War of Beasts

### Location

All of the southern kingdoms, mostly on the lands of the Ashari Principality and the Kingdom of Vonrim

### Participants

Children of Enely (humans, elves and dwarves) acting as defenders
Hobgoblins and their bestial and monstrous allies acting as aggressors

### Result

The hobgoblin army is driven back after years of fighting; many monstrous creatures and bestial humanoids are left behind to dwell in southern lands
Although victorious, the southern kingdoms are left to recover from the war which devastates large parts of the south-east

The War of Beasts was a large-scale conflict that was fought between a massive hobgoblin army and the people of the south. It is said that the war was sparked by the awful conditions of the Wildlands of Angmar that the hobgoblins were not content with. Through years of aggressive slavery, military training and many tough unification campaigns, the hobgoblins of the east were able to gather a sizable force which they would then use to invade the south. A devastating and fast attack was launched from the Wildlands and quickly spearheaded all the way up to the borders of Vonrim and the Ashari Principality. This surprise attack did wonders for the hobgoblins but their advances were halted as the elves from the west joined the war and the ashari and the mountain dwarves reinforced their heartlands.

As the lands directly above Vonrim and south of the Wildlands of Angmar were mostly a mess of independent towns and cities, they were utterly devastated because of the war. The largest independent city, Lesbere, was completely destroyed when the war began; the ruins of this old city now lie under Isqarioth's Bastion. When the news of a wave of terror and destruction sweeping across the lands first reached the Kingdom of Vonrim and then the Ashari Principality, both nations swiftly mustered their forces and prepared for war and their allies, the elves, were not far behind. The Children of Enely were completely prepared to stand together against the coming foe; many believe that if a similar war would be fought today, the southern kingdoms would suffer greatly because of their wavering alliances as well as distrust and differences among elves, humans and dwarves.

After the first year of the war had passed and the hobgoblin army marched towards present-day Antar, the Children of Enely took a defensive approach and started to grind the attackers down in lengthy sieges and massed magical attacks, with the elves also using their magics to help the Children of Enely predict the movements of the hobgoblins, in turn allowing them to reinforce key areas. After their siege tactics proved ineffective and the Children of Enely anticipated every move of their massive army, the hobgoblins split their forces and started raiding smaller villages and towns. The Ashari Principality and Kingdom of Vonrim both suffered because of these raids, but elven lands were spared from this war, perhaps leaving seeds of bitterness in the minds of the humans and dwarves. Many years passed as the hobgoblins loosely held their recently sacked lands north of Vonrim, but they were fighting a losing battle. Their army had become largely disorganized and their greatest advantage was now obsolete; where there once was a powerful legion, it had now splintered into numerous weaker warbands. The spoils of war had run empty and many grew disgruntled and mutinous. The hobgoblins could not keep control of their monstrous and bestial allies and infighting was frequent. Many bugbears, trolls, ogres, goblins, orcs and gnolls had abandoned the cause and instead formed their own independent raiding parties and clans. The Children of Enely caught wind of this weakness and decided to take the initiative to mop up the lands of the south-east. In the end, the uniformity of the southern kingdoms was the key to victory and their highly effective counter-attack brought the ultimate end to the war. The final years of the war mostly consisted of irregular engagements and disorganized fighting from the hobgoblin side as they retreated back north.

The events of the War of Beasts had many lasting effects on Enelya, some of which would become more apparent in the future. As a result of the war, various monstrous and bestial races that the hobgoblins had used as manpower in their army had been left behind in foreign lands. The counter-attack of the Children of Enely failed to eliminate them all and they still dwell in some parts of the south. New threats presented themselves in the coming years, with destroyed caravans and burning villages becoming more common because of attacks perpetrated by these monsters. Although the magical prowess and contribution of the elves was a crucial part of the war, most of their armies and lands were left unscathed. Because of this, the humans and dwarves grew closer with some of them beginning to resent the elves. This was not the first time that the humans and dwarves did most of the fighting while the elves stood back and used their magic; this was already the case during the Draconian Wars which were fought around 600 years before the War of Beasts. The south-eastern parts of Énelya were also left in a sorry state; the villages and cities that had stood there were nearly all destroyed and ground to dust, leaving behind many ruins that still exist there today. Settlers consisting of mostly forest dwarves, halflings and coastal humans would take on the task of slowly repopulating and rebuilding the south-east. Their presence would directly influence the formation of new nations such as the Republic of Tolrania in the future and they would be the ones to begin the construction of walls around the Wildlands of Angmar to better prepare for other possible invasions.