Ayule's Expedition (concept)
Ayule's Expedition, as it is known to history, is the sole example of the Boqqarut's armies invading lands beyond Damota, attempting to claim the other side of the Gonan Road and the metropolis of Kudahar in the chaos of Sarradon after The Halakdun. The Expedition was launched in 821 IS, and rapidly seized the strategic Road itself and many of the northern lands. At first, it seemed like a great triumph, with the fragmentary warlords unable to stand against the organized armies of Damota. Even to later historians, the initial campaign is seen as the crowning achievement of the Boqqarut's forces throughout the state's long history.
The war, however, would not go down as a triumph. Though the great city of Kudahar fell in 823 IS, and military rule had been implemented across the conquered territories, further advances were stalled, and the mission shifted to securing the already-conquered territories from the increasing levels of both native resistance and nomadic raids. The warlords of the region had scorched the earth prior to their defeat, and the desert's inhabitants would repeatedly harass caravans crossing the Gonan Road, rendering Ayule's Expedition increasingly dependent on harsh methods of extracting wealth, and whatever supplies could be carried through the desert.
At home, the Damotan state itself was increasingly indebted to the rich nobility and karavuux, draining the treasury to pay for its increasingly disastrous ambition. Though the occupation would last until 829 IS, the Expedition would be ousted after the Battle of Lazzan, when a coalition of local warlords, nomads, and peasant rebels would overwhelm the Damotan armies, forcing a humiliating retreat across the desert, after which Ayule withdrew his forces across the Gonan Road. All that his Expedition had won for his flagging Zalreb Dynasty was debt, and their armies had been left as hollowed shells. Many, in fact, blame the fall of the Boqqarut and the Etami Tetenik on the crushing defeat of this invasion, with its failure effectively ending the Boqqar's ability to control anything beyond Zahali itself.