For two years, the armies of the Second Empire found themselves in a war of annihilation against the invading Ferozen warbands. Farmland was ravaged by the latter, while small cities were razed down to their foundations. Smaller kingdoms and tribes were slaughtered wholesale. However, in the year 35 CE an unknown chief was appointed leader of a grand Ferozen alliance which launched an assault at the imperial capital of Mir, where The Imperial Cenotaph could be seen from kilometres away. Aboriginal forces sought battle in the surrounding open fields, and though Klongen cavalrymen found victory in the field, its infantry forces were nearly annihilated. Most of its citizenry was evacuated north, and then west across the Outback. Remaining Imperial forces, as well as the Emperor, sought to funnel Ferozen forces into prepared defences as their last stand.
After a month of siege, the warbands were on the edge of mutiny. A general assault was ordered against the diseased and food-starved city defenders. Ferozen warriors used their weapons as pickaxes to scale the walls of Mir, being shot down by bowmen in droves. The tide turned when this battle became a melee, and Aboriginal forces were slaughtered. Mir was mostly razed, though stone constructions such as the Cenotaph were left alone.
With the death of most literate priests, noblemen, artisans, astronomers, philosophers, farmers and officers, and the loss or destruction of most written records, the razing of Mir is widely considered to be the beginning of the Oceanykan Dark Ages.