The Evolution of Warfare - Part I - Heavy Cavalry

This is meant to be the first of a multi-part series detailing the development of warfare in its present state in the Flanaess, which is basically on the cusp of shifting from heavy cavalry (the armored knight) to a pike formation dominated model. I have purposefully kept out any discussion of magic as powerful arcane and divine spell-casters are not very plentiful in my version of Greyhawk and those that do exist sure as hell don't want to risk throwing away the power they have by being run down by some axe-wielding goon on a battlefield. The more plentiful low-level arcane spell-casters who aren't willing to risk their skins either. The best a wealthy knight might get out of his low-level household magus before a battle is a shield spell or something like that. As far as divine magic-users, they have probably exhausted their resources before the battle has even begun casting bless and other such spells, reserving healing magic for commanders and other important figures.

The next parts of the series will deal with pikemen, other infantry and specialized troops. That's assuming I ever get it written.

Scholars have argued for centuries over how the Oeridians, barbaric tribes of horsemen for the most part, came to dominate the Flanaess in the period of the migrations. Some, the Savant Sage amongst them, have attributed it partly to the diplomatic skills of the Oerid in dealing with the native Flan and demi-human communities, as well as the lack of diplomacy amongst the Suel. Other scholars of far lesser standing have speculated that it was the possession of powerful artifacts of arcane power, though the primary sources quoted as evidence of this are full of, if not composed entirely of myth and peasant folklore, comparable to legends of the antiquity of the Ghost Tower of Inverness, placing its foundation “...in the elder days before the Invoked Devestation and the Rain of Colorless Fire, when the ancient peaks of the Abbor-Alz still thrust skyward sharp and majestic and the Flan tribesmen were but newcomers to the land.” Likewise flights of dragons commanded by Oeridian mages and other such fanciful imaginings have absolutely no place in the chronicles of the Oeridians and their rise to dominance. To be sure powerful artifacts such as the Mighty Servant of Leuk-O and the Orbs of Dragonkind did exist, but were either lost at the time or in the hands of the Suel enemies of the Oeridian tribes. Such tales may get an inventive bard a free mug of ale or please the vanity of a tyrannical king, but are not worth the ink spent by so-called scholars who write such fairy-tales down.
While there is truth in what the Savant Sage has said, as my studies have shown the primary reason for the dominance of the Oeridian tribes was nothing less than sheer, naked aggression and the will and military technology to use it.

Centuries before the Baklunish-Suloise Wars the Oeridans had been a nomadic people of the harsh steppe lands to the west of those two great empires, bordering on the lands of the Paynim peoples who had been brought into the Baklunish Empire not a hundred years before. Even before the beginnings of the conflicts which would culminate in the Twin Cataclysms the Oerid made incursions into the Baklunish Empire. The reasons for this have been lost to the years between then and now, but one can speculate that they were driven by the depredations of enemies further to the west, climatic changes, population growth and overcrowding, or any other of a number of practical explanations. At the same time the Empire was undergoing a period of turmoil, when recently conquered peoples suffered under the depredations of corrupt satraps appointed by a string of weak emperors. Riots, rebellions, and food-shortages were common and disrupted the unity of the Empire. Whatever their reasons the Oeridians did invade the territory of the Baklunish Empire and met with great success, driving deep into the Empire, even to the eastern core of the Empire centered around the shores of Lake Udrukankar.

As is related in an pre-cataclysm tome entitled “The Barbarian Invasions,” which I had the good fortune to find in the Great Library of the city of Ekbir, a chief of the Oeridian Hexnan tribe -- Serit by name -- led his warriors even into the holy stones of Tovag Baragu. There and in the surrounding temple complex they killed the Baklunish priests, looted the temples and even carried off the priestess-virgins dedicated to the cult of Istus the Spinner, the younger incarnation of that goddess.

Despite their short-term successes the invaders were eventually brought to heel by the Baklunish soldiery. The result was the establishment of Oeridian settlements in what is now the eastern Dry Steppes. Out of a truce was forged a state within which the invading Oerid tribes were bound by treaty as a sort of quasi-territory of the Empire. Neither citizens nor aliens, these so-called foederati tribes were allowed almost full autonomy and subsidies of money and grain in return for providing military service. As conflict bloomed with the Suloise Empire in the years that followed similar treaties were established with the Oerid tribes that had remained along the Empire’s western borders. These mercenaries saw heavy use during the wars and benefitted from the adoption of superior armor and weaponry that the Baklunish were able to provide, turning lightly armored and armed mounted warriors, relying primarily on swift attacks with the short compound bow as a primary weapon, into heavily armored fighters whose preferred tactic was to overrun the enemy with shocking, thunderous lance. Though a far cry from the heavy cavalry of our own times, the basic tactics have remained unchanged. Interestingly the development of pike formations in the last century has led to a resurgence in the use of light mercenary cavalry, though this time it is primarily the Baklunish providing the service and Oeridians who are the employers.

For centuries after the period of the migrations it was such heavy cavalry, drawn from the aristocratic classes of Oeridian societies who dominated the battlefield. Of course there were times when this did not always bear out, such as the surprising victory at the Battle of the Thousand Banners of the primarily infantry-based forces of the Iron League over the cream of Ahlissan knighthood. Yet overall the heavy-cavalryman still dominates in the field.