The Battle of Empires

The Battle of Empires was one of the biggest battles in the history of Giantstep. It involved the Azan Empire, the Khenomeri Empire and the First Elven Empire.
== Background ==
The Battle of Empires happened for many reasons, most of which are now forgotten. The most obvious reason was that at the time, much of the known world was dominated by three powers, the Azan/Dragon Empire, the Khenomeric Empire, and the Elven Empire. Although none of the powers were as dominant as ancient maps suggest, there can be no denying that much of the world was at least affiliated somehow with one of the three, and many smaller wars had already occurred prior to the Battle of Empires.
Other reasons are more occult, and now all but forgotten except by the most secretive of orders...
The foremost reason of such regions was the Khenomeric Empire’s research into magic constructs, also known as golems or automata. These incredibly powerful constructs are all but invincible to conventional soldiers, and soon became the backbone of the Khenomeric Empire’s armies. The automata were initially animated and controlled by variants of necromancy, sometimes mixed with plant magic, but soon the remaining members of the Order of Light affiliated with the Magoclergy began developing new techniques involving drawing stellar energy into Arcanium crystals. It was quickly realized that this stellar energy was in fact the same as divine energy.
Armed with this knowledge, the Magoclergy sought out sources of divine energy anywhere they could, including allied priests of Mg’umba, Kagal, and Uruc, God of Undeath. These inquiries lead them to the Cardammon Plateau, a sparsely populated region near the boundaries of all three Empires, where the bones of massive dragons and titans lay scattered, having been there for as long as humans can remember. There it was said they could find the last divine dragon egg, likely the largest concentration of divine magic left on the continent. Harnessing said power would have potentially given the Khenomeric Empire near god-like abilities.
It is questionable whether they had the skill and ability to harvest the magic of the dragon egg, but other beings were now alerted to the dragon egg’s possible location.
In Azan, the divine dragons Wahadalar and Phorsiussarx arrived to inform the Emperor of the Khenomeric Empire’s plan. It is believed they had their own agendas for doing so, but with so few divine dragons active in the world even back then, their story was accepted without question, and the Azan/Dragon Empire assembled an army of millions on the Plateau with the help of powerful portal magic supplied by Phorsiussarx. Even a few of the surviving divine giants were said to have been drawn to the cause.
The Khenomeric Empire responds with its own call to arms. Millions of soldiers arrive, nomad horsemen from around the eastern continent, and conscripts from nations closer in proximity. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of automata and hundreds of thousands elite soldiers are portalled in via the Khenomeric Empire’s own magic. 
The Elven Empire is not asleep while all this is happening either. The Faerie Lords assemble their own army, as some are interested in taking the dragon egg for themselves, while others simply want to defend their territory. 
== The Battle ==
It is said after weeks of posturing, the armies finally clashed when a large contingent of elf soldiers made a run for a particularly dense section of boneyard located in between the Azan and Khenomeric armies. Fearing the egg had been located, both armies clashed together in a titanic but poorly organized field battle, the largest the world has ever seen. It was likely that fighting would have broken out anyways though, if nothing else, local crops and herds had been thoroughly pillaged by this point.
In addition to their automata, the Khenomeric necromancers had also raised many titan and dragon skeletons, giving them many heavy hitters to support their vast conventional armies, a significant percentage of whom were mounted. But the Azan/Dragon Empire had its own advantages, including living giants, their own magic golems created via alternate means, and better motivated troops. Their biggest advantage though were Wahadalar and Phorsiussarx, back then at the prime of their power, able to incinerate entire companies in one go, and all but indestructible by even the most powerful of magic. The elves were completely outmatched, and left the field, but their opportunistic attacks over the next few days still slew many at little cost to their own.
Although they had the initial upper hand, the Khenomeric Empire’s armies soon began to tire and slow down. Demoralized, many soldiers and knights from the north coast of the Khenomeric Empire tried to flee, only to be cursed by foul magic by the Green Order, who turned them into Lichen Knights, Vine Zombies, and other strange creatures. Desperate, the Black Order made bargains with long forgotten evils that lurked below the Plateau, creating ever more powerful undead creatures to turn the tide.
Despite all their efforts though, it soon became apparent the Khenomeric Empire would lose. Bitter at this defeat, the head of the Black Order began to prepare the activation of a magic artifact of immense power, one that even she believed too dangerous to use in the centuries it was in her possession. No one knows for sure what it would have done, though some theories are that it would open a demon breach, or summon either Mg’umba or Uruc to the mortal plane.
Thankfully it didn’t work, but only due to the intervention of several divine dragons of monstrous power, and some say Bronzar himself, and several other gods. Unfortunately for the assembled armies, even the incomplete ritual caused unparalleled destruction. Necromantic energies stole the lives of many soldiers, while others fell into bottomless crevasses or gas spewing fissures that still exist to this day. The terrain became warped and jagged as the rock flowed in unnatural ways, and even in modern times little grows or lives on the northern end of the Cardammon Plateau. It is said that vast horde of skeletons, spirits, and other undead also emerged from the fissures and crevasses, killing many before the divine intervention banished or deanimated them. Some say the world itself may have crumbled if it weren’t for the divine intervention. 
== Aftermath ==
Few survived the Battle of Empires, greatly depleting the armies of all three empires, and ushering in an era of decades of unrest.
Wahadalar and Phorsiussarx were denounced as rogue by no less than six divine dragons of unusual power. They disappeared to the east, where it is believed Wahadalar ended up somewhere in the Squid Peninsula, while Phorsiussarx was tricked and put to sleep by the remains of the Magoclergy. Never again would the divine dragons or Bronzar himself intervene in such a direct manner, and after a few centuries, the Dragon/Azan Empire marked this as the end of an old era, and the beginning of a new one.
The Khenomeric Empire was more adversely affected. The blatant abuse of magic that occurred during the battle, plus the loss of millions of their most loyal soldiers, caused unrest and rebellion that greatly weakened the empire, and even led to a ban on magic use. The east also began using the Battle of Empires as a marking point, for some it marked the beginning of the end for the Magoclergy, for others the decline of the hated Empire itself.
The Elven Empire was perhaps the least affected. With its two main rivals in disarray, it had several decades of notable victories. Some say certain factions accomplished something else at the battle as well, though it is unclear what. 
The physical impact of the battle remains to this day. Now known as the Cursed Battlefield, it is covered in jagged rock, deep fissures, poisonous vents, and many fields of bones. Many undead have reawakened and now roam the region, while some have even drifted to other regions like the Lichen Knights. Necromancers frequently visit the region, and some of the most powerful have even established bases here. Some say the whole region is a semi-dormant demon breach, and that the countless fissures are slowly expanding and connecting, and that deep beneath the surface is a city of bone inhabited by the spirits of the dead, ever expanding and growing more powerful.
Aside from the necromancers, few visit the battlefield. Of those that do, perhaps the most noteworthy are the automata. It is said that Bronzar, or perhaps another god bound these creations to their will, and now they, whether they be Khenomeric construct, Azanese knock-off, or strange elven plant based equivalent, guard the battlefield from unknown threats, though most of them have instead relocated to a “Republic” on the south end of the Plateau, far from the battlefield. 
Some metaphysical changes are believed to have occurred as well. Many magics are said to have become less potent following the battle, and artefacts from before the battle are highly sought after. It is said the gods themselves banned together to keep the events of the battle from repeating.
Perhaps the biggest mystery is the fate of the dragon egg itself. Some believe a handful of Khenomeric soldiers retrieved it from the battlefield just prior to the intervention, then hid it from the Magoclergy, only to lose it to the gnolls ages later. Others say the dragon egg lost to the gnolls was one already in possession of the Empire even before the battle.
However, although the battle itself, the destruction that followed, and the intervention that prevented further loss is well remembered in modern times (though not particularly accurately), the role of the dragon egg in the battle has almost been forgotten, as has the means to extract power from it.
Category:Battle
Category:History