The First War against Nilfgaard

Journal entry

 * War with Nilfgaard first broke out in 1263 - its immediate cause a clear act of aggression by Nilfgaard against Cintra. The Imperial Army crossed the Amell Mountains and attacked Cintra's southern border posts near the forest known as Erlenwald. There are unverified claims of Emhyr var Emreis having a special attachment for this place - their import, however, remains unknown. What is certain is that he long ago staked an unfounded claim to control over all Cintra.


 * The decisive battle of the conflict took place in the Marnadal Valley. There Nilfgaard surrounded and decimated Cintra’s forces led by the royal couple. King Eist Tuirseach fell in the battle. The survivors, led by Queen Calanthe, sought shelter in the capital, yet none was to be found there. The city was overrun, its population massacred, and Queen Calanthe preferred to take her own life rather than surrender to the invaders.


 * The theater of war then shifted to Upper Sodden, where acts of terror and barbarous cruelty were perpetrated. Historical consensus holds that the Imperial Army's bestial acts here propelled the North to victory during the so-called Second Battle of Sodden. The atrocities had left the northern forces with only two options: to win the war, or to die with their families. Desperate determination thus drove them to defeat the seemingly invincible Nilfgaardians. The next year, in 1264, an armistice was signed which ceded control of Cintra to the empire, making it the northernmost province of Nilfgaard in all but name.