Polities of the World - Ghiscari Empire

The Ghiscari of Slaver's Bay have a queer notion of...warfare if it could be called that. 

Whatever thoughts the Ghiscari had of war, the Dothraki changed their minds for them. No, it would be more accurate New Ghis changed their mind of war.

When Aegon and his sisters, with their great beasts prowling the skies over Volantis declared the finding of his Freehold, the histories of the world changed. Once upon a time, the Dothraki had been a threat and constant bane to the eastern frontiers of Volantis, Qohor and Norvos, with the screaming horselords having burned hundreds of towns and cities, crushed kingdoms and empires, killed and enslaved hundreds of thousands.

Atop their horses, it seemed as if no force in the world could stop them. Even the Sarnori, united, could not stop them as the field of crows can attest.

But atop their dragons, the Targaryens were invisible and on the ground, Orys Baratheon was a general of immense talent. Together, tens of thousands of Dothraki found their deaths on the Freehold frontiers, killed by the legions of the Freehold or found themselves burned alive by the Targaryens and their dragons.

News spreads quickly upon the Dothraki sea.

With the threat of dragons, the Dothraki turned and looked for greener pastures elsewhere...Ghiscar.

Like an unstoppable horde, the Dothraki fell upon the lands of the Ghiscari doing what they did best, raping, pillaging and burning all that stood in their way. Meereen was the first to fall, razed to the ground by the Dothraki and nearly all its inhabitants enslaved.

Those with the means to flee, fled, to Yunkai, Astapor and some further afield to New Ghis.

With Meereen nothing more than trampled upon rubble, the Dothraki horde continued further south seemingly with a great haste to waste all that was left of Old Ghis. The Wise Masters of Yunkai pleaded with the Good Masters of Astapor for aid and in a great show of unity that is incredibly rare for the region, the Good Masters agreed. Their legions set forth from the city but to the surprise of the Wise Masters, the Good Masters of Astapor did not come alone.

The legions and fleets of New Ghis had also come with them.

Rosnan zo Lordaq, the newly elected Tyrant of New Ghis offered the Wise Masters of Yunkai the same offer he had given the Good Masters, recognise New Ghis as their new overlords and they would be saved. With the Dothraki nearly at their gates, they had no choice and thus admitted to the rule of New Ghis. With the subjugation of the Wise Masters, Rosnan zo Lordaq took to battling the incoming horde of Dothraki.

Though Rosnan held little faith in the slave legions of mongrels ghiscari of Slaver's Bay, he was confident the true lockstep legions of Ghis would carry the day ahead of them. In command of this great united Ghiscari army, he positioned his army with its back to the sea and the fleet behind them for this tactic dissuaded anybody from fleeing for their was no where to flee and he had given orders to his fleet to kill any deserters than ran into the sea.

When the Dothraki came, Rosnan made sure his army was prepared. Stakes were dug and trenches were built. What came next was a bloody affair.

Though the Dothraki had rained an uncountable number of arrows upon their ranks, most of the arrows found little patches among the properly armoured legionnaires of New Ghis, though the slave legions were something else entirely for they fell by the dozens. That is where Rosnan's cunning came into play for the fleet that he had anchored off the sea unleashed its deadly arsenal of ballistas and catapults into the charging and hollering ranks of the barbarian horselords.

From the furthest ranks from the front line of his legions, Rosnan's very own archers returned fire, not at the prodigious pace of the screamers, but more than enough to whittle them down effectively for the horselords detested armour and this was to be their bane. The horselords also looked down upon infantry with such arrogance that without even little care, they charged the steel tipped pikes of legion's ranks.

Strange really, for it is said that Orys Baratheon had used pikemen as well in his battles against the Dothraki, one would assume they would learn something from their previous engagements with such units, but barbarians are barbarians, what can one do? And the screamers are perhaps the most savage of all barbarians.

For an entire day, the battle raged before the Dothraki started retreating, though many men wished to give chase, the field of crows was fresh on Rosnan's mind and he kept the ranks of his troops. He kept ranks for the next day and the day after, sending scouts to search for the Dothraki until news came that the Dothraki had left Ghiscar altogether and had turned their attentions to more pliable prey, that of the Lhazarene.

With a great victory underneath him, Rosnan zo Lordaq declared the new birth of the Ghiscari Empire though time will tell if this new Empire of Ghis will meet the same fate as that of its last incarnation.

Surely interesting times will be ahead.