East Lestrian War

East Lestrian War
Date	1810–1822
Location	The Tondaku
Result	Tondakan victory Decline of the Holy Empire; Consolidation of the modern Tondakan state;
Belligerents
Holy Empire	Prince of the Tondaku; Tondakan polities; Immolative orders; Supported by: Terophan;

The East Lestrian War—known as the Thousandfold Vindication in the Tondaku and the Southern Campaign in the Holy Empire, or popularly the "Bitter War"—was the invasion of the Tondaku by the Empire from 1810 to 1822. After initial successes that saw individual Tarshi expeditions penetrate well into the Tondaku basin, the slowly organised Tondakan defence gradually pushed the Empire to retreat from the country, forcing an increasingly embittered war of attrition. Extended lulls in fighting allowed the Tarshi to temporarily consolidate an occupation of parts of the Tondakan lowlands, but this became ever more expensive to maintain in the face of the unrelenting local opposition as well as the escalating interdiction of the Empire's trade by Terophan from 1814 onwards.

The war was notable in provoking the first great movement towards centralisation of power in the modern Tondaku, as military command and, increasingly, political authority were concentrated in the hands of the Prince to facilitate the defence against the Tarshi invaders. Faced by the disintegration of the frontline, rebellion at home, and the prospect of direct intervention by the Vaestic Powers, the Holy Empire at length consented to the restoration of the territorial status quo ante in 1822 and the payment of a significant indemnity to the Tondaku.

The war caused the expulsion of Sirians from the Tondaku in 1813, a ban that has, in name, remained in place since then—albeit with increasingly capacious exceptions. The war was also a pivotal moment in eastern Lestria: the losses taken by the Empire, as well as the fiscal burdens it assumed, were an important factor in the Empire's decline in the 19th century and the rise of the Houseless movement; in the Tondaku, the conflicts between the newly centralised princely government and dissident feudatories would lead to the Tondakan Civil War in 1841–46.