The Great War
Dragon Emperor
As the cults of the various deities were under assault in the southern plateau, various supernatural creatures used the opportunity to undermine the rule of churches in the north. This would often start with an alliances with local monarchs but always led to an eventual takeover for themselves: Beholders, Hags, Liches, Vampires, Dragons and others. However, the result was a vast collection of city-states with little individual significance.
The Kingdom and city of Thamasa were the ancestral home of the Dragonborns and Kobolds. The royal family had the power to transform into and could easily tame many breeds of Dragons. Dragonborn and Kobolds never worshiped extraplanar powers but revered the Dragons themselves. As the neighbouring kingdoms fell under the sway of supernatural creatures, the leader of Thamasa, Thamcyan the Third, sought to establish dominance over the Northern and Eastern plateaus. Thamcyan thus established himself as First Emperor of the Thamasan Empire.
Even at its apex, the political structure of the Empire was shaky. As long as the provincial rulers swore fealty to the Emperor and sent their taxes to Thamasa, they were allowed to rule as they pleased. In practice, the provincial rulers constantly bickered and conspired among themselves, mostly discreetly. The Emperor kept them in line by playing them against each other and directing most of the attention to external threats. However, once the Republic and the Empire finished conquering most of the available territory, there were no more easy external targets. To his credit, Thamcyan the XII subdued the internal struggles of the Empire for almost a decade before he was forced into a war that escalated well beyond his calculations.
Prelude to war
The floating island of Shima is located off the western cliff of the Eastern plateau. From a purely geographic point of view, it should have ended up as part of the Empire given its proximity. However, Shima was overtaken by a group of Mages in the last century of the Age of Emancipation, in 2914. These Mages had left the Republic wanting to strike out on their own, far from the Archmage Council. They subdued the local mundane population and established a small independent state. Tasnica never recognized its independence but Shima was located well beyond its reach, with several hostile kingdoms between them.
Regardless, in 2971, after an escalation of tensions and rhetoric, the Thamasan Empire was threatening to invade the Island of Shima. During the buildup of tension, the Tasnican Republic had postured itself as the defender of Mages everywhere and warned that it would defend them in the name of their arcane and cultural bonds. The Shiman Mages were keen to play both sides: discreetly receiving military aid from Tasnica while publicly reiterating their independence. Troops were positioned in nearby allied territory. Both the Empire and the Republic believed that the other side was bluffing and both were wrong.
War
Contrary to the Age of Emancipation which was three centuries of fairly localized conflicts interspaced with long period of peace, the Great War was over two decades of deadly fighting across vast territories, sparing very few corners of the continent. Several modern implementations of magic enabled the two nations to wage continuous war while keeping their troops fed and supplied. Populations were mostly kept from starvation but were routinely caught in the fighting.
After two decades, hundreds of large scale battles and sieges, millions of casualties and many more displaced, the battle lines between the Empire and the Republic were, more or less what they were at the beginning of the conflict, and their respective resources were almost spent.
In desperation, in the year 2992, the Republic resorted to deploying the first weapons of mass arcane destruction: “Veil Renders”. These devices ripped through the fabric of the barriers between planes, destroying most life (and unlife) within several kilometers. Two such devices were deployed in the outer provinces of the Empire and one at its very core. While the use of Veil Renders would have long term implications, their use did facilitate the end of the war...
One supernatural faction within the Empire was particularly reeling from the conflict: the Vampires of the Camarilla . Since the early days of the Empire, most of the Vampires had formed a secret alliance with the long term goal of overthrowing the Emperor and taking, indirect, control over the Empire. The war had a huge toll on the primary source of food and power for vampires: humanoid blood. Without revealing the full extent of their organization, the Camarilla independently reached out to two groups: a cabal of Liches led by Amadeus, the Deathless and the Archmage Council of Tasnica. To the former, they offered their support in overthrowing Thamcyan the XII if the Liches promised to negotiate peace with the Republic. To the later, they promised to get the Empire to surrender if they provided them with the means of destroying the Emperor.
The vampires smuggled a Veil Render and its operators in Thamasa while the Liches ensured that the Emperor and most of the royal family was present at the time of activation. The destruction of most of the Imperial family, as well as most of their prime breading Dragons, sent the Empire in a short period of chaos. But, by the end of 2993, the Liches, with the support of the Camarilla managed to stabilize the Empire under their reign, tracked down and killed any Dragonborn with a claim to the throne, and obtained a ceasefire with the Republic. Meanwhile, unrest was brewing in a few outlying Tasnican provinces and colonies. Thamasan agents had been stoking the fires of discontent for a while and enabled the assassination of several mages and even a couple of Mage-Governors.
Peace negotiations between the Empire and the Republic were fairly short. Both sides were exhausted and had enough trouble at home. Most of the conquered territories were retroceded to the opponent, prisoners were exchanged and trade was reopened.
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