Unification War (Great War)

Background and Context
Five years after his coronation, King Leodus' scouts on the Medi-i peninsula caught wind of unrest. A war lord from Primam, the King was informed, had been raising a trans-island army made up of skilled warriors - his ultimate aim to bring them across the seas and take control of Deputan homelands. While not necessarily violent, the King was quick to insult - and having seen the leaders of the Island nations as allies since his rise to power, took the mobilisation of forces on the peninsula personally.

Leodus led the campaign into the islands, landing first on the mountainous, Eastern island of Inpara. More sparsely populated than the neighbouring islands, Inpara turned out to be the perfect place for the defending, combined Medi-i forces to make their first stand. Where the Catalian troops were well-trained and equipped, the Medi-i were somewhat more familiar with the territory, and able to make use of the dense forests and underground tunnel networks to evade their more technically advanced enemy. The Catalians, led by Deputis and its King, vastly outnumbered and out-disciplined their adversaries; but the war was hard-won, and many of those who returned were never the same again.

Timeline and Events
The fighting began on the Eastern island of Inpara - sparsely populated and mountainous, perfect for the Medi-i form of guerrilla warfare. It took six years - much longer than the King had hoped for - for the Catalian forces to fight their way across to Inpara's western shores. Losses on both sides were relatively low, with the armies picking at each other and antagonising each other - stuck in a quagmire, each too stubborn to retreat. Upon reaching the western shores the King split his forces, taking half himself to open a front on the next island to the West, Infirum, and splitting the remaining troops under three trusted advisers (each to take one of the three smaller islands of the peninsula).

After waiting out the stormy season with his army split into four separate camps - each of which were antagonised by local guerrilla forces throughout the long months - Leodus decided the time was ripe to move on Primam, the more Western island of the peninsula, and what had become the seat of the rebellion. But the Medi-i were a more apt sea-faring people, and had spent the winter months building quicker ships; able to outrun any of the King's own vessels, and manned by more experienced crews. It took three more years of rebuilding and re-planning, with Leodus and his commanders each too stubborn (or too proud) to retreat back from the front even for a moment. Communications and logistics became increasingly complicated and expensive (though the King's warships dominated the seas east of the Central Medi-i peninsula for the most part), with the crown running up a considerable debt in the pursuit of victory.

Eleven years after first setting out to the peninsula and declaring war on the Chieftain of Medi-um, King Leodus of Deputis walked up the bronze-rimmed stairs leading to the First Temple in the centre of Metia, Primam. The six island nations had been subdued, and brought under the control of Deputis - part of what had by this time come to be referred to as the Deputan Empire (at first ironically, the name stuck when it became evident that this was indeed what it was).