War of the Lich

The War of the Lich, often shortened to the Lich War, was a worldwide military conflict that took place in the Age of the Boiler. It started with the awakening of a Lich now known to history as Maran-Kish. Maran-Kish, or "The Regent", as he preferred to be called, was sealed away thousands of years ago in the Age of the Ancients. The war ended in the resealing of Maran-Kish in his crypt; immediately laying still every one of his undead thralls at the same time. This time, with measures in place to ensure that he could do nothing even if he were to break free once more. Though Erdezwei survived the conflict, the aftermath was the seed crystal of conflicts to come.

General Features of the War

The Regent reemerged to a world much different from the one he was sealed away in. A world of mages, chariots and records chiseled into stone slabs was replaced by an industrialized world of railroads, motor carriages, strange polearms that made great booming sounds and felled their targets from dozens of cubits away, and even flying machines of canvas and wood. The world that rightfully belonged to him had advanced greatly in his absence, but The Regent struggled to avail himself of its bounty.   And so, his thralls engaged in trench warfare with the Allied Free Powers. Spellcasting and gas attacks were used in the same battles. Overhead, thrall dragons and fighter aces vied for dominance of the skies. For the first time, both tanks and power armor trudged their way across the battlefield.

Legacy and Aftermath

Though The Regent was defeated and peace was restored, the war had touched every corner of the globe. Uncountable lives had been ended or irreversibly changed. But at the same time, heroes had risen to meet Maran-Kish's aggression and become legends in the aftermath. The unity required to defeat him engendered a spirit of brotherhood and kinship in hearts the world over. Even in the nations that had been conquered and forced to fight on Maran-Kish's behalf.
  For instance, on the Kamerian Peninsula, the existence of the Kamerian Peninsula Expeditionary Force demonstrated to the fractured land what could be achieved by unity and cooperation, and inflamed an existing resentment towards the constant rivalry and war between the nations there. This would boil over into the Unification Wars mere decades after Maran-Kish was laid low.