Lore: The Border War

 From the year 975 to 991, Periandor and Rukkarim fought a simmering border war. Periandor controlled (and continues to hold) both sides of the River Naliir, allowing it exclusive taxation on goods coming across the border between the two nations. It does so by its claim upon the river cities of Marlinhelm and Afairn. These cities, largely ethnically Rukkic, voluntarily annexed themselves to Periandor in the previous century, before the cities of Rukkarim united, a point of bitterness between Periandor and the Confederation of the Rukkar.

The Confederation had hoped that by raiding Periandic forts and settlements, they could nettle Periandor into a renegotiation of their borders, without escalating to full scale war. This hope was not wholly unjustified. Despite Periandor's expansionist history, it was well known that its king, Andro IV, had grown reluctant to commit his land to any major war, after having lost all of his heirs in Periandor's conquest of the Hillbreaker Dwarves.

The result was a limited, but bloody, 16 year conflict, which wrought destruction and havoc on both banks of the Naliir. The war ended when mercenaries in service to the Rukkar Confederation annihilated the Periandic population of Cloving Isle.

Previous to this travesty, the Dragon Lady Ysandir, King Andro's most potent vassal, had declined to enter battle herself. Over the course of the conflict, she often urged Andro to negotiate a redrawing of borders with Rukkarim, to stop the bloodshed and promote a longterm friendship between the two nations. She held a degree of sympathy for Rukkarim's view of the war, that Periandor's dominion over the Naliir was a combination of historical accident and brute force.

When news came of the massacre on Cloving Isle, King Andro personally summoned her to witness its aftermath. Afterward, she agreed to ride out with Periandor's army. Coming out of the clouds, as the bulk of Rukkarim's forces assembled outside of Edrim, she devastated their ranks and threatened the city, forcing a truce.