The Winter War
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| The Winter War | |
|---|---|
| Kind | War |
| Where | Velfald and the Frostveil Sea |
| Participants | Winter Elves under House Ursa against the Velfald Regency and its allies |
| GM canon | |
| first cited: [heralds-a#3] | |
The Winter War is the war campaign in which the Winter Elves set out to conquer the other elven domains and gain power. [heralds-b#3] It is fought in the lands of the Velfald Regency by House Ursa, whose own homeland is the island of Oavenia, across three land fronts and one front at sea. [last-winter#643 · last-winter#644] By the campaign's present state roughly a third of Velfald has been taken. [last-winter#643]
Method of war
Rather than seek a decision in open battle, the Winter Elves follow a strategy of guerrilla warfare, propaganda and the collapse of legitimacy, and they hold Grayhost. [heralds-a#3 · heralds-a#6] Their reasoning is stated plainly: to destroy the centralized power entirely, they must destroy the Regent's legitimacy. [heralds-b#182] To that end they intend to gather every ally who opposes the Empire's Iron Fist rule, and Moonward and Timbermire are named as the only powers able to stop them. [heralds-b#182]
At the border of Iceverf they keep to the country around the frontier rather than standing before the walls, and a guerrilla war is fought there. [heralds-b#146 · heralds-b#148] Raiding and sabotage along that border are continuous. [heralds-b#165 · heralds-b#170] They fight with an ambush advantage that falls away as an engagement wears on, losing a point every two rounds, and their darkvision makes them dangerous in night operations. [heralds-b#96] They have made common cause with gnolls, who fight alongside them. [heralds-b#94 · heralds-b#96] Their archers are typically stationed outside a settlement, shooting into it from the treeline and the town's edge. [heralds-b#67 · heralds-b#71]
Against Swanhall, Iceverf and Timbermire they use ice magic and attacks made across frozen lakes. [heralds-b#178 · heralds-b#182 · heralds-b#183] They are also described as summoning monsters from beyond. [last-winter#728] Their earlier assaults on the cliffs and shores of Rosereach, however, used no siege weapons, no beasts, no magic and no warbands of other races: only arrows and soldiers roping down the cliffs. [last-winter#779] They will use ships to strike at the shores or the cliffs, but their object is to land on the shores rather than to take the cliffs. [last-winter#779]
The Winter Elves and House Ursa
House Ursa is a matriarchal Winter Elf noble house originating on the island of Oavenia, and it leads the campaign against the Velfald Regency. [last-winter#802 · last-winter#804] Oavenia is also the seat of the Winter Elf capital. [last-winter#802 · last-winter#804] The house takes its name from the star of the cold and the north, and counts thirteen living members. [last-winter#643] Those members serve as commanders or advisors across the three fronts and at sea. [last-winter#804 · last-winter#834]
Alyndra Ursa is House Ursa's ruling matriarch and directs the war from Oavenia. [last-winter#649 · last-winter#657] Frelya Ursa is her sister, not the matriarch, and supports the war as the house's war-sorceress. [owner-form-2026-09-17 · last-winter#649] Yvanna Ursa, the eldest daughter and heir, is a druid who rides the giant polar bear Frostfang and commands the main forces in Velfald, on the Eastern Front. [last-winter#643 · last-winter#644 · last-winter#818] Caerwyn Ursa is the commander of the western frontier. [heralds-b#40] Winter Elf field units also include a Reprisal Team, and it was this arm that carried out the attack on Grayhost. [heralds-b#39 · heralds-b#40]
Velfald and its allies
The Velfald Regency is the opposing power, ruled by a Regent. [last-winter#785 · last-winter#789] Its central authority is weakened and full of cracks. [heralds-a#3] The Imperial Legion holds the line for the Empire and distributes its forces from Rosereach across the Eastern, Northern and Western fronts. [last-winter#800] Legion soldiers and warlocks defend the coasts. [last-winter#779] At sea, the mercenary company Blue Sails keeps a fleet off Rosereach to stop Winter Elf ships from reaching the port. [last-winter#663]
The Spring Elves are the Regency's elven allies and were the hardest-pressed of them: after losing the Grayhost front they went over to full guerrilla warfare for as long as the last tree stands, and now resist only with small harassment, sabotage and raiding teams. [heralds-b#40 · heralds-b#41] Having lost ground, they withdrew inside the borders of Iceverf, where they are a burden on the city's resources but also an allied force. [heralds-b#165 · heralds-b#170] Their leader Lady Emyl is the Winter Elves' fiercest and longest-enduring enemy and the only elven leader still able to hold her community together. [heralds-b#154] She leads the Everbloom Court and is one of the last great elven war leaders in Velfald. [heralds-b#190 · heralds-b#191] Elven civilians are to shelter in her castle during the war. [heralds-b#257]
Iceverf itself is defended by Spring Elves, Frostwood Rangers, Antler Knights and Velfald troops. [heralds-b#187] Moonward soldiers hold the cliffs and the coastline on the Western Front. [last-winter#832 · last-winter#835] The Summer Elves stand among the war's other elven parties: the youngest of the Ursa killed the son of their ruling leader before dying. [last-winter#643]
The fronts
The invasion is fought on three land fronts — Eastern, which carries the main force, Western and Northern — together with a sea war on the Frostveil Sea between Oavenia and Velfald. [last-winter#643 · last-winter#644]
Eastern Front
The Eastern Front is where Velfald defends itself against the Ursa-led invasion. [last-winter#791] Its defensive line is held by the Imperial Legion behind a river, with a small town nearby; a wide open stretch lies between the river and a forest, and the Winter Elves hold the forest's edge. [last-winter#782]
Western Front
On the Western Front the Moonward soldiers hold the cliffs and coastlines. [last-winter#832 · last-winter#835] The Winter Elf plan for this front has three prongs: a direct assault on the cliffs Moonward guards, a second assault on the cliff garrisons launched from another shore reached overland, and the capture of the town of Hollowridge. [last-winter#832 · last-winter#836] The enemy order of battle on this front is given as Winter Elf Soldiers, Elite Winter Elf Soldiers, Winter Orcs, White-Furred Gnolls, Elven Ambushers and War Beasts. [last-winter#679]
Northern Front
The Northern Front is one of the three land fronts of the campaign. [last-winter#643 · last-winter#644] The Imperial Legion sends forces to it from Rosereach along with the other two. [last-winter#800]
The sea
The naval front lies on the Frostveil Sea between the two lands. [last-winter#643 · last-winter#644] There the Blue Sails fleet works to keep Winter Elf ships from reaching Rosereach. [last-winter#663]
Lands lost
Swanhall was the first place to be invaded, three to four years ago, and has been fully occupied ever since; its Duke is in custody. [heralds-b#178] The duchy was known for its strategic position and its deposits of precious ore and gems, and its mines, foundries and castles are now in Winter Elf hands. [heralds-b#150 · heralds-b#151] Its fall was purely a Winter Elf military conquest, with no serpentborn or worm-god involvement of any kind. [heralds-b#152 · heralds-b#153]
Grayhost is held by the Winter Elves. [heralds-a#5] Its forest, where the Spring Elves had held the line, was destroyed by a joint attack of the western and eastern fronts under Caerwyn Ursa, and the Spring Elves lost the front. [heralds-b#40 · heralds-b#41]
Hollowbridge lies under Winter Elf occupation and in ruins. [heralds-b#60 · heralds-b#64 · heralds-b#67]
Lands holding
Iceverf is not under siege, but it has been rotted from within and carries both political and mystical threats. [heralds-a#3 · heralds-a#4] Its noble councils advise against open-field war with the Winter Elves, which leaves the city's forces stuck inside the walls. [heralds-b#166] With the hard winter it is not safe for anyone to be outside. [heralds-b#166] The city also suffers political instability: the Count is absent and his daughter has taken over the running of affairs. [heralds-b#148]
Moonward is described as the one land that would remain safe after the loss of Timbermire and Iceverf, and it would never bend the knee to the Winter Elves. [heralds-b#178 · heralds-b#182] It wishes to be the protector of Velfald, yet it does not want to interfere with the Winter Elf mission to capture Timbermire. [heralds-b#182] On the coast its soldiers have fought around the shores of the Rosereach peninsula, taking losses but striking back and holding their ground against one more attempt at invasion. [last-winter#751]
Timbermire is a fertile and culturally powerful duchy on the Velfald frontier, and with Moonward it is one of the two powers named as able to stop the Winter Elves. [heralds-b#182 · heralds-b#183]
Rosereach and the war in the south
Rosereach was a strategically vital port city defended by the Velfald Regency, indispensable for supply and reinforcement routes, and the seat of the war council. [heralds-b#5 · heralds-b#6] It is the only port in the invaded region, standing on the main trade road to the northern and eastern fronts and on the supply line feeding the Spring Elves' armies. [last-winter#663] Walls were raised in the city and preparations made against a possible siege. [last-winter#663] A landing was launched from the Winter-held western front to the south of the city, beside a village belonging to the county. [last-winter#663] When the invasion of Velfald intensified, the Empire sent Naevys Duskbloom of the Magnus Arcanum to Rosereach with special wartime authority. [heralds-a#50]
To stop the Winter Elves and the forces of Bella Worthmore at the gates, Naevys Duskbloom sacrificed the city with a modified Cloudkill ritual, and Rosereach became a dead but moving city. [heralds-a#51 · heralds-a#117] After the Winter Elf army withdrew from the plains of Rosereach they have not entered Deadreach at all. [heralds-a#48 · heralds-a#51]
Known battles and operations
- Winds of Emberfrost Battle — the youngest of the Ursa was killed here, having first killed the son of the ruling summer elf leader of the land. [last-winter#643] The battle became a rallying symbol for House Ursa. [last-winter#804 · last-winter#805 · last-winter#807]
- Grayhost Forest Campaign — a joint western and eastern attack under Caerwyn Ursa destroyed the forest of Grayhost County; the Spring Elves lost the front and turned to guerrilla war. [heralds-b#40 · heralds-b#41]
- The holding of the first line at Grayhost — Greywind held the first defensive line with twenty archers so that the retreating could reach Iceverf, killing some fifty enemy soldiers. [heralds-b#170]
- The fall of Swanhall — the duchy fell completely to the Winter Elves, with all its mines, foundries and castles taken. [heralds-b#150 · heralds-b#151]
- The Iceverf border guerrilla war — a guerrilla war on the frontier of Iceverf, during which the Spring Elves fell back into the city. [heralds-b#148]
- The Hollowbridge ambush — while the Snowshield Count and fifty soldiers camped in ruined Hollowbridge, gnoll agents planted explosives in the buildings and Winter Elf archers outside the town rained arrows into it. [heralds-b#71]
- The Snowshield engagement — Snowshield's Forces met an allied force of Winter Elves and gnolls, the Winter side fighting with ambush, darkvision and positional advantages. [heralds-b#94 · heralds-b#96]
- The western landing at Rosereach — the Winter Elves put troops ashore south of Rosereach near a village of the county, and the county's knights and the duchy's soldiers moved to stop them. [last-winter#663]
- The Moonward coastal defence — Moonward soldiers threw back three waves of invasion on the Rosereach shores, with a fourth expected. [last-winter#751 · last-winter#752]
- The fall of Rosereach — Naevys Duskbloom stopped the invading army with a modified Cloudkill ritual, killing it and raising its dead as a defending force, but the magic escaped her and turned the city into Deadreach. [heralds-a#51]
- The Elnaril assassination operation — an assassination team sent by House Ursa in reprisal for the death of a family member is in Rosereach hunting Elnaril, with one of the assassins holding the escape plans down in the sewers. [heralds-b#27 · heralds-b#34]
Behind the lines
Players, stop here. What is hidden behind this point is game-master material. The full detail is on GM:The Winter War.
Unsettled points
Needs a decision: Which member of House Ursa fell at the Winds of Emberfrost: the battle is given both as the death of Silvan Ursa, the youngest son, and as the death of Thalen Ursa.[last-winter#657 · last-winter#804]
Needs a decision: Whether Yvanna Ursa or Serida Ursa is House Ursa's heir and commander of the main force[last-winter#818 · last-winter#805]
Related pages
- Winter Elves — the people waging the war
- House Ursa — the noble house that opened and commands the campaign
- Velfald — the Regency under invasion
- Oavenia — the Winter Elf homeland and capital island
- Spring Elves — the Regency's elven allies, driven from Grayhost into Iceverf
- Lady Emyl — the Spring Elf leader, the Winter Elves' longest-enduring enemy
- Swanhall — the first duchy to fall, occupied for three to four years
- Grayhost — the county whose forest was destroyed and which the Winter Elves hold
- Iceverf — the northern county fighting a guerrilla war on its border
- Moonward — holder of the western cliffs and coastline
- Timbermire — with Moonward, one of the two powers named as able to stop the invasion
- Deadreach — the port city sacrificed to halt the invasion in the south
- Blue Sails — the mercenary fleet keeping Winter Elf ships off Rosereach
- Frostveil Sea — the sea between Oavenia and Velfald where the naval front is fought
- Sacred Frost Relic — an objective named in an unconfirmed war-planning document
- Summer Elves — a Regency ally named as a target of weakening in that same document
Unconfirmed ideas
The source conversations contain proposals for The Winter War that the campaign owner never confirmed. They are collected on Idea:The Winter War so they cannot be mistaken for canon.