Conquest of Rhovanion

"'I believe the Conquest of Rhovanion and the Wainrider Invasion in General could be similarily interpreted as to how the mongols invaded China in the 13th century, in some way gruesome and violent, but also something to be respected for it's swiftness and effiency.' - J.R.R. Tolkien V"The Conquest of Rhovanion (Sindarin: "Dacal on Rhovanion"), was the name for a series of battles between the invading Wainriders of Rhûn, under Sacal Na'man, and the defending Soldiers of the Kingdom of Rhovanion, under King Roald of Dale. These battles occured between 1851 and 1853 and ended with the defeat of the Rhovanionic forces and the enslavement of the citiziens of the Kingdom by the Wainriders. What followed were 43 years of horribly brutal enslavement, until the people of Rhovanion, led by Barandir Dorhelm of Esgaroth, started a rebellion in 1896, that continued until 1899, when the Wainriders were finally driven out of Rhovanion and were later completely defeated in the south by Eärnil II of Gondor, in the year 1944. The conquest is remebered as one of the most vile and brutal acts commited by the Easterlings in the entire history of Middle Earth, right up there with Bór's Betrayal, also known as the "Treachery of Men", during the First Age.

Prelude (1843-1850):
In the Year 1816 of the Third Age, Na'man, son of the mighty "Sacal" (Eastron for "Warchief")The most feared Warlord in Rhûn) Ghasaan and his spouse Mawiyahm, was born in a small village of Easterlings. After he ascended to his father's position by slaying the 65 year old man 1843 in single combat, as it was tradition, he began to make plans to lead a succesful campaign against the western enemies of Gondor and Rhovanion. While Gondor was Rhûn's main enemy for years now, Rhovanion not only posed a potential threat, but also a perfect nation for enslavement. So it came that in the course of seven years, Na'man gathered two thirds of all the Easterling tribes under his banner, by either intimidation, promises of  power, gold and slaves or simply by the murder of their leaders. While rising to power he acted extremely cold and brutal, often torturing those who disobeyed him. While this would have been seen as disgusting in many parts of Middle Eart, to his people it was more of a sign of strength and his ferocity, aswell as his merciless behaviour towards those who dared to oppose him. While there was a certain amount of uproar in 1848, when it was discovered that he had raped his wife Suhayr, whom he married in 1846, none stood up to oppose him. In 1850 then he finally felt like his armament was ready and with much confidence he began his invasion of Southern Rhovanion and Eastern Gondor in 1851.

During Invasion:
The sudden invasion took the Kingdom of Rhovanion by suprise and thus they could not immediately react with a counterattack. While the south and center of Rhovanion (which is where the Wainriders started their invasion) had a steadfast 25,000 men, they were disorganized and seperated, with most of them just guarding the towns and cities. Only after a few months King Roald began to organize his troops and within three weeks managed to assembly 40,000 men at the kingdom's capital of Dale, with which he marched southeast from where the invasion came. Meanwhile, Rhovanion's western cities had gathered 25,000 men of their own, as per King Roald's order's. While quickly assembled, these men were much less equipped than the ones coming from the north. Added to these 65,000 men, the eastern cities, also called the Dainen, provided 30,000 men of their own, though these men only arrived at the beginning of the year 1852 T.A. By this time King Roald's main army had already been defeated during the Battle of Gerion and all southern and center provinces had been taken, as the Wainriders proceeded to march east. Nevertheless, the 30,000 men joined up with the 10,000 survivors of the Battle of Gerion under King Roald and 5,000 survivors of the south to aid the remaining 20,000 men that made a last stand in the East Bight. To further their numbers they deployed nearly 50,000 levies from the northern and eastern states. Combined with the 20,000 men of the east they made up for 115,000 men, the greatest combined fighting force the Kingdom of Rhovanion ever deployed into battle. While around 60,000 of them protected the western states, the 55,000 others under King Roald himself began a counterattack and in the greatest battle of the Conquest, the Battle of Nemeridor, they achieved their only major victory during the conquest. However soon the Wainriders retilated and killed King Roald and his remaining 30,000 Men in what became known as the Slaughter of Rundale. Even though King Roald had previously taken 15,000-20,000 mercenaries into his service, they were heavily outnumbered as they faced nearly a 100,000 Wainriders. Originally King Roald accounted for 40,000 mercenaries. but many of them fled Rhovanion after hearing the tales about the fierceness and the brutality of the Wainriders. After they were defeated the 60,000 men that protected the eastern states fled to either the western states or the northern states and the capital of Dale. Not soon after the eastern states were taken as well and another 35,000 men lost their lives. The last major losses were another 5,000 men during the futile efforts of the Wainriders to conquer the northern states of Eldaros, Marell, Normendor and Dale, a goal they gave up on after realizing that they would not be able to defeat the Rhovanionic in the coldness of the North. Nevertheless nearly 180,000 men lost their lives on the Rhovanionic side of the Invasion.

During Invasion:
The whole might of the Wainrider "Ord'uk" (Eastron for "Army") was relatively unknown though the exact size can be speculated relatively well. It is known that after the 600,000 Men of the "Golden Army" during the War of the Ring, it was the greatest military gathering of any eastern force known to Arda, surpassing even the 150,000 men of Bór's army in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and the 250,000 Balcoth warriors that invaded Gondor on the 23th of Lótessë, T.A. 2510. In "Lord of the Rings Book 7: The Return of the King Part 1", the following is stated: "And the might of the Easterlings was great and their armor golden, consisting of shiny plate for the first time since a thousand years, when the mighty Sacal Na'man of the Wainriders raised his Kalabk (Eastron for "Horde") of a hundred and twenty-five Asiraks (Eastron for "Tribes") and marched for Rhovanion." Not only does this outrightly state that the warriors of both the Golden Army and Na'man's Kalabk were the only Easterlings to ever wear plate, but it also gives us an approximate size of Na'man's forces. In "The Tale's of Rhûn and Khand" it is said that a single tribe of Wainriders consists of an approximate number of 12,000 - 20,000 members, with a fourth of them being warriors, which results in 3,000 - 5,000 warriors per tribe. The middle of that is 4,000, so once we do the math (125 x 4,000) we get 500,000 Men as an nearly ideal number for the Sacals massive army. During his invasion of Gondor's East Lands he was said to have lost only very few, so we are going to continue with the number of 500,000. Upon entering and forcefully taking the southern states of the Kingdom of Rhovanion, he split his army into a main force of 150,000 and two side forces consisting of 100,000 men each. The restly 150,000 men were left behind as a reserve and to make sure the southern states would be kept under control and raided from everything they got. His three armies continued to rabage the lands of southern and central Rhovanion, for several weeks, until Na'man decided to attack the west and east, in order to furthen his power and his hold over the land. This time however they were met with heavy resistance and in the North the Battle of Gerion took place, wherein half of his main army, 75,000 Men including 30,000 chariots, defeated the King Roald's northern host of 40,000. Later his second army had a long faceoff with Rhovanions western army, that eventually ended with a siege in the land of East Bight. This siege however was broken by survivors of the Battle of Gerion and Rhovanion's eastern army that, together with the western army outnumbered his second army by far. Meanwhile the 100,000 Men of his 3rd army continuously attacked the land of Dorwinion in the east of Rhovanion, but were met by heavy resistance from Gondorian survivors and its natives, hindering them from passing the mountains that protected Dorwinion. In Rhovanion the Battle of Nemeridor took place, in which King Roald and his host of 55,000 defeated Na'man's chief Warlord Mus'ab, who led the remaining 85,000 of the 2nd army, who lost nearly two thirds of their troops and were heavily scattered. However only about a month later, Sacal Na'man and the majority of his main host of about 125,000 Men finally defeated and completely wiped out King Roald and his army in the Slaughter of Rundale. After that it was clear to both sides, who had won the war and the Wainriders continued to persue and eradicate any remains of resistance, first in the west with an army of 125,000 strong, the complete might of the 1st and 2nd army and finally in the east with a much smaller army of 80,000 strong, that consisted of the 3rd army who were ordered by Na'man to leave the blockade of Dorwinion, leaving the 20,000 men still there as guards to prevent Dorwinion from attacking the Wainriders internally. After the East, South, West and Center were finally dealt with, Na'man only absently ordered his Warlord Mus'ab, who had failed him in the Battle of Nemeridor, to take the north with fifty thousand men, while he and the majority of his entire army proceeded to clean their wounds a little, before they began to invade Gondor with 400,000 Men only a few months later.