War of the Crystals

## Combatants

**The Dremirian Alliance**
**The Praeliorian Empire**

## Commanders

* Sentinel Nyx †

* Emperor Ranza Aznaré †
* Empress Consort Eniphesta Aznaré †

The **War of the Crystals** (4628 - 4658 ASA) was a major, 30-year war between the Dremirian Alliance and the Praeliorian Empire. The war was named after the Dremirians, which the Praeliorians initiated their first attack against with the Ambush on Yttrius.

The conflict arose from heavy disagreements over trade between the Praeliorian Empire—led by Emperor Ranza Aznaré—and the Dremirian Alliance—largely represented by Sentinel Nyx—, which later evolved into hostilities and eventually war. However, what fueled the flames of the war was the growing ideological differences between the rulers of planet Praelior and planet Dremirus, as well as their respective peoples.

## Prelude

The centuries leading to the War of the Crystals were marked by several periods of tension between the Praeliorians and Dremirians. The earliest instance of such tension was seen with the reign of Emperor Osra Aznaré, who sided with the Deliverance during the Artifice Wars as a proponent for the freedom to use magic without regulation and restriction—including the dark arts. Emperor Osra's reign marked a period of Praeliorian history that strained relations between the Praeliorians and the Dremirians.

The reign of Diamo the Conqueror after the end of the Aznarian-Nialorian Wars marked a shift in the leadership of Praelior by Clan Aznaré. As his royal clan decimated Clan Nialor into remnants, Diamo the Conqueror ruled over Praelior with a more militaristic mindset. This method of rulership was passed down to his sons and daughters, and later down to his descendants.

Emperor Ción Aznaré held the title of Sovereign, before succumbing to mental illness and abdicating his title as Emperor of Praelior to his firstborn son, Ranza Aznaré. Emperor Ranza regarded the actions taken during the Artifice Wars by his ancestor Emperor Osra as strong, and thought his father, Emperor Ción, did not take the Praeliorian Empire to its fullest potential.

Emperor Ranza's descent into war began with mere greed. He gradually demanded more than previously established from the Praeliorian Empire's relationship with the Dremirian Alliance, which at the time was overseen by Sentinel Nyx. Eventually, Ranza's demands turned into threats, but the Dremirian Sentinel remained adamant and never complied with Ranza's selfish demands for imperial growth and expansion.

## The Thirty-year War

### The Ambush on Yttrius

Under Emperor Ranza, the Praeliorians attacked first. Their first attack on Dremirian soil on behalf of the Praeliorian Empire was on the planet Yttrius, when Yttrian forces and citizens were brutally ambushed. Yttrius was largely decimated, left with a recovery effort that took centuries to complete.

And thus began a series of devastating battles on both sides.

### Losses on Both Fronts

Emperor Ranza's reign during the war oversaw the great loss of both Dremirian and Praeliorian territories. Dremirian Alliance territory was reduced to their capital of Dremirus and its moons, whereas Praeliorian Empire territory was reduced to their capital of Praelior and its two moons: Pluvia and Perdita. Imperial Praeliorian colonies throughout Imperial Praeliorian Space were subsequently lost and left to fend for themselves, and thus Imperial Praeliorian Space was then referred to as the Praeliorian Remnants. The other side was no different, as Dremirian Alliance colonies throughout the Dreamer Worlds were also lost and left alone to survive without the support of the Alliance.

### Weariness: War's End

The war weakened both Emperor Ranza and Sentinel Nyx, so much so that Sentinel Nyx perished near the war's end. Emperor Ranza aged and weakened considerably since the start of the war. His final quest to the Sentinel Praelior, the Empress Consort and his wife Eniphesta Aznaré, was to wipe out the rest of Dremirus and any trace of the Dremirians. Sentinel Eniphesta had only begrudgingly followed her husband's plans up to this point and detested the war just as much as her three children did. And so naturally, Sentinel Eniphesta refused her husband's dying request.

Emperor Ranza's final act as Sovereign betrayed Sentinel Eniphesta's decision. By absorbing the life force of nearly all Praeliorians against the ongoing war, and by using the remainder of his own life force, the old Sovereign placed a curse on Praelior and its moons. Sentinel Eniphesta tried effortlessly to prevent the casting of this powerful curse, but doing so costed her life, and she died in vain having not stopped Emperor Ranza before he died and held their entire ancestral legacy hostage.

This curse subsequently and unofficially ended the war, and Ranza's firstborn Esper Aznaré took on the title of Sovereign. War weariness on both sides of the thirty-year conflict left the Praeliorians and Dremirians in an indefinite standoff for centuries to come.

## Aftermath

The Praeliorian people were furious and restless, with their hatred and frustrations now targeted towards the Dremirians, as those who detested the war died during the casting of Emperor Ranza's curse. The youngest of Ranza and Eniphesta's children, Grand Duchess Morna Aznaré, fled Praelior soon after the death of her parents and in search of a place where she could live peacefully, without war or strife.

Initially, Empress Esper tried desperately to reverse her father's dying curse, sympathetic to all the lives that were lost over the course of thirty years. At first, the effects of the curse were largely unseen, and so the Empress was left in the dark on how to break a seemingly invisible curse. But not too long after, the moon of Pluvia began to slowly die, with all its plentiful gardens turning into dead, barren grasslands. This also had an adverse effect on Pluvia's Sentinel, Grand Duchess Crimson Aznaré. It was not long until the effects of the curse were also seen on Praelior, with the rainbow grasslands of the shining planet dying off, turning the planet into a barren shell of its former self.

Empress Esper and Grand Duchess Crimson attempted to break their father's curse. Unfortunately, all attempts proved to be futile, and in the end, they costed Crimson her life. Stricken by extreme grief and war trauma ever since she was but ten years old proved to break Empress Esper's psyche. Esper's guilt and pain manifested itself into solace in her lonely position of power. These feelings of suffering endured by the Empress would have driven her into complete madness, and so she felt as if she had no other choice but to embrace the curse, in order to stop the suffering of her people from continuing any further and to save her own sanity.

Empress Esper extended her lifespan and kept herself alive through the use of powerful magic, allowing the feelings loneliness and confusion to warp her thinking and fester into true hatred over the course of over a thousand years. Esper was forced to rationalize her hostilities against the Dremirians as the only way to protect Praelior. Embracing her father's curse by honoring his wishes, albeit initially hesitantly, only fueled Esper's turmoil. Over an astronomical period of time, Esper had to convince herself that her decisions were righteous.

### Legacy

→ *Main article: Era of Diamond Dust*

The Dremirian Alliance, reduced in power, diverted its dying resources to the Dremirian Council that oversaw Dremirus and its moons. For the duration of the Era of Diamond Dust, Dremirus continued to stand their ground on a defensive front.

Under Empress Esper Aznaré's initiatives to destroy the Dremirian people and their domain, the Dreamer Worlds, imperial Praeliorians grew to truly resent the Dremirians and see them as lesser beings altogether. This hateful ideology costed the lives of countless Dremirians native to the Dreamer Worlds, thus earning the time period that emerged in the aftermath of the War of the Crystals an apt title: the Era of Diamond Dust.