Telmarine Conquest

The Telmarine Conquest was the Telmarines' invasion of the already-collapsing Kingdom of Narnia in Narnian-year 1998, which prompted the beginning of the Telmarine Age of Narnia. Although the Telmarine Conquest immediately pulled Narnia out of a Dark Age and established a new and stable monarchy, it also caused the exile of the Old Narnians and left them feeling oppressed and vengeful for centuries afterward.

The somewhat mysterious land of Telmar had once been an unruly colony of Calormen that at last suffered a famine, forcing its inhabitants to abandon it. Because the three great neighbouring countries of Archenland, Narnia, and Calormen were all battling through a related dark age at the time, the Telmarines, a culturally militaristic people, vanquished the crumbling and disorganised army of Narnia in the Siege of Galma, immediately followed by the Battle of the Lone Islands. These two Telmarine victories demonstrated how the Dark Age had left Narnia so devastated that it could no longer protect itself from attack and also allowed the Telmarines to gain military outposts in the Bight of Calormen. This would allow them to recuperate and later stage their attack on the Narnian mainland.

By this point, a Telarmine noble, Caspian, had surfaced as the leading Telmarine commander. Caspian continued maintaining close ties to the Telmarine mother-country of Calormen via the Lone Islands and introduced governors and nobility into the conquered areas. The Telmarines may have secretly been financially backed in their endeavours by the Calormene Empire, since Telmar had after all been a former colony of the empire.

Sending forces from the secured island of Galma, the Telmarine army besieged the falling Narnian capital in the Battle of Cair Paravel, destroying the palace, and defeating the basically powerless Army of Narnia, which remained leaderless along with the nation itself, which had been torn apart by monarchical power struggles throughout the Dark Age.

The Telmarines quickly took control of the country after the fall of Cair Paravel, separating the far north of Archenland from themselves and cutting off any ties to the Archendland government. Many talking beasts either abandoned their intellect or retreated to solitude and hiding, along with the centaurs, satyrs, and fauns, while the wood and water spirits fell into a deep sleep in their trees and waters, with some of the more fortunate dwarfs, who could pose as humans to the unaware Telmarines, intermarrying with Telmarine women. This group of defeated original Narnian natives were later deemed the "Old Narnians," who were quietly exiled from the Telmarines' human-only society. The victorious Telmarines built the Castle of Caspian, far inland from the old capital of Cair Paravel and the threatening Great Eastern Ocean, which reminded them of the "uncivilised" Old Narnians whom they had defeated. The Telmarine leader Caspian was named "King Caspian I" and thus began the Telmarine Dynasty of Narnia, and the ensuing reign of the ten Caspians. The next generation of those Telmarines born in Narnia would be known by the exiled Old Narnians as "Telmarine-Narnians". The Telmarine Age of Narnia had begun.