Battle of the Six Thousand Martyrs

The Battle of the Six Thousand Martyrs, also called the Battle of Perus Valley, Neft's Folly, or the Great Slaying, was a pivotal engagement in the history of the Ravennic Empire, often considered to be the beginning of the end of the polity, which resulted in the deaths of Emperor Laus Neft and over 6,000 men of the imperial retinue. The battle was a devastating blow to the Empire, creating both a succession crisis and a crisis in the imperial army, which had lost over three-quarters of the standing army. The battle has also come to hold great cultural and even religious significance, with the 6,000 Ravennic soldiers declared martyrs by the Great Priests, who would come to declare both the dawn of a new age, dubbed the Age of Martyrs, and the end of the previous Age of Synthesis.