The Great Game is the most commonly used name to describe a vast, interlocked series of conflicts that marked the early reign of Emperor Richard VIII Skalxien. While these conflicts were fought between various powers with nothing to do with each other on the surface, each was part of a greater scramble for power following the declaration of the Third Empire. Entire wars were fought, colonial holdings changed hands, and the face of a continent was changed forever.
Conflicts Within the Great Game
The Sevenstones War
Following the coronation of Richard VII and his betrothal to Queen Theodora of Lancaster, the Throne declared the Third Empire with Lancaster rejoining the Empire. The extremely young royal couple felt a need to solidify their reign, and set out to begin a war with the express purpose of delaying the appointment of a regent. The long independent Kingdom of Giant's Leap, so close to the Imperial capital and completely surrounded, was invaded. This war is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the Great Game. Waged from 1394-1400 EK, the end result was the removal of Halflings from their ancestral homeland, the declaration of a goblin kingdom, and numerous rebel movements beginning within the Empire.
The Drake Island Conflict
Not quite a formal war, Drake Island was liberated from Confederate control with the aid of Kuastan ships and weapons. The people of Drake Island, a small collective of beastfolk, had traded with the Kuastans freely until the Sevenstones War caused the Confederacy to secure their own holdings. In the case of Drake Island, with excessive military force. The Kuastan King Sylvester II, also new to his throne, ordered that the ports be reopened by force after Confederate diplomats refused to acknowledge his ascension to the Kingship. Throughout 1399 and 1400 EK, the island was put under ever-stricter military rule as the Kuastan and Confederate navies battled throughout the southern seas. A Braithstrom raid was launched on Coppershore causing significant damage, but in the end the Kuastan ironclad warships led by the now infamous Terror sunk nearly half the Confederate southern fleet, and once they were able to land troops on Drake Island the Archon chose to declare it an independent protectorate. In the modern age, it is still a Kuastan colony in practice if not in name.
The Occupation of Yanu-Yanu Island
The Republic of Ter Eira broke their pact with the Lelai of Yanu-Yanu and built several naval bases on the volcanic island. These little towns of soldiers and sailors upset the populace, but the locals chose not to fight what they considered to be a useless war. This move upset the Empire and prompted Richard VIII to fortify the Imperial northern holdings. The Gwelin constructed what is likely the world's first air base on the island's northern shores. 1406.
The Totem War
The single largest conflict of the Great Game, the Totem War began with Kwai rebels attempting to liberate their home island from Gwelin control. The Empire provided support to the rebels and eventually committed entire Legions. The war escalated into battles across the Singing Islands and even Ter Eira and the Empire themselves, with independent islands being made to choose sides or be destroyed. The war culminated in an Imperial/Kwai victory and the ultimate colonization of Totem Island by the Empire. That reversal realigned nearly every free northern island. The remaining free islands and several under Gwelin control reorganized themselves into a loose federation in the following years and are now a Gwelin protectorate. 1426-1428; federation of the islands 1433.
The Seventh Gnollish Rebellion
With Imperial forces weakened by minor conflicts and having to commit more legions to colonial holdings, the Gnoll Matriarch and allied desert clans of Bazir and Dunnite humans began to wage war by destroying the Imperial supply chain in the West. The rebels bought the services of several high profile mercenary companies and paid others to simply stay out of it. The rebellion started and ended in the year 1430, but remains a powerful rebel recruiting tool thanks to the Battle of Red Sands, where Imperial forces under the Blade Smolder destroyed several villages and killed many Imperial civilians to root out rebel sympathizers.
The Recognition War
An Imperial navy mutiny turned into a full fledged war, with a pirate alliance under Grace Skalxien against the River Kingdoms and imperial legions. From 1436-1439, massive battles were fought in the lakes and rivers of the Kingdoms, and the pirates took advantage of harsh conditions to incite several bloody peasant uprisings in the region. Into today, the pirate alliance known as the Reaver's Republic openly but quietly rules several ports in the Kingdoms.
The Ogynrisala Campaign
Imperial and Kuastan funded seperatists launched a war of independence in one of the Confederacy's southern holdings, with soldiers from both countries disguising themselves in order to ensure the campaign's success. The Archon ordered the entire thing be torched rather than hand over another island, which led to the development of chemical weapons including the infamous killing gas used by Thunderhead Division. The people of the island quickly surrendered and when the Empire and Kuasta denied and disavowed the actions of their soldiers, those were executed for the Archon's amusement and handed over to Thunderhead for experimentation. 1437-1440.
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