Prelude
In the year 0 AR, Gavicus XXIX, the incumbent Dominus of Aurea (essentially an elected Emperor), died unexpectedly. Pompeia Khan, a half Tangolian gladiator Gavicus befriended and made a Patrician, was elevated to the position of Consigliere (Gavicus's 2nd-in-Command) less than a week before Gavicus's passing (replacing Quintus Floridius Longinus, who was recently indicted on corruption charges and forced to leave office). As a result, Pompeia, the first woman and first Tangolian in Aurean history to reach such a position, was elevated to the position of Domina (female equivalent title of Dominus) until the next round of elections. Pompeia, already viewed with suspicion by many on Aurea, initially showed no interest in running for the office in the elections. However, an unknown agent entered Pompeia's name into the contest without his consent, and since rejecting power in this context was seen as very un-Aurean (and would make him a pariah in Aurean politics for the rest of his life) and Pompeia needed a high political position to keep the location of the Key to the Jungle safe, she was left with no choice but to run for election. Despite fierce opposition from other Aurean Patricians, racists, and wealthy Tangolians who did not want Pompeia to end the controversial servi agri system that kept much of Tangolia's peasantry de facto enslaved, the election was decided in Pompeia's favor by less than 1,000 votes in Sparteia, defeating his opponent (a Patrician from the Capital named Publius Julius Arius III) and his running mate (Qajeer, the Tangolian Khan). Arius remained friendly with Pompeia, while Qajeer grew cold and distant, spending all his time in Tangolia and refusing to respond to Pompeia's communications.
While Pompeia was getting her cabinet set up and figuring out how to work with the Aurean Senate, Qajeer was left in Tangolia to seethe over his foiled ambition. The answer to his problem arrived when Rhys, a Vigamian working for the galactic warlord known as Tate, landed in Tangolia with 26,000 troops and a huge amount of money. The two made a deal stating that, with Rhys providing his small army and his funding, Qajeer would attack Pompeia's new government by invading Argentolia. Rhys, knowing that Pompeia was keeping the Key to the Jungle in the city of Nicopolis in southeast Argentolia, would besiege the city, capture it and the key, and march northwest with Qajeer through Argentolia, capture Astras, and allow Qajeer to usurp the throne. Once the deal was cemented, Qajeer sent Pompeia an ultimatum: he could either voluntarily abdicate the throne and hand over the Key of the Jungle to Rhys, or he would begin an invasion of Argentolia to take these things by force. Pompeia refused the ultimatum and sent what Limitanei he could spare to the Limes Tangolicus (the old wall along the parts of the Tangolian border not defined by rivers). She also set sail from Astras with the field armies of Calissilvania.
After around three weeks of preparation and troop movements, as well as being joined by the field armies of East Terra Centralis, Nicos, Cularo and Imbreus, Pompeia's absolutely massive force had landed at Nicopolis and was preparing to cross the Anti-Imbreus Mountains and head towards the Tangolian Border, while Qajeer and Rhys had just broken through the Limes Tangolicus near Nirus. Unknown to the Aureans, Qajeer chose to keep the vast majority of his infantry guarding the hole they punched in the Limes Tangolicus to prevent a counterattack into Tangolia by remaining Aurean Limitanei. As a result, Pompeia and the rest of the Aureans mistakenly believed that the Tangolians had invaded Aurea with mostly their heavy infantry field army and Rhys's mercenaries (also heavy infantry), supplemented by the Tangolians' elite cavalry regiments, when in reality, the vast majority of the force invading Argentolia was cavalry, supplemented by Rhys's heavy infantry from Vigam.
While Pompeia's original plan was to simply march into the Anti-Imbreus Mountains and bottleneck Qajeer and Rhys in the narrow passes through them, Qajeer forced her hand by marching through the desert much more quickly than expected and threatening Ascrus, the largest city in the area other than Nicopolis. If he let Qajeer and Rhys take the city, Pompeia's already low credibility as Domina would be completely undermined and she would seriously risk assassination by her army. With little other choice, Pompeia crossed the Anti-Imbreus Mountains with her armies and entered the city of Ascrus to rest and resupply before the inevitable battle that would come the next morning.
Battle
When Pompeia heard from his scouts that Qajeer's army was not infantry-based and was almost entirely cavalry-based, she was not very alarmed at first, as she also knew that he had Qajeer and Rhys outnumbered severalfold and provided that the Tangolian cavalry was anything like the Froudling cavalry she was used to facing on Arturia, she would prevail. While Julius Arius III, who was commanding the Field Army of East Terra Centralis, wanted to deploy in the typical Aurean fashion with infantry in the center and cavalry on the wings, Caesonius Theodosius, the commander of the Field Army of Calissylvania, convinced them to instead deploy in a hollow square formation, which would prevent them from being outflanked by the Tangolian cavalry in the flat desert terrain.
When the Tangolians first appeared from over the dunes of the desert, they did their best to intimidate the Aureans, beating hollow drums, blaring trumpets, and engaged in traditional Tangolian throat singing, unnerving the Aureans. Some of the Tangolian cavalry was also riding camels, which spooked Aurean horses unused to their scent.
The battle began with Qajeer and his horse and camel archers heading straight for the hollow square of Aureans. Arius and Theodosius sent their Limitanei into the fray to repel them, but the horse and camel archers were far too mobile and maneuverable for them, and were able to run circles around them. These archers unleashed a hail of arrows at the Limitanei, driving them back. The archers then encircled the Aureans, releasing hail after hail of arrows at them. While the Aureans were able to protect themselves by raising their shields in the testudo formation, many arrows found their way through the cracks and hit the Aurean troops underneath. Many arrows were even able to penetrate shields, resulting in many Aurean legionnaires essentially having their shields and arms nailed together, and their feet nailed to the desert below.
While the Aureans tried to engage the horse and camel archers in melee combat, the archers were too quick for them, always retreating just out of reach and unleashing parting shots as they withdrew. Taking advantage of the weakened Aureans, the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry would charge in, inflicting heavy casualties and wrecking havoc on the Aurean lines. When the Aureans loosened their testudo to repel these attackers, they succeeded, but the horse and camel archers would simply return to chip away at the Aureans even more. Pompeia's plan at this point was to wait until the Tangolians ran out of arrows, but Qajeer was using thousands of camels, carrying arrows from the captured supply depot of Nirus to resupply his archers. As a result, they could hold out essentially as long as they wanted.
When Pompeia realized this, she sent out Theodosius, with all of the Aurean cavalry (which had been previously taking shelter in the center of the hollow square), to drive off the archers for a while. This charge had some success at first and inflicted some casualties on the Tangolian archers, but the Aurean cataphracts, weighed down by their armor, were slower than the Tangolian horse and camel archers, allowing the Tangolians to feign retreat and lead them to a nearby area of hoodoos and other rock formations that the locals had told the Tangolians was the den of a huge sandworm. All along the way, the Tangolian archers unleashed parting shots on the Aurean cataphracts, causing heavy casualties. However, the more lightly-armed Sparteians and deinonychus riders were able to keep up with the Tangolian archers, and were able to inflict some casualties by harassing their flanks.
Once the Aurean cataphracts were in the Sandworm's Den, the Tangolian horse archers retreated as quickly as possible into an adjacent gulch to the south, overgrown with cacti. While most of the Sparteians and Aurean deinonychus riders were able to follow the Tangolians into the gulch in time, the giant sandworm that called the Sandworm's Den home burst forth from the ground upon sensing the Aurean cataphracts on top of it, devouring almost all of them. Although Theodosius was not eaten, he was thrown from his horse in the confusion and subsequently trampled to death. Those who survived scattered and fled into the dunes. The Sparteians and deinonychus riders, unused to the spiny cacti of the gulch, were weakened and slowed by the vegetation, allowing the Tangolian archers to surround and slaughter them.
Meanwhile, the Aurean infantry, no longer pinned by the Tangolian archers, was making some progress against the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry. Although greatly reduced in number by that point, the Aureans were still repelling every charge the cataphracts and Vigamians threw at them, and even pushing them back. However, the Aureans' morale completely evaporated when Qajeer, at the head of his force of horse and camel archers, reappeared from the dunes, holding Theodosius's severed head in his hand with war trumpets blaring. Once again, the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry retreated, and the Tangolian archers surrounded the Aurean infantry on all sides, pinning them into the testudo formation again and slowly whittling away at them with a nonstop hail of arrows. Meanwhile, the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry conducted a series of charges that further weakened and disrupted the Aureans.
The Tangolian onslaught continued until nightfall, when Pompeia decided the only option was to retreat to Ascrus. Arius advised Pompeia to leave the wounded behind, as carrying them back to Ascrus (if it was even possible in one night) would sap his army of what strength it had left and they would have no energy to flee Ascrus once the Tangolians returned. However, Pompeia refused to leave a single living soldier behind, instructing her troops to make repeated trips overnight into the desert and drag what wounded soldiers they could find back to the city. The remnants of the Aurean cataphracts, Sparteians, and deinonychus riders, who were out wandering the desert, saw what was going on and assisted in the process, resulting in a resounding success that pulled every single wounded Aurean back to Ascrus. However, there were unfortunately not many wounded left to escort back to the city to begin with, as most had already died of dehydration in the desert heat or were captured by Tangolian scouts, whom the Aurean soldiers sent out to retrieve the wounded sometimes skirmished with during the night.
That night, Pompeia received a letter from Rhys and Qajeer, offering to negotiate if she agreed to the terms of the previous ultimatum. With the remains of his battered and exhausted army threatening to assassinate her and Arius if she did not attempt to negotiate a truce, Pompeia went to the Tangolian camp the following morning, thinking she could deceive them and use her skill with magic to take out Qajeer and defeat Rhys in a duel. Despite her best efforts, Pompeia was very nearly killed by Rhys, who was far superior to her in magic. Pompeia only evaded capture or death by feigning death. Her crown was taken from her "dead" body by Qajeer.
Aftermath
After Pompeia's disappearance, Arius led the remaining Aureans out of Ascrus, through the desert, and over the Anti-Imbreus Mountains towards Nicopolis, suffering heavy casualties from exhaustion, heatstroke, dehydration, and harassment from Tangolian horse and camel archers along the way. Upon his return to Nicopolis, he informed Aurea of what had transpired at Ascrus, and that Pompeia was nowhere to be found. Plans were made to put Pompeia's Consigliere, Lucius Gallus Pastor, in charge, as the Field Army of Zebusylvania was sent to Argentolia to reinforce Arius.
Rhys and Qajeer, thinking Pompeia dead, sent their horse and camel archers southwest to harass Arius's retreat, while their infantry and cataphracts began a siege of Ascrus. They also sent a message to their field army at the Limes Tangolicus to join them outside Ascrus. Once Ascrus fell and their field army met up with them, Rhys and Qajeer began marching southwest towards the Anti-Imbreus Mountains and Nicopolis.
Pompeia, unknown to anyone, managed to escape by roaming the desert until she found a Tangolian horse whose rider had been killed in battle. She rode to Melli, the nearest Aurean-controlled city, where she was able to hitch a ride on a giant argentavis bird bound for the southern Province of Tiorangi. Here, she met up with Governor Puhipi of Tiorangi, one of her first and strongest supporters from the election, and from there journeyed to the Exarchate of Tifinagh, where she was reinforced with local troops and one of her first political allies, its Exarch named Dihya. Before returning to Astras, however, she did manage to send a message to the Aurean Senate, telling them that she was indeed alive, apologizing for the defeat, and telling them that she was leading another army to challenge Rhys, Qajeer, and the Tangolians. However, she left her location unknown to avoid assassination, as pretty much everyone on the planet was furious with her by this point.
While Pompeia would go on to win the war against Qajeer and Rhys, the Battle of Ascrus stained his reputation in a way that would not be redeemed until her victory at Lisissa against a different invader half a year later, and the Aurean skepticism of Pompeia's leadership deepened by this battle directly contributed to the province of Terra Centralis's decision to join those invaders against Pompeia that year. Pompeia's failure at Ascrus would go on to haunt her for the rest of her life, and she would still sometimes have nightmares about that day years later.