Genocide War

A conflict that took place on Ceal around the year 1,870 BN. This war resulted as a direct consequence of the Ascension Event in 1,924 BN and the subsequent emergence of the Wel on Ceal.

The Genocide War was originally fought between the Wel and the Gryphs on one side and the Dragons and Draykin on the other side. At that time, Ceal was mostly ruled by a number of Civilizations dominated by Dragons and Draykin, in which Gryphs suffered varying levels of discrimination. The Wel as a newly emerging species, meanwhile, were still on the same level as Fatikelij in the eyes of most Dragons and Draykin.

A notable factor in the emergence of the conflict was surely the diverging lifespans of the two factions: With Wel and Gryphs having average lifespans of 70 and 50 years respectively, and Dragons and Draykin having average lifespans of 350 and 170 years respectively, about three generations had passed for the Wel and Gryphs since the Ascension Event, while for both the Dragons and Draykin it was still the same generation. It is probable that given enough time, new generations of Dragons and Draykin would have been more tolerant about the Wel, but at the point when the conflict broke lose, the Wel had effectively already been oppressed for several generations from their point of view.

At the outset of the war, the Wel and Gryphs could be divided into three groups: Those living in the civilizations of the Dragons and Draykin, those living on Eknaria, and rebels living according to their own laws in lands formally owned by the Dragons and Draykin. It is now understood that all of these groups were actively communicating with one another before the war.

The beginning of the Genocide War can maybe best be described at a global ambush staged by the Wel and Draykin that effectively demonstrated the effectiveness of the Wel's empathic connection with one another. It is assumed that this took the Wel at least a year to fully set up and organize, during which the Dragons and Draykin may or may not have become aware that such an enormous uprising was being organized. At any rate, even if they took measures, those remained ineffective and could not prevent the Wel and Gryphs to open a coordinated assault against the Dragons and Draykin.

During this initial assault, the knowledge of the Wel and Gryphs that had suffered to live among the Dragons and Draykin was the key factor for sustaining the uprising. During the early days of the war, valuable strategic positions and production facilities were seized by Wel and Gryphs all over Ceal, massively impeding the Dragons' and Draykin's ability of fighting back.

However, the Dragons and Draykin eventually managed to rally and fight back, resulting in a situation where the entirety of Ceal soon resembled a patchwork carpet of territories controlled by Wel and Gryphs as well as Dragons and Draykin. It soon became apparent that the Wel's advantages were their adaptability and prowess with technology, while the Draykin were more apt at Iserialogy. The Dragons and Gryphs meanwhile were about evenly matched in terms of their natural abilities.

The war soon reached a level of brutality unlike any conflict Ceal had seen until that day: Entire cities were put to the torch, and warriors and civilians were killed indiscriminately, especially by the two Retafilij Species. This behaviour appalled the Gryphs and the Dragons alike, causing them to work out a truce between them and withdraw from the war. From that point out onward, the Genocide War continued to be only between the Wel and the Draykin.

Be it because of their innate cooperativeness, or their prowess with technology, the Wel eventually gained the upper hand in this conflict, and pushed the Draykin back further and further all over Ceal. Fuelled by rage born of generations of oppression, they showed no mercy to the Draykin, and were determined not to stop until they had killed every last Draykin.

Realizing their impending doom, the Draykin took advantage of the Wel's relative flightlessnes and retreated to the jungle continent of Ventana, where they set up the great Moebius Barrier - a massive misdirection Iserialogy foiling any Wel attempts to enter the sprawling jungles of Ventana - and hid there for over a millennia, sitting out the lingering wrath of the Wel. It is now understood that both the Dragons and the Gryphs were aware of this plan and even actively aided the Draykin in retreating, as well as feeding the Wel false information in order to reassure them of the feigned demise of all Draykin.

Even so, however, this war cost a massive number of lives on all involved sides. Losses among the Draykin in particular are estimated to have been as high as 80% (Wel: 60%, Dragons & Gryphs: 40%).