nly once in the long and intricate history of operations in the Upper Darnelles was a serious mistake made. It was many, many centuries ago, but the mistake had far-reaching consequences, as it led to what became known as the Accidental War.

It began, of course, with the founding of the Upper Darnelles in the area then known as Heldenvale. The great vision of a perfect society, run like clockwork, had finally been realized by dedicated priests of Anz, whose names are lost in the mists of time. Many of the area's residents, unfortunately, were not suited for inclusion in the grand scheme, and thus had to be relocated to the south. Now, most of these people were quite content to live in their own well-ordered society, extending their own expertise in trade to all the nations of the world. It was at this time, in fact, that the newly-founded Lower Darnelles established the first worldwide trade network, with the creation of the post of Ranking Trade Representative in each nation that existed at the time.

Of course, the Trade Representatives from some nations were more important than others, and this fact was reflected in their relative positions in the Lower Darnelles government. Naturally, the representatives to major trading partners such as Tzalin, Hengmir, and the Granite Holt had great status. But other some other representatives became jealous of the accomplishments of their peers, and attempted to advance their positions through less-than-honorable means. Chief among these were the representatives who had been unduly influenced by the lands in which they resided, particularly Eoth Maecon, the Ranking Trade Representative to Gri-ennis.

Now Eoth was an ambitious man, and he desired to increase his importance by generating additional trade with his assigned nation. And he had political allies, notably a lady of high birth within the Lower Darnelles -- Ana Tawak, the Ranking Trade Representative to Rhi Miles. They were secret lovers, and she desired greatly to embarass her brother-in-law, Andro Jethrym, Ranking Trade Representative to Hengmir, and his family, who had close ties to Mondrake Opoi, the former Ranking Trade Representative to Ald Miles, and third in line to the throne.

Thus Maecon plotted to inflate the Lower Darnelles' commerce with Gri-ennis and Rhi Miles, to advance his standing, not least that it might be permitted that he marry into a noble family such as House Tawak. He did so by many means, by needlessly shipping goods to and from Gri-ennis and Rhi Miles, by bribery of a mineowner in Regros to forge documents demonstrating Lower Darnellian origin for metals destined for Gri-ennan weaponsmiths, and by many other tricks. The grandest of his schemes, however, was to ship weapons from Gri-ennis purchased by Rhi Miles for their current war with Ald Miles through the Lower Darnelles, and to record the shipments as trades with both nations.

So Eoth prepared a shipment of one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight swords (in those times, the nations of the north counted by twelves), and for good measure, he purchased thirty white iron blades, which had failed to be approved by the Guild of the Heron. He employed a man from the land which later became known as Kranoj to imprint the blades with the likeness of a marsh-bird, and still charged Rhi Miles the cost of thirty true heron-marked blades.

The blades travelled through Aravy, for at the time the Vath was ruled by Legovi the Bloodthirsty, whose troops would likely confiscate the weapons for their ongoing wars with Aris and Alkynia. Thence they went through Dvelinhurst, Tavat Mien, and Leblin. Now at this time, the Upper Darnelles was not yet entirely self-sufficient, and had dependencies on other nations, particularly the society of Tavat Mien, whence many of the founding citizens had come. As with any well-ordered society, the Upper Darnelles maintained constant scrutiny of their dependencies, and thus certain citizens made the necessary sacrifice for their fellow people, and lived for a time outside of their borders, in Tavat Mien and other nations, acting as if they were permanent residents of the respective countries. Their true purpose was to keep vigilant watch on the interests of the Upper Darnelles in that area. The chaotic influences of other nations made it necessary to formally organize these citizens, to prevent encroachment such as had occurred in the case of Eoth Maecon, into a communications network, called the Matricon.

The Queen of the Matricon, whose identity remains ever a secret, was living in Tavat Mien, acting as a fifth tholl distribution center sub-manager. The caravan of Gri-ennan weapons was required to pass through the center, which doubled as a customs checkpoint. It is not known whether the Matriarch of the Network ever laid her eyes upon Representative Maecon, but it is known that she took a special interest in the cargo bound for the Lower Darnelles. Of course, the cargo was not labelled with its final destination, as Eoth wished for the two legs of the journey to appear as separate and unrelated trades, but it was clearly weaponry from Gri-ennis.

Now at that time Gri-ennis, unlike its northern neighbors, used the old numbering system of Mounch, which used the same ideographs to represent different numbers, depending on whether the numbers were ordinal or cardinal. And this system, which fell into disuse many centuries ago, employed the same ideograph for ordinal thirty as for cardinal two hundred and forty-three. Here was the root of the error which led to the Accidental War.

The details of the actual workings of the Upper Darnelles society of the time are arcane and complex, and do not truly aid in an understanding of the overall system. Any analysis would by necessity be piecemeal and nigh incomprehensible, as the society did, and does, function only when viewed as a whole, in all context. However, there is one principle of any machine of complexity, that its overall functionality depends on the accurate and precise functionality of every component. Of paramount importance for correct results is the absolute integrity of the information gathered by the society. An error such as that made by the Queen of the Matricon, compounded by the deliberately false labelling and irrational routing of the weapons, naturally led to incorrect action by the entirety of the Upper Darnelles. As Elboreth Silverbeard was to say of the Accidental War, ``Garbage in, garbage out.''

Thus it was that the Upper Darnelles mobilized for warfare with an efficiency hitherto unwitnessed by the six gods. Never before, and never since, had the nation standing armed forces of any kind, yet the army that was raised in a matter of weeks was disciplined, organized, and dedicated to the one purpose of defending the land against the ensuing attack from the Lower Darnelles, spearheaded by a non-existent cadre of two hundred forty-three master swordsmen.

Now the ruler of the Lower Darnelles was weak, and great influence was wielded by Mondrake Opoi. And Opoi had been encouraging the Conference of Trade Representatives to pursue a policy of peaceful trade expansion, including reduced tariffs in reciprocal agreements across the world. Since Eoth had persuaded his Tawak lover to oppose Mondrake in all things, Ana had been agitating for the establishment of a select group of trading partners, favored above all others. She also had been arguing the necessity of obtaining access to the Nonnig Forest, and had even suggested weapons purchases from Gri-ennis. This would ``encourage'' Asaen to allow such access, while boosting her lover's political influence. The wise Representatives, lovers of peace and prosperity, had firmly stood by Opoi, until now. For when word reached the Conference of the sudden mobilization by the Upper Darnelles, panic struck. Ana Tawak and Eoth Maecon seized the opportunity for political advantage. The Representatives, fearing that they had not the time to deliberate, acted rashly, their distrust of the society which had expelled them inflamed by the polemic of Maecon.

Thus it was that the Lower Darnelles acted in haste, and the government declared an economic emergency. Commandeering the assets of all citizens, they purchased mercenaries from the Siodari Mountains, weapons from Gri-ennis, and were even able to secure armor from the Vath upon declaration of war against Aris and Alkynia.

In the Upper Darnelles, these actions merely confirmed the validity of the actions of the people. The inevitable followed quickly. Observation of the movement of mercenaries and materiel to the Lower Darnelles produced the inescapable strategic observation, that time was not on the side of the Upper Darnelles. If society wished to survive, a pre-emptive strike must be made immediately. Victory would be costly against an opponent armed with hundreds of the world's finest blades, but would come in time to preserve the sanctity of their community.

It was at this time that the merely awful prospect of major warfare between Upper and Lower Darnelles became the epic tragedy of the Accidental War. Legovi the Bloodthirsty of the Vath died at the hands of an assassin, and the mighty forces of Aris and Alkynia found themselves at a hastily arranged peace with the new fifteen year-old ruler. There remained only one last matter to be settled, that of the mostly symbolic war with the Lower Darnelles.

The elite Falcon Corps of the combined Aris/Alkynia expeditionary forces readily procured permission from Leblin to pass through on the way to the purely ceremonial surrender expected from the Lower Darnelles, provided that they make at least one attempt to storm Glasscastle, which even then was not actually in the hands of Leblin royalty. The largely ceremonial attempt passed without incident, and the Falcons entered the Lower Darnelles from the vicinity of Glasscastle, while a mere ten miles to the northwest, a massive invasion force from Upper Darnelles crossed the border almost simultaneously.

Meanwhile, a variety of mercenary groups from Regros and Tawak's ally Rhi Miles entered Lower Darnelles from the wilderness we now know as Misambokia (this was prior to the authorship of the Book). Eoth Maecon, who had ridden his paranoia-inducing politicking to the leadership of the Conference, became swept up in the glory of battle which his corruption by Gri-ennis had led him to expect, and declared himself Supreme General of the Lower Darnelles Defense Force.

The fast-moving Falcons met resistance first. Much to their surprise, the Lower Darnelles had an army, and the Falcons suffered heavy casualties in a sneak attack by the mercenaries. Perceiving an opportunity to disable what they believed to be a lesser adjunct to the Lower Darnelles forces (what was actually the main body), the Upper Darnelles juggernaut struck the mercenaries a devastating blow, sweeping over the very same field where the Falcons had been hit. Eoth Maecon was only one of those whose broken bodies littered the countryside that day.

The mercenaries, stunned by the sudden appearance of the army, broke, and went into guerilla warfare mode. Unconcerned for the welfare of people who were not their own, the mercenaries sacked the towns they were supposed to be defending, living as parasites on the land formerly dominated by peace.

The veteran Falcons quickly regrouped -- this style of warfare was quite familiar to them. They too proceeded without regard for the welfare of the stunned people of the Lower Darnelles, exhibiting excess cruelty at times, seemingly in retaliation for the crime of daring to fight a war so far from the Throne of the Mistress of Slaughter.

For eleven months the war raged, back and forth across the torn land, armies blitzing across the plains like flash floods, colliding in cloudbursts of blood and tears. Reinforcements arrived from Aris and Alkynia. The provisional war government of Lower Darnelles continued to sell off the assets of the nation to finance further mercenaries. Trade with Gri-ennis and the Vath blossomed, and with all other nations commerce withered. And the finely tuned mechanism of the Upper Darnelles continued to crank out perfectly trained troops, who marched in lockstep across the border, searching out and destroying any potential threat to the sanctity of their society.

But as the fighting blazed on, it took an ever-increasing toll on the participants. At home in Aris, nobles were asking what business the nation had in the Lower Darnelles. In the Upper Darnelles, calculations had not accounted for the presence of Falcon-caliber troops, or their later reinforcements. And in the Lower Darnelles, the vast majority of the people, peace-loving at heart, ached with the pain and suffering of war as never seen before or since in their homeland. Finally, the strain became too much, and a peace settlement was brokered by the Tzalin King Rythde. At that time it was first discovered how the war had occurred, and the ensuing treaty guaranteed for all eternity that never again for any reason would either nation form an organized armed force. Even in the face of the spreading evil of Ghoras, this treaty was not broken, thousands of years later.

But that is another story...

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