Nef'ludwan

Nef'ludwan, literally "battle of tears" in Turavid high common, was the event which precipitated the end of the Turavid empires and propelled the beginning of the Gjork wars and the Gjork empire.

Prelude
The Turavid civil war was coming to an end, with both sides clearly showing signs of collapse as entire colonies went dark and stopped reporting in. The Turavid dissidents, thinking that a final glorious battle between their fleet and those of the loyalists would bring an end to 2000 years of conflict, sent the bulk of their fleet with an attached Gjork fleet to the Turavid homeworld of Cavalon.

Events
While the battle raged over Cavalon, with the Turavid loyalist fleet, headed by the Autarch himself fighting with unparalleled valour. The fleets were effectively in a standstill until the Gjork fleet under command of its commander, admiral Tamisi, turned its guns on the planet itself and began bombarding major population centers. Aghast, the Turavid fleets both turned their guns on the Gjork ships. WIthin moments the battle descended into a free for all and the Gjork fleet moved to hide within the system's asteroid belt. With the Turavids suffering heavy losses, the Gjork fleet returned to the battle simply to brush the divided and confused ships aside and continue their bombardment of the planet alongside launching their groundtroops.

Within this period, the Turavid autarch, Ulthan VIII, sent his personal guard and recalled as much of the Turavid navy to evacuate as many civilians as possible and push away the Gjork fleet. With ships coming in from the far reaches of the empire and breaking away from their own battles in small, disorganized groups, their valiant efforts and deaths were ultimately of little use. Within the next two days of slaughter and failed rescue attempts, all Turavids on the planet were either dead, captured, or evacuated and any settlement of over a million Turavids had been reduced to ash. The Turavid house of autarchs, stretching back several thousand years, was rendered extinct when Ulthan VIII attempted to crash his ship into the Gjork flagship, resulting in little significant damage.

Aftermath
Seen as the deathknell for the Turavid empire, the events of Nef'ludwan resulted in several billion Turavid deaths and the shattering of any cohesive government. Colonies were suddenly defenseless and without leadership while the Gjork were left in a position where  they could not retreat back to their own systems. Within the next year the Gjork declared an all out war on the remaining Turavids and the Turavid race may have been driven extinct or into complete slavery if not for the Atsadi joining the war on their behalf and leading the Gjork into a series of crushing defeats. Despite their quick reaction and great success, the Gjork expanded their territory by more than ten times its initial size and continue to control over half of former Turavid colonies.