War o' Peaks

Military action

The name War of Peaks, or War o' Peaks, groups the exact five hundred years of conflict between the newly founded Green Gorge and its unrelenting hordes of goblins, hobgoblins and similar creatures against the two most civilized races of the continent: the dwarves of Whitefist, standing alone initially, and the elves of Loraillyria, who joined the war later on.

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Technically speaking the longest war in the history of the known world, the 500 years of the War o' Peaks saw different intensities of conflict, alternating times of intense warfare and seemingly continuous battles with more quiet times, where only unlinked skirmishes happened between the main sides of the conflict. Nonetheless, the war is further divided in smaller sections by modern historians:

1. The first hundred years of conflict saw little to no action: the war declaration was actually issued by the dwarf king, pressured by internal elements in his kingdom that wanted revenge for the destruction of dwarven eastern outpost few years before, when the green hordes first arrived in the continent. However, the dwarves were not prepared for a war, and spent the initial years training from stonework to axework, as well as strengthening their defences.
2. The second phase spans from circa 1480s btT to 1398 btT, and was the most intense phase of the conflict. Several battles happened, and both sides lost uncountable numbers. However, the highly reproductive nature of the races of the Green Gorge, especially that of goblins, and their short maturation time allowed them to continuously replace their losses, while every single dwarven death impacted their military capability. In the last few years of this phase, the dwarves had started losing ground to the green tide armies, now made almost entirely of goblins.
3. The third phase starts in 1398 btT, when the dwarf king begs the elves of Loraillyria to help against the conflict. One year later, the elves join the fight, in 1397 btT. Their superior martial prowess shows clearly, and with the help of the dwarves they start gaining ground against the green tide.
4. The fourth phase goes from the joining of the elves to 1279 btT. In this phase, the conflict once again stabilizes, as the elves easily push back with the dwarves the goblin armies, which now lack the time to replenish. The fights shift from battles to raids and then to skirmishes. The war is however not done yet, as the elves refuse to fight too far from their homeland and the goblin to not issue any surrender.
   The end of this phase is characterized by an inexplicable event the reasons of which escaped contemporary and modern historians all around the world. In the year 1279 btT, nearly 300 years after the beginning of the conflict and 80 years after the elves showed their support, the dwarven armies retreat from the battlefield and are stationed within their cities, and the dwarf king that often led his people into battle will never leave his castle until the day of his death, some decades after the end of the war. This dwarven retreat transitions the war in its last phase
5. The fifth and last phase of the War of Peaks sees the renewed goblin hordes, weaker than at the beginning of the fight but ready for yet another hundred years of conflict, run into battle only to find that the dwarves have retreated in their castles of stone within the mountains and the elves are defending the borders of their forest. Picking the easier-to-assault target, the goblins start streaming down the mountain and attacking the elves. Even if the green armies pass fairly close to the mountain halls of the dwarves, not once the bearded armies march into battle.
   200 years later, the goblins stop streaming, and a now empty and deserted Green Gorge stops sending its children into battle. Even with the fast reproduction time of goblins, it will take centuries for their country to recover from this conflict. 
   On the opposite side of the spectrum, Loraillyria lost many of its inhabitants, more than it could have recovered in a thousand year.

Scholars, academics and historians studying or observing this war during its course or in the many years after identified the single most influential moment of the conflict in the sudden change in combat attitude of the dwarves, that went from confrontational to extremely defensive. Many speculations on the reason behind this moment have been made during the years but no hypothesis has gained enough acceptance to be recognized officially.
Moreover, the dwarves, whose attitude after the death of their king seemingly returned to normal, suffered a change in culture during the conflict that converted them from pacific and mainly interested in trade to more warlike, a change accompanied by the developing of a series of war machines of different types, defensive constructs and fortified fortresses in their cities. This cultural change reflected in new, higher values attributed to honor, bravery and oath-keeping, and because of this documents and accounts of the latest stage of the War o' Peaks were burnt or buried deep in their libraries, in an attempt to make the world forget of their betrayal.   The dwarven king stopped holding court and listening to his closest advisors in 1279 btT, retreated to his chambers and never once came out again until the day he was found dead, hundred of years later. Legends say he was charmed by a demon or by another otherworldly creature and that the only proof of him being alive was the food tray that was brought in his chambers, consumed. The few documents available in the deepest and now ruined parts of the royal palace in Whitefist, chambers that were sealed after the king's death because of superstition and hatred towards the king himself, mention sometimes an eye, sometimes a single tear, as the reason driving the king mad.