The Dawn War

It did not take the Ishtaran Empire long to seek outside the walls of their Capital city, now known as Skyhaven, to the fertile lands of the tribes around them. The Dawn War is the title given to the conquest of the Wood Elves. The Wood Elves lived in harmony with the natural world around them, where Gilgamesh taught magic to the High Elves, the Wood Elves were simply attuned to the world around them, tapping into the very forces of nature themselves. They built grand cities and cathedrals by willing the trees to grow into the very formations they needed them. Rather than seasonal crops they lived off of the land hunting and gathering from plants that constantly bore fruit. It was this wealth of food that drove the Ishtaran people to covet the bounty of the Woodelves, and it was this first conquest that started the very calendar the Empire uses to this day.
The Dawn War lasted for a single century, a quick war in the eyes of Elvenkind, the Ishtaran Legion sustained many losses in the first 90 years of the war. The Druids of the Wood Elves managed to entrap and overwhelm the fighting forces of the Ishtaran people, it was not until the last decade of the conflict that the Wood Elves bent the knee in what would forever be known as the Reign of Fire. For in the last decade of the conflict Gilgamesh of the Gilded Scales in all his glory, gifted the golden nectar of the gods on what would become the first War Clerics. The concoction is still a closely guarded secret of the Imperial Magocracy to this day, though the documented effects it had on the magic of the Ishtaran High Elves draws alarming parallels to that of Dragon Blood though amplified many times over. I doubt we will ever truly know what the Golden Nectar really is, using it however gave the Ishtaran's the power to burn the Elder tree of the Wood Elves. This loss was felt by Wood Elves the world over to hear them tell the tale, regardless of the truth or pageantry it was this loss that lead to the immediate surrender of the Wood Elves to the Ishtaran High Elves.
The surrender of the Wood Elves is now known as the great unification, it set the precedent that should you bend the knee to the conquest of the empire you will not lose that which is important to you and you will be a free citizen of the empire. Rebel however and you will lose your lands, your titles, your very history through fire and blood, and the survivors will be enslaved. It is worth noting in this historian's humble opinion that this may be the very reason the War Clerics who treat with lands not yet under imperial control are almost exclusively Wood Elves.

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

100 BU (Before Unification)

Ending Date

1 AU (After Unification)