Legion-Regime Wars

The Regime and the Legions were the two great powers of the early mortal age. Both rising on the continent of Yethera, they were, in some ways, very different, but it was their similarities that made conflict between them inevitable. They were both highly structure, orderly, controlling cultures, whose focal purpose was to unite the world under a single banner. The Steadfast might consider themselves the ultimate architects of the Regime, while the Orcs knew that they laboured to the design of the Dark Lords, but both civilisations sought the same destiny. The Legion-Regime Wars - refered to as the Legion Wars by Regime scholars, who assumed the involvement of the Regime in all matters of note - were ultimately fatal to both participants.
First contact between the two powers was tense, but recognising each others' strength, both opted not to pursue immediate hostilities. For a time, there was peace, as the Regime expanded across Talahaea and northern Moraea and the Legions campaigned in the south. When both groups sought to expand into colonies in central Caino, however, the previously neutral territory of Cathlaea and central Moraea became the site of the greatest conflicts of the mortal age.

The First Legion-Regime War

The Regime made the first moves, sending 'custodial' forces into Cathlaea. Their stated aim was to protect the small human and Lizardfolk kingdoms of the central plains from Legion aggression, but the practical form of the action was to raise cities on the Regime model and instal garrisons and military governors from the Bay of Shadows to the High Country north of the Darklands. The advance was well-planned and smoothly executed, but before the Regime could gather its strength for an assault on the Darklands themselves, the Legions, using the Horde as a spearhead, pushed up through Moraea to the east of the Great Shield to threaten the Regime’s over-extended flank.
The Regime retreated, leaving client kingdoms as a buffer, and the two forces signed the Treaty of the Deepwater while both gathered their strength. Neither side considered the treaty more than a temporary delaying measure. The two forces consolidated, but others suffered more serious consequences. Much of Cathlaea remained under Regime military rule, and having fought the Horde in many engagements, the Regime chose to expel all Goblins from their territory, regardless of the lack of strong ties between the subjugated southern tribes and the free northern alliances. At this crucial time, the Kindled decided that they had no interest in being the Steadfast’s enforcers and vanished into the Underhollows, leaving the Regime facing a desperate shortage of forces, as well as angry allies who had been promised the aid of the famed ash elf war hosts in any future conflict, and the anger of the expelled goblins to the north.

The Second Legion-Regime War

The Second Legion-Regime War was fought primarily in Caino. With expansion in Yethera halted by the Treaty of Deepwater, both sides sent expeditionary forces across the Central Sea. The Regime established a port city north of the Jagged Teeth. While land forces pressed inland, a Legion fleet sacked the unfinished port and cut the advancing regiments' supply lines. The back and forth between these forces and their reinforcements ultimately led to the creation of the forest domain known as the High Seats and the fortress of Storm's Eye in the foothills of the Skystone Peaks.
Ultimately, both colonial forces chose to ally with the neighbouring Cainan realms and join the Blessed Concordance instead of continuing to prosecute their masters' expansionist policies. While a very minor conflict compared to the First War, the Second was the catalyst that began the inexorable path to the Third and final conflict between the two superpowers.

The Third Legion-Regime War

The Third (and final) Legion-Regime War was fought once more in Cathlaea, as the Regime and the Legion each abandoned the Treaty of the Deepwater and hastened to conquer or absorb the Human and Lizardfolk cultures whose territory was no longer protected. These local cultures soon became mired in the conflict as allies of one side or another, as enemies to both, or simply as collateral damage. It was in the shadow of this conflict that many tribes were armed with weapons and Magic far outside their own experience, and that the first worshippers of the Three-Headed Serpent began to gather their dire cult. The first Virin-yal soon brought many human and lizardfolk tribes under their banner, and began the violent uprising which ended with the birth of the Ophionic Empire.
As the conflict in Cathlaea became a three-way fight between the Legion, Regime and future Empire, the Legion withdrew its forces entirely, following the uprising of the orcs and the slaying of the Dark Lords by their former slaves. Despite the exit of their arch foes, the Regime were unable to displace the Empire, and withdrew from the south entirely. The Legion dissolved, replaced by the Orc Kingdoms of the Darklands, the Horde was disbanded, and the Regime soon fell to internal strife, breaking into smaller and smaller units, each claiming to be the true inheritor of the original.

Conflict Type

War