Pride Vs. Power: The Demon-God War

The conflict that allowed Althos to begin his road towards becoming the king of darkness and the emperor of evil didn't even begin due to Althonian aggression. Instead it owes its origins to an insane, primeval demon of pride: Agustino, a self-proclaimed emperor of demons. He declared war on Althos, and unfortunately for him, Althos heard his declaration loud and clear and decided to respond in kind.

-An Angel of Knowledge, in the Althonian Archives

The Demon-God war was a brief, yet brutal war fought between the unified forces of Althos and the demonic servants of an insane Soluto demon named Agustino. It was fought in the Heart of Darkness, the dimensional home of demons, and began when Agustino audibly declared war on Althos, which thanks to the fact that Althos was a god of war was something he heard.
It culminated with Althos slaying Agustino in his palace, after killing all of his servants and the harem of harpies the demon of pride had collected. Shortly thereafter Althos offered Agustino's heart to the layer named The Blackened Boscage, and due to the fact that the Heart of Darkness and all of its layers were alive, allowed him to become one of the dreaded demon-lords.

Historical Notes/Trivia:

• This war was the very first war Althos personally participated in. Until that point, he had taken part in various conflicts, skirmishes, and other minor battles, but had never taken part in a full war.
• This war represented the first time Althonian artifacts, including the Shadow Spear, the Staff of the Life Bringer, and the Mecha-Dragon were used in battle.
• The war presented Althos with the opportunity to absorb three types of higher demon souls, those of Soluto demons, those of a centipede demon, and the great ape demon.
• To this day, three years after the conflict, the great palace of Morthos (where the final battle took place) has yet to be repaired by anyone.
• The war lasted a little over a week, due primarily to Althos opting to take a vacation during the middle of it.

The Conflict

Prelude

Prior to the actual declaration of war by Agustino, Althos and Agustino knew of each other only through second-handed means. Althos learned of Agustino first through notifications he received via domain-sense, but then he first heard of Agustino in a real, substantive way thanks to his pet, Sombra. When he first banished Sombra from Troik, the goblin companion of the Eternal Emperor who had been suffering from a nasty case of Demonic Infection, he analyzed the demoness and heard Agustino's name for the first time in a way that he was paying attention to. At the time Agustino was intent on turning Torus into a new layer of the Heart of Darkness and Sombra was but one of many demon he deployed to achieve this goal. 
Agustino heard of Althos from a servant that had seen and heard of the god in Torus but was banished, probably by a dark elven conjurer. The demon blamed Althos in part for the failures of the demons to acquire and present Torus to their demonic overlord. Agustino, having long been driven insane by his pride, commanded his followers to capture the infinitely more powerful deity, an unenviable and impossible task. 
Months after their continued failure, which was partially because Althos had fled Torus and tore open the sole natural portal from Torus to the Heart of Darkness and vice-versa, Agustino abruptly declared war on the god. Althos heard this and decided to stop ignoring Agustino. Prior to this point Althos had only confronted and slew small numbers of demons, usually Agustinian warbands and mercenaries.

Deployment

Althos returned to the layer of the Heart of Darkness that his forces resided on, the layer known as the Blackened Boscage, a dense and impossibly dark forest where demons of darkness and shadows were the primary locals. He gathered his forces and took them to a layer between Agustino's primary lair and the Blackened Boscage, named the Charnel Plains. Agustino's hordes were heading for the Blackened Boscage and were caught a little bit off guard by the unified Althonian front (UAF).

Battlefield

The catastrophe at the Charnel Plains was the first battle between the unified Althonian front and the hordes of Agustino. It was also a one-sided slaughter. Althos defeated Solomon, one of the two top-ranked generals in Agustino's armies and he absorbed the demon's soul. Other battles at three key Agustinoian cities were similar disasters for Agustino, especially after Althos utilized his newly acquired powers over the technology subdomain to begin to build robots, drones, and other autonomous and technological warriors. 
The final battle was one with two fronts. UAF forces traveled to a demonic city controlled by Agustino and laid siege to it. Althos went to the Spoken Scourge, the layer of the Heart of Darkness once controlled by Morthos, the demon lord most famously associated with Dark Elves. UAF forces fought the final general in Agustino's horde, while Althos fought the would-be demon-lord alone after slaying all of his servants.

Conditions

Each of the battles was fought under different conditions. The battle on the Charnel Plains was fought on an open, largely flat battlefield. Each of the three cities was vastly different as well. One was located in a swamp, one was located beside a mountain, and the other was just bombed into nothingness by Althonian robots, their first real combat engagement.

The Engagement

Tens of thousands of Althonites and Althonians made up the UAF. Creatures of virtually every species, including other demons, and even good-aligned extraplanar entities fought as one. Hundreds of different sorts of demons made up Agustino's forces as well, including types of demons long forgotten by mortal scholars. 
In the time after the war, but before Althos defeated Technos, many of the dead demons have been resurrected and conscripted into the forces of Althos, who is fast becoming known as the emperor of evil.

Outcome

One of the strongest demons in existence in the wake of the mysterious catastrophe that left the multiverse devoid of higher beings was slain by the last higher being. Althos became a demon lord, and gained control over the Scarlet Seat, a mysterious and powerful artifact that he hasn't moved or really interacted with since.

Aftermath

The Demon-God war is the most significant conflict that wasn't a duel between two combatants since the end of the Mythic Age. It was the conflict that transformed Althos from being just a god and an elemental overlord into being a god, elemental overlord, demon lord, and an ascendant Great Old One. 
By the end of the Demon-God war, Althos had the second tier of influence over the domain of war, and the first tier of influence over the subdomain of technology, two fonts of power that have allowed him to reshape thousands of star systems since then. He also acquired the eldritch powers of a Great Old One, and the powers of a demon lord. 
The demons of wrath and gluttony, two incredibly powerful sins, also gained a new leader in the form of the Hungering Void, Althos' new title once he finished configuring his domains and subdomains as a demon lord. All in all the truest consequences of the Demon-God war was that it allowed a god with many demonic servants to bridge the gap between gods and demons, to the detriment of all. Althos was now and would forever be a powerful, and often like-minded master for demons to serve.

Historical Significance

This seven and a half day war is easily the single most important event in the early days of the Althonite Empire. This event gave Althos the early boost in power he needed to feel confident sitting down and beginning to formally align and bolster his empire. Because of it, and the discoveries he made in its immediate aftermath, he decided to be patient and steadily accrue power, influence, and most importantly of all; recognition. 
Althos was able to use the powers he gained in the wake of the war to subjugate entire worlds when he was expanding his empire. One of the worlds in the solar system of his birth, Haxor, decided it didn't want to be ruled by him. So he decided to use powers over hunger and famine to force the giants who inhabited the world to surrender or starve. Some believe he also sent demons of starvation to the planet to speed the process along, but no one has any clear confirmation of that.

Legacy

Many places left ruined by the war have remained ruined. That said there are some notable exceptions to this rule and some notable examples of it:

• The Charnel Plains now have a city devoted to building robots that is totally devoid of organic life within their boundaries.
• The palace of Morthos was destroyed and remains destroyed.
• The cities once controlled by Agustino remained destroyed, a fitting way to remember a failure of an attempted demon-lord. 
• The layer known as the Blackened Boscage has arisen as an unlikely capital of demonic activity as demons flock to the banner of the Hungering Void, eager to serve him and to possibly be elevated from their current status into forms more befitting their grandiose self-images.

In Literature

Althonite angels of knowledge have written out the history behind the war and have tomes on it hidden under lock and key in the Althonian Archives in the strange, still nameless, fortress-city where Althos officially "lives" but spends very little time.  Aside from them, and infernal and leyes scholars of history, not many people know much about the conflict itself unless one fought in it. Althos has not prohibited anyone from researching it or discussing it, but as the empire is only three year old there are not many Althonite scholars who study Althonite history, yet.

Technological Advancement

The technology on display in the war ranged from primitive but effective weapons such as clubs, to highly sophisticated weaponry which was deployed by autonomous, Althonite soldiers. The technology used by such warriors included guns that fired bullets, laser weaponry, and all manner of explosives.
This also introduced many demons to sophisticated technology, which has since become somewhat commonplace throughout the Blackened Boscage and the areas and demonic settlements which trade with it. The fact that an entirely robotic settlement exists that is close to Dunkelheit (the capital of the Blackened Boscage), friendly to the city, and is a full member-city of the Althonite Empire, ensures that technologically advanced weapons are given to the capital city and then made available for sale, at no cost to the city itself.
This technological advancement for demons also ensures that in the future if another alignment war breaks out between chaotic evil and lawful evil beings, that the technological advantage once possessed by the devils may be overcome, but such a war is unlikely given Althos' own position as a neutral evil uniter and emperor of evil. Not to mention that he controls Gehenna, the first layer of Infernius, which means that if anything it'd be him unleashing devils and demons combined on other demons or devils.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Extraplanar

Start Date

5/15/52000500000

Ending Date

5/22/52000500000

Conflict Result

Unsurprisingly, the god of war won the war.

Location

Heart of Darkness