ɴ/Siege of Bazir (1988 KY)

The Siege of Bazir took place during the Last Crusade, lasting from the 2nd of March till the 14th of November in 1988, when Kerskara II surrendered the city to Jadarar following the death of the Ceironian emperor Vladisov III, thus ending the wars of religion as a whole. Victory against the Miyanu crusaders was celebrated in Mejidiri, and marked the effective end of any major Ceironian political and military presence in Alaxia for centuries.

Prior to the siege, Jadarar on 17th January had thwarted the potenate's last major army, reconquering Mejidiri and other cities in the process. All attempts to reopen the Gala aw-Awlia Portal failed and a retreat to the last remaining stronghold in Azyeri to Bazir was ordered. Kannadi, governor of city, had already been anticipating a potential siege, and started stockpiling food months prior to the beginning of the siege in the summer of the previous year. About 8,000 soldiers successfully sheltered in Bazir, along with many tens of thousands more Miyanu refugees, the city with enough food to last the garrison and population at least a year before famine. Due to being the recent capital of the Arirubi'Kana before its capture, that and the walls surrounding the city were highly decorated and amongst the finest, along with Bazir being one the holy cities of Bokanism, this all influenced Jadarar's decision to spare the city from cannon fire.

On the 2nd of March Jadarar's army of 36,000 arrived at the walls of Bazir and immediately besieged the city. By April the first assaults on the city with proper siege equipment were underway, with little success due to the non-use of canons. On the 14th of April however, Jadarar's lieutenant, Yakub nala-Saldi spoke to Kerskara on the prospective of a peaceful surrender, arguing that continuing the war was now pointless as they had zero means of returning to Ceironia. Despite this, Kerskara under orders of Vladisov would not give up the city, and the stand-off continued.

A breakthrough occurred on the 27th of September when a group of Arirubi infiltrators and local rioters burned the vast majority of the city's food reserves, sacrificing some of the last Oelors to do so, guaranteeing widespread starvation by summer time. Subsequently, Jadarar offered to parlay with his counterpart Vladisov to discuss surrender terms, but was refused the opportunity from bitter guardsmen. By the end of October, a fifth of the army and much of the civilians were suffering from malnutrition. A serious attempt to retake the city was posited by Jadarar's commanders, despite his wishes against an all out assault.

Within two weeks of assaulting the city walls, with over two hundred cannons at Jadarar's disposal, the city walls were breached. Despite being capable of doing so far earlier, Jadarar had not wished to tarnish the former capital. Across a period of three days from the 12th to the 14th of November, the city of Bazir fell to the liberating Arirubi forces. Upon the slaying of Vladisov by Jadarar, Kerskara conceded to Jadarar in defeat. After the surrender, the remaining Miyanus were granted amnesty and the right to reside in Arirubi territory with legal protections. The war marked the end of independent Ceironian presence in Alaxia.

Background
Main article: Battle of Gala aw-Awlia, Crisis of the 20th Century, Last Crusade With the closure of every portal barring the connection between Gala aw-Awlia and Onayosuri across the past two decades, the Last Crusade which was proclaimed as a final attempt to maintain a lasting presence in the Holy Lands in 1963 had began to fall out of the favour of the crusading Miyanus by the late 1970s. From 1974 onwards the portal became less accessible, with its connection frequently being severed, albeit temporally, but resulting in significant supply and manpower shortages as time went on. The Kingdom of Hjukamitora, refounded by the Hirinkov Potentate, had successfully reconquered numerous cities across Azyeri, along with sacking the capital of the Quadi'Kana, Kasazlu. By 1987 however it had been reduced to the area between Bazir and Mejidiri as a result of a massive coalition of kingdoms from across all of Bokayizà.

The most recent engagement, the Battle of Gala aw-Awlia, was fought over control of the portal, with the Arirubi intending use it to launch a counter invasion. However during the battle, of which the Arirubi won decisively, the portal would cease to exist permanently, prompting the crusaders to retreat to their last remaining stronghold of Bazir.

Aftermath
Main article: Covenant of the Righteous Kerskara in the week following his house arrest was summoned to the palace, expecting a swift kangaroo court that would punish him severely; the former king of Ukanatora found himself invited to a banquet, containing many noblemen and Jadarar himself. Consequentially, due to the immense number of Miyanus that lived within Azyeri by 1988, after hundreds of years of on and off colonisation, it was decided that these people who made up a fifth of the population would be spared from forced conversion and worse. As Kerskara was the highest ranking Miyanu noble in the now known world from the Alaxian perspective, Jadarar sought to broker a peace with him as their representative.

Legacy
Main article: Miyanuism in Azyeri, Miyanuism in Alaxia