Dawn War

The Conflict

Prelude

For centuries, the gods were good and benevolent, but some grew corrupt with power. Worst among them was Zargon, who had developed an insatiable thirst for blood. At the height of his power, he slew Asgorath, the Creator, and devoured their corpse. Such an unthinkable act both emboldened the other Corrupted Gods and infuriated the good deities. When the Corrupted began to run rampant, war broke out in the heavens, and spilled over onto Erden.

Outcome

With only twelve gods left to oversee mortalkind, these survivors grew in power to become greater deities. Many adopted at least one "orphaned" species, such as how Avandra adopted the gnomes.

Aftermath

• The Veil permanently weakened the gods' influence on the mortal realm, for better or worse. They have since had to act through agents, ranging from mortals to extraplanar beings that weren't trapped behind the Veil with them.
• Large swathes of the world were corrupted and devastated by battles with evil beings. The defiled lands took thousands of years to completely purify, and still suffer occasional incursions by fiendish and aberrant things that are drawn to the residual corruption.

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

-12100

Ending Date

-12000

Conflict Result

Victory by the Twelve

Belligerents

Asgorath's Children

• The Twelve

Corrupted Gods

• Corrupted Gods

Strength

• Divine: Most of the human, dwarven, elven, halfling, gnomish, and other good-aligned gods; thousands of celestials
• Mortal: Millions

• Divine: Most of the orcish, goblinoid, giant, and other evil pantheons; thousands of fiends and aberrations alongside them
• Mortal: Millions

Casualties

Divine casualties numbered hundreds of gods, including several entire pantheons, and a great many celestial warriors.

Countless mortal and demonic soldiers were killed, but so were all but twelve of the Corrupted.

Objectives