fell to her knees before she could make it all the way. Maeláine was among the first to reach her, and many heard what Maoithneasa said to her: “Burn it to the ground. Leave nothing standing.”
Straight away, Maeláine directed her gallóglaigh to begin the preparations for the burning of Lobhan. The other thanes challenged her, and demanded a council, and Maoithneasa was brought before them. Only those who were at that council know what she said, but within an hour the orders had gone out that all assembled bands were to find anything that would burn in the nearby countryside and bring it to the town walls.
As the fire was set and it began to spread within the town walls, the gallóglaigh did not hear the cries of fear they had been dreading, nor did the smell of burned flesh reach their noses. It was as if every living thing in the town had already disappeared. Rumours flew about what Maoithneasa had seen, and what the terrible cry had been, but Maoithneasa and the thanes refused to speak of it.
When the great fire had died down, the walls were broken and the stones themselves hauled to the Endless Sea where they were tumbled off the Cliffs of Ísliú into the Endless Sea. Nothing remained of Lobhan except the Legend itself, and many of those gallóglaigh who took part in the Siege of Lobhan, even those who were themselves Siabhlaigh, could no longer bear to hear it recited in their presence.