Wars of The Eldar

All dates are in Imperial Calendar.

* **~250 I.C.** Sakhi drow launch a surprise attack on their southern neighbours, the Galik. The reasons for the attack are lost to history, but scholars suspect there was some kind of personal grudge between the leaders involved.
* **~250 I.C.** The Galik turn to their allies, the Q'Saathi and the two tribes combine to make a retalliatory strike against the Sakhi capital. This attack is usually considered to be the first battle of the Wars proper, usually known as *The Galik Retribution*.
* **~251 I.C.** Not knowing of the initial Sakhi attack and fearing that the combined Galik-Q'Saathi forces are intent on conquering, most of the northern drow tribes form an alliance, later known as the Maelnang Cohort, named for the two largest tribes involved: the Maelik and Nangor. They form a blockade between the Sakhi and the southern forces. Some skirmishes occur, but no more major battles for now.
* **258 I.C.** With tensions in the drowlands threatening to spill over into the eastern portion of their territory, the Sofiantan Council of Elders commission a fact-finding expedition to better understand the situation.
* **259 I.C.** Most of the Sofiantan delegation returns to Sil Tian. Or their heads do, at least. What happened to them, and who did it is unknown, but this is taken as an act of war and the Sofiantan forces start to prepare on their eastern border.
* **261 I.C.** The first skirmishes between drow and elf occur, as Q'Saathi forces run into Sofiantan border forces while trying to maneuvre to attack the Cohort near Ishlath Kar from an unexpected direction. This flanking force is almost destroyed entirely by the well-prepared elven defenders.
* **262 I.C.** *The First Battle of Siroth Tir*. A major Q'Saathi force seeking vengeance for those killed on the Sofiantan border attack an identified weak point in the border lines. They break the line and fold the defenders south, ending with many of the survivors being driven into the sea near what is now Sariet.
* **262 I.C.** Following the massacre at Siroth Tir, a fresh Sofiantan force makes to strike into the heart of Q'Saath while their armies are out of position. A flank of this advance force encounters the Maelnang Cohort and attacks, not recognising the different insignia and assuming the drow to be a Q'Saathi offshoot.
* **263 I.C.** As the Q'Saathi main force sweeps into Sofianta along the south coast, drawing much of the Sofiantan forces' attention, a contingent from the Maelnang Cohort commit several surgical strikes against the north-eastern borders, tearing the reduced defence forces apart. Thus begins the first major sub-war that scholars agree on, *The First Sofiantan Border War*.
* **271 I.C.** After years of fighting along their borders, the Sofiantan Elder Council backs an ambitious plan by a young and upcoming general, Therian Dolec Mora, to break the southern front and drive off the Q'Saath contingent of the attackers. The vast majority of the cavalry in the country follows Mora and his personal regiment of mage-knights south where they make heavy use of magic to force the Q'Saathi armies into engaging on their terms, controlling the weather and the land itself to control where the two sides meet.
* **273 I.C.** While the northern front of the war grinds to a stalemate, Mora's cavalry force engage the Q'Saathi one last time, having spent almost two years harrying and disrupting their enemy. They finally break the invaders at the *Second Battle of Siroth Tir*, Mora choosing the battlefield for its symbolic significance despite several nearby areas having more advantageous terrain. Following this victory, Mora's horseback forces disperse to form several quick-response regiments to back up border defences against future attackers. Mora sends his personal regiment north to aid in the efforts against the Maelnang Cohort, while he personally rides back to Sil Tian to deliver the good news of the victory in the south. He never arrives.
* **275 I.C.** The Maelnang forces are driven away from northern Sofianta, with the arrival of Mora's Outriders boosting morale in the defenders significantly, leading to a renewed push against the invading drow. The Cohort fall back into their territory and the Sofiantan forces pursue, gripped by a fresh fervour as they find themselves on the front foot for the first time in over a decade.
* **277 I.C.** Therian Deloc Mora's body is discovered, unnaturally preserved and grotesquely mutillated, with his flayed skin nailed between two trees like leather in a tanning rack, his body still attached in the centre. This discovery drives a new fury among a populace that were tiring of war, and many civilian militias crop up, known as Mora's Militias, to take over the border patrols with the intent of freeing the professional soldiery to go on the offensive into the drowlands and seek retribution for the fallen hero.
* **281 I.C.** As Sofiantan forces push into both Maelnang and Q'Saath territories, a new faction is elected into the Elder Council led by Sissuria Nanh Mora, daughter of the now-legendary war hero. Sissuria becomes the youngest council member ever, many detractors claiming that she won election solely on her father's name. This new faction on the council call themselves *The Shapers of Fates* and advocate heavily for splitting those with magical talent from their peers at a young age to train them young and build Sofianta's superiority in the magical arts and the use thereof in warfare.
* **284 I.C.** With much of Maelnang's military focused on fighting off the Sofiantan forces in the west, a coalition of drow tribes that did not join the Cohort assault and take the northern city of Ikhthun (modern-day Tharnang), which they begin fortifying heavily.
* **284 - 287 I.C.** In the south, the advancing Sofiantan forces drive Q'Saathi drow out of most of modern-day Cheronne in what would become known as The Crimson Flood, so named because the marching force deliberately kept the bloodstains of the slain on their once-silver armour.
* **294 - 308 I.C.** Driven all the way back to the fortress-city of Sikth Rek, Q'Saathi forces dig in and stop the advancement of the Sofiantan tide.The Siege of Sikth Rek kills all momentum of the Sofiantan invasion and continued harrying of the supply lines by small groups of the defenders making use of the extensive caves and tunnels below the city eventually drives the attackers back. An uneasy border forms in what is now south-east Cheronne.
* **301 - 306 I.C.** Now facing war on two fronts, the Maelnang leadership under High Lord Urh'denhak'orph devise and put into action a plan to resolve both fronts. A series of planned retreats and feigned pushes rotates the main line of the Sofiantan-Maelnang front from north-south to northeast-southwest, bringing the advancing Sofiantan armies, morale high from the perceived victories, into contact with Ikhthun. Finding themselves fighting a siege against an exceptionally-well-defended fortress, the advance stalls, then falters as Maelnang forces sweep in on the ill-defended flanks of the besiegers. This co-operation leads to a brief alliance between Maelnang and the Ikhthun seperatists.
* **~310 - 312 I.C.** With most of their fertile land now either destroyed by - or in the hands of - Sofianta, the Q'Saathi nation turns their attention to the forests of the Wood Elves on their western front (in modern-day Faruscia). They begin a campaign of clearing and burning portions of forest along the border to seize for farmland to supply the war effort.
* **313 I.C.** *The Battle of Lisantoa Clearing.* The Wood Elves formally enter the wars, beginning the sub-war that scholars know as *The War in The Woods*, and push back against the clearances after a sacred grove at Lisantoa (some 10 miles west from where the city of that name now stands) is burned. The battle is a rout in the Wood Elves' favour, as they caught the Q'Saathi forces off-guard with an army far larger and more cohesive than the forest folk were known to possess. There is little push-back or pursuit following the battle, the victorious Wood Elves seemingly content to cede previously-burnt ground and only wishing to prevent further encroachment.
* **315 I.C.** *The Battle of Merithi Plain* and *The Betrayal of Ikhthun*. Combined forces of Maelnang and Ikhthun launch an offensive into northeastern Sofianta, meeting the defenders at Merithi Plain. When Sofiantan forces break under the assault, the Ikhthuni contingent leads the pursuit, only to find themselves being cut down along with the foe by the following wave of primarily Maelnang troops. This was coordinated by Urh'denhak'orph's inner circle of commanders, almost to the day, with a reserved Maelnang force marching on the under-manned city of Ikhthun, making use of intelligence provided by defectors from the city to breach the outer walls and re-take the city. The city was then renamed Denhakh in the High Lord's honour, and announced before the court as part of his coronation as the first King of Maelnang.
* **322 I.C.** The Sofiantan Elder Council orders construction of the *Sarnii,* a series of magically-infused watchtowers positioned to defend the core of the nation at the very innermost point that they would accept loss of ground. The exact line of these towers was extremely controversial, with many outside that line feeling betrayed and abandoned by the centralised government in Sil Tian.
* **322 - 329 I.C.** The discontent stirred up by the placement of the *Sarnii* spills over into a series of uprisings and rebellions, and sees much of the Sofiantan army withdrawn from the front line to keep the peace.
* **332 I.C.** *The Year of Hidden Blades.* This year (and the first month of 333 I.C.) sees several high-profile deaths at the hands of assassins:
	+ Sissuria Nanh Mora is killed while speaking at a public gathering near the under-construction *Sarnii* by a bowman from a small hunting community lying far outside the tower line. After her speech was suddenly ended by a single arrow through her throat, the assassin was utterly obliterated by vengeful mages. Eyewitness accounts have him turned inside-out, struck by lightning and burning in at least 4 different colours of flame. This would stoke further conflict between the mages of *The Shapers of Fates* and the non-magical citizenry and Elder Councilmembers.
	+ King Urh'denhak'orph is found dead in his bed, gruesomely displayed witht his oinnards draped all over the four-poster. It is believed that he took one of his wife's handmaidens to bed that night, who turned out to be an assassin hired by his political opponents. Some say that the queen was her intended target, but she made use of the lecherous king's advances to kill him instead. Queen Morr'thak'ralia took over the throne from her huhband and would lead a heavy-handed purge of the upper echelons of Maelnang society, known as *The Culling of the Court*, to solidify her hold on the throne.
	+ Queen Ithra Talia Sahna of Sofianta is killed while out riding on one of her favourite forest trails. Some speculate that this was a Q'Saathi effort to weaken Sofiantan leadership, others that this was a misguided retaliation by *Shapers* for the death of Lady Mora earlier in the year. Still others posit that a borderland rebel did the deed in some kind of revenge for the placement of the tower line, which the Queen had final veto on. No group claims responsiblity, and a lack of conclusive evidence regarding the cause of death prevents any definite blame being placed.
	+ Warprince Kenek Thalmothir of Sikth Rek, who was key to the city fighting off the siege at the start of the century, is killed by a hired assassin-monk. The hired knife dies before giving up his employer, but it is believed to be one of Kenek's political rivals, who was also a jilted lover of the Warprince. Nothing is ever proven, however, and the rival in question goes on to take over running the city.
	+ High Priest Amur of the Wood Elves, one of the few remaining High Priests of Daur'ia'la, is killed by Q'Saathi agents while visiting a sacred glade in the south of the forest. This, and the associated desecration of the glade in question, would see the Wood Elves truly step into the war, where *The War in The Woods* had previously been relatively minor.
	+ Queen Tala of Sil Doria, ruler of the Wood Elves, was found dead in repose in her private garden. Last seen in the company of one of her ladies-in-waiting, a search ensued for the woman in question, but she was never found, and neither was the cause of death. With the highly religious queen dead, her more secular-minded son rose to the throne, accelerating the demise of the religious sect of The Worldmother's Path.
	+ Warprince Marok Ithiantor of Amak Xol, one of the main voices discouraging the Q'Saathi leadership from committing fully to the eastern front, is poisoned in his own palace. Though nobody was ever found to be behind the incident, save the poor kitchen staff who were all executed, this swung the balance of the debate, leading to more of the Q'Saathi forces being moved from the Sofiantan front to the woods in the east. While this technically happened a few days into 333 I.C., it is generally grouped in with The Year of Hidden Blades.
* **335 I.C.** *The Growth of Molnara.* The Bredarian Empire, finally taking notice of the conflict on their northern borders, send legions to secure those borders, intending to allow the elves to fight the war amongst themselves then pick the bones in the aftermath. The legions on the eastern coast over-advance however, securing a large portion of the land burned by the Q'Saathi armies and establishing a new border at the southern edge of the remaining forest. This would become the new northern border of the Reublic of Molnara, a recent addition to the empire.
* **336 - 342 I.C.** *The Battle Below*. The primary conflict in the sub-war known as *The First Q'Saathi Civil War*, a prolonged and brutal guerilla war raged between competing Q'Saathi factions in the tunnels below first Gaath Sut, then later Amak Xol, with only Sikth Rek remaining relatively unaffected of the major cities of the nation. No records remain as to the cause of the war, nor to the exact makeup of the opposing factions, but the conflict tied up large numbers of the Q'Saathi military, preventing them from making it to the front in *The War in The Woods*.
* **338 I.C.** Feeling threatened by increased military presence in southern Q'Saath, the Ariborn nation sign a treaty with the Bredarian Empire to allow Imperial merchants first access to their markets on exchange for a legion presence on their northern border to prevent the drow from invading. This would eventually lead to full accession into the empire.
* **339 - 347 I.C.** The Wood Elves slowly and methodically advance west, expanding their territory beyond the forest itself and into eastern Q'Saath and Maelnang.
* **342 I.C.** *The Battle of Isserath Vale.* Maelnang forces meet Sofiantan defenders surprisingly deep into Sofiantan territory, after Maelnang leadership made several deals with disaffected borderland citizens to leave them alone in exchange for free passage. Caught on the march and expecting the battle to be several days away, the exhausted Sofiantan footsoldiers are slaughtered. Their cavalry support, positioned to assist at the expected battlefield, arrive too late to accomplish anything and leave to carry word of the invaders.
* **343 I.C.** *The First Sarnii Pulse.* The Maelnang forces, boosted by their overwhelming victory at Isserath Vale and continuing their policy of striking passage deals with the regular citizenry on the borderlands of Sofianta, advance all the way to the tower line, but find themselves unable to breach the line, despite no obvious wall preventing them. For the first time, the *Sarnii* are revealed to be more than watchtowers, a wall of pure force linked between them. Everything the invading force threw at the barricade seemed to do nothing, then the mages in the towers triggered The Pulse. The wall of force erupted outwards, flattening not only the attackers, but the surrounding forest and countryside, including many of the villages and communities that had allowed the drow passage. as well as Sofiantan military still out on the eastern border. This is believed by scholars to be the largest single magical discharge in recorded history, with magic users as far afield as Aribor claiming to feel the effects.
* **344 - 348 I.C.** Maelnang focuses the bulk of their forces on the western front, in the opening skirmishes of what would become known as *The Second Sofiantan Border War*. The invading forces are joined by refugee militias from the now-flattened borderlands, turning against the government that ordered The Pulse that destroyed their homes. Seeking to avoid a repeat of the devastation, the attacking army sweeps south into modern-day Cheronne, sending scouts to try and find the southern edge of the *Sarnii* tower line. They eventually follow the tower line all the way round the south of Sofianta, gathering rebel forces under their banner the entire way.
* **347 I.C.** *The Battle In The Shade,* fought between a newly re-unified Q'Saath and the Wood Elves in the shadow of the mountain-city of Amak Xol. While initially a stalemate, the battle was won more by mages than soldiers, as the drow sorcerers completely shut down the druidic magics of the Wood Elves by blocking out the sun with a magical darkness that hindered both visibility on the ground and the solar empowerment of the most powerful Wood Elf mages. As their enemy routed, the Q'Saathi gave hot pursuit, driving the Wood Elves right back into the forests that they had been fighting out from. Some eight years of gains were wiped out in a little over two weeks.
* **348 I.C.** *The Second Sarnii Pulse.* Seeing no way around the *Sarnii* and carried by the fervour of their rebel allies, the Maelnang forces in southern Sofianta attacked the invisible wall, pushing the elven rebels to the front to bear the brunt of any retaliatory action. Despite no official order being given to do so, the mages in the southern towers panicked and triggered a pulse, blowing away the attacking force. The wave of force apparently blew as far as the southern coast of Sofianta, with elvish and drow bodies and objects drifting ashore on Cheronne and Olyria for decades after the event. This reignited internal strifes between the magical and non-magical in Sofianta.
* **348 - 355 I.C.** *The Sofiantan Civil War*. Seeing The Second Pulse as being an overreaction by the mages at the tower line, the Elder Council ordered the mages arrested and stripped of their possessions and holdings as punishment. *The Shapers of Fates* and their offshoot factions saw this as a gross misplacement of blame and argued that non-magical soldiery would not face such a punishment. The angry rhetoric from both sides fuelled widespread violence as non-magical groups pulled mages into the streets and killed them, with most mages casting only in self-defence. Others however, went on the offensive and used their magics to take over entire communities, seeing the conflict as an opportunity to seize what they felt was their rightful place. With the entire remainder of the military called back to defend the capital and try to impose peace, Sofianta mostly bowed out of the international war for the time, resulting in their borders being pushed back almost to the *Sarnii* themselves.
* **350 - 352 I.C.** While their forces in the west had been destroyed by the Second Pulse, Queen Morr'thak'ralia was gathering the bulk of her remaining forces to take back what lands the Wood Elves had taken from her kingdom in their long march west. Leading this force herself, from the back of her tamed dragon, the drow force met little resistance at the edge of the forest, managing to push to within ten miles of the Wood Elf capital before being held to a stand still by the elite guard of Sil Doria, bolstered by the magics running through the trees themselves, at *The Battle of Farien Dell*. While humiliated in the nature of the defeat, none could argue that the Queen had been anything but magnificent in the campaign, strengthening her hold on the crown
* **352 - 353 I.C.** Shaken by how close the drow campaign had gotten to the capital, the Wood Elves recalled their forces to defend the grand city of Sil Doria, Only leaving small forces to defend sacred groves throughout the southern half of the realm. While this was met with horror on the part of those still following the Worldmother's Path, the religious sect had been on the wane for a long time, and little came of their protestations.
* **354 I.C.** *The Battle of Bosrian.* A military force made up of zealots of the Worldmother decided to take the defence of the southern groves into their own hands and travelled south to drive out invaders and heretics. Meeting the Imperial Legion at the Molnaran border, the impromptu army turned west, eventually meeting a small Q'Saathi force just outside of the then-independant city of Bosrian, close enough that it's said that some enterprising merchants sold tickets to watch the combat from the city's edge. The battle itself saw the religious zealots almost wiped out, as they lacked both tactical knowhow and the sense to know when they were defeated, so confident in their goddess's protection that they continued to throw themselves at the better-armed and better-trained professional force arrayed against them. The leadership of the Bosrian Guilds were so shaken up by the proximity of the fighting that they would begin building the now-famous city walls later in the year, and would sign the treaty to join the Empire in 356 I.C..
* **354 - 358 I.C.** The failed crusade of the Worldmother drew the attention of Q'Saathi leadership to the sparse defences in the southern woods, a situation that Warking Ilurak Thalmothir (the youngest brother of the assassinated Warprince Kenek) would swiftly make use of. Over the course of these four years, his forces marched east, crushing any opposition they met and desecrating the sacred sites being defended. This period covered several named battles, most notably *The Battle of Six Oaks* and *The Battle of Prince's Creek*, and culminated with the Q'Saathi army making it all the way to the cliffs on the eastern coast. Having marched all this way, many of the Warking's forces were frustrated, feeling deprived of the kind of fighting they had grown used to in previous campaigns in the Wars. The Warking responded by allowing his people free reign to pillage the forested land they had taken. Fires raged for months, the flames visible from as far south as Dostai in Molnara, and the smoke from as far away as Lasarine in the Imperial heartland.
* **358 - 360 I.C.** The gaze of the Queen of Maelnang returned to the forests, the fires in the south and a thirst for revenge drawing her into a second foray against the Wood Elves, this time aiming further south than the capital where her advisors suggested that the fires would leave the Wood Elf mages weakened. This campaign met with little opposition from the Wood Elves, ultimately leading to a conflict with the Q'Saathi elements still present in what was once the southern portion of the woods.
* **360 I.C.** *The Drowekh Parlay*. Following minor skirmishes between Queen Morr'thak'ralia's forces and those of the Q'Saathi Warking, the two monarchs agreed to meet to carve up the forests between themselves. Negotiations lasted weeks, most days ending with one or the other monarch storming from the negotiating pavillions at some affront, real or imagined. It was eventually agreed that Q'Saath would retain everything south of Sil Doria in return for helping Maelnang take the city itself, and Maelnang would take control of the city and everything north of it.
* **360 - 361 I.C.** With wounds still fresh from the civil war, though it had officially ended with an accord agreeing peace, discord still bubbled in Sofianta. These tensions flared again following an attempt on the life of a prominent anti-magic Elder Councilmember. Many magic users, fearing a return to the horrific treatment they received during the civil war, fled to a commune they founded at the base of several of the *Sarnii*, the one area so flooded in magic that they felt safe in their power.
* **361 - 363 I.C.** The combined drow forces swept north from their parlay, ravaging the forests on their way to Sil Doria. Minor infighting between the two factions occurred, but offenders were punished harshly, keeping the shaky alliance together long enough to make the march north.
* **363 I.C.** *The Burning of Sil Doria.* The drow fell upon the Wood Elf capital. With so much of the forest destroyed, the mages of the defenders were greatly weakened, and morale among the common soldiery was low. The overwhelming numbers of the combined drow forces, along with these weakening factors led the invaders to a crushing victory. Surviving Wood Elves, including what remained of the royal family, fled from the city as Q'Saathi troops started fires, flames licked up the city's glorious spires, consigning what was once considered the most beautiful architecture in the world to history. This destruction would also fracture the drow alliance, as the Queen of Maelnang had wanted to take the city for her new capital and decreed that the Q'Saathi Warking had broken the terms of the alliance by allowing his soldiers to raze it.
* **364 I.C.** With the Wood Elves now scattered into the northern forests, Morr'thak'ralia gathered her forces in the ruins of Sil Doria, seemingly to prepare for chasing the survivors down and taking the north. Q'Saathi forces began to pull back to the south to consolidate their hold on the land promised to them in the Parlay, only to find themselves betrayed as the Maelnang armies turned south and attacked their former allies. The resulting massacre saw the Q'Saathi troop numbers halved, the survivors fleeing back to the mountain cities of their homeland, abandoning the burned forests entirely. Warking Ilurak was also slain in the battle, leaving a power vacuum at the top of the Q'Saathi leadership that would take years to resolve.
* **364 - 375 I.C.** *The Second Q'Saathi Civil War.* The death of the Warking fractured Q'Saath. With no direct heir, every Warprince in the nation staked their claim for the leadership and infighting spread throughout the land.
* **364 - 370 I.C.** *The Gladeshadow War.* As Queen Morr'thak'ralia sought to press her military superiority and take the northern forests, a guerilla war with the survivng Wood Elves ensued. Having fallen back to the denser forests north of the capital, the natives were able to make use of both the environment and the druidic magics that were flowing through the trees in harassing the invading force. Patrols would find trails disappearing behind them, food caravans would be swallowed up, and campfires would not light. Though losses were light, the campaign was a disaster for the drow, who withdrew in 370 I.C., morale in tatters.
* **365 I.C.** *The Cheronnais Accords*. Seeking to create a buffer between themselves and the expansionist drow nations, Sofiantan leadership agreed with the Cheronnais people that they could increase their holdings northwards, taking the northern border of Cheronne from just north of Arvaux to the southern edge of the Trezintine mountains. In exchange, a proportion of the crops produced from farming this new land was to be sent to Sofianta.
* **368 I.C.** *The Imperial Expansion In Faruscia.* With Q'Saath tied up in civil war, and Maelnang busy in the north, the Empire saw an opportunity to take hold of the newly-burned land that was once part of the Wood Elves' domain. Legions marched north from the Molnaran frontier, taking most of modern-day Faruscia unopposed.
* **371 I.C.** *The Razing of Gaath Sut*. In one of the defining moments of the Second Q'Saathi Civil War, the city of Gaath Sut was burned to prevent the rise of one Warprince Kasren Anthorielis, who was gaining ground towards establishing himself as Warking. This united several factions that opposed him in a plan to burn his capital and scatter his forces. Though it was not intended as a massacre of the citizenry, unknown agents collapsed several exits from the city that had been intended to allow escape, leading to the vast majority of the residents perishing to the flames. Blame for this would ferment further unrest among remaining factions, continuing a war that had seemed nearly over.
* **372 - 373** **I.C.** Orc raiders in the countryside around Tharnang are put down by a small force led by newly-promoted General Ikar'than'thor. The result was so thorough a display of superiority that Orcs avoid the area even to this day, some claiming the area is haunted by a vicious being known only as The Dread Flayer.
* **374 - 375 I.C.** *Battle of The Umigii Plains.* Sofiantan and Maelnang forces, both seeking to secure the territory between Maelnang's western frontier and the eastern tower line at the edge of Sofianta, collide on the plains. The result is one of the longest pitched battles of the Wars. Though nominally a victory for the drow forces, the long grinding battle hurt both sides heavily and no claim was truly pressed on the lands won.
* **375 I.C.** *Morr'thak'ralia's Withdrawal.* Roughly a month after the Battle of The Umigii Plains ground to an end, an almost-unprecedented gathering was called by the Queen of Maelnang. According to first-hand accounts, the Queen claimed that she had been visited by spirits that had shown her a way to victory in the wars that no other could pursue, and that she would be withdrawing from the front lines to focus her efforts on this mysterious path. Wishing to avoid a power vacuum similar to that in Q'Saath, she laid down very specific instructions for her military, prescribing down to individual units exactly which generals would control which forces and the territories that were their responsibility. Perhaps the most notable of these assignments was General Ikar'than'thor being assigned to the northern forests, still haunted by the surviving Wood Elves and their guerilla tactics.
* **375 - 388 I.C.** *The Hunting.* Ikar'than'thor embarked immediately on a campaign to wipe out the Wood Elves, seeking to win his queen's favour both for himself and his religious sect, an unnamed offshoot of the Drowekh Cult of the Spider. He forged deals, with the queen's permission, to trade his cavalry and heavy footsoldiers to other generals in order to assemble an elite force of lightly-armoured skirmishers. These he equipped with hatchets and serrated blades called Nangorith which held reservoirs of a deadly poison, the recipe of which was a closely-guarded secret of his religious group. With this force, which would become known as Forestwraiths, he took to stalking the northern forests and playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the Wood Elves.
* **377 I.C.** Having spent a couple of years affirming her hold on the leadership, the new Q'Saathi Warqueen - Warqueen Ontharia Lethontir led her first campaign outside of Q'Saath, marauding into the newly-granted Cheronnais holdings. Surprisingly few casualties ensued, though entire communities were taken as slaves back to Q'Saath. This was a necessity to rebuild the nation, as by now almost all Q'Saathi drow were fighting in the military, leaving the working class underpopulated and unable to feed the armies. At one point, some 35% of the Cheronnais people were labouring in chains in Q'Saath, so successful were these raids.
* **378 I.C.** *The Insurrection of Magi.* A small force of mages from the magic-user commune led an undecover assault on Sil Tian, even getting so far as one of their number reaching the chambers of an outspoken anti-magic Elder Councilmember called Thilian Merol Dian. Though Dian lost his arm and one ear from the injuries inflicted by the intruder, guards arrived before he could be killed and arrested the mage. A total of 24 members of Dian's political faction were killed in the attack, along with 8 non-affiliated citizens of the city and 5 guards. Though the commune would refute all knowledge of the attack and declare those that carried it out exile, the incident stoked anti-magic feeling in the capital and surrounding communities.
* **380 - 383 I.C.** *The Olyrian Venture.* Now meeting stronger resistance in Cheronne, Warqueen Ontharia began sending raiding parties into northern Olyria in search of new slaves. This campaign met initially with success, capturing traders and farmers as they were encountered. An attempted foray into the outskirts of Murayin, however, was repelled by the city's militia and drew the attention of the Olyrian Assembly, who would rally a relief force to drive off the marauders.
* **383 I.C.** *The Battle of Murayin.* The final skirmish of Q'Saathi forces in Olyria occurred just outside of Murayin, as a mixed force of Olyrian troops and some minotaur and centaur tribes that had joined up to defend their homeland clashed with the Warqueen's raiding forces. Between a numerical advantage, stronger magic support, and fighting styles - both individual and tactical - that were completely alien to the drow, the defending force carried the day easily and drove out the raiders, capturing several groups of known slavers and putting them to death. The defence force was then barracked in and around the city, creating a stronghold to deter any further intrusion.
* **384 I.C.** For unknown reasons, debated even today by scholars both human and elven, a low hum akin to thousands of baritone voices began emanating from the *Sarnii*. This would see much of the Sofiantan military withdraw from the areas around the towers, fearing that something akin to the Pulses would occur.
* **386 I.C.** A Wood Elf emissary appeared before the Sofiantan court, requesting aid in reclaiming the northern forests from the drow. King Tero Naras Sahna promised a relief force would be sent, but this force would never materialise. Over the course of a week, King Sahna, the emissary, and two Elder Councilmembers were poisoned; the remaining Council pinning the blame on another mage intrusion to the city, while quietly cancelling the assembly order for the relief group. To this day, there are those that contend that these events were a subtle coup to remove the headstrong Sahna from the throne and replace him with someone the Elder Council could more easily control, though no evidence for this has ever been found.
* **388 I.C.** *The Battles of The Trezintines.* Seeking again to reclaim territory ceded on their eastern border, Sofiantan armies clashed with Maelnang occupying forces in several locations throughout the foothills of the Trezintine mountains. The battles were ultimately decided by the arrival of Cheronnais cavalry charges into the flanks and rear of several Maelnang armies, who were not expecting the Sofiantans to have either allies or cavalry. Leaders of these cavalry units were awarded honours by the young Sofiantan King Lothi Sirthan Dian (the nephew of King Sahna and grandson of Thilian Merol Dian) and became the first Cheronnais knights.
* **388 I.C.** *The Last Stand of the Wood Elves.* In the culmination of 13 years of hunting down elves, General Ikar'than'thor had managed to whittle down the numbers of the remaining Wood Elves, all the while poisoning the forest itself to deprive his foes of their magics. Finally, the last of the Wood Elves found themselves cornered on the coast, having been forced east all the way to the sea by the drow. Though they fought valiantly, they were slaughtered utterly on a beach now known to historians as The Grave Coast. The General would return victorious to Maelnang and declare that the northern forests claimed in the Drowekh Parlay were now in the Queen's hands. His ultimate fate remains unknown, though it is generally agreed that he was rewarded for his efforts. Some say he was given control of the lands he had conquered as a vassal of the Queen, others that she took him as a lover, so impressed was she with his accomplishments. All that is known is that he was never again seen in command of a military force, so it is presumed that he retired from service in some manner.
* **390 - 392 I.C.** Growing increasingly desperate for slaves to continue the war economy that has grown up in the wake of the civil wars, Q'Saathi raiders start striking out against Imperial border guards in Faruscia and Aribor. The Imperial legions' successes in repelling these attacks leads to Aribor formally joining the Empire in 392 I.C..
* **391 - 405 I.C.** *The Maelnang Civil War.* Reeling from military defeats in Cheronne and in skirmishes on the Q'Saathi border, unrest grew among the drow of Maelnang, with many claiming that the Queen had abandoned her people, others that she had died and her death covered up by the nobility keep the common folk docile. Tensions flared between the nobility and the working classes; families were torn apart, kin turning on each other over the lack of leadership in the country; the military found themselves spread too thin to effectively keep the peace, and many troops absconded from their units to join the fighting on one side or the other. With the Queen absent, and the biggest war hero of the last century also missing, a lack of unifying figure proved too much for the straining Maelnang society and fighting soon spread throughout the mountain cities.
* **393 - 394 I.C.** Sensing the desperation of recent Q'Saathi actions, the Imperial Legions marched en masse to secure a new north-south border between the Faruscian territories and Q'Saath. Any opposition is swept back as more men are commited to the northern frontiers of the empire than ever before, and the Imperial hold on Faruscia is solidified.
* **394 - 396 I.C.** *The Cheronnais Expansion.* Fearing that Maelnang was gathering its forces for a fresh assault on their lands, the Sofiantan leadership struck another deal with the Cheronnais people. The elves would waive a full half of the expected tithe and allow the humans to expand further north, in exchange for a guarantee that the full Cheronnais forces would be deployed against Maelnang should the drow attempt to invade, effectively creating a defensive border force and no-man's land for Sofianta without any military commitment. The seemingly imminent invasion never appeared, and the Cheronnais expanded over the course of two-and-a-half years to roughly the size that Cheronne is today, bordering Sofianta to the west and both drow nations to the east.
* **398 - 405 I.C.** Hemmed in by the Empire and Cherrone, the Q'Saathi Warqueen turned her peoples' focus to the north and the Maelnang border, left relatively unguarded in the midst of the ongoing civil war. Thus began the Q'Saathi invasion of Maelnang; driven not by ambition, but by desperation, to the heaviest military commitment in the history of Q'Saath. The southern and western borders were largely abandoned as all forces were drawn north to seize the opportunity presented by the Maelnang Civil War. By 405 I.C., Q'Saath held most of Maelnang outside of the mountain cities, plus the city of Noth Galik.
* **405 I.C.** *The Return of the Queen.* Putting an end to both the civil war and years of speculation, Queen Morr'thak'ralia emerged from her self-imposed isolation gaunt and pale where she was once hale and muscular. Her presence and magical abilities, however, were undeniable. In the space of a week, the civil war was ended with minimal casualties as the returning queen united her peoples against the Q'Saathi occupiers.
* **405 - 422 I.C.** *The Last Drowekh War.* Renewed by the reappearance of their monarch, the Maelnang military formed up and marched on the occupying Q'Saathi forces, focusing first on securing the countryside before laying siege to Noth Galik, aided by resistance forces within the city walls causing logistical issues for the Q'Saathi defenders through calculated strikes on water and food supplies, as well as the assassination of the Warprincess Kinia Alithamir, the highest-ranked of the leadership within the besieged city. By late 421 I.C., all Q'Saathi forces in Maelnang had been destroyed or scattered, with the victorious Maelnang armies giving chase over the border, keen to repay their foes in kind for the invasion.
* **422 I.C.** *The Immolation of Q'Saath.* In what would prove to be their last stand, the forces of the Q'Saathi Warqueen rallied at the fortress-city of Amak Xol to fight the pursuing Maelnang armies. By most accounts they were succeeding in turning the tide when Queen Morr'thak'ralia took the field with her retinue, a rag-tag group of nobles and servants, ill-equipped for the battlefield. On the Queen's word they, as one, drew daggers that they plunged into their own hearts in ritualistic suicide. This caused the event now known as *The Ascension of the Burning Queen* as Morr'thak'ralia, drawing in the magics and life of these sacrifices, exploded into flames as bright as the sun which swept throughout Q'Saath. The flames left Maelnang soldiers untouched as their Q'Saathi opponents were burned away before their eyes, yet structures also remained undamaged, save scorch marks where the fires swept past. In a single minute all life in Q'Saath - drow, animal and plant alike - was incinerated, and the Queen herself vanished.
* **422 I.C.** The humming of the *Sarnii* stopped suddenly, moments before the burning of Q'Saath lit up the skies. Some scholars suggest that the power building up in the towers was tapped into by Morr'thak'ralia's ritual, drawn into her ascension.
* **422 - 454 I.C.** *The Cult War of Maelnang.* With Morr'thak'ralia having ascended, her daughter Insa'makh'ilia took up the dual mantles of Queen of Maelnang and High Priestess of The Cult of the Burning Queen. This unprecedented merging of the throne and a religious sect caused uproar among the established religious groups in the area, most dating back to the tribal era of the drow, chief among them The Cult of the Moon and The Cult of the Spider. While outright pitched battles were rare, small-scale skirmishes, sabotages and assassinations became commonplace.
* **454 I.C.** *The Secular Rebellion.* A sizable portion of the Maelnang military, joined by members of the citizenry that didn't identify as members of the warring cults, and led by Prince-General Kord'xurh'koth, the Queen's brother, attemped to oust the queen from power to separate the power of the monarchy from the religious powers of the Drowekh Cults. All in one night, fighting raged across the country as the rebels struck, the Prince-General leading his elite guard right to his sister's chambers to capture her. He was betrayed, however, by a cultist who had infiltrated his inner circle. The Queen was waiting for her would-be captors, and ambushed them, incinerating her brother and most of his elite troops.
* **454 - 456 I.C.** The failed coup led to a series of purges of those that had sided with the Prince-General. Many were killed, rounded up by the Queen's forces and executed, sacrificed in fire to further fuel her power. Fearing that they would be next, a large number of people fled north-east into the dead forests of the former Wood Elf territory and settled in roving bands, learning to make use of the forest terrain to fight back against forces of the Burning Queen.
* **456 I.C.** *The Battle of Glades.* Sick of her targets escaping into the forests, Queen Insa'makh'ilia ordered a sizable portion of her military on an expedition to take back those who escaped. The result was a months-long guerilla war as the desperate souls that had taken up residence in the woods nipped at the heels of the aggressors: picking off patrols, sabotaging supply lines and striking at their foes when they rested. The final push of the campaign saw the Queen's forces soundly defeated in a battle across a series of interconnected glades, and driven out of the forests. Victorious, the refugees declared the forest a sovereign realm and named it Xurkoth in honour of the Prince-General who had led the initial uprising.
* **458 I.C.** The new king of Sofianta, Dorn Mithar Sahna, had grown tired of the wary peace between the conclave of magi and the crown. Seeking to bring magic under his control and consolidate the crown's power, he personally led a force to raid the conclave and take back those living there, in chains if need be. He was met outside of the camp by an unnamed leader of the mages, but refused to negotiate. As soon as the order to sack the camp was given, the humming that had echoed across Sofianta for decades ceased suddenly, and the ground itself lurched. A mighty earthquake was felt all across Sederia and when the dust settled, a circular plateau, sheer cliffs on all sides, stood where the camp had been. Rattled by the occurrance, and now unable to reach their foes, the Sofiantan forces retired and left.
* **458 - 466 I.C.** Seeking to reconstruct the lower classes that the country had relied upon, most of whom had taken up the rebel cause, Insa'makh'ilia sought out long-forgotten magics and began a program of forcibly summoning draconic beings from elsewhere on the planet. Over only a few short years, thousands of dragonborn were brought into Maelnang by magical means and made subservient. Those who fought were brutally killed as an example to the rest.
* **464 I.C.** Emissaries from the magi began to arrive in cities across the Empire, bringing word that the risen conclave was now a sovereign state, named Sissurion after the founder of the mage class in Sofiantan society that ultimately became the conclave. This caused a great deal of consternation on the international stage, as many worried that a nation where every citizen was so magically gifted could influence events well beyond their borders, and others worried that any success on the part of Sissurion could lead to mages in other societies breaking out to form their own states as well. While this has yet to happen, the concerns raised remain on many minds even today.
* **466 I.C.** *The Battle of the Sands*. In an unexpected move, suggested by some to be a desperate attempt to distract from the situation with Sissurion, Dorn Mithar Sahna himself led an army in an attack on Maelnang's north-western border, striking across the sandy wastes of the Orclands to avoid the mages of Sissurion and detection by Maelnang's defensive forces, who it is said considered the Orclands impenetrable sue to the ferocity and willingness to fight of the resident orcs. Defenders did find out about the encroachment before it reached the border, however, and a defending force marched to meet the attackers, the clash ultimately taking place in the Orclands due west of Tharnang. The battle was brutal, with tactics playing little-to-no part in the fight. This is largely attributed to exhaustion in the attackers - having just marched across over a hundred miles of desert sands - causing a breakdown in discipline, and a lack of organisation among the drow defenders who had, by necessity, had to scramble to meet the oncoming attack. Ultimately, the intervention of a nearby Orc tribe ended the battle, as both sides were forced to fight against the new threat and beat a desperate retreat, with the green-skinned force in pursuit. Being used to fighting in the sands, and with no superior counter-tactics being employed by either the Sofiantan or Maelnang armies, the majority of both sides are run down and either killed or enslaved, including King Dorn Mithar Sahna.
* **466 - 467 I.C.** With the return of the few survivors of *The Battle of the Sands* and word of the King's presumed death, Sofianta's elite turned inward to decide a new leader, as the King had no heir. Several competing claims arose over the next year or so, including:
	+ Lady Sira Mithar Elohneia - Dorn's cousin, who was the closest surviving blood-relative and had a die-hard following supporting her claim.
	+ General Nalen Tharner Sahna - A more distant relative of the king, but recognised as being part of the Sahna bloodline which had ruled for generations. Was also popular with the solidery, so had the support of the nation's military.
	+ Lady Lanamora Kil Iadri - A brilliant political mind who was already respected due to holding the position of Speaker of the Royal Court, her work on keeping the economy running and reducing inequality while the King focused on the war and the Sissurion situation had made her very popular among lower classes and minor nobility.
	+ Lord Sartheden Rathil Morida - The charismatic patriarch of one of the more powerful noble houses, whose connections in court gave him the support of much of the nobility.
* **467 I.C.** Ultimately, with the support of the people, the minor nobility and even the younger members of the major noble houses, Lady Lanamora Kil Iadri was crowned the new Queen of Sofianta and immediately made changes. First, she voluntarily dropped her familial names, to emphasise that her loyalty was to the nation and not her bloodline. Secondly, she added to the Royal Court two further chambers: one for a close advisory council, populated by hand-selected advisors from across society; and the second a Court of the People, where representatives of the lower classes would meet to bring forward citizens' complaints. Next, she cemented her power by extending an olive branch to her rivals, appointing both Nalen Tharner Sahna and Sartheden Rathil Morida to her advisory council. It is unknown if Lady Sira was offered a place on the council, as she - paranoid and convinced that the new Queen would have her killed - took her own life. Thirdly, she struck down laws putting strict control on magic users that had ultimately led to the formation of Sissurion.
* **468 I.C** Seeking to reduce hostilities, Lanamora reached out to the leadership of Sissurion with the aim of brokering peace. As part of these efforts, she asked for someone from Sissurion to sit on her advisory council and assist in creating new laws for regulating magic use more fairly. Though the leadership was uncertain, one of the appointed "Chieftains" volunteered to go, giving up his title to do so. Taiel Pherosar had grown up with Lanamora, his own lineage that of a minor noble house affiliated with hers, and he believed strongly that she was not so vehemently anti-magic as her predecessors. With the agreement that he would sit on the counci as both an advisor and ambassador, an uneasy peace was reached.