The Province of Yalwa
The Campaign for the Province of Yalwa is a historical campaign in which the Free Nexus Army achieved its first foothold in the old Republic of Kerlo. It's important for many reasons, not the least of which includes that it was the first time the Nexians were able to meet Kand on the field of battle and win. While strategically it was monumental to the FNA, in the grand scheme of things many historians are in heated debate over its influence on the war.
The Campaign itself didn't exist as an isolated incident, and we should take a few minutes to review the bigger picture of events on Nexus, and specifically in the old Republic of Kerlo.
Kandelian Politics
Shortly after the invasion of Nexus, the Kandelian Emperor began to weaken. While historians now believe the Emperor to be suffering from a form of cancer that was incurable, nobody has ever come out to say why he was weakening. All that is known is that the family that held Nexus had to shift their focus away from Nexus and start positioning themselves for the power struggle that was developing in the capital. In order to ensure that Nexus remained under their heel in the event a civil war broke out in the empire and to increase short-term production for their forces, they resorted to brutality on Nexus.
Waves of Genocide
The Empire has never been noted for its mercy, but its also never been noted for its monstrosity. Various Nexian radical groups engaged in what amounted to a series of attacks on Kandelian officials. These attacks, terrorist in nature if not in definition, certainly had their role in provoking Kandelian retribution. But it's very difficult to look on Kand's retaliation as being less than excessive. Historians now tend to take the view that both sides dealt a series of atrocities to one another and prefer not to place blame on either side.
The Kandelian Lord who ruled Nexus ordered a series of "ethnic cleansings", using steadily weakening claims of evidence that the recent attacks had been initiated by specific ethnic groups of Nexians. In carrying out their orders, Kandelian forces rampaged throughout three main areas, raping, pillaging, and generally destroying everything in their path. The intent was to place fear into the hearts of Nexians, and also to stir up the Nexian factions against one another. In the second part, they certainly succeeded. In the first, it's difficult to say what a cowardly Nexian would look like, since none are known to have ever existed.
The Province of Yalwa
The FNA had already been in existence secretly for several months when the attacks in Kerlo happened, but was unable to do anything when the Empire came to reap its destruction. Kerlo was economically important to Kand, which is why the Empire sought to use it as one of its examples. But due to its importance, the Empire had to choose carefully when it moved into the area with its wave of destruction. During the Empire's attacks in Kerlo, the FNA took advantage of the opportunity to raid supply lines and increase its military buildup, but they were never able to do any significant damage. Within a few months of the Empire's attacks, however, leaders within the FNA determined that it was time to claim their independence.
Popular opinion in Kerlo was against the Empire at that time, so the FNA found support from within the population. Establishing secret supply lines to areas of Kerlo that are rich in agriculture, the FNA chooses the Province of Yalwa to begin their military campaign. FNA leaders figure that if they can secure the Mines of Yalwa and banish Kand from the province, they will be able to quickly grow to a size that will allow them to retake the old Republic of Kerlo, a blow which would significantly weaken the Empire of Kand and also provide the FNA with a solid logistics base from which to launch a proper revolution for Nexian independence.
FNA's Campaign in Yalwa
The campaign is the campaign for control of the province of Yalwa, a name which means "Desert" in Nexian. The land itself is a desert in that it gets less than 10 inches a year of precipitation, but is actually fairly well-grown with grass and trees and stuff. The main reason it's called "Desert" is because there isn't a lot of natural resources. Farming is tricky because of the lack of rainfall, the lack of springs, and the lack of rivers. While there are rivers, they are mostly minor, but none are enough to irrigate much of the area for farming. The crystal mines are nearly nonexistant throughout most of the province, although the famed Mines of Yalwa are to be found in the region. As a region, it's not logistically interesting to Kand, except for the mines, but due to the nature of supplying their own forces in the area, Kand has historically kept a significant force only around the mines, leaving short-handed garrisons in a few other cities in the area. For the FNA, however, the region represents an excellent starting base with plenty of crystals to fuel a start-up rebellion.
The plan is to take its first city by flushing out the garrison and emptying the barracks around Rhintura. After successfully taking Rhintura, FNA intends to recruit many citizens of Rhintura to reinforce their budding army. They intend to divide their forces into two parts: The main body will advance up the road to the city of Ultha while the smaller body will march up the mountains in the western part of the province to secure a supply route from the west.
The Main Body
The main body of the FNA will march from Rhintura to the city of Ultha, taking every city in its path. From Rhintura they will move to Lula, a fairly large city whose chief industry is processing crystals from the Mines of Yalwa. Since Lula is one of several cities that process crystals from the mines, it is not heavily garrisoned. FNA leaders anticipate a quick victory in Lula, and then a forced march north to Ultha, bypassing Kandelian HQ entirely. Once Ultha has been taken, and the western supply routes have been secured, FNA Leaders expect the regional Kandelian HQ to surrender without significant fighting, and without having to actually march to the HQ.
Ultha is heavily garrisoned, however, and FNA leaders expect the siege to take several days. Since the main body of the army will have cut off communications with the lightly-garrisoned regional HQ, they do expect the siege to be successful and the city of Ultha to fall. The citizens of the city will be with them, and they expect there to be little trouble at the mines themselves.
The Small Arm
The smaller arm of the FNA intends to move through the western portion of the region and simultaneously cut supplies to Kand's regional HQ and secure supply lines to Ultha. The timing of this group is critical and it must move quickly to secure the supply lines, because those supply lines will be crucial to the siege of Ultha.