The History of Gandersheim

          The history of Gandersheim is wound tightly with the history of Keoland. The fortress was first constructed circa 297 C.Y., by royal order of King Leon, as a fortified trading post in the Good Hills. At that time, Keoland claimed from the Lortmill Mountains in the east to the Hellfurnaces in the West, having been bequeathed to the House of Keol by the Overking Isod II. The Keol were distant cousins to the House of Aerdy, close enough to be trusted with holdings, distant enough to be sent to the untamed western frontier. The land now recognized as Keoland was a wild, unorganized region. The native flannish population had been disrupted and disorganized by the fleeing Suel peoples. Humanoids and worse roamed the land freely. The dwarves of Mimkhazad had not yet decided whether or not they trusted these newcomers, and the Heart of the Wood was equally distant.
          The City of Longspear had already been founded. Before the Keoish lords arrived from the east, Longspear was a thriving center of trade. It received precious metals and gems from mines dotting the Little Hills and from Rollin, a gnomish city located to the north. Longspear already had a sizeable dwarvish, halfling and flannish population. Gandersheim, which is a corruption from the suloise gunter heim (“strong box”), was constructed to regulate trade from the “uncivilized” trading centers of Longspear and Rollin into Keoland. The Keoish built the fort on a strategic spur high above a dry riverbed cutting deeply through the Good Hills. Although travel over the Good Hills was possible through other routes, the Gandersheim pass was the easiest and most accessible.
          In 311 C.Y., King Leon’s successor, Leto IV took a stronger stance regarding the grant given by the Overking. In that year, Keoland laid claim to the city of Longspear, and the lamentable Battle of Dimrale Dale occurred. A mixed dwarven, halfling and flannish force met the Keoish host north of Longspear in a flat region known as the Low. Reinforcements from Mimkhazad and Rollin were to complement the small Little Hills force, but none arrived. Leto, had already negotiated a treaty recognizing Rollin as a free city if it sent no aid, and the hidden city of Mimkhazad had declined to send its troops across the Javan in return for lucrative contracts with the new kingdom.
          The Little Hills force fought bravely, but was overwhelmed by the Keoish heavy cavalry. The casualties were high on Keoland as well. In the end, at the signing of the Treaty of 312 C.Y., Longspear was annexed, with concessions made to the indigenous peoples. Immediately after, Leto offered the dwarves of Mimkhazad the first of their now infamous contracts; he hired the engineers of Mimkhazad to construct a road overlooking the dry riverbed in Gandersheim pass. The road channeled all traffic to the foot of the fort of Gandersheim, which was expanded into a three-story tower. The principal function of Gandersheim was still as a way station and taxing post. It was manned by only a light force meant to protect the taxes paid until they could be transported to Niole Dra, the capital of Keoland.
          In 321 C.Y., just as the road and expansion of Gandersheim was completed, Leto granted the province of Shankshire to Sir Thomas the Lion, the retiring Grand Knight of the Knights of the Hart. The royal charter of Shankshire delegated the responsibility of maintaining Gandersheim to that province. In reality, that burden was shared by Shankshire and the Regents of the prosperous Southern Quarter of Keoland, who maintained a splendid city at Monmurg. The Southern Quarter brought a great deal of trade up the mighty Javan River to Longspear, and into Keoland proper through Gandersheim.
          In 366 C.Y., the Kingdom was shaken. The yeomen who eked out a living in the wide plains at the easternmost reach of Keoland revolted against the high taxes of the Kingdom. The Yeomanry declared their independence. Leon III of Keoland responded harshly, sending large units of heavy and medium cavalry east to stamp out the revolt, supported by several thousand armored infantry. The yeoman force was lighter and larger, comprised of fierce mounted bowmen and lancers. They led the Keoish force deeper and deeper into the Yeomanry, causing slow but constant losses. When finally backed up to the sooty feet of the Hellfurnaces, the yeoman sprang their trap. The Keoish supply lines stretched all the way back to Longspear by this time. Small but organized Yeoman forces attacked that line; rebels sprang up from every town and hamlet. Old men, women and children conspired to cut the main force off from its supplies. The trap worked and the Keoish force had no choice but to make a disastrous retreat back to Longspear in the winter of 368 C.Y. (the “Red Winter”), taking heavy losses along the way from the pursuing yeoman forces.
          The Keoish army wintered in Longspear, but before reinforcements could arrive, the yeomen invaded Longspear itself in April of that year. The grim legacy of the Battle of Dimrale Dale was revealed as a halfling and flannish force joined with the yeomen to rout the Keoish. The royal manor was sacked and burned, the governor hanged in the public common.
          The tattered remains of the Keoish army were forced to retreat across the Javan to Gandersheim, while they awaited the long-delayed reinforcements. Leon III was very displeased to have lost Longspear and the vast farmlands of the Yeomanry. He dispatched the Knights of the Hart to Gandersheim, supported by eight thousand armored infantrymen and two thousand Sterich regulars. Even as this imposing contingency made its way to Gandersheim, a Yeoman host crossed the Javan at night and assailed the post. Gandersheim was little equipped to repulse an invading force. Gandersheim was captured and the surviving prisoners held hostage and transported to Longspear. The Yeoman then had the audacity to invade Keoland, sacking and burning the village of Gundersdorf and carrying off the civilian population.
          Leon III was aghast. Keoland had never faced invasion (and never would again until 600 C.Y., when the Horned King’s troops streamed through the Good Hills, ignoring Gandersheim). Calling on its neighbors, nearly all of whom could trace family lines to Leon, Keoland marshaled a massive force to retake the rogue province. Unfortunately, Keoland continually underestimated the strategy, tenacity and ferocity of the Yeoman forces.
          From 369 to 378 C.Y., Gandersheim was the staging ground for four separate invasions of the Yeomanry. Rather incredulously, this conflict has been named, ‘The Short War” by historians. Each invasion followed an identical pattern. In the spring, Keoish troops and their allies would enter the Yeomanry from Gandersheim, they would retake Longspear, and then pursue their elusive foes throughout the vastness of the Yeomanry’s western plains. Every winter, the Keoish troops would attempt to bunker down, and each winter the Yeoman troops -or the brutal winters- would send the Keoish forces packing back across the Javan. During the Short War, engineers from Mimkhazad expanded Gandersheim again. It became a triple-towered, four-story fortress. In 371 and 374, it repelled Yeoman incursions.
          In 377 C.Y., Longspear was retaken by Keoish troops for the last time. After a battle at the Low which decimated both sides (the “Massacre of ‘77”), Leon III’s successor, his much beloved son Leo the First entered into the Treaty of Longspear, whereby the independence of the Yeomanry was recognized, where Longspear was recognized as a “shared” free city, and where the Yeomanry agreed to export large amounts of grains and cereals to Keoland at very favorable prices.
          Gandersheim resumed its purpose as a taxing center during the long period of peace that followed. In 524 C.Y., Gandersheim would once again protect Keoland’s flank. The year preceding the “Spring of Infamy,” the region of the Wild Coast known as the Pomarj fell to humanoid raiders. The ruling class of the Pomarj, such as it was, lived for a time in the Wooly Bay area before sailing west. Raiders, Corsairs and Pirates, the self-proclaimed “Sea Princes” landed their fleet on Jetsom Island in March of 523 C.Y. The Royal Fleet of the Southern Quarter was overwhelmed, and many of the ships were burned at their moorings during the Battle of Jetsom Reef. The raiders turned inland and captured Monmurg after only two weeks of battle.
          Again, Keoland was rocked by invasion. The Knights of the Hart were dispatched to retake the province and the Yeomanry even sent aid. The Southern Quarter, however, was protected by geography. To the west lay the unfriendly nation of Burghoff and the Hellfurnaces, to its north was the nearly-impassible Hool Marshes, the Dreadwood bounded its eastern flank, and the ocean protected its back. Keoland was utterly incapable of retaking the Quarter. The Sea Prince’s mercenary and slave armies captured Burghoff and very nearly captured Longspear before being beaten back by the Mage Tormaq. In complete control of the Javan, the Sea Princes raided at will along its length making ill-fated sorties against the invincible walls of Rollin, attacking Longspear and even traveling as far north as Flan in the Duchy of Sterich.
          In October of 524 C.Y., the Sea Princes’ feared Golden Legion -comprised entirely of slaves promised freedom in exchange for victory- bolstered by Burghoff archers and axemen attacked Gandersheim. The battle, “Dark October” was pivotal. If the Sea Princes captured Gandersheim, they would have free reign to launch sorties into Keoland itself. After a three-day pitched battle, the Sea Prince forces were routed, and Keoland was able to sink two of the fleeing battleships.
          Since the Battle of Dark October, Gandersheim has quietly fallen back into its use as a way station for travelers moving between Keoland and the Yeomanry. Its armories have been locked and unused for nearly eighty years.