The Great War

936-957

It started with a mysterious assassination of the Markosian king, and it finished in an inter-planar conflict where everyone was fighting each other. The sky itself burning, and gods trying to destroy each other. This really got out of control.

Unnamed Duranian historian

A Burning World

In the story of the world, many conflicts happened. From a cosmic duel between two primordial gods to the unification of barbarian tribes in the dawn of mankind. But between all Ages, the spot of the bloodiest easily goes to what is known as The Great War. Even if the Heroic Age's wars had stronger weapons and great devastation, it was only a few nations. But what was originally a strange assassination ended in the entire world fighting .

From the Markosian killing each other in a civil war to the Duranian coalition shattering. A coup from the Duranian kingdom's most trusted protectors, the Solar Empire trying to gain more power, Keshian raiders smelling blood and conflict, it was an age of madness, death, and tragedy. No ruler, no kingdom, no alliance was spared, and the desolation was akin to that of the God Dragon. Even part of the Great Forest burned in the confusion.

Despite its name, it wasn't one unified war, but rather multiple conflicts that were linked between each other in one way or another. In fact, it was called that way because whenever a conflict ended, another sprung up. As such, for several years the world didn't know peace. Some even consider it an Age in and of itself, though it isn't recognized as such in history.

History

The origin of this conflict is traced back to 936, where on one rainy night the Markosian king got killed and his soul was nowhere to be found. After his eldest son took over, he exiled his two younger brothers for conspiring against him. The youngest left for the Solar Empire to get the favors of the Sun Imperatrice, but his elder didn't do such a thing. He joined a separatist group named the Markosian Brothers and through careful manipulation, pulling political strings, and guaranteeing the group's power once his brother was dead, he became the right hand of the leader and launched a surprise revolt all across the country in Anbril 939.

The sudden and powerful uprising completely caught the royalist forces by surprise, and they got quickly overrun. In desperation, king Daneï called upon the other members of the coalition. While House Araccun and Naga were either too busy or too uninterested in this, Icevale sent multiple convoys full of resources while gathering its troops and preparing their common border. However, it was the Duranian Kingdom who was the major actor. In a remarkably small amount of time, they sent half their army and three companies of the Praetorian Guard in an offensive push through the chain of mountains separating the two kingdoms.

While their intervention was welcomed by king Daneï, many knew that the kingdom would surely take the opportunity of taking strategic points from the rebels for themselves, further strengthening the grip over Markos. Nevertheless, the strike was quick and the rebels quickly routed under the pressure to neighboring islands, including the exiled Fergun, furious at his defeat. However, as a part of the army pursued them, they realized that the rebels were helped by the Solar Empire.

Enraged, king Sigvald III ordered his forces to kick any Satenians out of the isles. The Sun Imperatrice then declared war on the entirety of the coalition. While the remaining troops gathered their strength in the islands, the king threw another part of his army in an offensive on the Satenian Desert. However, general Immagan expected such a move, and while the offensive force was harassed for days in the desert, another strike team went to the Markosian islands to try and destabilize the troops there.

Meanwhile, the rest of the coalition argued about what they would do. Icevale was suffering from a sudden orc insurrection and had to devote their forces to quelling the raiders while also keeping an eye on the Sakura Dynasty to see if they would also join the war. Meanwhile, House Araccun prepared itself for an invasion, and House Naga started to hire pirates in the Shattered Archipelago to take control of the islands. Shortly after that, the Solar Empire did the same thing, and what was known as The Grand Pirate War begun in the archipelago.

Two months after the beginning of the campaign in the Satenian Desert, another offensive was launched from the islands to the shores of the Solar Empire. The objective was to take over the River Ungaven, splitting the empire in half and taking over its main trade route. Meanwhile, the Sicarite Church and Covenant of Vesta hadn't been idle. Sisters of the Covenant brought supplies and relief to the stalling and exhausted army, while the Church took a more radical approach to this. All over the continent, priests called to the holy war and then launched a 200 000 men strong crusade against the Empire. Peasants were quickly trained and armed, while Sicarite Knight donned their heavy armors and joined them on the battlefield.

But while all of this was happening, an incident on the Icevalian border happened, where a caravan of Sakuran merchants got killed in the mountains by what were supposedly Icevalian soldiers. After accusing the duchy of being traitors incapable of filling their duties, the Great Dynast declared war on Icevale. This surprise attack shocked Icevale that struggled to gather their armies. However, luckily for them, the Frostguard managed to hold out the Sakuran army at the border thanks to their defensive structures and guerrilla tactics. But the troubles had only just begun.

Remains of the Markosian rebels allied themselves with the Solar Empire, and king Sigvald started to lose it. Overwhelmed on all sides, the stress started to make his mind crack. As a result, he became more and more tyrannic and delusional, plunging the already fragile kingdom into even more chaos and disarray. However, this all came back to bite him wherein a shocking instant that surprised even the gods themselves, the Commander Valeros and the first company, the Ebon Guard, launched a coup and killed the mad king to replace him. While his only son was 12, he was utterly unprepared and Valeros became the regent on his order, although most people agree that the Commander did intimidate the young king into doing this.

Then, as all of this unfolded, Daneï did something that would mark the true beginning of the chaos. Enraged by the passivity of House Araccun, and after having a strange dream of beings in green cloaks setting his land on fire, he launched an assault without any warning on the great house. This shattered the last bit of unity inside the coalition, and Valeros didn't even intervene, saying that it would distract them from the Satenian campaign. Only House Naga wasn't at war and, through bribery, corruption, and subterfuge, managed to end the fight between Araccun and Markos before too much damage was done.

As if this wasn't enough, several Keshian warlords saw the conflict and decided to launch a great raid on the continents. They came from overseas and pillaged everything on their way. Most went on the shores of House Naga, whose mercenaries managed to fight at a standstill while others went on the Shattered Archipelago and joined in the war to establish small colonies on the islands. Few shores were spared from the fury of the raiders. In the end, only the Kernian Republic didn't come, as they saw any conflict as useless and harmful, and as such kept their soldiers and called all their war machines back to avoid any further damage. However, they still reinforced their maritime defenses in case an invasion would come.

But while all of this happened, a war that was brewing in the heavens finally erupted. Several Pantheons declared war on each other. The Duranian Gods faced the Sons of the Sun in a celestial war between both their continents and godly servants. Even the Ancient gods were brought into this, whether they liked it or not. However, when the Sakura Dynasty attacked, many of their gods didn't come, and those who did only did it for a personal vendetta or their own amusement. Of course, the Einhral joyfully joined their warriors as they raided the world. As well, Dominus didn't do anything and opted for neutrality in this conflict.

Of course, who should arrive late but the demons? Seeing the massive conflict, the demons saw the opportunity of destroying some of their enemies and gathered their infernal legions to march on the Celestial Plane. Dukes from the Sixth Sphere marched along with the Titans of the 5th Sphere with armies of lesser demons under the command of Angraxaath, all eager for blood and united in their mutual hatred of those who cast them aside.

End of the war

This conflict had great repercussions on the globe, and few ever really got anything worthwhile out of it. The Duranian coalition eventually got together again,  the now-adult Valerian decided to take the broken remains of his kingdom and demoted the Commander from his position. However, the other countries kept an even more watchful eye for what the Markosian and Duranian kingdoms would be doing.

Meanwhile, the Satenian campaign failed to achieve its intended purpose. The Duranian eventually had to leave the river, and only a few outposts on the frontier were able to be held. Meanwhile, the crusade only reached one city, which they pillaged before the Satenian army decimated them. This act led followers of Sicarius to be even more persecuted in the Solar Empire.

The Shattered Archipelago's situation got even more chaotic, and while the Avoydan kingdom tried to rebuild and take back islands, the pirate fights got even more common and intense. The Keshian raiders managed to get huge spoils, despite the death of some warlords. Stories were later told about " The Grand Raid " and how almost an entire nation fought in a glorious war bringing fame, glory, and loot for centuries to come.

On the heavenly side of things, no pantheon really managed to gain the upper hand, but the Einhral did like the battle quite a lot. However, the demons managed to take quite a lot of territory and started to create a 10th Sphere with the parts of the Celestial plane they managed to take. Sicarius and other gods actively fighting against demons made even more efforts to defeat them.

Crafty assassination

Something that everyone forgot at the time was that it all started with the assassination of the Markosian king. This means that the killer managed to not only make his way through the castle and past the guards but also managed to overpower the king. This strange event led a group of mages to investigate this. The first thing they found out is that they couldn't contact the king's spirit, even with their strongest rituals and ample resources gave by some aristocrats. That meant that whoever killed the king stole his soul, or otherwise placed to spell to avoid the spirit giving him away. Secondly, while the king was stabbed in the heart with a Duranian dagger, they noticed strong evil energy radiated from both it and the corpse. This, in addition to some of the guards' testimony telling them that they felt suddenly uneasy that night like if a dark shadow loomed over the castle, confirmed their suspicions that a supernatural creature of some kind murdered the king. This new information managed to avoid a major diplomatic incident between Markos and Duran.

However, it was only the beginning of the mysteries. First, due to the strong traces of dark magic that they found all over the castle, they determined that it was an undead who did it. They were two reasonable options. The first one was a vampire, which would have explained the soulless corpses of the murdered guards and the unreasonably dark energies. The second one was a bit more exotic, as a powerful mage using dark magic might have managed to murder the king. However, they haven't heard of any vampire in the region, and all places that could be their habitat were devoid of their power. As for the mage, they somehow couldn't track his aura, which was strange since the amount of ancient dark energy he left was rare, and could have been spotted. Furthermore, after consulting the archives, the only mages capable of such a threat were too far away from the castle to have been able to kill the king and vanishing without leaving a trace, even if assisted by teleportation magic.