Shadowmaster wars

“	A people with centuries of pacifism behind them. An enemy with experienced armies and high-power sorcerers to support them. And me with maybe a month to figure out how to help the former whip the latter.	”
–Croaker, Shadow Games, chapter 30

The Shadowmaster wars were the series of conflicts fought between Taglios and the Shadowmasters deep in the southern continent. The wars are described in the Black Company Annals of both Books of the South and the first two Books of Glittering Stone, beginning in Shadow Games and ending in She Is the Darkness.

The Shadowmaster wars are separated here into two separate wars: "Willow's war", and then "the Liberator's war" which began less than one year later. Except for the single time that "Willow's war" was specified, the Shadowmaster wars are always referred to collectively in the Annals. Willow's war was much smaller in scale and shorter in duration than the Liberator's war: Taglios simply repulsed the first waves of Shadowlanders from Taglian territories north of the Main. In the Liberator's war, a massive affair which lasted longer than 4 years, the Prince – the Prahbrindrah Drah – and his sister the Radisha Drah hired Croaker, the Black Company Captain, to be "Liberator" (chief warlord) of Taglios. In all military affairs, Croaker outranked even the Prahbrindrah himself, and the Company eventually ended the Shadowmaster wars with complete victory for Taglios. Only one of the Shadowmasters, Longshadow, survived to be captured.

Willow's war

"Willow's war" took place entirely within chapter 16 of Shadow Games. The disparate Taglian forces were loosely directed by the foreigners Willow Swan, Cordy Mather, and Blade. They were hampered by the independence of the Gunni, Shadar, and Vehdna cult leaders of Taglios, who refused to submit to one another in a single military hierarchy. The Shadowlanders were allowed to cross the Main. On two occasions, Cordy tricked entire companies of Shadowlanders to seize specially prepared Taglian towns unopposed, only to burn them down. Later, Willow trapped a larger veteran force of invaders in a walled town, resulting in a bloody massacre and significant Taglian losses.

One of the Shadowlander armies north of the Main buried their dead from Willow's war in a sprawling graveyard about a 4-day walk south of Taglios proper, and roughly 2-day walk north of the Grove of Doom, along the route that would later become the Rock Road. Since they planned to return later after Taglios was conquered, they planted trees and minor Shadowlander wizards applied warding sorcery to discourage Taglian visitors. (More than 20 years after the end of the Shadowmaster wars, the territory adjoining this cemetery would be the site of the Battle at the Shadowlander cemetery, part of the subsequent Protectorate war.)

Months after the Shadowmasters' forces were repulsed, new, larger armies were formed and prepared to cross the Main to capture Taglios. To counter this, the Prahbrindrah Drah commissioned the Black Company to more properly militarize the un-warlike people of Taglios to beat back the next inevitable waves of invaders.

The Liberator's war

During the Liberator's war, tens of thousands more Taglians were more thoroughly trained and armed. They were now commanded by Croaker (the "Liberator") and his Black Company. With much stricter military hierarchy and superior logistics and strategy, the Taglians invaded the Shadowlands.

Naturally, the battles of the Liberator's war were much more detailed in the Company's Annals than the preceding events of "Willow's war" which took place before they arrived. Major engagements and milestones during the Liberator's war include the following:

Shadow Games

1. Skirmish near the Grove of Doom
   • this chaotic ambush was Longshadow's first attempt to kidnap Lady
   • the Company's first encounter with shadows and shadowweavers
   • Goblin acquires the snake imp
   • minor victory for the Black Company
2. Lady's battle at Numa Ford
   • took place at the Main's Numa Ford one day before the more well-known Battle of Ghoja Ford
   • Croaker treats this as a preface to his battle at Ghoja
   • Lady and her Shadar Taglians forced the Shadowlanders back across the Main twice, then fought a battle on the north bank against the enemy force that "formed up and held out almost all day"
   • Lady seized the Shadowlander fortress on the south bank of the Main
   • Jahamaraj Jah and his Shadar riders were sent across into enemy territory
3. Battle of Ghoja Ford
   • the first significant battle of the Liberator's war
   • began on the north bank of the Main, across the ford at Ghoja
   • victory for the Black Company and Taglios
4. Battle of Dejagore
   • battle took place over 2 days, and consisted of 2 pitched confrontations outside the city walls
   • 1st day: victory for the Company and Taglios when they seized "Stormgard" (the Shadowmasters' name for Dejagore), and killed Stormshadow
   • 2nd day:
     • Moonshadow paralyzed (and soon executed by Soulcatcher)
     • victory for Shadowspinner, who defeated the Company and Taglios
     • Croaker the Liberator disappeared and was presumed dead, though he had actually been abducted by Soulcatcher
   • overall a major victory for the surviving two Shadowmasters

Dreams of Steel and flashbacks of Bleak Seasons

5. Siege of Dejagore
• began immediately after the Battle of Dejagore
• the city was besieged by Shadowspinner, whose primary targets were the Black Company and the Taglians who fled behind the walls after the battle
• the people of Dejagore (Jaicuri) suffered immensely during flooding and outbreaks of disease
• the 1800 Nyueng Bao De Duang pilgrims in the city were subjected to a genocide that reduced them to one-third of their original number
• the Black Company became badly fractured into two rival cells: the Old Crew (commanded by Murgen) and the Nar (commanded by Mogaba)
• Lady and a small band of her allies struck some victories outside the city, and eventually assassinated Shadowspinner, but she maintained the encirclement (albeit with no violence) to contest Mogaba's claim to the Captaincy
• ultimately the siege was a victory for the Black Company, despite the gruesome cost

Bleak Seasons current narrative

6. The Prahbrindrah's campaign in Prehbehlbed
• first the Prince captured small Shadowlander towns including Bhakur, Danjil, and Praiphurbed
• siege of Asharan, where the Prince, One-Eye, and half of the Khusavir Regiment were besieged by the traitor Blade for several weeks
• at Silure, a Shadowlander witch reportedly sent an attack of poisonous toads against the Taglians
• siege of Tracil, where the Taglians had the aid of a faction of loyal former Shadowlanders
• siege of the fortress of the local king of Melopil, conducted by the Prince's own Royal Guards
• major siege of Rani Orthal
7. Lady's summer campaign east of Prehbehlbed
   • took place after the Prahbrindrah's campaign in Prehbehlbed
   • a "relentless Taglian leapfrog into the Shadowlands"
   • the Howler attempted to counter this Taglian campaign with multiple costly raids intended to pick off Black Company men specifically
   • included a battle north of the Loghra Hills where Lady mutated Longshadow's mind-controlling lines of power into a lethal pastel storm to kill the Shadowlanders, and she chased away the Howler with sorcery, and he ceased conducting his raids afterward

She Is the Darkness

8. Bloodless liberation of Tragevec ("Shadowlight")
• this key city – formerly the headquarters of Shadowspinner – let the Taglians extend the Rock Road to it untroubled, and offered no resistance when the armies arrived in force
9. Battle of Lake Tanji
   • took place on the northern shore of Lake Tanji, located north of Charandaprash on the north side of the Dandha Presh mountain range
   • victory for the Black Company and Taglios
   • humans vs. shadows: an avalanche of apparently millions of shadows was exterminated solely with the well-planned use of Lady's fireball projectors
10. Battle of Charandaprash
    • took place at the Plain of Charandaprash on the north side of the Dandha Presh mountain range
    • Croaker sacrificed about 60,000 armed camp followers to blunt the swords of Mogaba's Shadowlanders
    • About 50 Stranglers – some portion of "the scabby remnants of the Deceiver cult" – were wiped out by Uncle Doj with help from Ky Gota
    • Blade, a mole planted on the Shadowlander by Croaker, unexpectedly surrenders about a quarter of Longshadow's finest troops
    • victory for the Black Company and Taglios
11. Shaded Road
    • top secret commando expedition led by Goblin which operated before, during, and after the Battle of Charandaprash
12. Siege of Overlook
    • final defeat of the last surviving Shadowmaster, Longshadow, who was captured alive
    • the Black Company was betrayed by the Prahbrindrah Drah, the Prince of Taglios, but this was anticipated and he was arrested by Goblin and his Shaded Road commandos
    • decisive end of the Shadowmaster wars

Aftermath

Several months after the Shadowmaster wars ended, the period known among the Black Company as the Captivity began, which lasted for 15 years plus the events of Water Sleeps. During a 5-consecutive-year stretch of the Captivity (before Water Sleeps), the Kiaulune wars were fought. Taglios, as well as the former Shadowlands, became the Protectorate, taken over by the powerful sorceress Soulcatcher.

Despite the death and destruction caused by the Shadowmaster wars, one lasting benefit was the new infrastructure: the stone bridge over the Main and the sturdy Rock Road linking Taglios, Ghoja, Dejagore, and Tragevec, all helped transformed the region.