Night Wars

The Night Wars were a series of cataclysmic battles that ended with Nyx's fall and the exile of the giants. The contest was originally between the dwarves and elves, who fought on behalf of their rival lords, the Endani and Ilani. But the combatants were evenly matched. The warring voru came to a truce and resolved to send their servants against the hesha and other dragon-spawn. These beings were regarded as truly perverse, for they had been distorted by Nyx and her ilk, while the dwarves and elves had only been shaped by the hands of giants, who were the sworn servants of the gods, however misguided their actions.
The Azlan, aided by the dwarves, thus turned on all the dragon-spawn. Seraya, Gaumad and Rasvin fled with their children to Alba, while Ukhraj battled the maedi, the hesha fighting the dwarves. Despite the vigor of Ukraj’s gnolls and the discipline of Nyx’s hesha, they were crushed between the empires of Zakhema and Tir Urdun. Seeing the slaughter, and the betrayal of the giants, Nyx was overcome with grief. Her rage and pain became a conduit through which Beraz-the-Beast could manifest, and Nyx was consumed by him. She sought to tear the world apart and eat Asur’s heart, thereby allowing the Secondborn to become the First, master of all worlds and supreme god.
The dwarves and elves had to unite against Nyx and the ravan who spilled from the Void to join in her destruction. Terrible magics were unleashed and the fabric of Vala threatened to unravel, the realm dragons thrashing in agony. The dwarves used dark enchantments drawn born from Black Flame, and the maedi used all the dreadful arts taught to them by the masters. At last, on the burning Plains of Brax, Nyx was overcome and she and her ravan hordes were banished to the Void. But the world was ravaged. Wandering exiles from Anratha, the Outsiders, arrived then, and their intervention ended the Night Wars as well as the Age of Giants. 
The Outsiders looked on the chaos raging across Vala and were horrified. Though Nyx had been cast out, she still raged, the Beast threatening to emerge again. Ystarte the Mender, the goddess of magic, called on the gods to raise up the Needle of Heaven and use it to channel the chaotic magic unleashed by Nyx. The Outsiders agreed, and Ystarte weaved the chaos magic into the Skein, the great, tangled trap that catches up unbound spirits and prevents them from infiltrating Creation. Nyx strained against these bonds but, as they were woven from the eternal gods, she could not break through. Furious and despairing, she sank into the Void. 
With the Beast banished, the gods gathered in the Worldspines, upon the Needle of Heaven, through which the Skein flowed and took its power and shape. Some gods wished to destroy the world, others wished to simply abandon it, while others wanted to guide the scattered mortal races. As the conference grew heated, Jau the Trickster was cloaked in the light of Asur and spoke with his voice, which made even the gods tremble. Jau-Asur simply said, ‘The New Sun has not yet dawned. Wait.’ The gods were much confused by this, until Issio the Magister explained that Asur had commanded them to wait until the world, which was a mingling of Beraz and Asur’s anima, had achieved what Anratha and Yesod could not, a synthesis of light and dark. Though some disputed Issio’s explanation, Rheas pledged himself to Issio’s vision, and Sol followed. Soon after the other gods made their pledges to await the New Sun. Zarosh the Scourge was the last to do so, and he had greatly wished to smash the world. In anger, he struck the Needle. A piece of it went tumbling down into the world, but as the Needle was wrought by divine hands, and not truly of the material world, the piece of the Needle could not touch the ground. Thus, the Skyrock continues to float several hundred feet above the Heidan plains, a monument to Zarosh’s fury.
With the Night Wars over, the giants understood their folly and departed the world. The Endani possibly went into Erebus, enlarged by the dwarf children. The Ilani boarded their voidships and returned to the stars. The dwarves and elves were left to make their own destinies, like all mortals. The Gianttime had ended, and Age Zero had begun.
Category:History