Realm War II

Realm War II took place between 851 PR-900 PR. It follows the War of Dragons, precedes the Second Holy War, and served as one of the major conflicts of the War of Many Names. Hoping to divide the allied forces of Quelmar, Tiamat and her most devious agents used trickery and subterfuge to turn the peoples of Quelmar against each other. Unlike Realm War I which had been fought between kingdoms, Realm War II was fought between independent city states, domains, and military organizations. Realm War II was also notable for being the first major Quelmar conflict where firearms were a commonly used weapon among the waring militaries.

NOTE: This page is still in development

Background

After the death of the Platinum Dragon Bahamut at the hand of Tiamat, many across the realm become disheartened and began to lose hope that the war against the dragons was winnable. At the same time, dragon attacks had made it so that resources had begun to dwindle. Seeing the opportunity, Tiamat began to sow confusion and disarray between the allied forces of Quelmar, having her agents infiltrate governments, cities, political parties, and even some private companies in order to exert her influence from the shadows.

Seeing the developments in new arcane technologies, Tiamat worried that mortals could soon create weapons that rivaled her dragons. During the Second Realm War, Tiamat focused much of her efforts towards Isonhound. The death of Feredemius and the rise of a new age of dragonslayers within the continent had dealt a major blow to her war effort, and the new developments of airships had made it easier for heroes and militaries alike to combat dragons.

Major Factions and Alliances in the War

The Dominion

As the second Realm War progressed, the Wold Order sent diplomats to neighboring continents hoping to seek allies in their effort to expand their influence and "unite" against the draconic threat. They found footing with other nations who held similar ideals, mainly the Levinkan Dynasty. As The five cities of The Oppidan War Peacetalks Commitment began losing ground in the war, the Wold Order was able to bring them into their alliance, trading rare minerals from Pteris in return for military and magical aid from the order. After the events of the Alestian Reckoning and the use of the Greenfire Bomb, the Wold Order's allies turned against them, breaking the Dominion.

• The Wold Order (Isonhound)
  • Synàra
  • Seglock
• Levinkan Dynasty (Levinkan)
  • Zobeck
  • Pepperoncini
• The Oppidan War Peacetalks Commitment (Pteris)
  • Jewelspar
  • Lunas
  • Granite
  • Dardin
  • Rwendia
• Ethiruva (Osugbo)

The Concord

The Concord was formed as a reaction to the rise of the Dominion. What started as many separate fronts slowly turned into two opposing factions fighting for control of Quelmar's future.

• The Gulfithorp Isles / Troverth (Levinkan/Amusa)
  • Scoville
  • Warukami
• Defensive League Opposing Wold (Isonhound)
  • Saltport
  • Sneerwell
  • Gammelgard
• The Seven Cities
  • Ugarat
  • Al'Adeaf
  • Hissar
  • Fyurl
  • Namium
  • Cansthum
  • Mam'laka
  • Thri-Kreen Tribes
• Friþleas (Osugbo)

Independent

• Dolmvay
• Elin Barad
• Steelhand Hall
• The Howling Clans

Notable Fronts

The Woldin Front

For centuries the Wold Order had served as the elven protectors of Isonhound. Though as the War of Dragons continued on, many in the order fell back on old Woldlin ideologies that they were the true people of the continent and that there was no cost to great in order to protect Isonhound. Late into the War of the Dragon, the Wold Order had begun capturing dragons to train future dragon slayers. Guarded by the orders greatest wizards, these captured dragons whispered terrible nightmares into the ears of the Wold Order, making them even more frightened and paranoid. At the same time, Tiamat used her dragons to organize calculated strikes against vital Wold Order supply lines, weakening the order even further.

Things came to a head after an internal coup in the ranks of the wizards of the Wold Order by Woldlin supremacists. Believing that they needed an organized front with them at the head to defeat the dragons, the Wold Order began forceful conscriptions of any able bodied warriors into their ranks. In addition, the instituted military law over an towns and cities in their jurisdiction in order to divert more resources to the war front.

Many cities resisted the Wold Order's forceful advance and rose up arms against the order. The largest opponents of the Wold order would be the independent cities of Saltport, Sneerwell, and Gammelgard. As the war progressed, the officially came together in wat became known as the Defensive League Opposing Wold (DLOW). Notably, the city of Seglock was not a part of DLOW as it was the first city that the Wold Order extended their influence over due to the city's large population of adventurers and the cities proximity to the Wold stronghold of Synàra.

The Woldin Front was concentrated primarily around Sneerwell which was under siege for most of the war and the mountains of East-Central Isonhound. The Woldin Front became infamous for their use of high level magic to devastate battlefields and for their use of captured dragons as weapons of war.

During the siege of Sneerwell, the Wold Order seized all of the refineries of Pendergras Industries outside city walls. During this period, Pendergras Industries had devoted all of its resources to developing airships. Repurposing these factories, the Wold Order formed the Ministry of Aerial Combat which began to build airships for the Wold Order to use during the war.

The Dune Front

Due to draconic attacks, the alliance in Pteris known as The Seven Cities lost most of their usable farmland and had a majority of their vital trade routes destroyed. After many years of famine, the capital of the seven cities, Ugarat, had a shift in political leadership who believed that salvation could only come from making peace with the dragons. The political leadership or Ugarat would form an alliance with the ancient blue dragon Hyarn (He-Yarn) the Sky-Splitter. The other six cities soon followed Ugarat's lead and bent the knee to Hyarn who agreed to no longer ravage the cities farmlands. While the famine was ended, Hyrarn made sure that the Seven Cties were always still on the brink of falling back into ruin.

Under Tiamat's command, Hyran directed the Seven Cities to invade the region of Oppidan, a lush peninsula where Hyran promised the cities could steal food to feed their people. This led the Seven Cities into direct combat with the Oppidan War Peacetalks Commitment (OWPC), an alliance of the five largest cities in Oppidan, including Dardin, Granite, Jewelspar, Lunas, and Rwendia.

The Dune Front was centralized around the Tavorel River which was large enough to host large seafaring battleships from the OWPC. A smaller ground based battlefield was centered around the town of Holtston which switched hands repeatedly throughout the war. Near the end of the war, much of the town had been reduced to smoke and ash.

During the war, the Seven Cities had a significantly smaller army compared to the OWPC, but they fought ten times as fiercely, for they knew if they lost, their families would go hungry and die. Many within the soldiers ranks had also begun to adapt the teachings of the Cult of the Dragon which were being preached by agents of Hyarn. They were also aided by mighty dragons in service to Tiamat. Late into the war, Hyarn subjected a number of Thri-Kreen tribes in the Kharmaja and had them sneak deep into Oppidan territory to serve as guerilla fighters and disrupt the OWPC's war effort.

While the OWPC was the much larger dog in the fight, they struggled to combat the Seven Cities due to intense in fighting. While they were all part of an alliance, the alliance had been formed to end The Oppidan War and to stop the fighting between the cities, and they never before had to fight an outside enemy. The managed to maintain the front with their large army and had the strongest naval fleet of any army during the Realm War which they used to maintain control of the Tavorel River.

Most of the infighting between the cities was between the elven city of Jewelspar and the dwarven city of Dardin. The values of both cities clashed frequently, causing disorganization in their combined military ranks. In 879 PR, Dardin would pull out of the alliance completely after a particularly brutal attack by Hyarn and retreat into the underground tunnels built by their forefathers during The Holy War

The Storm Front

The tropical archipelago known as the Gulfithorp Isles had once been protected by a bronze dragon in ages past named Tenorixion. After Tenorixion's death, the islands were left vulnerable and suffered exploitation by both The Levinkan Dynasty to the north, and the militaristic nation of Troverth to the south. During this period, Tenorixion's personal cult grew its reach to each of the islands, preaching that salvation would one day come for them. Their prayers were answered as one day, emerging from the sea was Tenorixion himself in his full draconic glory! In actuality though, this wasn't the long dead Tenorixion at all, but rather an imposter. The real identity of the False Tenorixion was the Brone Dragon Brenavach, a self-described Tenorixion superfan who believed that it was their job to keep the legacy of Tenorixion alive. It wasn't long before the members of Tenorixion's cult discovered the truth as Brenavach did a very bad job at hiding it. But Brenavach had already begun doing to much to help the isles that they allowed the ruse to continue.

The return of a guardian dragon of the Gulfithorp Isles would not go undiscovered by the realm. The gnomes of the Levinkan Dynasty had long desired the islands for themselves due to their strategic position between Amusa and Levinkan and its vast resources. With a little bit of a push from Tiamat's spies within the dynasty, the Levinkan Dynasty declared war on the isles, declaring that it was a war of defense to eliminate the draconic threat of the bronze dragon. The Dynasty began a campaign of propaganda within its borders, convincing its people that the dragon of the Gulfithorp Isles as a threat to their way of life and could attack them at any moment.

The dynasty began their attack by invading the island of Morugana and conquering the town of Pepperoncini, a stronghold for Tenorixion's cult.knowing that they were no match against the Levinkan Dynasty, the people of the Gulfithorpe Isles pleaded to their neighbor to the south for aid, Troverth. For their aid, the isles promised Troverth full access to their navel trading routes between them and Osugbo. Hoping to distract from their own domestic issues, Troverth accepted the call of the Gulfithorpians and launched a land assault on mainland Levinkan. Landing in Western Levinkan, they were able to conscript the aid of the locals who stood against the Levinkan Dynasty in the east. Now facing two separate enemies, the Levinakn Dynasty was forced to split their attention between their fights abroad and at home.

In their war efforts, the Levinkan Dynasty employed their use of automated constructs known as Automs, robotic humanoids that the Levinkan's had reprogrammed as dangerous soldiers. Leading the war front were also powerful gnomish storm-sorcerers who were distant relatives and cousins of the current ruling family. They were able to command the weather around them, conjuring an everlasting storm above the armies of Troverth, giving the front its name.

In 897 PR Troverth was forced to pull out of the war and retreat from Levinkan as domestic rebellions in Troverth threatened Troverth's military government.

The Spear Front

The Spear Front was the most chaotic of all the major fronts in the second realm war, being fought by many separate and independent city states in the Alest and Diimgard domains of Osugbo. At the same time, many Orc, Goblin, and Kobold tribes in the regions took this opportunity to raid and pillage. In total, throughout the war, there were 6 separate warring factions, including the city of Dolmvay, Elin Barad, Steelhand Hall, Friþleas, Ethiruva, and the Howling Clans which was the term used to describe the many local tribes of Orcs, goblins, and kobolds.

There are many different accounts for why the war began, but most can track it down to the assassination of the Dolmvay president during a parade by an extremist citizen of Leishport who was driven to murder when Dolmvay moved to take full control of the bay both cities sat on during the Dragon War, forcing all ships, including ones from Leishport, to pay large tolls. This led to a series of events where Dolmvay declared war of Leishport, which caused Leishport's ally the much larger elven city of Elin Barad to declare was on Dolmvay. Caught in the crossfire was Steelhand Hall who had most of their trade routes disrupted by the war, causing them to join the fight as well. Soon after, the cities of Friþleas and Ethiruva would declare war on each other as well, since both cities had made alliances with opposite sides in the was in Isonhound, the city of Ethiruva allying with the Wold Order, and the city of Friþleas allying with the Defensive League Opposing Wold.

The war would quickly dissolve is a mire of chaotic battles, with rapidly shifting alliances and betrayals between all the cities. This was not helped by the aggressive Howling Clans who were using the war as a cover to raid and pillage across the Diimgard region.

As the Spear front progressed, it became ground zero for the Worldbreaker Plague, a horrific disease created by the dragon goddess Tiamat that mutate any humanoids it infects that have magical potential into horrific monsters. As the plague spread, the cities became increasing paranoid and militarized, spending a lot of their resources on expansive quarantines in a vain attempt to stop the plagues spread. Many citizens in the Alest region attempted to flee to Isonhound to escape the plague.

With the arriving refugees from Osugbo, and fear that the plague may spread across Isonhound, the Wold Order activated their greatest weapon, a magical weapon known as Greenfire which violently transforms all non-fey or plant creatures into plants. In 899 PR they used a Greenfire bomb, destroying a large portion of north western Osugbo and turning it into a floral wasteland.

Timeline

TBD

Notable Events

The Worldbreaker Plague

With the pressure of dragonslayers off her back, Tiamat was free to continue her experiments to create the Worldbreaker, the monster that was destined to one day end the world. In these endeavors, she crafted the Worldbreaker Plague, a disease that would specifically target any humanoids with magical potential. Tiamat's hope was that this virus could take away the arcane advantage that the people of Quelmar had over her dragons.

A creature infected with the Worldbreaker Plague would over the course of two weeks suffer horrific mutations, creating new arms, legs, mouths, and even heads, transforming them into terrible monsters that only sought to devour others and spread the plague. Tiamat would send the plague to the many corners of Quelmar, but it would find most success in the bloody chaos of the Spear Front.

The Alestian Reckoning

Hoping to stem the spread of the Worldbreaker Plague in Osugbo, the Wold Order use their newly developed Greenfire Bomb, which destroys a large portion of the northern Alest and Diimgard regions.

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