War of the Starfall

The Conflict

Prelude

The years leading up to the war began when Didact Victus I announced his creation of the Warforged in 1499. His claim that the process of becoming a Warforged freed the subject from the grasps of fate that the Primal Being Termina. He later came to believe that The Final Kingdom had been manipulating the fate of Termina to their own advantage via their augury. Under his leadership, he began to instigate hostility toward the Kingdom while endorsing the prospects of the Warforged to end their "monopoly on fate."
Simultaneously, the newly-crowned Queen of the Starfall ordered a massing of troops near the border. The details of her justification for this are unknown, but likely stemmed from The Didacy deploying Warforged in the neutral territory between the two powers.

The Engagement

In 1501, Victus ordered a full scale invasion of Kingdom territory. The details of the engagements became lost to history, outside what is believed to be mythical exaggeration, which cites tens of thousands dead in the opening hours. Despite early successes, the war became bogged down in the Snowmelt Basin. The forests and farmland created from the thawed ice cap became a quagmire of mud, ash, and fire. Across the next seven years, Victus engaged across the northern front while constantly increasing the size of the Warforged armed forces. Advancements were made in the creation of the Titans and Colossi, weapons of ultimate warfare which proved immensely effective on the battlefield.

Outcome

The war ended indisputably with an overwhelming victory by The Final Kingdom and the total destruction of The Didacy's realm in southern Sinderlan. The creation of the Stargash Crater was instantaneous and could be seen for hundreds of miles in all directions. The city of Scepter was handed over as a concession to the Didacy, as well as some surviving arable farmland on the rim of the crater. The vast majority of the armed forces of the Didacy were also killed in the Starfall. Survivors gathered temporarily on Greenwave, only to immediately disband following the revelation of the true nature of the Warforged.
It became clear in the days following the starfall that the Dragons of Sinderlan, native to the former ice cap region and borderlands, were all killed in the cataclysm. Their surviving dens were found empty and abandoned. It was never discovered how or why all of the ancient dragons of the region were so far south during the war.

Aftermath

The Treaty of Scepter was signed in the months following the end of hostilities. The treaty established new borders, officially transferred Scepter to The Didacy, and laid detailed rules banning the creation of Warforged, mandating the decommissioning of all Titans, Colossi, and Gelgethae, and the heavy regulation on repair of existing humanoid Warforged. In the years following the war, a large number of Warforged survivors in the new Domain of the Didacy were aimless and without purpose. Several opted to end their own lives after being confronted with the reality of their existence. Others opted to live in solitude in remote regions of the Crater or even immigrating to the Kingdom in the Warforged Diaspora.
Unrest set in throughout the Kingdom in the decades following the war. The Lizardfolk of the Kingdom, worshipers of Velnor, rose up in multiple riots over the subsequent decades. The Queen of Reborn Doctrine created The Monarch's Bulwark which quelled the uprising. Additional tensions with the Hrim Expedition led to the breakaway of the Hrim region in the north of Sinderlan. 
The Starfall continued for 15 months, as the shattered debris of Velnor rained down across all of Perradin. While the effects of the cataclysm were heavily mitigated by magical effects, supposedly erected by the Queen of the Starfall, massive amounts of destruction were wrought across the entire world. The constant nature of the fallout caused illumination at all hours from the streaks of fire across the sky. The debris poisoned waterways with thick dust from meteor impacts. The dust from impacts blocked roughly 30% of sunlight for three years.
By the end of the Starfall proper, ecological collapse began to set in across all of Perradin. Sinderlan, most heavily affected, now was marred by the Stargash Crater. The ocean currents altered, strengthening the Roil and making sea travel mor difficult. The Didacy was reliant exclusively on fishing and trade with the Kingdom for centuries to feed its citizens. The Kingdom suffered immensely as crops failed and some regions began to desertify. The Gald Desert was said to have formed in this time. Across the ocean, Pillarin suffered similar ecological collapse as crops failed and mountain ranges were pummeled to dust by meteor impacts. The Loristian Spine was subject to cataclysmic landslides. The elves of Lorthr'ten erected large magical fields around their island, creating artificial sunlight to protect the island. The light from the island is said to have partially sustained Plentius during this time. Through immense collective effort, much of the collapse was mitigated by the end of the 17th century.
Fear of the Kingdom set in across the world. While many wanted to hold the Kingdom responsible for the cataclysm, they did not wish to have the destructive might of the Monarch visited upon them. In 1730, the King of Reflection created the Treaty of Velnor. The Didacy, Ren, and all Free Cities in existence at the time signed the treaty. In it, the Kingdom officially declared the magics used to bring Velnor down had been eradicated from existence. Delegates from leading magical research institutes convened and were convinced of this claim. In addition, the Kingdom paid a massive indemnity to the nations and cities of Perradin. The nature of this indemnity was kept secret at the time and today remains a mystery.

Historical Significance

Legacy

The War of the Starfall is remembered as a the single greatest conflict the world had ever seen. The immense cost of life became a mythical example of the toll of war and a cautionary tale. The details of battles were lost over time as Warforged and Kingdom survivors alike disliked speaking of the events. The destruction also ensured very few written records survived. 
By 9048, the war is viewed as a simple fact of history, mixed with hearsay and myth. The truth of Warforged nature was forgotten, likely intentionally. The motivations for the war became reduced to that of a simple war of conquest. Major developments made during the war, such as teleportation and sending stones, made their ways into daily life around the world. Other more profane technological advancements of the Didacy faded into obscurity, as did the academy itself. The Didacian Consulate currently inhabits the Stargash Crater, a democratic government formed by Warforged 2 with the sole purpose of avoiding the kind of conflict that the War of the Starfall brought upon Perradin.

In Literature

The War is featured in countless pieces of literature and mythology over the eons following its conclusion. In 6780, renowned playwright Faustus Kellodon of Dustedmanc crafted the legendary tragedy Land of Blood, Ash, and Steel which featured the war. It centers on a fictionalized point of view narrative, alternating between the Queen of the Starfall and Didact Victus I across the duration of the war. It culminates in a final confrontation between the two, which is famous for the line "Into thine eyes I spit, thou Liar and Visionary. Thine desire for ashes and blood will be granted, for that is all thine family shall rule from here til the end of days." The play is immensely successful in Pillarin, but is rarely performed in Sinderlan due to protestations from multiple Warforged associations.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

1501

Ending Date

1507

Conflict Result

Kingdom Victory, Destruction of Velnor, Complete destruction of Southern Sinderlan, Extinction of Sinderlan Dragons, Warforged Diaspora

Location

Sinderlan

Belligerents

The Final Kingdom

• The Final Kingdom

Led by

• High Augur Kelra
• Queen of the Starfall

The Enlightened Realm of the Didacy

• The Didacy

Led by

• Didact Victus I
• Immolate
• Warforged 2

Strength

4,000,000 Monarch Loyalist Foot Soldiers
60,950 Augur Psions
470 High Dragons
332 Trireme Squadrons
500,000 Support Staff

4 Gelgetha Walking Fortresses
700 Warships
17 Warforged Colossi
3,000,000 Deployed Warforged
2,780,000 Warforged Reserves
100,000 Support Staff

Casualties

3,500,000 troops and support staff
1,000,000 civilians
All Dragons

5,024,200 Warforged 25,000,000 non-Warforged Civilians

Objectives