War of the Races

Military action

Without established leadership, tensions flared. Skirmishes turned into wars, until the whole world was fighting.

The Dragonborn and Tieflings were first to march to war, their respective homelands the closest.   Historians point to various documents recovered from that time that peace negotiations were going well, until some insult from the Tieflings inflamed the Dragonborn beyond all reason. Since then most Dragonborn have an almost instinctive hatred for anyone born with a demonic taint, and many will attack or execute them on sight with little regard for the consequences.   Their war started to spill north, where the dwarves were emerging from their underground lairs and building new homes for themselves. Newly discovered dwarven pride would not allow a new master so soon after losing the old, and they drove back both races with a viciousness no one knew the stout folk possessed, before turning their eyes northward towards the largest contingent of elves remaining in the greater world.   The Halflings, having been the most loyal of the elves, quickly adopted their practices for powerful magics and took command of many artefacts and items of power left behind. City after city was raised out of thick jungle, protected from the warring dwarves and elves to the south by a perilous range of mountains, until they started to expand south, pushing on the elves and mages from a second front.   Humans weren't as prolific as the other races, and due to their adaptabliltiy they had no homeland, the elves using them as needed. Yet they banded together in smaller mercenary companies and served whoever paid most, often finding themselves an ally one day, an enemy the next.   Gnomes were the only one of the main races that did not get caught up in the conflict. When the elves no longer extended their command over the industrious gnomes, they built great ships and fled to the open seas, only to return much later, many of their people lost and scattered across the world.   The war lasted nearly 300 long years. At the end of it, the world had been carved up amongst the races, but wounds were still fresh, and tempers still high.