Great Immortal War

> *"This will be remembered as the war that everyone lost"* -Unknown, looking over the ruins of what was once a fortified Ashed city
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The Great Immortal War was the world-wide conflict between the great Immortal nations which began the age of darkness.

* The war lasted for a century, stretching from 1800 to 1900.
* The Age of darkness lasted from age 1900 to 2100.

## Factions

**Initial Major Factions**

* Goran-Woag (The Fire)
* Tallet-The Family Hearth(Forces of Order)
* Kushan-Circle (Axis of Enlightenment)

**Later factions to join the War**

* Ashed Confederacy/Broken Kingdoms (Iron Tide)

## Initial conflicts

### The Technocracy

The Technocracy initially attempted to stay out of the major conflict, opting to defend their borders from Tallet incursion, but were eventually pulled in when the Tallet and Goran

## National Response

**Mamutok**

The Mamutoks' Immortal, The Stargazer, wished to protect herself without putting her people in harm's way. She also just plain didn't want to deal with a war. So, she told the people she would be embarking on a spiritual quest, and then buried herself deep underground to sleep for centuries. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

The tribespeople themselves were mostly uninvolved, however several tribes did take different sides for ethical reasons. Some tribes took in refugees, especially after the Corpsebloom epidemic, since it cannot survive the harsh cold. For the most part, their contribution was insignificant.

## Violations of BarrenSoil treaty

### Krak powder weaponry

Early in the war, several of the great nations attempted to introduce Krak powder weapons to the field to get an advantage.

The wars at the time had been being fought with traditional weaponry, hand-to-hand and tension weapons being the most common forms of arms given to each nation. With the dissolution of the Council of the Undying, the Barren Soil treaty was considered no longer valid by many of the great nations. Krak powder, or blast powder weaponry, was distributed among the great armies of Primus, most notably being used in mass quantity by the Tallet, Circle, and Kushani forces.

Due to the little exposure most generals and soldiers had with these weapons, they were implemented very poorly. More often than not, use of these weapons got more soldiers killed than helped them. Armies burned through their supply of shot and powder too quickly, or the weapons weren't cared for properly and misfired. Ashed Mercenaries and Broken Kingdom knights were mostly unfazed by these weapons due to the thickness of their armor and shields. Goran infantry, with the exception of Juggernauts, on the Circle/Kushan border were the most vulnerable and harmed by the arrival of Krak weapons, but due to resource limitations, they fell back to traditional fighting methods when their manufactorums were unable to keep up with demand or were destroyed.

Krak powder weapons were most effectively utilized by the Wise Masters of the Family Hearth, who instead of trying to switch their armies' fighting style, instead built enormous siege cannons to defend their walls or rigged the land bridges and strategic choke points with explosive barrels.

* The forces that widely implimented Krak powder were the Tallet, Kushan, and Encircled.
* A few Ashed Mercenary companies experimented with the weapons but quickly discarded them.
* Goran forces would load captured Krak powder barrels into catapults and send them back to their enemies.
* Broken Kingdom warriors expressed extreme disgust with the weapons and showed no quarter to forces using them.
* Krak powder weapons cause a brief but significant spike in casualties on all sides during the war without giving any one side a noticeable advantage.
* Tallet began implementing blunderbuss weapons into their turtle-shell siege engines, but later stopped due to lack of resources.

### Biological weaponry

Towards the middle of the war, biological weaponry was used during a brief period of the war, and was the cause for the CorpseBloom epidemic, which nearly wiped out every major human population center of Primus.

* Goran would intentionally disease berserker soldiers and send them into enemy territory weeks ahead of their army.
* Encircled attempted to soften up enemy armies using tainted supply trains.
* Tallet Forces routinely used dead as catapult ammunition when laying siege cities.
* The CorpseBloom epidemic happened during this time and is cited as the reason the biological warfare stopped.
* No side officially has taken responsibility for the CorpseBloom epidemic.

### Chemical Weaponry

Towards the end of the Great War, Encircled forces after losing much of their territory to the Goran horde began using a chemical compound known only as "Dust" in scatter ballista and traps. The compound was immensely effective at killing massive amounts of people in a wide, scattered area. Using this compound, they were able to push them back out of their borders. Tallet forces were reportedly using similar but less effective weaponry for short periods of time. No other forces attempted or wished to get involved.

* Exactly what "Dust" is made of is unknown
* Areas of Encircled territory still are barren and infertile due to use of chemical weaponry.
* The entire Circle/Goran border now known as the northern section of the wall is a dead zone where no plant life grows and humans must wear protective gear or face long term health risks and a slow, painful death.

## Destruction of manufacturing centers and knowledge repositories

*"Knowledge is power. Their knowledge of steam and machines is what gives them theirs. We will break them, take away their power of science, and kill all who who have knowledge of it. Then they will have to fight us honestly."* -Goran Strategist regarding the Circle

## Notable events during the Great War

**Corpsebloom Epidemic**

*"The soldiers braced themselves at sundown for the enemy they knew lay just below their feet. As the light faded and the army lowered their visors, I saw the fields of dead rising, clawed hands eagerly bursting from the ground. An ocean of ravenous corpses come to devour the living"* -Refugee journal, found on the corpse of an infected

Corpsebloom was the greatest source of casualties during the war and a near extinction event for the human race.

During the middle of the war, as the economies of the world became more and more strained, the great nations began getting desperate to break the will of their enemy and speed up the war that had been raging for half a century. During this time, a multitude of pestilence were unleashed upon armies and civilian populace alike. Though most plagues were stopped early on by proper quarantine procedures and medicinal stores, the last and most devastating plague to be released was the Corpsebloom epidemic.

The roaming armies of Goran and Tallet forces had left most of the fortified positions in their wake either destroyed or occupied. The Ashed Confederacy remained unaligned and safe behind their high walls and profiting greatly from the conflict as their mercenary guilds reached their capacity sending every professional soldier they had to every far corner of the earth.

The Goran horde at this point had broken through the Circle/Kushan landmass and was fighting the Tallet over the eastern territories while spreading into the western borders of the Ashed city states. The Tallet, previously remaining neutral to the Ashed, now were directly on the Eastern border.

Outbreaks of Corpsebloom began infecting both Goran and Tallet armies, instances reported occurring in fortified locations near water sources. It is unknown where the source of this infection started, however, it is assumed by many to be the work of Unbounded forces attempting to hamper the march of the Goran and Tallet. The infection spread through the land as no nation had the resources or spare soldiers to fight the infection. The supplies of purgeleaf had been completely used up fighting off previous weaponized plagues and the a particularly aggressive waterborne strain began taking hold of the forests and jungles of Primus.

The numbers of the dead swelled as war refugees and armies began unknowingly drinking from tainted water sources. War refugees fled to the Ashed city states in a vain hope of finding shelter, only to find the city gates closed to them with no sympathy or help coming from within the steel gates and stone walls. The dead began piling up around the city walls only to rise again and wander around in search of warm flesh to eat, fouling the crops and farming areas around the fortified cities. Though the Ashed attempted to clear the infected, the Corpsebloom had gotten into their water supply, and began appearing inside the city walls. Some of the cities destroyed during the war are still havens for Corpsebloom often called "Necropolis".

The resulting flood of walking dead followed the armies and refugees throughout the unclaimed territories,

overwhelming smaller and less advanced civilizations in a tide of never ending monsters. Even in the case of victorious defenders, the strain often still got into the bodies of the locals through the tainted groundwater and turned them in their sleep. Refugees, prisoners of war, and returning soldiers unknowingly carried the strain into the Tallet and Goran homelands.

Goran homelands and forests became infected with the Corpsebloom, leading to the truly terrifying phenomenon of the infection taking hold in other simian species bred by the Goran, leading to the roaming populations of infected gorillas that devastated the homeland of the Fire God.

Among the few nations to successfully fight off the infection were the Kushan due to the country spanning walls, focus on production of medicinal herbs and their familiarity with the disease. The Broken Kingdom survived the plague by aggressively purging any land touched by the dead with fire and their high consumption of alcoholic beverages which killed the Corpsebloom in their bloodstream.

A temporary and unofficial cease-fire was called, as none of the nations could continue fighting each other without being overwhelmed by the hordes of living dead. Entire forests were set ablaze to purge the land and water sources either sealed off or drained to prevent further spread.

This was the beginning of the end of the Great War, as the Goran and Tallet war machines lost momentum, and the Ashed confederacy now unified, recalling their mercenaries into one fighting force bent on retribution for their fallen cities and ending the war.

*"With grim faces and gritted teeth we fought side by side. Knowing we would probably be ordered to kill each other if we made it through this alive, if anyone made it through this alive. The Goran warriors and my company who were my enemy are now my allies, defending the living and fighting the undead. The Immortals have gone mad and the world with it. But until it swallows us up I am alive, and I will do my best to make sure as many people as possible stay that way no matter who or what they are. Fuck the gods and fuck their war, we will survive."* -Ashed mercenary journal entry on the plague

* Most of the war casualties came from this event.
* At this point in the war, most of the protected and fortified cities were abandoned or destroyed, leaving people vulnerable to traveling groups of infected.
* Refugees unknowingly infected themselves by taking refuge in forests infected with Corpsebloom.
* Most purgeleaf had been expended at this point by the previous plagues.
* Fortified cities and towns were intentionally sabotaged by the war effort.

### The Burning of the Great Library and Massacre of the Wise Masters

*"The great fires burned for a week, a tower of flame visible for as far as the eye could see that drew the envy of Gor himself."* -Mercenary journal on the burning of the great tower

The greatest blunder in the history of the Family Hearth occurred in the year 1828. So great was the misstep of the Wise Elders that it is the first history lesson children in the Family Hearth learn, and also the last so that what occurred will never be forgotten, nor forgiven.

As the Great War began to pick up steam, the Family Hearth quickly became a main source of logistics for the Tallet Empire. The size of shipments grew, profits soared and all seemed well during the first few years. As things progressed, the Family Hearth had to send ever stronger mercenary escorts with their wagons; unfortunately, mercenaries quickly ran out during the war effort as most able-bodied men became press-ganged into armies. Stretched thin and beginning to take significant losses to raiding, the Wise Masters in late 1827 decided to try a bold plan in order to keep trade routes and supply lines open. No stranger to being raided, the thought was that if they could just make raiding too risky for a short time as they had previously the new vigor of attacks would slacken. As such, the order came down for the Hub's garrison to be stripped and used as an escort force to compensate for the mercenary drought. The idea seemed sound as the Tallet to the east and Goran to the west ensured no army capable of threatening the walls could get close, and the Ashed in the middle were staying out of the conflict; the shift of their garrison should even have gone unnoticed given the all but terminated state of travel during the time period. The choice to keep only a skeletal defending force combined with perhaps the most cursed chance of luck to ever strike a nation, however, brought about greatest loss in history to be suffered by the Family Hearth.

Early in the summer of 1827 a small fleet of captured Family Hearth vessels left the ports of the Circle, sailing to the Family Hearth Hub with a special cargo to deliver. Inside their holds was hidden a raiding force of Woag who the Encircled had convinced to join them in an attack on their long-standing mutual enemy. The plan was clever, the Encircled working as sailors would sail the Family Hearth ships into the harbor and dock. Then, under cover of darkness, the Woag and Encircled together would kidnap the Wise Masters and hold them hostage to put the final throttling on the Tallet supply lines that the Technocracy had orchestrated. The Encircled grew rather desperate as increased Goran aggression could no longer be held back with the need to fend off the Tallet in the west as well. This bold action was hindered by early winter storms, the Circle forces, far from professional sailors, and the Woag, unfamiliar with the sailing vessels so different from their own. When the force did arrive, it was shortly after the start of 1828, less than a month after the final redistribution of the Family Hearth garrison forces.

With the skeletal garrison barely able to man the walls effectively, let alone being able to patrol the docks and search cargo holds, the raiding force landed unimpeded. Under cover of darkness, the Circle and Woag forces infiltrated and entered the Wagon's Head where the Wise Masters were meeting to discuss the effectiveness of their decision to utilize their garrison as an escorting force. The Wise Masters were captured without contest.

It is theorized that the Circle plan may have worked, that they easily could have taken the Wise Masters back to their ships or at the least held them hostage there in the Wagon's Head. The supply lines cut off to the Tallet, the Empire's war machine would have soon ground to a halt. Unfortunately, history did not unfold this way.

The Woag, in the process of ransacking the Wagon's Head, found the vault in which were the Woag canines, turned in for the bounty placed upon them. Countless teeth were in the vault, representing over a millennia of tension and, in the Woag viewpoint, unjustified assassination by the Family Hearth. To put it eloquently, the Woag raid-master became overcome with rage. In a frenzy, the Woag immediately slew the Wise Masters and the Encircled who tried to stop them, then turned their wrath upon the city. Fires were set and any who stood in their way were cut down. The entire city may have been destroyed save that the winter storms had done their work over the Hub for weeks prior that night. The damp weather unfortunately could not save the Great Library of Contracts, its ancient tomes and scrolls dried by time and igniting in the most spectacular bonfire Primus had ever seen. Legend has it that the glow from the fire of the library could be seen in Goran lands and drew the envy of the Fire God himself.

After the initial shock of waking to a Woag raid in the heart of the city, the population began to fight back. It was a bloodbath as cobblers tried to fight warriors with their hammers, carpenters tried to use their saws and axes, butchers their cleavers to kill the marauders. In the end, numbers won out and the Woag were slain to a man. The Encircled operatives who were unable to escape surrendered to what was left of the garrison after bluffing to still have the Wise Masters alive in order to evade mob justice..

Following the appointment of new Wise Masters, the Encircled were sentenced to die for their part in the burning of the Great Library. The seething rage of the Family Hearth at the loss of their history was so great that each of the surviving operatives was killed slowly, each in a different manner with as much pain and suffering as possible. The leader and mastermind of the raid was forced to watch and write about each death in a report of their failure to the Technocracy.

The diplomatic response of the Technocracy was to extend their most sincere apologies and assurances that the Library had not been targeted and to request their officer's return. The Family Hearth complied, sending the officer back to the Circle. Unfortunately, the Circle had failed to cite the condition the officer would be returned in. The gruesome mess that arrived at Kallipolis could barely be described as a man. Every limb, the eyes, and the genitalia having been removed surgically in small pieces to cause the greatest amount of suffering possible to the officer. With the maimed officer arrived a single message from the Family Hearth, *"Accidents happen".*

The ultimate effect of the attack was for the new Wise Masters to redouble their support of the Tallet and Goran forces, often times supplying the armies for as little of a profit as a single copper piece per shipment. It is theorized that this greatly extended the war, as, prior to this change, the treasuries of the Tallet would have run dry within a few decades due to the Family Hearth profiteering. Further theories suggest that after the Tallet forces were ultimately halted and reversed, the Family Hearth was instrumental in sparking the great Goran offensive which the Circle now calls the Goran Genocide Campaign. The theory suggests that the Family Hearth convinced the Gorans that since the Encircled had slain their leaders, the only fair restitution could be the death of every member of the current Technocracy.

## Aftermath

*"Never before has Primus seen so much death, so much destruction. They say that the world will recover after this conflict, but looking at the fields of dead stretching into the horizon, I have my doubts. Flowers can't possibly bloom after being choked by so much blood."* -Refugee journal:passing the aftermath of a relatively small skirmish

## Population decline

*"All this death, so one of the Immortals could sit atop a mountain of corpses and declare themselves the winner? What was the purpose of it all?"*

(population at the beginning of the war 1.2 billion) (1,200,000,000)

(Population at the end of the war 100 million) (100,000,000)

### The Technocracy Response

The Technocracy publicly considers the survival of their nation from the Great War to be a triumph over Immortal rulers, who are mostly responsible for the war. They have issued a notice of forgiveness for every act by any nations during the Great War, citing that continuing to argue over things done in the conflict could literally go on forever.