The War Begins
The largest war in the written history of Osterrae lasted from the year 790 to the year 841. Emperor Elador the Mighty turned Algaia’s trade and naval dominance into a vice grip around Osterrae, demolishing thousands of trade vessels overnight. The supply chain of every other nation in Osterrae was brought to a crawl.
Harpers Keep and The Iron Bay served as launch points to control the inner coast. It was only weeks before Commander Aubry took the eastern port, Port Aubry, which still bears his name to this day. As elven forces poured over the northeast of Osterrae, the only direction their enemies could move was south.
Much of northwest Osterrae was farmland whose primary client was Algaia. Claiming these lands was a matter of conversation. Enemy forces pushing into Algaia found mostly empty land filled with invisible protections that would ravage anyone who passed through them. A single elven mage could hold thousands of acres with spying familiars and magical traps. The resistance armies were simply unequipped for guerrilla warfare on land, and helpless against the Algaian navy at sea. However, the elves quickly claimed more territory than they had units to defend. Orcs were designed by the Algaian military wizards to serve as super soldiers.
Algaia’s initial preparation and ambush gave them a great advantage in the war, but they were fighting the entire world. After the first weeks, progress became arduous and increasingly destructive. The siege of Hevo famously lasted 24 years. However, with the construction of Eladors Reach finished in 830, it appeared likely the Algaian Empire would soon claim the entire world.
The Mortuus
Humanity’s last hope was a magical, war-ending weapon known as the Mortuus. The primordial elementals who combined their bodies into the earth, sea, and air of today were said to have enchanted a weapon as a sort of fallback. If the magic of combining thousands into one ecosystem were to result in a monster, the Mortuus was designed to slay such an abomination.
The elementals had stayed out of The Conquest for 46 years. They are believed to inhabit a continent beyond Osterrae. However, when the Mortuus was discovered, the elementals came en masse to offer their aid in battle in exchange for the safe return of their artifact. The human ruler who had claimed it, Mason Lash, refused to give up the weapon he believed would end the war.
In 833, the Mortuus was activated in an attempt to protect the kingdom of Londia from a great Algaian force. What exactly unfolded next is unclear. Every living thing within a ten-mile radius was vaporized in an instant, and melting heat continued to emanate from the center point. It was the elementals who came to patch the hole poked in reality, with magics more ancient than plant life. What remained, a towering gate radiating heat, became known as The Gates of Mortuus.
The Dragons
Even before the Mortuus was activated, orcs had been defecting from the elven armies, often escaping into the mountains, where Algaia was least competent in combat. After the Mortuus was activated, the majority of orcs serving in the Algaian army defected into the mountains. The elves had focused on coastlines and open fields for most of the war, but this great rebellion prompted their first focused effort into the mountains.
In the first month of 840, dragons emerged from the Cinder Mountains and slaughtered elves by the thousands. The Algaians were defenseless against the power of these ancient juggernauts, and even more vulnerable as the orcs divulged the military tactics of their former generals. By 841, orcish dragon riders were bombarding the capital city of Algaia, prompting the elves to make their first proposal for peace.
The Aftermath
Much to humanity’s dismay, the dragons did not seek retribution or reclaim any human territory. They made their kingdom in territory where few would live anyway: The Cinders and The Gates of Mortuus. Then they returned, with the orcs, to their caverns and dens, hardly to be seen again.
