The Dragon Wars

The Dragon Wars refer to a series of conflicts fought between the Draconic Empire and the Kingdom of Kejyalt near the end of the Draconic Age. Due to aggressive scorched-earth tactics employed by the Draconic Empire, very little remains from this time period.

Background

The Draconic Empire

Following The Severance (c. 24,000 PB), the Council of Gems set about organizing their own order to replace that instituted by the gods. The Council worried that without some form of oversight, other forms of sapient life would never develop. With this goal in mind, the Council establishes the Draconic Empire in the city of Vokk-Tō and sets to work expanding their influence over the rest of Yrnath, ushering in the beginning of the Draconic Age.
By roughly 5,100 PB, the Draconic Empire has overseen the development of over a dozen independent sapient peoples, each with their own unique culture and civilization. Despite their wide-reaching presence, the Empire endeavored to stay out of the affairs of the other peoples. Prior to 5,100 PB, the Draconic Empire had only stepped in on one occasion, interfering in a potentially devastating conflict between the Vulrahmi Imperium and Yannastrian Covenant. The two nations were developing powerful arcane weapons and techniques that, if released, threatened all life on Yrnath. As such, the Empire stepped in to end the conflict, forcing both sides to reach a peaceful agreement.

The Kejyalt

One of the sapient peoples that developed during the Draconic Age was giantkind, who first came into being on the continent of Shae'daqen. Initially, the giants were disparate, nomadic tribes divided by their ancestral subtype. Numerous different ambitious giants had attempted to unite giantkind, though none were successful. The different subtypes of giant rarely intermingled, meaning there was no point of common culture or ancestry for these movements to rally around.
Around 5,200 PB, a storm giant named Ovkarn Rolun was subjected to a number of seemingly oracular dreams. Records from this time claim Ovkarn was visited by an entity known as Daihal, the Matron of Giants, who had instructed Ovkarn to rally all of giantkind into one united people. It is said that Daihal warned Ovkarn of a coming war with giantkind, and told him that this would be the only way to ensure the survival of his people. Feeling as though he had little choice, Ovkarn accepted the calling, working tirelessly for decades to unite the many disparate peoples of Shae'daqen into the Kingdom of Kejyalt.

The Xandrazc

Among the many disparate tribes of giantkind on the continent of Shae'daqen was a group of oni known as the Xandrazc Republic. The oni had culturally and technologically developed faster than other giant-kin, having already established a robust society while the other giant tribes were beginning to transition out of their nomadic lifestyle. Despite their cultural superiority, the Xandrazc did not wish to influence the development of the other giant tribes, for fear that they may erase the other cultural identities in the process. As a result, they limited their interactions as much as possible with the other Shae'daqen peoples, choosing instead to engage with the Draconic Empire and other more advanced civilizations.
When Ovkarn Rolun began uniting the many disparate peoples of Shae'daqen, the Xandrazc made contact in the hopes that Ovkarn's efforts would create a second robust civilization for them to exchange goods and knowledge with. Initially, it seemed as if Ovkarn was simply ignoring their requests, as he refused any attempts at diplomacy. As the Kejyalt grew, however, it became clear that Ovkarn's actions were not out of indifference, but aggression. The Xandrazc were forcibly subjugated by the Kejyalt, their culture and traditions brutally suppressed, and the people forced into servitude by their new Kejyalti masters.

The War

Diplomacy and Blood

The sudden disappearance of the Xandrazc from the world stage caught the attention of the Draconic Empire's High Council, who sent scouts to investigate the situation. Upon their return, these scouts told of the horrendous treatment the oni were being subjected to. These reports greatly concerned the High Council, though their worry was not entirely for the former people of Xandrazc. Many within the High Council saw the sudden unification of giantkind as a possible threat to the dominance of the Draconic Empire, and since it had risen entirely without their notice, some believed it to be a sign of their waning influence. Unwilling to allow this new threat to continue, the Draconic High Council sent emissaries to the city of Nohlta, the Kejyalti capital, hoping to begin dialogues with the kingdom of giants.
Records of the meeting between the emissaries and Ovkarn's court are sparse and contradictory. To ensure transparency, the accounts are separated based upon the side from which the records originated:

The Draconic Account

When the emissaries arrived in Nohlta, they were swarmed by guards and brought before Ovkarn, the Giant King. The emissaries pleaded with Ovkarn to release the oni from their enslavement, though noted that they were not above taking direct action if necessary. In response, Ovkarn had the emissaries beheaded, and their corpses delivered back to the Draconic High Council.

The Giantkind Account

When the emissaries arrived in Nohlta, they were brought before Ovkarn, the Giant King, to state their case. The emissaries ordered Ovkarn to release the oni from their enslavement and surrender the former Xandrazc territory to the Draconic Empire, before threatening to remove Ovkarn from his throne by force if he refused. Ovkarn denied their request, and when one of the emissaries moved to attack Ovkarn, his guards quickly dispatched of them. Their remains were then delivered back to the Draconic Empire for death rites and burials.

War Comes to Kejyalt

Enraged by the deaths of their emissaries, the Draconic High Council launched a surprise invasion of northwestern Shae'daqen. The Draconic Army burned down settlements along the coast, killing hundreds of giants and displacing thousands more. Over the next few months, the Empire's campaign into northwest Shae'daqen would see the deaths of thousands of giants, both soldiers and civilians. During that time, despite their best efforts, the Kejyalti soldiers were only able to down four dragons.

What Was Lost

The efforts of the Draconic High Council didn't stop at simply burning settlements. In order to ensure the total destruction of their enemy, the Draconic Empire engaged in historical negation and genocide. As a result, next to nothing from the war exists in records. What remains is extremely scattered, fragments of a civilization intentionally erased from the annals of history. It is believed that the feud between the Draconic Empire and the Kejyalt lasted for nearly eight hundred years, though an exact figure is uncertain. It's unlikely that this conflict consisted of only one single war, rather it was likely a number of wars fought in relatively quick succession.
What scraps remain only serve to tell of the conflict's brutality. Despite early success, the war eventually became one of attrition, both sides fighting for decades over imperceptible gains. The conflict irrevocably scarred the continent of Shae'daqen, damaging the land in ways that are still being felt today. Beyond the war itself, the aggressive and cruel tactics employed by the Draconic Empire weakened their relations with the other civilizations. It is said that during the conflict, many of the more arcanally advanced civilizations began to devise contingencies for how to deal with the Draconic Empire. One such contingency would find itself deployed centuries after the end of the Dragon Wars, ending dragonkind's place as rulers.

Aftermath

War's End

Sometime around 4,300 PB, Ovkarn Rolun was slain in battle. His eldest living son, Vozderon Rolun, was crowned the second Giant King. Compared to his father, who had become obsessed with his war against dragonkind, Vozderon wanted nothing more than to see the fighting end. He had already lost two of his brothers and his father, and he would not be the one to condemn another one of his kin to die. Vozderon sues for peace, hoping that the Draconic High Council would feel the same. The Council was initially hesitant, but counsel from Yannastrian and Vulrahmi ambassadors convinced them to accept his surrender.
The two sides, with oversight from the Yannastrian Covenant and Vulrahmi Imperium, signed the Treaty of the Thaerenise, officially ending the conflict. The treaty reaffirmed draconic dominance in Yrnath, while providing protections for giantkind while they searched for a new area to settle.

Author's Note:
The Treaty of the Thaerenise, despite including many of the conditions that the initial draconic emissaries had requested, did not make reference to the enslaved oni people, nor did it require the former Xandrazc territory be surrendered to the Draconic Empire. The latter is understandable, as the land was heavily scarred and unusable from the fighting, though the exclusion of the oni people from the treaty is both a point of historical and, unfortunately, biological note.
At the time that the Treaty of the Thaerenise was signed, the oni people had been enslaved for roughly eight hundred years. During that time, many oni were born with half-giant parentage, often on their paternal side. Oni born with this mixed heritage were afforded a higher standing within Kejyalt society, which created a societal incentive, and eventually expectation, for oni to bear half-giant children. By the time the war ended and the treaty was signed, the oni population was almost entirely half-giant. Rather than acknowledge what had been done, the Draconic High Council chose instead to consider the oni as little more than another subtype of giantkind.

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

Roughly 5,100 PB

Ending Date

Roughly 4,300 PB