The Nightmare War
Until roughly three centuries ago, the entirety of conscious experience on the world of Gadria, specifically on it's single super continent of Ikar, was dominated by a never-ending, multiplanar conflict known across the cosmos as the Nightmare War. For over a millennia, every individual of every sentient race, and most that were not sentient, existed in a state with of genuine total war with every other organized faction in existence. Allegiances shifted with the seasons, treaties were upheld for hundreds of years only to be broken in the last months of their terms, and entire societies, and in many cases, races, were completely obliterated throughout the War's reign. It is difficult to overstate the damage caused by the Nightmare War, as there are few beings, mortal or divine, who were alive at the beginning and still are today. Most attempts to document actual events or keep battles from slipping into myth were entirely wasted, as any potential authors were quickly either killed, or conscripted into the endless legions of arrow fodder, forced to abandon any research projects in favor of marching to their doom against any of a number of foes.
The Beginning
In the modern scholarly world, the Nightmare War, known as colloquially The Nightmare, The Dark Times, the Darkness etc, is believed to have started as many other wars do, as a border dispute between two long forgotten kingdoms of humans. This relatively minor war evolved with the arrival of another party, which most agree must have been of another sentient race, most likely orcs or dark elves coming up to the surface, though as the earth has been trampled, blasted, plowed and left to nature so many times, actual archaeological digs seldom return with any reliable finds. The war grew exponentially from this point, as more powerful entities, from countries, dragons, demons and most of the known gods, found themselves being sucked into the conflict. Over the years, more forces joined in the fighting, for one reason or another, and before long, the entirety of Ikar was consumed by bloodshed. For the first century or so, the war was localized to the material plane, but when arrows blacken the sky, even the faithless will drop to their knees and beg the gods for mercy.
Escalation
Divinity
Most of the gods that remained in contact with the material plane will claim that they were the first to join, sent their disciples only to help end the war sooner, and some will even claim to have ended the war themselves. As divine intervention proves difficult to track under the best of circumstances, the first and last two claims cannot be proven or disproven, but to assert that a soldier consumed by bloodlust will stay his hand because that's what his god wanted is nothing more than foolish dogma, regardless of the power of said god. The Nightmare War eventually attracted the attentions of some of the most powerful deific beings in existence, proving to atheists across Ikar that, somehow, most practicing religions were completely correct in their gods existence and powers. As is the case with most tales that involve religion in any way, it difficult to prove or discount many of the stories of divine intervention, such as the Golem Invasion, where the earth goddess Huna sent an army of stone and earthen golems to defend a small elf kingdom, or even the stories of actual physical manifestations of gods, such as the Judgement of Teotl Tonatiu, during which the titular god of war and the sun manifested as a man shaped pillar of flame to wreck havoc on his former worshippers. Many scholars have warned of the foolishness of questioning the validity of acts that a god would be more than likely to be proud of, but many of the bitter recipients of divine justice throughout the war were found it a simple matter to turn their aggression towards the clerics, paladins and warlocks that had been running loose on the enemies of their masters, with victory at any costs etched into their minds and hearts, and at fault for most of the atrocities in Holy Skirmishes anyway. One need not look to the history books or the memories of ancient creatures to know that all forms of magic were used to commit these atrocities. One needs only look at the scarred landscape of Ikar, and see thousands of barren fields of white dust where no crops will take root, and where wild animals fear to tread; the indisputable signature of a Life Domain Cleric, who had at some point purged a very large mass of evil in a very short amount of time.
Dragons
The most reliable estimates of the dragon populations of Ikar before their involvement in the Nightmare War state that there were never more than a few hundred individuals at any one given time. These statistics come with the caveat that dragons by nature tend to live secluded lives, with dragons across the spectrum of morality nearly universally preferring solitude to having any involvement with the affairs of what they saw as lesser beings. The exception to this rule has always been Sh'tav Clan, an ancient family of historically morally ambiguous dragons with a hereditary red hue. Records for the actions of these dragons are in much better shape than most other records from the time, as they have been kept alive through the oral traditions of various kobold clans who still honor their ancient "gods", even knowing how poorly their service worked out for the kobold race as a whole. Roughly 800 years into the Nightmare War, the kobolds of the Shamo Wasteland, which at the time was a rocky high desert, rather than the sandy lowland it is now, were being slaughtered en masse by the invading forces of orcs, who attempted to take the land for a base of operations closer to the lands of men and elves, now that the continents population of dwarves had been thoroughly decimated. One such kobold tribe, who are now called the Drakobo Shamo, were traditionally subservient to a long Sh'tav, as many other tribes had been, though it is likely that the Drakobo were the last to survive the war up to the point that the Sh'tav divided to intervene. In return from saving the entire tribe from a large force of orc vanguard, Zairok of the Sh'tav Clan, later called Zairok the Conqueror, enlisted the Drakobo Shamo to act as his personal army, and imbued them with a certain amount of magic, most specifically he improved their intelligence and physical constitution, in the effort that his kobolds would not die so easily. Zairok and the Drakobo Shamo spread their influence across the desert, incorporating more and more kobolds to their ranks, until there were nearly 20 million kobolds and later, lizardfolk of masterful intelligence and peak physical condition, all providing Zairok with more power and wealth than any other dragon to have lived before, little as that means with such poor historical records. Eventually, Zairok and his Drakobo Shamo provoked responses from other dragons, who all seemed to mark Zairok as an enemy, mainly by virtue of the power he'd amassed, and had effectively raised the cataclysmic danger of the Nightmare War by several hundred marks.
Abberations
When the old gods to not answer prayers to the satisfaction of the masses, the desperate will seek aid from other, more malevolent forces. N'yoethd'h, previously only known in the memories of aboleths as "The Endless Maw", was granted physical form on the material plane by a cult of zealous orcs, who had recently escaped captivity at the hands of a mindmincer hive. The destruction caused by this eldritch primordial god was absolute, as N'yoethd'h devoured all flora, fauna, buildings and even a few mountains in it's wake from the northern forests, 13500 miles south to what is now referred to as The End of the Gorge, or simply, The End. Scholars are uncertain how the monster was defeated, though most agree that it was almost certainly not killed, and was instead banished somehow, by a now unknown mage of immeasurable strength. Others still postulate that N'yoethd'h has simply sated it's hunger for the time being, and had simply left of it's own accord to recuperate, before returning for another meal.
Archfey
The Seelie and Unsleelie courts of the Feywild are not organizations to be ignored, and they too were begged by druids, fey and common folk alike for aid in this terrible war. Squadrons of noble sprites, hordes of formorians and all manner of rare fey creatures washed over the the already blood soaked battlefields and burning cities. At the command of King Terminus Heavy-bow of the Seelie and Queen Dorchadas of the Unseelie, the forces of the Feywild were filled with the untested power of their home world, but had little knowledge of tactics or battlefield etiquettes. As a result, every battle ended with either a complete obliteration of whatever random group the Fey attacked, or the other way around at the hands of a more experienced foe. Eventually, after making bad decision after bad decision, the Fey monarchs came to the agreement that the mortal world was best left to it's own problems, and became the first forces in the war to completely withdraw, returning through the Great Baggodh Tree to the Feywild, where they could do no further harm.
Hell and The Abyss
Contrary to the known nature of devils, the Nine Hells were the only factions that did not make a conscious decision to join in the Nightmare War, but by the end, they had certainly justified it's grisly name. At some point towards the beginning of hostilities between the original human kingdom, when the Nightmare War was rapidly escalating in scale and potential for destruction, the number of people seeking to make deals with devils in exchange for great power was rising exponentially. The power devils can grant, however, can never guarantee protection for the hand that wields it. En masse, these people were slaughtered just as deftly as those without tattered souls, and were swiftly whisked down into whichever Hell they had their contract with, and turned into devils themselves. This caused a balance shift in the Blood Wars, a series of wars between the Nine Hells and the Endless Abyss of Demons, wherein the devils began to actually make progress in pushing the creatures back to their own realm. The devils, sensing a vacuum with the loss their bloodlust, started spending more and more of their efforts on implementing contracts, offering more and more tempting deals to mortals, until all manner of greater and lesser devils were on the material plane, leaving their home undefended. Unfortunately for the devils, the Abyss truly is endless, and as the demons returned to the infernal battlefield to begin their assault anew, they found that they were able to walk straight into, and claim ownership of the Nine Hells, and it's gateway leading to the material plane. This made the demons the default victors of the Blood Wars, and trapped all devils on the material plane, forcing them to become combatants in the Nightmare War. The Demons, of course, did not require any excuse to join in the Nightmare War, as rising to the material plane to spread chaos, death and destruction had been their goal from the very beginning.
Formation of New Governments:
The Acredian Empire
While the beginning of the Nightmare War remains shrouded in uncertainty, it's conclusion is much more fresh in the memories of the masses. Asmodeus, notable in his absence throughout most of the war, began to send visions to his acolytes on the material plane, after the worship of devils began to supersede the worship of gods among humans. These visions were mostly short communes with the devil, during which he would warn of something called "Kytar" and dispense various instances of infernal wisdom. One such acolyte, a young human paladin squire named Arwienn, received one such vision, in which Asmodeus told him "Open thine heart, and thou wilst bring peace." The young man did not have much time to ponder these instructions, as he awoke to the sound of the formation drums announcing the presence of the enemy of the day, a legion of lizardfolk. As his company began the march towards the fighting, young Arwienn had an epiphany, and broke ranks to sprint, alone towards the lizardfolk army, whilst desperately removing and dropping his armor, then his clothing. The spectacle was enough to halt both armies in their tracks, and soon all eyes from all present were turned towards the youth, stark naked, panting heavily, with nothing but a long steel knife in his outstretched hand. "Open thine heart!" he screamed to the gathered masses, "and thou wilst bring peace!" Arweinn plunged the dagger into his own chest, and managed to stay on his feet until he had finished tearing out his own still beating heart. The watching army of humans immediately erupted into a war cry unlike any other, before charging forward to utterly crush the army of lizardfolk. That legion of humans when on to found the Acredian Empire of Humans, a powerful, death worshipping empire that subsequently crushed most other non human forces they came across, through either destruction or subjugation. Dwarves, most notably, were entirely enslaved by the Acredians, having been crushed to the point of complete cultural erasure, until small group of shipyard dwarves stole the ship they were building and sailed off to the west, in search of lands to call their own, before eventually returning to free the remaining dwindling population captive dwarves, and sailed back into the setting sun, never to be seen again.
The Fey Compact
This new organized force nearly destroyed the combined armies of elves, gnomes, halflings and other fey, known as the Fey Compact. At the brink of destruction at the hands of two Acredian Legions, the last contingent of the Fey Compact, only 150 individuals, begged at the foot of the great Bagoddh Tree for aid from the Seelie and Unseelie courts in the Feywild, shouting that neither court could claim superiority over the other when neither gave aid when it was needed most. It is only known to the fey exactly how this conclusion was reached, but at that moment, the Seelie and Unseelie courts, opened the Bagoddh Tree so their children might find safety, while upon the Acredian legions, a sea of blink dogs and displacer beasts were unleashed. Those who passed through the Bagoddh Tree are assumed to have lived in peace in the Feywild, with the Fey Compact still being upheld. The area surrounding the Bagoddh Tree is still being patrolled by blink dogs and displacer beasts, as a symbol of the peace that still exists between the two fey courts, and as a warning to any that would threaten them.
The Shadow Accord
The only faction of the Nightmare War that did not seek an end to the fighting, and even resisted those efforts, was the Shadow Accord. This group, which still exists as a formally recognized government, was comprised mostly of mindmincers, squid headed, otherworldly monsters that subsist on the stolen minds of other sapient creatures, and their thralls. During the early days of the war, the Shadow Accord was simply an agreement between these mindmincers and several tribes of orcs, dark elves and undead, as each group saw the practicality of fighting under the guidance of mindmincer command. Unfortunately, mindmincers do not work for the benefit of anyone, besides mindmincers. After roughly 300 years of unit cohesion to create a false air of safety, the mindmincers launched their attack on their own warriors. For the mindless undead, this was not a problem, as mindmincers cannot eat, nor can they reproduce using undead flesh. Many orcs and dark elves managed to escape and decided to flee to the Bagoddh Tree, where both races were retroactively granted access to the Fey Compact, provided that all orcs formally renounce Gruumsh, and all other orc gods. Those who were not so lucky were made into thralls, food, or new mindmincers, and the Shadow Accord continues to bide it's time, occasionally fighting skirmishes against the Acredians, waiting for their chance to fight again, this time finally reestablishing the mythical Mindmincer Empire.
Ikar Today
The Nightmare War was a war in name only; for over a thousand years, it was everything. All of history, civilization, prejudices, religions, nations, everything was consumed by the Nightmare War, as a bonfire consumes kindling. We know next to nothing about what life was like before, and we have yet to truly grasp that life continues now that it's over. With humans almost universally worshipping death, and most other sentient races have disappeared almost entirely from this plane of existence, it is natural for one who has observed or researched these events to feel like life isn't continuing at all, but that we now exist in a state of melancholic emptiness, unsure of where we came from, and unsure of where we're going. What most people don't know is how the dwarves ended their story.
The Dwarven Salvation
The original crew of escaped dwarven shipwrights, led by Morwr Strongarm, sailed due west with no supplies, no food, and no plan for survival other than to put as much distance between themselves and their tormenters as possible. Morwr's leadership was inherently flawed, as a slave shipwright does not a skilled sailor make, and after a few days of pulling up empty nets and horrible sickness from drinking saltwater, the beaten down captain stood alone on the ships prow, bathed in moonlight, and pled for help from any god that would listen. At that moment, a figure rose before Morwr from the depths of the sea; an old man with a tangle of seaweed and rigging line in place of clothing, and another on his head to replace his hair. The Old Man, who was henceforth referred to simply as "The Old Man" by dwarves even to this day, granted Morwr aid, and in exchange, he commanded Morwr to preach respect for the sea, in the name of this new god, for the rest of his time his life. Morwr agreed without question, and the Old Man pulled a fishing line from his hair and a swollen stem from the kelp on his person, gave these to Morwr and commanded him to sail west, day and night, for sixteen days. Morwr roused his crew and did as the god instructed, sailing hard and fast when the wind was with them, rowing from the waterline when it was not. The fishing line given by the Old Man had a hook tied at every few inches, and whenever it was dropped into the surf, each hook came back with a fish after only a few moments. When the swollen kelp stem was opened, it was found to contain roughly a pint of fresh water, which refilled itself whenever there was nobody looking at it. For 16 days and nights, the ship, which Morwr had christened The Dwarven Salvation, sailed ever onwards into the horizon, until the barrelman finally spotted land from the crows nest. The island was christened Tarlock, after Morwr's father, and it was here that the crew of the Salvation remained for one year. After regaining most of their strength and making several stealth modifications to their ship, the dwarves, who had begun to refer to themselves as the Strongarm Shipwrights, made their final journey to the mainland of Ikar to rescue their comrades from the Acredian Empire. Thanks to some divine intervention on behalf of their new god, the Shipwrights were able to slip straight into the Port de Misère in the Acredian capital city, Acredia, and free every single dwarf still being held captive.
Kytaran Sea
The name Kytar was taken from an ancient manuscript, found during a short raid for valuables by the Strongarm Shipwrights after freeing their kinfolk. No explanation was found for what the word means, but as it seemed to be a warning aimed at the humans of the Acredian Empire, Morwr decided it would be fitting to name the new home of the dwarves after this threat, reasoning if there was ever to be a threat to the Acredian Empire, it needed to come from the sea, and it needed to come from the dwarves. Most of the foundations for civilized life in the Kytaran Sea were lain by dwarves, and even though other races have spent 500 years trickling into island life, every recently settled island in the Kytaran Sea is considered an honorary ancestral home of dwarves, and all who live there share a fierce pride in their dwarven predecessors, for showing that there is still hope for Gadria and her children, for if dwarves can come out of their mountains and sail the sea, perhaps anything really is possible.
Conflict Type
War
Start Date
???
Ending Date
432 PAG (Post Acredian Genesis)
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