The Creation War

The Creation War is the single most well known conflicts the world has ever seen and certainly the bloodiest. While conflicts before and after were wars between nations, usually over land and sovereignty, the Creation War was one between the colleges of magic themselves. This is the war that marked the first time the full power of a magical college was witnessed first hand and it taught the world one very important message: Kings and queens do not truly rule the world. Mages do.
The war began in 4722NA and ended in the year 4729NA, lasting for a total of seven years. Though a short conflict it was by far the most destructive war in the world’s history, the likes of which had never been seen before.

Part 1: The Pre-War. In the year 4721NA the Empress of the Black Sun Empire was enthralled and finally possessed by a greater demon. Its motives for this are unknown, though the popular theory at the time was that it was bargained with by the College of Biogenesis in Athenia, as the college wished to get out from under the thumb of the Spider Cult and Athenia wished to become independent from foreign rule. However it could well have been sent by Aztlan or the Gold Empire, as both had reason to want to see the Black Sun Empire displaced, or simply been acting of its own accord to stir chaos in the world as demons are wont to do.
The demon used its power to sow dissent into the peoples of the Black Sun Empire and foster animosity within the nobility. It would send lavish gifts to the least powerful noble houses while at the same time accusing members of the richer houses of infamously disgusting and petty crimes. It also funded a revolt against its own regime by the commoners of the nation, resulting in a country that seemed, to outside view, to be cannibalizing itself. The presented opportunity was not lost to the other rulers of the world.

Part 2: Year 1. In 4722NA Athenia, Veluca, and Estania formed the Alliance of Free Merchants and officially seceded from the Black Sun Empire. A large chunk of the Isles of Tongues also broke away and joined this alliance and together they’d form a grand fleet rivaling that of any other nation. The Gold Empire of the eastern continent, hoping to loosen the Black Sun Empire’s hold on the eastern shore of what they perceived as their land, funded the alliance and backed them with gifts from the Order of Metal Paths, which would eventually come to be known as the College of Arcane Metallurgy, to bolster their power.
They were successful at first as their fleets purged the sea of the Black Sun Empire’s navies and the Khemrian rulers and military presence was quickly ousted.

Part 3: Year 2. In 4723NA the demon-empress was killed by the Exalted Executioner of the Spider Cult and a new empress was elected by the Silk Mother to replace her without further bickering amongst nobles. The new empress sent her full armada against the merchant fleets of the alliance and made a bid to invade Athenia, Veluca, and Estania simultaneously. The merchant fleets took terrible losses and looked to be about ready to be destroyed when a mercenary fleet of Northmen arrived and turned the battle around, forcing the Black Sun Empire to retreat and re-group.
Also around this time the College of Biogenesis unveiled their first aquatic super weapon: The war-turtle. A huge sea turtle with terrible jaws that could rip open the haul of a wooden vessel, causing it to sink. This too turned the tables of the naval front and allowed the alliance to mount an actual offensive against the Khemrian northern port city, which was repelled by the Black Sun Empire’s elite undead soldiers: The Immortal Legions.

Part 4: Year 3. The stalemate continued on as the Black Sun Empire struggled to maintain their navy under constant attack. Meanwhile the Gold Empire declares war on the Black Sun Empire and moves south to push them off the eastern continent, but is ultimately stopped by the fourth, fifth, and sixth immortal legions supported by reanimators and two blood caudrons. The Gold Empire responds with an army of steam and clockwork automatons supporting their human troops. The battle line quickly turns into a nightmare of undead and war machines clashing without either side making headway.
Aztlan then launches their own invasion of the Black Sun Empire from the west, landing on the southern continent’s shores but quickly being pushed off by the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth immortal legions and the deployment of three blood cauldrons. The Black Sun Empire sustains massive casualties as the forces of Aztlan unleash a devastating magical storm fueled by blood magic. One of the blood cauldrons is lost in the battle.
The merchant fleets are broken through leading to the invasions of Estania, Veluca, and Athenia. Estania falls to human troops but Veluca holds out with the aid of steam automatons from the Gold Empire. Athenia is invaded and suffers the Battle of the Living and the Dead with the destruction of all human troops on both sides. The College of Biogenesis unleash a range of monsters to ravage the reanimators of the Black Sun Empire until the thirteenth immortal legion makes landfall with a blood cauldron and wins the battle. City is destroyed and the College of Biogenesis is burned down. Surviving biogenesists escape on the back of a giant turtle and populate a new base nearer to the western continent and Aztlan.

Part 5: Year 4. Aztlan launches a second invasion on the southern continent, conjuring a massive typhoon with blood magic to break the Black Sun Empire’s fortifications in the area. A second blood cauldron is lost in the waves of water caused by the spell. Biogenesists support the Aztlan army with their own host of amphibious war beasts, giving Aztlan uncontested control of the now flooded coastline. The third immortal legion is deployed to reinforce their defensive line but gets obliterated by a blood fueled fire storm that ravages the countryside, killing thousands.
The Black Sun Empire retaliate by unleashing a necrotic virus upon the Aztlan armies, ravaging them and leaving the western coast nearly uninhabitable. Aztlan retaliates with the summoning of the infamous Blood Plague. One thousand Khemrian slaves are sacrificed and the city of Khem-Ra is savaged by the unnatural plague of cursed blood. A Black Sun assassin kills the sorcerer commanding the plague, causing the spell to go wild.
Ultimately the blood plague is co-opted by a greater demon now known as the Plague Lord. The demon fuels the magical disease with its own power and then physically manifests in the world through it as a mass of death and disease. The blood plague spreads rapidly, hitting Aztlan’s continental homeland as well as spreading into the Gold Empire and even as far north as the northern continent. Millions die to sickness as the demon grows more and more in power.
A combined effort of the Cult of the Spider, local biogenesists, and Aztlan sorcerers work together to destroy the demon’s body, but he only manifests in lesser forms throughout the Aztlan Empire, ravaging their population centers.
The thirteenth immortal legion and their blood cauldron sail south to try and force the College of Biogenesis out of the Isles of Horror, but are destroyed by the college’s newest creations: Drakons (or dragons in modern parlance). Drakons being huge, reptilian creatures capable of flight and astounding intelligence and fully capable of wielding magic. The drakons savage the Black Sun fleet and steal the blood cauldron from them.
The Gold Empire, using the newly devised liquid flame and deploying it via flying contraption behind enemy lines, completely annihilate the immortal legions in the southern part of their continent. The explosions generated are said to have been many magnitudes beyond what was anticipated and set half the continent on fire for months before it was finally put out. Millions died.
The year 2226 is declared the bloodiest year in the history of the world. Roughly 60% Of the global population was lost.

Part 6: Year 5. After some continued fighting Aztlan pulls out of the war to bring what few troops remain home to deal with the demon plague. The Black Sun Empire similarly abandons the charred remains of their holdings on the eastern continent. The blood cauldrons are picked up from the ashen ruins by the Gold Empire and held until the end of the war.
The Plague Lord manifests again, this time in the heart of the Aztlan Empire’s capital. Hundreds of blood mages do battle with the creature. In the end the emperor himself steps forward and sacrifices himself with blood magic to conjure forth an avatar of pure flame in the shape of a jaguar to sear away the Plague Lord’s physical form while ravaging its spiritual self in the astral realm. The Plague Lord is defeated and the blood plague greatly weakened, though it would take another 30 years until it fully faded away.
New ships made of metal are created by the Gold Empire. They launch their new armada to take command of the sea and conquer the Isles of Tongues and the northern coast of the Black Sun Empire with their new found naval power.

Part 7: Year 6. The College of Biogenesis reveal a new monstrosity: Krakens. These creatures quickly counter the Gold Empire’s fleet, giving the Black Sun Empire the chance to push them out of the southern continent, but the Isles of Tongues, Veluca, and Estania all remain conquered.
Drakons are deployed in the area. They quickly route the remaining Gold Empire troops from the islands, burning much of them alive with a cruel lack of mercy. Soon the drakons decide they wish to rule instead and betray their creators, declaring themselves rulers of the Isles of Tongues.
“Drakon Slayer” becomes a new profession as the Gold Empire hires Northmen mercenaries to slay the creatures. These warriors are outfitted with powerful living steel weapons to do the job. The drakons prove to be unkind rulers of humanity, and in the end several of them are destroyed by Gold Empire firebombs, each one costing an entire island’s population in the resulting inferno just to successfully kill a lone dragon.
The drakons mount an attack on the Gold Empire, burning huge swaths of the empire’s territory and cities in their wrath for the death of a handful of their own kind. The invasion is ultimately ended in a final battle between the drakons and the Gold Empire and their newly created mechanical drakon machines.

Part 8: Year 7. Small skirmishes between surviving drakons and the various nations continues for several months until a peace is finally agreed to. The drakon power over the Isles of Tongues are broken and most go into hiding. The world governments are all crippled financially and no longer have the populations to mount a reasonable force to continue the fighting. The seas have been rendered impassable due to rampaging sea monsters and drakons, though small in number, still lurk in the dark corners of civilization looking for a way to claim power for themselves.

Conflict Type

War