Thearn wiki War
According to Azyria, the former Socerer Empress:
"Well, I think you're entitled to an explanation," said the woman. "I'll try. I am Azyria Regalis, incidentally-- under the circumstances, more formality is unnecessary. Now, then...
"Not too long ago, in this land of Thearn, wars were being fought. Noteworthily, the Sorcerors were making war upon the Elves, not for the first time, for reasons that are utterly meaningless and probably always were.
"Despite the power of the Black Star, the Sorcerors were not winning the war-- not doing well enough to satisfy the ambitious and foolish Empress of the Sorcerors, in any case. In her arrogance, she sought to draw upon greater powers to win the war-- the power of the Black Star could, in theory, reach beyond Thearn itself, after all. So, gathering the mightiest mages among the Sorcerors to her, she cast a great spell to search for a greater source of power.
"Unfortunately for all of us, she found one.
"What she found was nothing less than hunger incarnate-- a great force of annihilation and nothingness and corruption, and, following the spell that they'd cast, it forced a mighty rift between worlds open, and sent its soldiers and generals into helpless Thearn.
"The initial attack was bad enough-- monsters from nightmares, attacking with strange powers outside of the Eight Stars-- and the land of the Sorcerors was destroyed in days. It is entirely possible that I am the last Sorceror left alive, in fact. But the other lands would soon follow-- as would far worse.
"...The power that attacked, you see, devoured the Eight Stars themselves, or nearly so. Our magic failed us, growing weaker and weaker, and the land itself weakened with the loss of this power. And then the enemy revealed new armies of soldiers-- soldiers that it had created using the power of the Eight Stars, twisted and corrupt versions of our own kind. We could not fight. We could only be destroyed.
"But I survived, somehow, and still retained enough magic for one final effort-- I would use the Black Star's power to reach across the worlds again, using my life as fuel, and find another source of magic. I would then drain that magic, and use it to close the rift connecting our world with that demon world. I would probably die, but that hardly matters. Thearn would still be devastated, but we might, at the very least, live.
"...and I failed. I found a mighty source of magic in this shrine, unused, so you surely wouldn't have missed it. But I was attacked-- no less than eight of the Demon's officers found me, and the spell was disrupted... with the unfortunate consequence that, rather than your shrine's power coming to me, the entire building did, as well. And so here we are."
"Saying that I started the war isn't wrong, but saying that it arose entirely by my will is quite another. It wasn't the first one that we've fought, and there were many factors-- nobles champing at the bit for a war, pressure from the wealth of the Elves, control of seaport... and it doesn't matter now, in any case. I admit to my crimes, but surely survival is of greater importance."
"Ah," said Azyria. "...I'm not sure why you asked about what I want, then. As for the war itself, I mentioned a few things-- control of seaports, the wealth of the Elf lands because of their ability to produce so many crops-- but it feels so distant. Ask what you actually want to know, then. We were sometimes at war with the Elves or Gnolls, most recently with the Elves. We had polite relations with the Serafin, and traded frequently with the Goblins, as does almost everyone. The Sirens weren't near our lands, nor were the Hotaro, so we had little to do with them. And Dragons are individuals, not a nation. Was that helpful?"
