Aerugo War

The war predates Amestris's better-known border struggle with Creta to the west, making it the longer of the two southern campaigns. Fighting broke out after Amestris annexed the town of Fotset along with a slice of Aerugo's frontier, an act the Aerugo royal family took as a grave insult. Enraged, Aerugo poured troops into the region, not realizing that this heavy commitment was precisely what its enemy had hoped to provoke.

Backed by advanced weaponry, overwhelming numbers, and battlefield alchemy, Amestris cut through the Aerugan ranks with ease and drove deep into their land as South City erupted and Southern Headquarters emptied its garrisons into the offensive. Aerugo answered by throwing in more than half of its whole military, and the counterpush forced the Amestrians back to a border settlement. The strain cost Southern Amestris soldiers, population, and standing in the government, and its choice to pull alchemists away from the Ishvalan extermination and toward this front accomplished little, leaving its armies shoved back into Fotset.

Since then Central has fed the south fresh tanks and reinforcements, the East has spared what units it can, and Amestris has begun slowly reclaiming ground. Its leadership intends to press further into Aerugan territory once the enemy has been fully driven home.

The relentless bloodshed serves a purpose few of the soldiers understand. King Bradley keeps ordering men to their deaths because the homunculi want Amestris to expand, and every stretch of conquered land widens the Nationwide Transmutation Circle they are secretly inscribing across the country.