Phocion IV is the emperor of the World of Archontos who, from around 2742 AEP, sent General Adrienic to reconquer Ardis Vala — an expedition that ended around 2759 AEP in the Massacre of the Cave of Blood.
| Type | Character (emperor) |
| World | World of Archontos |
| People | Archontean |
| Era | Reign c. 2742 AEP; disaster c. 2759 AEP |
| Spanish entry | Phocion IV |
Position
Fourth emperor of the name, he took the throne around 2742 AEP, some 251 years before the valley’s present cycle, between the Reconquest of Juliana X Bellatrix (decades earlier) and the current Drusus dynasty (several reigns later). He is distinct from Phocion the Builder, an archaic archon whose tomb lies in the Lower Reaches of the Ardis Vala Mega-Dungeon; rural archives sometimes confuse them.
The expedition
The Decadian (book VIII) calls his reign a phase of post-Reconquest hubris. Encouraged by Juliana X’s recovery of Narsileon and Arcturos, the Empire targeted the ruins of Ardis Vala, lost in the Schism over a thousand years before, mistaking Juliana’s methodical prudence for license to expand.
Adrienic, a prestigious commander of the reorganized legions, led a force considerable but “modest” by classical standards: hundreds of soldiers; the 2nd Legion of escudaros (heavy infantry); the 3rd Elite Cohort of the imperial Tagmata, heirs of Bellatrix’s legions; mages and clerics of the Order of Thoth and the Decadian Orthodox Church; engineers and supply trains. It set up fortified camps in the Barrado Balacán and patrolled the dungeon’s upper levels, but soon met fierce resistance from the creatures of the ruins.
Massacre of the Cave of Blood
Around 2759 AEP, about seventeen years after it began, the expedition was ambushed and annihilated by Girbala, 31st tegnu (king, ritual and military chief) of the Varumani, warrior lords of the depths whose rule of the dungeon predates the Archonteans. The Cave of Blood lies in the dungeon’s middle levels, tentatively identified with the Troll Lifts or the Court of the Thegn. Losses were almost total.
A whole Tagmata cohort was captured alive and given to Lady Deino, an ancient witch allied with Girbala, who turned them into beastmen with ritual blood magic. These beastmen still roam the dungeon, scattered since her death.
Retreat and legacy
Phocion IV ordered a full retreat. Fifty years of partial abandonment followed: the exarchates held, but the eastern frontier froze and expansion toward Ardis Vala was suspended for generations.
- The Senate, by then consultative, issued pronouncements on frontier prudence.
- Decadian doctrine made the Cave of Blood a liturgical warning: “No avances donde el Pacto no te respalde” (“Do not advance where the Pact does not back you”).
- No Phocion V has been crowned since.
Ritornello, founded around 2718 AEP by his predecessors, was the expedition’s base; survivors returned to it scattered. The Varumani spared the civilian town. Surviving Tagmata and later Seekers of Ardis Vala made it a base for smaller descents; two centuries on, Seekers — including the present group — work the dungeon by contract, without imperial mandate.
Memory
He is formally respected in the dynastic lists, soberly honored in provincial basilicas and cited as a warning in chancellery documents. His name is spoken at an annual Decadian funeral office for the fallen Tagmata. Ritornello’s Temple of the Divine Decade kept a plaque with the names of the 3rd Cohort’s dead until the town fell to the egg of Kerbog Khan; it was lost in the smoke. His portrait — standing before a map of the valley, hand on the frontier — is kept in the imperial archives but not shown in provincial atria, in the sober style given to emperors of disastrous expeditions.
Conflicting accounts
- Adrienic died in the massacre.
- A minority account holds he was captured and kept alive by Deino in another form. His body was never recovered.
Open questions
- His date of death is not given in the valley’s documents.