Northern Wars
Though often spoken of as a singular, long-lasting event, the Northern Wars were more akin to a series of neverending skirmishes and larger battles mixed together as people of the northern continent fought over resources and simple survival. The fighting followed the cooling climate from the beginning of the Second Age, later named the Long Winter, after the growing glaciers and colder summers began to affect the wildlife of Tenwä.
The main aggressors during the Northern Wars were the northern Nolyur from the Nightlands, and the suddenly aggressive Aellajor from the east across the Storm Sea. Both sides attacked independently of each other, raiding their southern cousins who dwelled in Tenwän wilderness.
The attacks from the north and east alike forced the surviving clans south toward other inhabited lands, lands that had changed as much as the ones up north. The clans of the south were wary of strangers, whispering of witches and wandering sages who had cursed the land and its people. The tremors had spooked the entire continent and though decades passed before the changes became noticeable, the memory remained fresh in older minds.
Soon enough all of Tenwä was up in arms, clans fighting each other even had they been friends just a few winters ago. Priorities shifted with the cooling weather and constant fighting, and no one could be sure who they could trust. Not even family was always safe from suspicion, and fights broke out between siblings with increasing fervor.
It was only after Erinär's grip began to wane and glaciers retreat that the people of Tenwä, what little of them remained, gained enough breathing room to stop the fighting. The Nolyur were all but gone, and the once proud Aellasar shattered and abandoned by the Aellajor. Individual clans of northern blood still survived, deep in the wilds of Tenwä, hiding from each other as much as the cruel weather and other, more dreadful things lurking in the dark.
For a long time afterward, relations between Tenwän clans were neutral at best. Memories of the northern folk were long and wrongs committed against their kin slow to fade, especially when committed by their own.
Era: Second Age