Guerra de la Venganza
Guerra de la Venganza | |
---|---|
![]() por Miguel Sastre
| |
Participantes | Alezkar, oyentes |
Efectos | Invocación de la tormenta eterna |
Mundo | Roshar |
Universo | Cosmere |
La Guerra de la Venganza fue un conflicto en Roshar entre Alezkar y los oyentes. Este nombre para el conflicto fue utilizado por la brillante Hashal[1] en referencia al objetivo de los alezi de hacer justicia a los oyentes por su papel en el asesinato del rey alezi Gavilar Kholin.
Antecedentes
Mientras exploraba un bosque al sur de las Llanuras Quebradas, el hermano del rey Gavilar, Dalinar Kholin, encontró una sociedad de cantores sin forma esclava que se llamaban a sí mismos oyentes.[2] Al no saber lo que eran y por su similitud con los parshmenios, los predicetormentas de Gavilar acuñaron el término parshendi,[3] cuya traducción aproximada sería parshmenios que pueden pensar. "Parshendi" se convirtió en el término oficial alezi para los oyentes, y también se extendió a otros países de Roshar. Los oyentes no mostraron ninguna ofensa por el término.[4]
Se establecieron relaciones diplomáticas y, finalmente, se firmó un tratado entre los alezi y los llamados parshendi. El rey invitó a una delegación parshendi a celebrar la firma del tratado en Kholinar.[4] Esa noche, Gavilar reveló a Eshonai, un miembro de la delegación que podía hablar alezi, su intención secreta de traer de vuelta a los antiguos dioses cantores para provocar también el regreso de los Heraldos. Creyó erróneamente que los parshendi apreciarían esta idea. En realidad, los antepasados de los oyentes habían abandonado a sus dioses en favor de la libertad, y no querían que sus dioses volvieran.[5]
Tras escuchar las noticias de Eshonai y temiendo los planes de Gavilar, el Consejo de los Cinco decidió asesinar al rey alezi esa misma noche[5] y asignó esta tarea a su recién adquirido esclavo, un shin Sinverdad llamado Szeth que poseía la hoja de Honor de Jezrien. Tras una intensa lucha, el hombre que más tarde recibiría el nombre de Asesino de Blanco consiguió matar a Gavilar.[4]
Mientras el resto de oyentes huía de Kholinar, tres miembros del Consejo de los Cinco (Gangnah, Klade, y Varnali) se quedaron para atribuirse el asesinato. Los alezi mandaron colgar a los tres.[6]
Durante el funeral de Gavilar, su hijo y sucesor, el rey Elhokar, hizo que los altos príncipes alezi juraran vengar la muerte de su padre. Este Pacto de Venganza entre los altos príncipes y el nuevo rey se convirtió en la declaración de guerra de Alezkar contra los parshendi.[7]
Participantes
Alezkar
Cada principado de Alezkar tenía su propio ejército. Había diez altos príncipes: Roion, Sadeas, Aladar, Kholin, Vamah, Ruthar, Thanadal, Hatham, Bethab y Sebarial. Cada uno de ellos dedicó parte de sus ejércitos a cumplir su Pacto de Venganza con el rey Elhokar y estableció campamentos de guerra a sotavento de las Llanuras Quebradas. Cada alto príncipe tenía su propio campamento de guerra construido en una de las diez formaciones rocosas en forma de cráter que una vez fueron habitadas por los oyentes.[8][3][9]
La mayoría de los ejércitos alezi estaban compuestos por lanceros ojos oscuros organizados en batallones y dirigidos por oficiales ojos claros. A los ojos oscuros sólo se les permitía llevar lanzas,[4] por lo que los arqueros y espadachines alezi eran todos ojos claros.[10]
Además de las armas típicas, los alezi también tenían una veintena de hojas esquirladas.[11] No se sabe con exactitud cuántas de ellas se utilizaron en la guerra y cuántas permanecieron en Alezkar, pero había más de treinta portadores de esquirlada oficiales en los campamentos de guerra, algunos de los cuales tenían tanto armadura como espada esquirlada.[12]
Los alezi también contaban con fabriales, algunos de los cuales, como los granarcos, tenían aplicaciones militares.
Oyentes
A diferencia de los alezi, los oyentes tenían un único ejército unificado. Su sociedad estaba gobernada por el Consejo de los Cinco, cuyos miembros representaban cada uno una de las cinco formas de los cantores que utilizaban los oyentes. El miembro del Consejo que utilizaba la forma de guerra, que es la forma de cantor utilizada por los guerreros oyentes, actuaba como general del ejército.[13]
En algún momento de la guerra, Eshonai se convirtió en el miembro en forma de guerra entre los Cinco y comenzó a liderar la lucha por la supervivencia contra los alezi. También poseía el único conjunto de hoja y armadura esquirlada que les quedaba a los oyentes, y los utilizaba además de la forma de guerra durante la batalla.[14][13]
La forma de guerra daba a los guerreros oyentes una armadura de caparazón, así como más fuerza.[9] Aunque no eran tan fuertes o resistentes como alguien con armadura esquirlada, los oyentes con forma de guerra eran una verdadera amenaza para los soldados humanos normales. Su fuerza les permitía usar armas pesadas como hachas de batalla, martillos y, a veces, mazas y espadas.[15] También eran capaces de saltar lo suficiente como para cruzar abismos,[16] algo que, de entre los alezi, sólo podían hacer los que tenían armadura esquirlada.[17]
Aunque también utilizaban arqueros, al igual que los alezi, la estrategia de combate de los oyentes incluía el uso de parejas de guerra,[18] o parejas de guerreros que luchaban codo con codo como compañeros. Estas parejas de guerra oyentes saltaban por el campo de batalla en maniobras coordinadas y atacaban a las tropas enemigas con armas pesadas desde múltiples direcciones.[2]
Cuando empezó la guerra, los oyentes se trasladaron a las ruinas de Sedetormenta, situadas en el centro de las Llanuras Quebradas. Llamaron a este lugar central Narak, que en su lengua significaba Exilio. Sirvió como base de operaciones para su ejército, así como de refugio para el resto de su pueblo.[9]
History
Beginning of the Siege
In order to fulfill the Vengeance Pact as quickly as possible, the Alethi highprinces initially planned a full-scale attack on the Parshendi. However, they were unable to immediately locate the enemy's center of operation, and upon arriving at the Shattered Plains, the highprinces realized that a full-scale attack on the plateau in the center of the Plains would present huge risks because of highstorms.
The Shattered Plains[19] cover an enormous area, and armies must cross chasms to get between plateaus, making a campaign to the center of the Shattered Planes vulnerable to a highstorm while exposed on the plateaus.[1] Therefore, the highprinces decided upon a siege strategy.[20][21] As the Shattered Plains are only accessible from the leeward side, the plan assumed the Parshendi would leave their camp from hunger and face the Alethi.[20]
The Impact of Gemhearts
Once the Alethi settled on the border of the Shattered Plains, they discovered that chasmfiends live in the chasms between plateaus. Chasmfiends contain gemhearts which hold enormous amounts of Stormlight for use in Soulcasting. This enabled the armies to Soulcast metal for weapons, wood for bridges, barracks of stone and food for troops.[20]
The safest way to win a gemheart of a chasmfiend would be to wait for a chasmfiend to climb on a plateau, where it would pupate.[20] Once this happens, the chrysalis could be opened with a Shardblade[18] or more slowly with hammers and chisels.[15]
Both the Alethi and the listeners used these gems to sustain their armies, prolonging the siege and greatly extending the duration of the war. Whenever a chrysalis is spotted on a plateau, a race between the listeners and Alethi highprinces would occur.[20] Whoever arrived first would have to retrieve the gemheart from the chrysalis before the opposing army arrives, otherwise a battle would occur.
For five years, the war was fought mostly through these skirmishes over gemhearts.
Loss of Unity Between Highprinces
Since every highprince worked on his own, depending on where the chasmfiend was pupating, several Alethi armies could attempt to get to the chasmfiend first. Whenever an army arrived and another Alethi army was already there, the second army turned back home.[22] This led to rivalry between the highprinces because success in gaining gemhearts meant wealth and appreciation from King Elhokar.[23]
Over the years the result was that the Alethi army lost its original purpose—to fulfil the Vengeance Pact—and their unity. The ten armies fought on their own instead of fighting united against the Parshendi.
The Battle of the Tower
- Main article: Battle of the Tower
The Tower Plateau is a very large plateau not far from the center of the Shattered Plains. Because of this, the listeners always arrived first whenever a chasmfiend pupated on the Tower Plateau, and they usually had enough time to arrange themselves into battle formation and prepare their defense. Consequently, no Alethi army had ever won a battle at the Tower during the first six years of the war.
When Dalinar worked together with Sadeas, a chasmfiend was spotted on the Tower.[24] According to their plan, Sadeas, whose armies were faster than Dalinar's, had to clear a space on the Tower for Dalinar's troops, who were better trained, to engage the Parshendi.[24] This worked as planned until Sadeas abandoned Dalinar, leaving Dalinar trapped.[25]
Dalinar and the remnants of his army were saved by Bridge Four led by Kaladin. In the aftermath, Dalinar made his nephew, King Elhokar, declare him Highprince of War. It was Dalinar's goal to re-focus the Alethi armies into finally fulfilling the Vengeance Pact and to unite them again.[26]
Stormform and the Failed Peace Talks
Seeing the steady decline of her people and becoming war-weary, Eshonai was eager to find a way out of the protracted war. She had been planning to approach Dalinar Kholin and sue for peace. However her sister, the scholar Venli, did not believe such a plan would work. Instead, Venli argued that they should use a Form of Power in order to defeat the Alethi.[9]
Secretly guided by the voidspren Ulim[27], Venli had previously captured a stormspren, a spren that granted stormform. This Form of Power was believed to allow the summoning and control of storms.[9] Eshonai initially protested the idea due to the form's connection to their hated gods. However, after the other leaders sided with Venli, Eshonai ended up volunteering to experiment with stormform to see what it does.[13]
Prior to bonding the stormspren, and with the help of Dalinar's son Adolin[28] and the listener warrior Thude, Eshonai was finally able to arrange a meeting with Dalinar to discuss a possible end to the war. The plan was for the meeting to happen in seven days. Having received confirmation of the arrangement, Eshonai went out to experiment with stormform.[29]
Stormform gave Eshonai a different kind of armor and the ability to jump chasms more easily. She started attuning to a new set of Rhythms that were more aggressive.[30] More importantly, the new form changed Eshonai's personality, making her more arrogant and belligerent. She abandoned her plan to negotiate. Instead, she challenged the Alethi to try and destroy her people if they could.[31] She planned to lure the whole Alethi army out far away from their warcamps and destroy them with a summoned highstorm.[32]
Along with Venli, Eshonai organized the adoption of stormform for all of their people. A few of the listeners did not agree to this plan and managed to escape.[32] Rlain, a listener spy who infiltrated the Alethi army and joined Bridge Four, returned from his espionage mission and discovered the new stormform army. He decided not to join them.[33]
The Battle of Narak
- Main article: Battle of Narak
After negotiations with Eshonai fell through, Dalinar proposed a joint assault on the Parshendi camp in order to end the war and fulfill the Vengeance Pact once and for all.[31] Out of all the Alethi highprinces, only Aladar, Roion, and Sebarial joined him in the end. They set out near the start of the Weeping, expecting no highstorm to impede their attack.[10] Along the way they met up with Rlain, who reported to Dalinar what had happened to his people.[33]
Upon the arrival of the Alethi armies in Narak, a large number of the stormform listeners initiated the ritual song to summon a storm, while the rest prepared to fight the invaders.[34]
The battle was fought on three plateaus. Aladar, Roion, Adolin each led soldiers on their own designated plateau while Dalinar gave orders from the command tent on another plateau. Sebarial's army reinforced Aladar's and Roion's, as Sebarial himself did not fight.[34]
The stormform listeners showed the ability to shoot red lightning, which they successfully weaponized against the Alethi. Roion's army was eventually defeated, but Adolin and Aladar managed well enough on their plateaus.[35]
Having been warned by Rlain that the stormforms' song will bring destruction, Dalinar instructed Adolin to stop the singers.[34] Adolin found a way to get to the singers and killed many of them, but Eshonai attacked before he could finish the task.[36] In the end, even though he defeated Eshonai, he was unable to prevent the song from being completed. The summoned storm turned out to be the Everstorm, and it came towards them from the west, bringing red lightning.[37] In addition, the Stormfather sent an unexpected highstorm, coming from the east as highstorms usually do.[38]
Szeth arrived on the battlefield on a mission from Taravangian to assassinate Dalinar, but was thwarted by Kaladin.[38] Shallan Davar managed to find and activate the ancient Oathgate within the city, and the surviving Alethi army was safely transported to Urithiru before the combined Everstorm and highstorm destroyed the whole city of Narak.[37][38]
The surviving remnants of the stormform army eventually ended up as vessels for the Fused, the immortal commanders of Odium's army that returned through the Everstorm. The exception was Venli, whom Odium spared for his own purposes.[39]
The non stormform listeners who escaped into the chasms survived with the help of a chasmfiend.[40]
Warfare
Having to battle on the Shattered Plains, with its unique chasm-filled terrain, brought some notable characteristics to the war.
The Use of Bridges Between Plateaus
While warform listeners were able to jump the distance between plateaus, an Alethi army could only cross a chasm with a wooden bridge from an adjacent plateau. There was no way to climb a plateau from a chasm.[41] Permanent bridges could only be constructed next to the warcamps because any permanent bridges built further on the plains were destroyed by listener raids.[22]
During a race for a gemheart, mobile bridges were used by the Alethi armies. There were two main types of bridges.
- Heavy Bridge
- Bridges that functioned like siege-towers. Those were very heavy and needed to be pulled by chulls and thus were very slow. Their advantage was that they offered cover for the Alethi army until the bridge was lowered over the chasm.[17][2]
- Light Portable Bridges
- These were only light in comparison to the bridge-towers. At least twenty five men were needed to carry a bridge, though the bridges were constructed with spaces for forty men.[41] Their advantage was that they could be carried even while running, so they were much faster than the bridge-towers. Instead of offering cover, the bridgemen were exposed to the listener archers during the approach of the final plateau.
Sadeas pioneered the technique[42] of using the light bridges, advantageous for their mobility, manned by bridgemen who were left exposed for the purpose of attracting enemy fire that would otherwise have centered on his soldiers.[41][20][43] That is also why bridgemen were neither armored nor trained.[20] When others of the highprinces saw Sadeas' success, they began using his system as well.[42]
Dalinar did not use those bridges because he was convinced that officers shouldn't demand anything from their soldiers that they would not do themselves and reproached Sadeas for wasting lives.[20][25] Later, though, Sadeas and Dalinar worked together. Sadeas, who could reach a plateau faster than anyone else with his light bridges, went ahead with most of his force and secured a foothold; Dalinar followed at the pace of his chull-drawn bridges, although he could reach the contested plateau twice as quickly because he crossed on some mobile bridges Sadeas had lent him so he didn't need to stop and lower his own bridges at each chasm. At the final plateau, Dalinar would put his own bridges forward so as not to waste bridgemen's lives.[44]
Kaladin was the first to train a bridgecrew of a light bridge[45] and had considerable success with it.[46] Not only did he manage to make them faster than other crews, he also devised the method of "side carrying" the bridge so that it could shield arrows from bridgemen.[43] Although this method significantly protected the bridgemen, it was a strategical failure to Sadeas' army. The Parshendi archers realized Bridge Four were too well protected and focused their arrows on the bulk of soldiers instead, causing heavy loss of trained soldiers instead of expendable bridgemen. Other bridgecrew who awkwardly tried to imitate them failed to deliver the bridges and this resulted in a lost battle. As punishments, Lamaril was executed and Kaladin was left out for the highstorm.
The Use of Shardbearers
When an army arrived at a plateau and the enemy army was already formed up for battle, the only way for the attackers often was to send in Shardbearers who could jump over the chasm and clear a space for the bridges to land.[18]
Also, Shardblades were a very effective way to cut open the chrysalis in order to get the gemheart.[18]
Apart from that, Shardbearers had the same use as in every other battle during that time on Roshar.
Chasm Duty
During battles on the plateaus, falling into chasms was a real risk for both Alethi soldiers and Listener warriors, and many died in this manner. The dead who were left after a battle were also blown into the chasms during highstorms. There, the dead were flooded to the leeward end of the chasms, where they stayed until another flood pulled them elsewhere.[16]
Search teams consisting of soldiers or bridgemen were periodically sent down into the chasms to gather weapons, armor, spheres, or anything of value from the dead. Chasm duty was dangerous because of the risk of another highstorm flooding the chasms and because of chasmfiends who could come upon a search team.[16]
Notas
Historia de Roshar | ||
---|---|---|
Asesinato de Gavilar | La Guerra de la Venganza | La Auténtica Desolación |
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 43#
- ↑ a b c El camino de los reyes capítulo 28#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 45#
- ↑ a b c d El camino de los reyes prólogo#
- ↑ a b Juramentada prólogo#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes prólogo#
- ↑ Juramentada capítulo 105#
- ↑ Mapa de Alethi warcamps
- ↑ a b c d e Palabras radiantes interludio I-1#
- ↑ a b Palabras radiantes capítulo 76#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 52#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes capítulo 5#
- ↑ a b c Palabras radiantes interludio I-4#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 68#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 40#
- ↑ a b c El camino de los reyes capítulo 27#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 55#
- ↑ a b c d El camino de los reyes capítulo 26#
- ↑ Mapa de Shattered Plains
- ↑ a b c d e f g h El camino de los reyes capítulo 15#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 18#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 17#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 12#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 64#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 65#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 69#
- ↑ Juramentada interludio I-3#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes capítulo 26#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes interludio I-5#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes interludio I-8#
- ↑ a b Palabras radiantes capítulo 51#
- ↑ a b Palabras radiantes interludio I-11#
- ↑ a b Palabras radiantes capítulo 78#
- ↑ a b c Palabras radiantes capítulo 81#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes capítulo 82#
- ↑ Palabras radiantes capítulo 83#
- ↑ a b Palabras radiantes capítulo 84#
- ↑ a b c Palabras radiantes capítulo 86#
- ↑ Juramentada interludio I-6#
- ↑ El ritmo de la guerra capítulo 115#
- ↑ a b c El camino de los reyes capítulo 6#
- ↑ a b Palabras radiantes capítulo 8#
- ↑ a b El camino de los reyes capítulo 32#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 58#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 14#
- ↑ El camino de los reyes capítulo 59#