First Unhuman War
The First Unhuman War (1063 - 1072 CR) was a massive and pivotal conflict between the Imperial Elven Navy (IEN) and various goblionoid, orc, kobold, and ogre races of the Known Spheres.
The war, which was referred to as "unhuman" by the neutral spacefaring human communities, saw acts of mass violence committed on all sides and the rise of advanced biological weapons with the capabilities of destroying entire planets.
After the IEN's decisive victory, elven hegemony over wildspace was established for the next four centuries. However, the lingering wounds of the war only festered with time, as the IEN became more secure in their own domination over the known spheres, and the various defeated race, crushed and humiliated, scattered to remote areas of the Astral Sea to plot their revenge. These feelings and resentments would errupt four centuries later during the Second Unhuman War.
The Conflict
Prelude
"Never trust an orc... even a dead one."For long years before the start of the Unhuman, groups of orcs, goblinoids, kobolds, ogres, and others of the "monstrous races" had an established presence in wildspace and the Astral Sea. These races owned large spelljamming fleets powered by shamans and other traditional magic users. However, these fleets were often not unified, as chiefs, kings, local leaders, pirates, and others divided up each of the races, which then spent as much time fighting amongst themselves as they did others. Despite their lack of unity, members of these races often launched raids on atral, wildspace, and groundling settlements. By sheer volume, the cumulative sum of these raids did great collective damage to "non-monstrous" settlements. While spacefaring communities repelled each attack as best as they could, the Imperial Elven Navy, after decades of debate, came to what they saw as the only possible solution: waging total war against all raiding species and annihilating their fleets.- Elven aphorism
The Engagement
The first battle of the war was also its largest, when over 100 IEN ships destroyed a fleet of over 50 orc vessels in the Battle of Kule in Greyspace. This set the tone of the next near decade, as massed IEN fleets engaged orc, goblinoid, kobold, and ogre fleets across the Known Spheres, either destroying them or forcing them into the depths of the Astral Sea.
Though first labeled the Unhuman War by the human communities that believed it didn't affect them, it soon became clear to all spacefaring races that the war's size and scope threatened to envelop them all. Nuetral worlds and spheres began quickly concocting defenses to prevent the war from coming to their worlds. One widely adopted tactic was the spreading of undead throughout a crystal sphere like a minefield, so that when a spelljamming vessel arrived, it's gravity plane would atract them, causing the undead to animate and attack the crew.
In other communities, the war forced unlikely alliances. Humans and illithids, bound together by common fear of their trade convoys being caught up in the crossfire of the war, jointly created the Octopus class spelljammer to protect each other in a rare instance of mindflayer cooperation. The design for the Octopus would later form the baseline for the human Cuttle Command. These vessels would later see action on both sides of the war, as some human mercenaries and factions chose sides in the conflict.
The Unhuman War also saw the development of terrifying biological weapons of great power. Orc shamans developed witchlight marauders to devestate elven worlds and disrupt their advantage in logistics, though this operation was disrupted before they could be used in battle. The IEN, meanwhile, developed both bionids and spirit warriors to magically enhance their soldiers to stand toe to toe with their physically imposing enemies.
Though the war never decisively turned against the IEN, victory was not easily won. In Greyspace, spacefaring goblionoids began recruiting groundling goblins on the planet Borka. The IEN, assuming Greyspace was pacified, where thus caught off guard when a fleet of poorly equipped but frenzied goblins emerged from Borka to attack elven settlements in Greyspace. Posing a further problem was the sheer cost in manpower and resources needed to invade a planet, especially one as densely populated as Borka, in order to prevent these attacks. With this in mind, the IEN instead gathered as many of their mages as they could and directed a bolt of magical energy so powerful to Borka that it shattered the planet into a thousand pieces, killing nearly every resident of Borka. The sudden destruction of their homeworld forced the Borka fleet to retreat and fracture. Some captains swore eternal vengeance on the IEN, others fled deep into wildspace, while still others attempted to take what survivors they could find and rebuild their civilization on the shattered remains of their world. As for the IEN fleet responsible for the annihilation of Borka, it too was destroyed over the course of the war, subject to frenzied attacks by goblinoids and curious fatal accidents goblins attributed to their vengeful gods. Officially, knowledge of how the fleet managed to destroy at entire world died with it.
Thoroughout all of this, the enemies of the IEN continued to generally fight in disorganized, uncordinated fleet. It wasn't until 1068 that a unified Combined Fleet was assembled under the half-orc Gralnakh Longtooth. A natural comander, Longtooth's brilliant and unorthodox fighting methods allowed him to repeatedly deal the IEN their first true losses in combat, but as more and more goblin, orc, and kobold fleets fell, the IEN were able to redirect those resources towards destroying Longtooth's forces. Despite the odds, however, Longtooth continued holding his ground for years.
Part of Longtooth's success was due to the sphere he had chosen to base himself in, which was filled with asteroids, tiny worlds with hundreds of moonlets, and more. Attempts by the IEN to dislodge Longtooth generally ended in failure, and Grand Admiral Aldyn Longbower realized that victory at this point would be costly and time consuming. Instead, Grand Admiral Longbower and Admiral Longtooth met in person, where the IEN's fleet commander offered an armistice. Longtooth, realizing the war could never truly be one by him alone, accepted, so long as he and his followers were given a world of their own to live on free from elven interference. Grand Admiral Leafbower agreed without hesitation.
Aftermath
Though Grand Admiral Leafbower's armistice was accepted, it outraged the IEN Council of Admirals. In an act recognized by everyone as one of spite, the Council of Admirals noted that the armistice agreement did not specify what type of planet Longtooth's forces would be given. Thus, the half-orc and his followers were led to the coldest, most inhospitable world they could find, a planet in Winterspace the elves named Armistice. There, the greatest opponent the IEN faced in the war was placed with his followers to eke out what life they could while the IEN blockaded the planet to prevent anyone from approaching. That blockade is still in effect today.
Upon hearing word of Longtooth's ceasefire, the remaining orcs, ogres, kobolds, and goblinoids fighting the IEN chose to flee into wildspace, recognizing that victory was impossible. However, the IEN remained fearful of another commander of Longtooth's caliber unifying the scattered forces. To prevent this, the IEN embarked on what was soon called the Great Hunt, sending out elven fleets to destroy the forces of their fleeing enemies. Though occuring after the war's official end with Longtooth's cease fire, most scholars of the First Unhuman War consider the Great Hunt to mark war's true final phase. The Great Hunt also resulted in the virtual disappearance of multiple classes of spelljammer, such as the kobold Angelship, the orc Scorpionship, the ogre Mammoth, and the goblin Porcupine.
Some fleeing orcs, goblins and others chose to take refuge with their groundling cousins on various planets. The IEN attempted to root out these enemies too with orbital bombardments, but these attacks often affected other groundlings, whose powerful spellcasters, dieties and priests threatened retaliation if the IEN didn't withdraw. The elves ultimately relented, setting an ongoing precedent of the IEN favoring spacecombat over ground engagements.
While most races demilitarized after the end of the war, such as the humans and illithids whose unexpected alliance came to a swift end, the IEN did not. Spirit warriors were placed in stasis and bionids were abandoned by the elves who had created them, as public opinion began to view the biological weapons as monstrous, but the IEN's fleet remained large, which the elves insisted was necessary for the continued security of the Known Spheres. Concerns expressed by short-lived races, such as humans, were dismissed as an inability to plan for the long-term. However, tensions continued to escalate, and it appeared that a war between elves and other space-faring races, such as dwarves and humans, was inevitable.
To ease tensions, the elven Admiral Sindiath proposed a compromise to retire a large portion of the IEN fleet to create a private merchant navy and passenger service. Sindiath himself would retire alongside the vessels and run this new service, which would keep a strong elven presence across the Known Spheres that would be more palatable. The Council of Admirals agreed, and Sindiath Line was founded shortly after.
Historical Significance
Legacy
The end of the First Unhuman War marked the beginning of four centuries of IEN hegemony over the Known Spheres. Possessing the largest navy, scores of outposts, dozens of allied worlds, and thousands of long-lived veterans, the Imperial Elven Navy became the defacto police force that all spacefaring civilizations had to contend with in one way or another. Sindiath Line also spread elven influence commercially, earning a reputation for quality and affordability even while some called the private force nothing more than another arm of the greater IEN.
While the IEN's hegemony did result in centuries of peace, it was not a universally loved organization. Many resented the strict laws instituted by the IEN, while others felt the elves' sense of superiority and arrogance was nothing short of racism. The horrible acts of violence committed by the IEN were also forgotten, even by those who were not alive to experience them, and others couldn't see while the elves continued to hold on to grudges centuries old, which for the elves was still within their lifetime.
Throughout all of this, the losing races of the First Unhuman War scattered to the far ends of wildspace. With nearly all of their spelljammers destroyed, the orcs, goblins, kobolds, and ogres that were the target of the IEN's wrath attempted to return to their traditional way of life, but often raided each other over the rest of the Known Spheres, fearful of elven retaliation. Still, the shattering of their peoples were not forgotten, even as the centuries passed. The flames of this resentment and anger would later be harnessed by the orc Dukagsh, the founder of the Scro, which would ultimately lead to the Second Unhuman War in the 15th century.
Conflict Type
War
Battlefield Type
Space
Start Date
1063
Ending Date
1072
Conflict Result
Imperial Elven Navy Victory; "Monsterous races" scattered to the far corners of the Known Spheres
Location
Comments