Husrak h’Assar Ha-Qayyet

Husrak h’Assar Ha-Qayyet (6 August 1864 - 27 December 1913) was a Haksar military and political leader who eventually reigned as the first and only dayashafir of the Restored Haksar Dayashafirate. Born to a minor noble family, h'Assar achieved a great series of military successes during the First Haksar Revolution, catapulting him into prominence as the de facto leader of the nationalists. He was Shurain-Kheif, Ruler of All Haksarad and Regent of God from 1898, and was named dayashafir in 1900. He revolutionized military theory in his time and was personally undefeated in battle, considered to be one of the greatest military minds in history.

H'Assar was born in Gorram, which was, at the time, within the sphere of influence of Edury through the Eduran Expeditionary Company and its alliance with the local aristocrats, who were ascendant in Haksarad since the conclusion of the Coffee Wars and the subsequent civil war in 1811. He graduated from the Republican Martial Academy in Edury and, upon his return, became a leading member of the Haksar Restorationist Club. When nationalist forces within the Haksar military seized power in 1894, h'Assar sided with the revolutionaries against the collaborationist aristocracy and their Alutran allies, firing upon Eduran forces in Gorram. From there, he began a march north, routing the Alutrans from ports and forts as he made his way down the coast. After the provisional government in Jaliyah executed Kheif Dazbad in 1897, a split formed in the nationalist forces, between those who supported a restored and independent Haksar monarchy and those who supported the complete dissolution thereof. However, in 1898, having humbled the Alutrans and arrived in Jaliyah, h'Assar had himself coronated. Two years later, having destroyed any resistance from among the revolutionary forces, he was named dayashafir.

In declaring himself dayashafir—the first Haksar monarch to do so since the Coffee Wars—h'Assar had claimed authority over the whole Jarader world. While many Jarader nations recognized this authority, many did not. Among those who aligned themselves with the Restored Dayashafirate were Agarad and Esharat, and these nations joined h'Assar in his war against those who rejected his claim. The so-called Restoration War raged all across Harad, northern Skephon and southwestern Alutra, with Haksarad and Velorenkya coming to blows in Esharat. In 1905, Haksarad occupied Duomo, giving them control of all trade to and from the Abayadi Sea and drawing the ever-increasing ire of the Alutrans, leading to the outbreak of the First World War.

Early life and education
Husrak h'Assar Ha-Qayyet was born on 6 August 1864 at Sehdibarag, a small noble estate and coffee plantation west of Gorram that belonged to the h'Assar family, a noble house of modest means distantly descended from Tanashir. His father, Khedro h'Assar, was a former military officer and a nobleman; his mother, Milah ha-Dalom, was the daughter of a ruwadh in Shekosh. The h'Assar family was closely tied to the h'Ajjal family of Gorram, who were heavily involved with the local representatives of the Eduran Expeditionary Company and their rule of that region of Haksarad. H'Assar was the only male child of six, having four older sisters and one younger.

Despite the image of his family as unsophisticated country nobility, h'Assar was well-educated, having been tutored by a ruwadh at his family's estate from a young age. He took an intense interest in matters of military theory and history, as well as theology and political philosophy, and was also taught to read and write Eduran, Salian, Myrish, Elyrian and Kashar, though he spoke each with a thick Haksar accent. In 1871, Khedro left Gorram for Holat on a diplomatic mission to the Eduran court there. A year later, when h'Assar was eight, his father brought the rest of the family there. In Holat, h'Assar was enrolled in a religious school, where he initially faced bullying for his father's connection to the foreign occupiers. The boy's stoicism and resilience, as well as his apparent proficiency in schoolyard brawls, eventually gained him the respect of his classmates, however, and the bullying subsided.

In 1876, despite his protestations, h'Assar was sent to the at the Republican Martial Academy, the most prestigious  in Edury as a result of his academic performance and his father's friendship with EED Tradesleader Engerbert Filer. Here, h'Assar once again had to contend with poor treatment by his peers, this time because of his foreign accent and queer customs. He worked hard to unlearn his Haksar accent, teaching himself to speak perfect Eduran before the end of his first year at the college. H'Assar excelled in his studies, and multiple instructors noted that he was particularly well-written, particularly for a student not writing in their first language. He further developed an intense Haksar nationalism during this time, and it often got him in trouble. In one instance, the instructors organized a mock battle with the Haksar students on one side and the Edurans on the other, meaning the Haksar were far outnumbered. While this was meant to humiliate the Haksar and cull them of any sense of national pride, h'Assar far outclassed his opponents in his understanding of tactics, and the Haksar prevailed. This earned him the praise of his fellow Haksar students, and the tentative respect of even the Edurans. It was also during this time that h'Assar became infatuated with Eline Weaver, the sister of his classmate Bastan and the daughter of Rabrich Weaver, a prominent Eduran official. He fumbled through his pursuit of her, penning prosaic or clumsily poetic letters, and behaving notably awkward around her in person. When her father discovered his feelings, he threatened to have him expelled, but this failed to end his pursuit, which the girl humored, but never truly reciprocated.

H'Assar exchanged letters regularly with his family back in Haksarad, and it was through these letters that he became aware of the Haksar Restorationist Club, when his father cautioned him of the instability brewing in the country. Excited, h'Assar resolved to join the movement. In his next letter, he enclosed a private note to one of his sisters, which instructed her to deliver it to Ahrash h'Imrad, a known member of the club. H'Imrad then published the letter, attributing it to an anonymous Haksar student in Edury. That it was h'Assar soon became an open secret among the small body of Haksar students at the college—all sons of noblemen as well—and he soon became the leader of the campus' secret, unofficial branch of the club. After graduating from the cadet college in 1880, h'Assar temporarily returned to Haksarad to visit his family, as his father was in bad health. During his six month stay at home, his father made a miraculous recovery. While he had formally taken leave from his education to visit his ailing father, it had also been an excuse to get in touch with the Haksar Restorationist Club. On 29 July, h'Assar attended his first official club meeting alongside h'Imrad at a coffeehouse in Shekosh, where he had gone under the pretense of visiting his grandfather. He remained silent for most of the meeting, but closed with an impassioned speech advocating Haksar sovereignty from their colonial overlords, made in a low voice in the center of Salian power in the country. Before departing Shekosh, he took h'Idram to meet his grandfather, who agreed to be an intermediary for any letters the two needed to get to one another.

In September, h'Assar returned to Edury to complete his military education at the Martial Academy. Going forward, his correspondence with h'Imrad and other members of the HRC increased significantly in volume, and his letters were often published locally back home. In March of 1881, however, the school implemented a policy of reading all mail to and from Haksar students, greatly upsetting the campus Haksar population. But when the publication of letters back in Haksarad came to a subsequent halt, the Eduran authorities were reassured of their choice, and the policy remained in place. This caused division among the school's HRC members, as some who had previously been loyal to h'Assar and the club now blamed him and his letters for violating their privacy and stifling their communication. However, when h'Assar reprimanded his critics for being weak and cowardly, demanding that sacrifices much more grave than this would have to be made in the name of restoring Haksar glory, most of them fell back in line.

By now, h'Assar had shown himself to be a natural leader, despite his often quiet stoicism, and this extended beyond the Haksar students. He often took charge of his fellow students during drills, and many of his classmates looked to him as the school's tactical and strategic prodigy. Few of his contemporaries at the school had a bad word to say about him, aside from disapproval of what they considered to be a radical Haksar nationalism. Shortly before his graduation, h'Assar attended a joint dance with the Martial Academy and a local girls' school, accompanied by Eline Weaver. He graduated with honors in June of 1882 and was a  in a cavalry regiment stationed in Gosir. During his six month stay back home in 1880, h'Assar had become reacquainted with Emarra ha-Falet, a childhood friend of his younger sister. The two had immediately become smitten, and had exchanged several letters after he returned to the Martial Academy. Not long after his graduation and commission, the two would get married in May of 1883, Emarra coming to Gosir to be with him.

Only three months after their wedding, h'Assar put his military career at great risk. On 21 August 1883, a mob of Haksar civilians attacked a Salian patrol in Gosir, significantly wounding two men. Seeking vengeance on the men who had perpetrated this attack, several Salian soldiers accosted them in a local temple during a religious ceremony. H'Assar was sent to handle the situation, being ordered to avoid any bloodshed. However, furious at the irreverence of the Alutrans, he and his men dragged them from the temple, beating a couple of them severely. It is likely he would have faced severe punishment if not for the widespread support of his actions among the rank and file, as well as his father's friendship with Filer, who arranged for h'Assar to be moved to Gorram. Not only was h'Assar not disciplined, his transfer also included a promotion, as he would now be the of the attached cavalry regiment.

Mutiny at Gorram
When the First Haksar Revolution began in 1889, h’Assar was still serving as the lieutenant colonel of a cavalry regiment attached to the army in Gorram under Gamal h’Ajjal. Despite strong nationalist sympathies among his men, h’Ajjal insisted that this conflict would blow over shortly. On 14 June, a fight broke out between a group of Haksar soldiers and the occupying Eduran force in Gorram. The tensions were only exacerbated by h’Ajjal’s decision to court martial the Haksar and apologize to the Edurans. About two weeks later, on 26 June, a standoff occurred between the Haksar and the Edurans. Despite h’Ajjal’s attempts to diffuse the situation, it culminated in h’Assar leading his cavalrymen in a surprise charge against the Edurans, at which point h’Ajjal’s control collapsed and battle began. It was over quickly, the cavalry attack having broken the Eduran lines and morale, and h’Assar then led the whole of the Gorram army in seizing the Eduran garrison, their ships at port and their supplies. Importantly, these supplies included a number of, which Haksar forces throughout the country were sorely lacking. In the days following this event, it quickly became clear that the men had fallen behind h’Assar over h’Ajjal, and when the latter tried to have the former arrested for insubordination, the soldiers instead captured h’Ajjal and brought him before h’Assar, who had his former commanding officer shot for a traitor and a seditionist.

This victory over both Alutrans and Haksar collaborators earned h'Assar wide renown, and extinguished any skepticism about his loyalties that his education in Edury may have caused. Additionally, rumors began circulating—likely by h'Assar's own design—concerning his possible authorship of some of the letters the HRC had published over the years. Almost overnight, he became an incredibly popular figure among the nationalists, and this popularity only grew.

First Kashar campaign
A week after the execution of h'Ajjal, h'Assar, now styling himself a, departed Gorram with his new army. Heading north along the Dir Mountains, he moved quickly and aggressively, remaining permanently on the attack, as the region had previously been relatively secure for the Alutrans, and he hoped to route them before they had a chance to prepare. Sweeping up the coast in the Dir Campaign, h'Assar won victory after victory against Edurans, Salians and Myrs. To the Alutrans, port after port that had been friendly became hostile, their ships at port seized and their ships at sea turned away; it became increasingly difficult for them to find harbor, and their trade from Haksarad was all but halted. Upon arriving in Mussaf, however, h'Assar found the local Haksar garrison to be hostile. Jeqad Sateshi, the commanding officer, demanded that h'Assar had committed treason in usurping h'Ajjal and sentencing him to death. Confident that he could sway the man, h'Assar agreed to be imprisoned. When it became clear that this plan was not going to succeed, h'Assar instead turned to those guarding his prison, convincing them to release him. H'Assar then delivered a speech in the courtyard to the men of the garrison, who in turn seized Sateshi. H'Assar had the man placed under house arrest, and stripped him of his authority, though he allowed him to keep his rank in title only, seeing the man's objection as essentially honorable, though misguided. The Dir Campaign culminated in the protracted siege of Bet-walla-Mishra, where a combined Myrish and Eduran force had dug in against the approaching Haksar. Ultimately, the besieged Alutrans appealed to the Salians for aid, who sent a relief force against h'Assar. H'Assar, however, prevailed over the three Alutran armies working in concert with one another, and eventually seized Bet-walla-Mishra on 29 March 1890, a victory that greatly attributed to his growing legend. The Alutrans launched several offensive against the nationalists in an attempt to retake the coast along the Dir, but each was repelled.

Following his victorious Dir Campaign, h'Assar turned his gaze outward, to the situation in the rest of Haksarad. While he had cut off about two-thirds of the Haksar coast from the Alutrans, the southern coast remained largely unthreatened, and from these ports, the Alutrans had harassed his movement along the coast for much of the fighting thus far. Knowing that the largest Salian navy in Haksarad was docked in Badesh. Fearing that the terrain on the coastal route thereto would put him at the complete mercy of any ships that might decide to fire upon him, he instead resolved to cross the Dir Mountains and approach the port from the north, hopefully taking the Salians by surprise. On 3 April, h'Assar and his army began over the mountains. Their crossing was difficult, and brewing mutiny was only put down by an inspiring speech by h'Assar. While the journey was hard, the army did recruit a number of Deyro tribesmen, and they eventually made it across the roughest of the mountains. However, they did not descend fully into the Kashar Plain, as to avoid alerting local settlements of their presence. Instead, guided by the Deyros, the Haksar made their way west through the foothills of the Dir toward Badesh. The Haksar descended on Badesh in a in the early hours of the morning on 16 April, catching the Salians by surprise and quickly taking the city, as well as the ships at port.

The Haksar quickly set to repairing and expanding the fortification at Badesh, and h'Assar sent out messengers to other nearby nationalist commanders, requesting their aid in garrisoning the territory he had already captured. Several commanders heeded his call, and he turned over control of naval affairs and defense of the Dir to these men and their forces, turning now to the Kashar Plain. In moving from the coast, the war shifted from being primarily against the Alutrans themselves to being primarily against their collaborators among the aristocracy. However, these men being largely educated in Alutra, the tactics and capability of the commanders he faced largely resembled those of the ones he had fought in the Dir Campaign. The primary difference was the lack of modern equipment of many of the Haksar armies, a debilitation from which h'Assar no longer suffered, having captured a vast excess of equipment in his victories against the Alutrans. Consequently, h'Assar won most of his encounters in the Kashar Plain without issue, that is until 23 October 1891, when he caught a stray bullet to the chest very near his heart, throwing him from his horse and into the path of his cavalry, wounding him rather severely. Despite this, his men still carried the battle to victory, but many suspected that h'Assar would not survive. He halfheartedly turned command over to one of his staffers, but the men refused to continue the campaign without him. Instead, h'Assar and his army hunkered down on a small noble estate on the banks of the Herit, where they would stay for over a year, only departing in February 1892.

Second Kashar campaign
In January 1892, a messenger arrived from the provisional military government in Jaliyah, ordering h'Assar to take Shekosh and the remainder of the coast, a request he promised to fulfill. During his recovery, his reputation had suffered, as he won no battles and made no speeches for over a year. His name rose again quickly, though, as he returned to form and fought his way toward Shekosh. The Salians, hoping to catch the Haksar by surprise, marched out from Shekosh to meet them, the two armies clashing about thirty miles north of the city. Unfortunately for the Salians, Haksar scouts had already discovered their movement, and soon after the battle began, the Haksar cavalry crash down upon the Salians from behind, having been hidden among the rough and hilly terrain. From there, h'Assar strolled uncontested into Shekosh, cheered on by the locals.

From Shekosh, h'Assar continued his conquest of the coast at the behest of the provisional government, fighting the grueling Southern Campaign through the harsh jungles of southern Haksarad against the Alutrans and the heavy support of their local aristocratic allies; additionally, the !SOUTH NATION allied with the Alutrans against Haksarad. Consequently, h'Assar did not stop with routing the Alutrans from Haksar territory, but pursued them and their allies into !SOUTH NATION. On 2 April 1897, h'Assar negotiated the Falteq Treaty with Salia, Edury and Gladomyr, removing them from the war and from Haksarad. He also named himself Alkhet of the South, annexing !SOUTH NATION into Haksarad with himself as its ruler. He and his army remained in Falteq until January 1898, when news arrived that a split among the provisional government over whether or not to retain the monarchy had resulted in the execution of Dasbad. H'Assar immediately departed for Jaliyah at the head of his army. The nation watched with bated breath as h'Assar made his way to the capital, knowing that he would decide the fate of Haksarad.

Coronation
On 7 May 1898, h'Assar arrived in Jaliyah, a silence hanging over the whole city as he made his way wordlessly to the Ivory Palace. Once there, he walked boldly toward the Ivory Throne and took his seat upon it. From there, he had the whole of the provisional government arrested, thrown into prison alongside the Alutrans and aristocrats they themselves had imprisoned nine years before. He also called for every priest in the city to be brought before him. An anointing ritual was carried out, in which his head, lips, hands and feet were anointed with oil, after which he was crowned Shurain-Kheif, Ruler of All Haksarad and Regent of God.

Coronation
H'Assar returned triumphant to Jaliyah on 21 June 1900. The same day, he crowned himself Dayashafir on the balcony of the Ivory Palace, declaring that he had the authority to do so himself as he was the anointed Regent of God in Haksarad.

Jarader alliance
In being crowned dayashafir, h'Assar had claimed an authority over all Jaraders, in the style of the dayashafirates of old. However, h'Assar knew that a system like the tributary relationships Haksarad had had with its subordinate Jarader states in the past would not be tenable. Instead, the Restored Haksar Dayashafirate was essentially an international organization involving military alliance and recognition of the dayashafir as the supreme Jarader religious authority. Many Jarader nations agreed to this from the beginning, with Agarad, Esharat, Ventora and many others joining this new dayashafirate. All Jarader nations that rejected the dayashafir's authority were considered to be enemies of it, and war was declared upon them.

Porto Azul War
Not content with having expelled the East Alutrans from Haksarad, h'Assar resolved to see them removed totally from the Abayadi Sea. After securing his own country, an opportunity to take his first step toward accomplishing this goal presented itself on 22 May 1900, when First Consul of Watan, Caio Demétrio Andrade, appealed to him to send Haksar aid in taking back Porto Azul, which the Salians had bought from the Amalate during the Coffee Wars. H'Assar, who had already begun preparing for the Eshar War at this point, was happy to oblige, and arrived in Porto Azul at the head of an army on 20 June. The First Battle of Porto Azul was resolved quickly, with the unprepared Salian garrison surrendering by the end of the day. With the Treaty of Porto Azul, signed by h'Assar, Demétrio and President Lourenço Braga Rego on 22 June 1900, Watan joined the Restored Dayashafirate.

At this point, there was still one major East Alutran outpost in former Haksar territory: the island of Qozmet in the Covales. Additionally, the Eduran port on Baar Betlagir still remained, also in the Covales. When h'Assar had driven them from the Haksar mainland, what remained of the Myrish, Salian and Eduran navies in the Abayadi had retreated to their ports of Duraza, Khawrai and Baar Betlagir respectively. After the defeat of Porto Azul, the East Alutrans realized that h'Assar was a threat to their presence in the Abayadi as a whole, and not just in Haksarad. Pulling their forces together on Qozmet, the Myrish, Salian and Eduran navies initiated joint operations in the Covales, harassing Watanese patrols and convoys. The Battle of Baar Betlagir of 3 July 1900 was a minor loss for the Watanese navy, and it became apparent to the Dayashafirate that the Abayadi would never be safe so long as an East Alutran presence existed within it—particularly one at its dead center.

Following Baar Betlagir, h'Assar anticipated a retaliatory attack on Porto Azul. He called for more ships from Haksarad, but feared they wouldn't arrive on time. The Haksar and Watanese fleets in Porto Azul moved to the nearby port of Ferragudo, providing the reinforcements more time to arrive while the colonialists distracted themselves with Porto Azul, and providing themselves more time to fortify their new position. A Salian force arrived at Porto Azul on 8 July, seeking to seize or sink the enemy ships there, but found very few. In search of the enemy fleets, the Salians then headed east along the coast, toward Alvenes, only finally turning around and arriving off the coast of Ferragudo on 15 July. The ships of the Dayashafirate undocked and sailed out to meet their opponents, despite being outnumbered. After two days of rough fighting, the Haksar reinforcements arrived from behind the Salians, turning the tide severely.

After the victory at Ferragudo, h'Assar took to the seas, breaking an East Alutran blockade on 19 July, and carrying out the Coval Campaign, capturing and garrisoning the islands for the Dayashafirate. The Treaty of Duraza was signed on 16 August 1900, and saw relations between the Dayashafirate and the East Alutrans cool moderately. Watanese control of the northern Covales was recognized, as was Haksar rule of Qozmet, Baar Betlagir and the other Eduran holdings in the south Covales. Treaty ports in Esharat were also ceded, with over 50,000 East Alutra prisoners of war being released in exchange.

Eshar War
After their failure to defeat the Alutrans and their aristocratic collaborators in the Haksar Civil War, many revolutionaries had fled to Esharat in the early 19th century. During this time, the tagaromon was a figurehead monarch, a puppet of the military government. Additionally, Esharat had fallen into the spheres of influence of the East Alutrans and Velorenkya. This created a perfect breeding ground for the revolutionary sentiments of the Haksar exiles, and just like in Haksarad, a split formed between the Republicans and the Restorationists, who drew their name from the HRC.

Pittapara Hakkid, the nephew of the ruling tagaromon, had participated in the First Haksar Revolution on the side of the Restorationists in the hopes of gaining military experience and allies abroad. Upon he returning home, he immediately set to taking control of the revolutionary factions there, compromising with the Republicans and the Restorationists and uniting both groups behind him. With the conclusion of the Porto Azul War and the Coval Campaign, the Eshar War began, with Haksar forces occupying the East Alutran garrisons just as they were vacated, under the pretense of protecting Eshar interests from further intervention and from the instability within their own nation. Hakkid declared his war on 10 March 1901, with Haksar weapons and support, though the dayashafirate did not yet overtly join the war. In July, however, it was discovered that Velorenkya had sent troops to support the regime against Hakkid's rebellion. In turn, the Haksar sallied forth from their garrisons and began to occupy the country in support of the rebel tagaromon. When a combined force of Haksar and Eshar troop occupied the capital of Nāwa Halmašuitiš on 5 January 1902, Hakkid and h'Assar appeared publicly, with h'Assar being named co-ruler and Lord Protector of Esharat.

Relationships
H'Assar was known to have loved his wife very dearly. He had many more portraits of Emarra commissioned than he did of himself, and would bring them on campaign with him so as to "feel as if she were here with me" and to "avoid going even a single day without beholding her beauty, even if in the pale reflection of a painting and not the comforting warmth of her presence." He wrote to her often, and spoke of her even more. Additionally, he entrusted significant diplomatic and administrative powers to her in his absence, and she was responsible for receiving many foreign delegations while he was on campaign.