War of World's End

The War of World's End was the apocolyptic event that wiped out the majority of the people of Etharai and caused a cultural reset of the world. Little is known about the World Before, as most of the records from that time were either lost during the war or later destroyed due to heretic content.

Conflict Type

War

Background

From what little is known about the World Before, there were hundreds of different cultures and nations across the surface of Etharai. These nations were not on good terms with one another - they held fundamental disagreements on nearly every topic one could think of. And the people inhabiting these nations were not peaceful - their disdain for the rest of the nations led to many physical fights between citizens. The governments of these nations did nothing to prevent this fighting, as it was simply a reflection of their own distastes for one another.
The exact inciting incident for the War is a bit unclear, and still debated amongst historians. The most popular theory is that two of these nations went to war over the dividing of their lands, and began to get all of their nearby nations involved, which caused a ripple effect until the entire planet was involved. Others argue that this explanation doesn't make much sense, and instead posit that the disagreement causing the War was something that already affected each of the nations individually.

The Long Night

Among the few remaining accounts of the events of the War, there is an event that makes an appearance in each one. This event, known as the Long Night, is told in most sources as a months-long period approaching the conclusion of the War where the sun no longer rose. While originally this was taken as a curse from the worldmothers, it has since been extrapolated that there was a coat of dust and debris so thick in the atmosphere that it blotted out the light of the sun. This is likely an effect of the sheer scale of the fighting; descriptions of the effects of the weapons and tactics used at the end of the war seem to line up with this theory.

Course of the War

Regardless of how it started, there is a bit more known about what actually happened during the war. As the war began to move into full-swing, the means used to perpetuate it also began to escalate. Immense amounts of magic were weaponised, causing irreparable damage to some parts of the landscape, creating magical wastes and wiping out soldiers upon soldiers.
Even then the War still escalated. Nations kept inventing new, devastating ways to kill their opponents - weapons, gasses, magic, and more. Civilians were no longer kept out of the conflict, as scale continued to increase.
Ultimately, the culmination of the war as it neared the end of its course was disastrous. As the leaders of the nations and those who had hidden away to ensure they took no part in this war were the only two groups left, the leaders began to wipe each other out, and only small pockets of civilisation scarred by the War were left. They had seen the immense violence that had gotten them there, that had harmed the very core of Etharai herself, and swore that there would be no more.

The Aftermath

The small communities of those who had managed to remain neutral emerged from hiding to find a scarred and changed Etharai. The War had damaged Etharai almost beyond repair, but these new pacificts chose to try to nurture it again anyways. From here, cultural beliefs of pacifism and care for the planet became widespread, as did the belief in the planet as an animate and sentient being.

Effects of the War: Modern Conflicts

Ever since the War, the concept of violence makes many people uneasy. Though it has been centuries and generations since then, there is still a firm belief in the minds of most that violence will always lead to disaster. However, this does not mean that Etharai is free from conflicts. People will express displeasure with one another in indirect, passive-aggressive ways instead.