The Plan
Emperor Kylan sent to each capital city, Tekon and Calanas, an assassin and a spy-messenger to coordinate with the other Totian soldiers stationed unseen in enemy territory. To Tekon, he sent the assassin, Kos, and the messenger, Calor. To Calanas, he sent the assassin, Sayre, and the messenger, Rous. During this time, Kylan ordered the construction of dozens of Legion fortresses along the border of Wannonia as well as the border of Calanas. From these fortresses, Totian soldiers were expected to launch numerous border offensives, which would ideally serve as distractions for both enemy capitals. Meanwhile, secret Totian Legion strongholds were established deep inside both enemy territories, with seven of each surrounding both Tekon and Calanas; and Totian soldiers were secretly positioned within the city walls of both. While the Totians would attack along the border, each assassin was assigned to kill a high-ranking figure in each government while the secretly-positioned soldiers attacked from within each city. Such events were expected to create a temporary vacuum in leadership long enough for the soldiers in the strongholds outside the city walls to carry out a coordinated offensive, which would defeat both nations.
Exposure in the West
However, for Emperor Kylan, things did not go as planned.
In March 682 BCE, he made his first crass mistake when he decided to send Rous as a messenger to accompany Sayre to Calanas, believeably for the simple reason of removing his presence from the Totian Imperial Court. According to some accounts, Kylan had been growing weary of Rous' burdensome personality. In April 681 BCE, after traveling across the continent, Sayre and Rous finally arrived to the city of Calanas, where they began determining the best course of action to set Kylan's agenda in motion. However, Rous had an unusual tendency to engage in unnecessary pleasures such as excessive drinking and social fellowship with new acquaintances. Before long, he came into contact with a young woman named Erica, who Rous found rather attractive. To him, she seemed a person who wished to rebel against the Calanasian Council establishment. She showed admiration for Rous' chivalry and devotion to Emperor Kylan. Erica, one night, convinced Rous to consume enough wine to become in a state of intoxication where he described to her every part of Kylan's agenda to topple Calanas and Tekon, as Rous trusted her to keep such a mission a secret. However, in reality, Erica was a spy for the Calanasian Council, who assigned her to seek out suspicious figures in the wake of receiving news of the sacking of Eskant. Erica immediately informed the members and Calanasian Legion Generals of her conversation with Rous; and the Council immediately took action. Before long, they discovered the seven secret Totian strongholds surrounding the capital. In secret, Calanasian soldiers sought out the hiding Totian soldiers within the city, killing them, and taking care that such information did not reach the surrounding strongholds. The Calanasians then attacked these strongholds by surprise, defeating them within a fortnight. Before they could escape and return to Totia to warn Kylan, Rous and Sayre were promptly put to death. Meanwhile, the Calanasian Council dispatched an eagle rider to send a warning to Tekon.
The Unraveling
It was late in the month of April 681 BCE when the messenger reached the Wannonian Senate. Before long, Wannonian authorities found and assassinated Kos and Calor. The Wannonians then discovered and arrested the hiding Totian soldiers within Tekon city walls, and, through interrogation, discovered the locations of the seven surrounding concealed Totian strongholds. And on 1 May 681 BCE, the Wannonians, like the Calanasians, attacked and defeated the strongholds. While taking surviving Totian fighters into captivity and forced labor, they took from the dead ones weapons, armor, and valuable items, and then proceeded to dump the bodies into the Krystyne River, which fed into the St. Eschel River. Downstream, over the course of a few days, Totian bodies, plentiful in number, floated by Totian riverside villages, raising alarm and prompting the messenger, Merman, to fly an eagle to Totia and warn Kylan. This was the first moment the Emperor Kylan received news of his plan backfiring; and the immediately ordered all Legions stationed at the Wannonian border to charge and drive toward Tekon.
The Wannonian Storm
However, such an order proved to be Emperor Kylan's second crass mistake, for he had severely underestimated the Wannonian Legions' abilities to construct navy ships in a short amount of time. Furthermore, having the Legions sweep toward Tekon left the borderlands nearly completely open to a Wannonian assault, especially from the St. Eschel River valley. In September 681 BCE, the Wannonian Legions took advantage of this and launched hundreds of ships along the Krystyne and St. Eschel Rivers where they landed a total of 40'000 soldiers along both the North and South banks. Wannonians to the South swept across Ereautea while those in the North took land easily in Combria and the Northeast region. In preparing for the invasion of the West, Kylan had drawn a great deal of Totian soldiers from the interior; so Wannonian soldiers encountered almost no effective opposition in their takeovers.
Kylan's Final Decision
It was in October 681 BCE when Wannonian soldiers reached the outskirts of Totia proper. Emperor Kylan promptly ordered the three causeways to be closed. The Wannonians responded by placing Totia under siege, demanding that all entrances, the causeways and the docks, be reopened. By 1 November, they received a message of refusal from Emperor Kylan; and eight days later, the Wannonians set fire to all three causeways, destroying them. Before long, the fire reached city streets and began burning structures. Emperor Kylan, seeing no hope in the outcome of this war or the future of Totia, and yet unwilling to sign any treaty of surrender, took his own life in 13 November 681 BCE by leaping off the tallest tower of the Totian Imperial Palace. His Court advisors, shocked over what had happened, opened the docks lining the island of the city to the Wannonians.
The New Totian Arrangement
The Wannonians took part in selecting the next Emperor. Such a position was filled on 1 December 681 BCE by Darus, the Imperial Accountant under Emperor Terryn, for he had drawn inspiration from the Wannonians through his unusual wisdom in arithmetic and logic, as well as his luck in escaping the storming of the Court that had left Emperor Terryn dead. The next day, Emperor Darus signed a treaty that allowed the Totian Empire to keep the lands in the Northeast, as well as the territory North and South of the ruins of Eskant. However, also under the treaty was the surrender of Combria, Ereautea, and the Inland Sea to the Wannonians. Furthermore, any Totian traveler, civilian or Imperial, venturing between the North and South had to pay heavy tolls and abide by Wannonian laws while also being subjected to sea merchant arrangements.