Celestrones the Conqueror

An excerpt from Phantor's Celestrones the Conqueror

Celestrones was the son of Maklonaides, a general in the Jorannian ground army.  Maklonaides served with, trained with, and commanded branches of the Bazik wing of the Bronze Navy, as well as on joint operations with the armies of Sathad horsemen.  Maklonaides raised his son with the best tutors and instilled in him a broad working knowledge of the military and its traditions.  Among Celestrones’s tutors was Attades.

Attades gave Celestrones a foundation in philosophy and learning, beginning with Law, his own methodical inquiries into the nature of truth and goodness that expanded upon the works of his late master Dytoclanes.  In addition, Celestrones learned cooperative Bronze Empire government in Varbu, where he was trained as a delegate from his home city of Kalbarad.  For several years, he also served in both the Bronze Navy and in the ground forces as a cavalry archer.

The fractured empire of Sathad, to the north, continued its periodic raids against the Bronze Navy, largely in an attempt to capture the tin mines of Joranne to secure a necessary component of bronze for the Sathad.  The warlords grew bolder, and became better sailors out of necessity, so good that even the Bronze Navy was occasionally pressed to keep them at bay.

To the navy’s detriment, Elza Narades, now the aged tyrant of the Bronze Empire, had agreed to sign away some of that tin supply to the Haesonai in trade.  That agreement enriched Elza Narades personally, and was a diplomatic victory for the Empire, but was also seen as his final, fatal step too far in the direction of unenlightened self-interest.  Warships from Sathad, disguised as Haesonai traders, broke the lines of the navy.  Battle commenced on the island of Joranne for possession of the mines.

The generals in Bazik knew they had to press the attack and re-take the mines immediately, for it was also their own bronze supplies at stake.  Without the tin of Joranne, the Bazik could only make mere copper, which was no match for bronze.  How could they make war on Joranne to capture tin, without having tin?  Celestrones ordered the forges and smiths of Bazik to find a substitute that could be used temporarily, a metal only durable enough to retake Joranne.  The smiths of Bazik settled upon iron.

Pure iron was found to be not much heavier or harder than bronze, but where bronze must be melted at high temperatures and cast into a mold, iron could be hammered at cooler temperatures without first melting it.  Since the Bronze Empire had been forged by allowing like with unlike, the smiths knew that two metals alloyed could be stronger together than either alone.  And so the smiths of Bazik melded iron with charcoal to produce the first steel.

Armed with swords of steel, and clad in steel armor, the forces of Celestrones swept across the Gulf of Tenore and stormed the island of Joranne.  The warlords of Sathad, despite all their weapons and armor, were cut down.  Once the army had picked up their new weapons, and having seen how easily an iron sword could shear through bronze plate, they never put them down again…