Civil War of Woestijn

The Civil War of Woestijn is the most recent in a nearly endless cycle of civil wars and conflicts dating back to the creation of Stin Cepel.

#### Historical Context

##### Orcs

Woestijn is the ancestral home of the Orcs. They lived there for thousands of years until a plague destroyed all of their crops and farmland. They were forced to move to the island of Urghoz, off the western coast of Woestijn.

##### Humans

2,000 years B.C., King Victor I united the Human clans of the Central Continent and created the Kingdom of Stin Cepel. However, he was not quite successful in uniting all of the human clans. Some clans opposed him, but were not strong enough to overtake him. These, he exiled to the southwestern portion of the Central Continent - Woestijn. They found it uninhabited, but the plague which had destroyed the land had long passed, and the humans settled in.

##### Spellplague of Urghoz

Soon after, a terrible magical force overtook Urghoz. It is unclear what this force actually was, but it rendered the island asunder, forcing the orcs once again to migrate. They returned to their ancestral home to find that humans had settled it. One might say there could have been a peaceful way to resolve the issue...but that is not what happened.

##### Claims of Ownership

The orcs claimed that the land originally belonged to them, and that they would be willing to work out a system by which the humans could live there under orc rule. The humans balked, saying the land now belonged to *them*, since the orcs had abandoned it hundreds of years ago. This disagreement escalated to war.

#### The Shadow Wars

These sorts of disagreements persisted for hundreds of years. Then, one day, the armies of Woestijn realized that Stin Cepel had slowly become weaker over the years. A council was called. The humans agreed to cede right of ownership of Woestijn, if the orcs would aid them in defeating the Broum family of Stin Cepel and resettling there. The orcs agreed, and the two armies invaded Stin Cepel.

They cut through the Foothills with ease and made their way to Alagir. At the Battle of Alagir, they slew King Victor IV, and everything looked to be going well...until one night, Jenova and her agents, having made a deal with the new Queen of Stin Cepel, swooped in and slaughtered the leadership of both armies, as well as many of the soldiers.

Terrified, what remained of the two armies fled back to Woestijn. It was not long after that they began fighting again; the orcs felt they had held their end of the bargain, but the humans disagreed, saying it was null since they had lost.

One interesting result of the two armies working together: a new race was formed, called Half-orcs. Peaceful orcs and humans who wanted to avoid the fighting began copulating, and before long, there were as many half-orcs as full orcs or humans.

#### Recent Conflict

The most recent iteration of this war lasted roughly 60 years. It was a three-way war between orcs, half-orcs, and humans, with alliances switching every few years or so. When the Harbinger Coup happened, it appeared that the humans, with aid from Vitaurum and the Harbingers of Purity, were gaining the upper hand. This was all for naught, however, as the three half-orc heroes McCreedy, Belros, and Ulrak joined together with the Sandstriders, Team B, and the orcs to defeat the humans once and for all.

#### Aftermath

As a condition of their aid, Belros agreed that the half-orcs would aid the orcs in fixing whatever had happened on Urghoz. McCreedy traveled with Tolsmir, some half-orcs, and some agents of Jenova to clear the evil stain. This is where he found the Blade of Chaos, buried deep within a cave. The orcs moved back to Urghoz and Woestijn became a new government, under half-orc rule.