War of the Chosens

It was the most fun I ever had. If I could, I would go back in time just to experience it a second time.
— Illyn Tydale

The War of the Chosens is known as the worst thing that ever happened to the galaxy. A period of instability in a universe that was still looking for its right tone. Billions died, species went extinct and the galaxy disfigured. The collapse of the First Stardom shook all its enfeoded civilizations, triggering a conflict that lasted centuries.

At the beginning was order

The First Stardom was a gigantic alliance of nearly all species in the galaxy. After all they thought, if they all took to the stars to answer the Calling, surely it was meant for them to unite. Despite initial dissensions within the galactic community, the regime was fairly stable as a representative republic.

With each new species answering the Calling, the stardom expanded a little. Explorers took it upon themselves to spread it further, colonizing new planets and pushing the boundaries of the known universe. They were still experimenting with the Songs, so communication was shaky and slow, when reliable.

Then chaos ensued

It began with small accidents over trivial matters. The mining rights of an asteroid, a galactic law that favoured a bit too much some people. People were learning to live together, but xenophobia is pernicious, and some species never truly got over the fact that others existed. Some cultural and societal differences were too great to be overcome in just a few centuries.

The war could have exploded at any time as micro-conflicts were multiplying, and several skirmishes could have easily been considered acts of war. Each time, it was attributed to an extremist faction, terrorists, to give the real perpetrator an exit they grudgingly took. At this point, it was not a question of if the looming global conflict would happen, but when. As surprising as it might be, what finally sparked the war was not an act of violence, not a political shenanigan, but a heartfelt speech that spread like a wildfire, with even more dire consequences.

A few words like gasoline on an open flame

People of the stardom, heed my words! Whether you are part of this farce or play by your own rules, you are doing it wrong. We all responded to a call, a visceral plea for those that had this spark inside them. Not individuals, mind you, but entire species. It was not indiscriminate. It was not at random. Why are the primitive civilisations of Jarlor or Kinvyll not among us as I speak? The answer is so simple that we collectively chose to feign ignorance. Unlike us, they have not been chosen. This is the truth, the one we all shied away from, playing republic, sending greedy puppets to animate the show in our stead. We were not meant for this, this is not what we have been called for. We were meant for greatness, not discussing who would get the biggest share of the latest drifting rock. I will say it again, we were chosen. The Voice set us up to find out which one is the most worthy of its legacy. Did you ever wonder why it never chose to engage after the great unification? It witnessed the failure of its grand project, and left to a place with worthier people. There is one way to gain back its attention, and it is to claim our title as chosen, prove our value and purge the unfit from the galaxy!
— Speech of Schleomna, the one who started the war

It wasn't the first one with this idea, it was actually a pretty common framing of the call among extremist movements. It wasn't the first time Schleomna had tried to spread their thesis to the widest audience possible. Maybe something in this speech resonated more with the people than the previous one, or it could be that they were all just looking for a pretext, and this one was as good as any.

In the years following this great announcement, every species would declare total war on every others, in the most confused exchanges of threats and diplomatic failures. While the word collapse is commonly used to describe the fall of the First Stardom, it would be more accurate to say it exploded. Quite literally, Kernellysh, the capital planet of the universe, was the first to burst into flames, along with the desperate brokers of peace and Schleomna themselves.

Every race for itself

It was a global interspecies conflict, where the it was child's play to distinguish the enemy: everyone that did not look like you was better off dead. All core world planets and a great deal of others were cosmopolite, harbouring dozens of different species in harmony until that fateful speech. After that, they all became scenes of urban warfare, with so much of the surface destroyed it was doubtful the planets would be habitable ever again.

Every species had its own share of systems in the galaxy, usually around their homeworld, with very little heterogeneity, or not for long. From there were launched immense fleets, filled to the brim with soldiers eager to put their art to use. Military applications of the Song were intentionally not research within the first stardom, which did not prevent each species to do their own, in secret. Where style and instrument varied, the results of decades of underground work brought the same end, one of fire and flames.

It's like a fever

Only a handful of spacefaring species were warmongers. Yet, nearly everyone fought with fanatical determination. It was a question of proving the superiority of their race, of their civilisation and way of life.

Why won't you die?

As it happens, it is very difficult to wipe out an entire civilisation that has reached the spacefaring stage. Even the meekest has representants on remote planets and will put up an extraordinary fight with their back against the figurative wall of their extinction. Thus, only a fraction of the chosen species went extinct during the war, but a lot more were reduced to scraps of their former selves, their representants scattered across the galaxy in small communities.

Unlimited power

The War of the Chosens happened a long time before the Canticles sealed off the majority of sound and emptied space. Feats that are nowadays impossible were commonplace before and during the war, leading to a devastation like none other.

At the time, space altercations were not constrained to the cramped inside of a spaceship. Space had a lot more particles then, so much so that master fighters were able to go out with no protective gear but their song and talent. Considering the unfathomable distances involved into space battle, those people who could outpace destroyers and engage fighter ships into dogfights were considered top of their game, and not even a rarity.

Notable events and people

In a war of this calibre, heroic deeds and impossible comebacks are too many to be counted, yet a few stands high above the others in terms of scale and consequences.

The Battle of the Pillars

The single largest battle to ever take place. Seen as a strategic area to control a third of the galaxy, the Pillars of Creation was coveted by all the species with a capable enough fleet to make a stand. A massive battleground spanning the entirety of the nebula, mobilizing billions of battleships, and a million more soldiers. Many of the survivors made a name for themselves, as the very rich environment of the pillars made it possible to push their song to its limit, and even further. Among the legends born there, one can mention Illyn Tydale, who condensed the gas to force stars into existence in mere minutes, consuming ships by the thousands; or Real Tanar, who permanently disfigured the nebula when she made an entire pillar collapse, crushing under its weight whole fleets, still acknowledged as the greatest display of might.

The Battle of the Pillars

Military Conflict | Jul 26, 2025

The Seven Suns of Kalima

Krakmars were hailed as the species with the greatest resistance to radiations and heat. On the brink of defeat at the battle of Kalima, their seven best musicians took an insane risk that turned the tides of the battle: they changed into proper stars, wide and destructive. For long they had the theory of this technique, but it was deemed too dangerous and unstable to be put to use, until then. Having a star moving at ludicrous speed toward them is enough to make any captain turn tail, if they even have the opportunity to surpass the shock. While successful in their desperate attempts, the seven suns could not enjoy it for long. One of them burnt himself to death but managed to dissipate the star before putting its own fleet in jeopardy. Three suns could not control it and went into supernovae, threatening to swallow the entire system if not for the heroic sacrifice of two others to protect their own people. Only one out of the seven survived the ordeal, severely burnt and unable to play anymore.

The Battle of Kalima

Military Conflict | Jul 26, 2025

The moonlight squad

Amidst the chaos, a group of misfits made itself known. Infamous for its heterogeneity, this mercenary band accepted whoever was skilled enough to pass their implacable tests. They sometimes intervened in battles on behalf of one high command or the other, but specialised in commission for stranded planets or hapless wanderers trapped in a crossfire. What set them apart from the others, beside their unusual openness and longevity, was that none of them were musicians of renown. Specialists of space fights with only a handful of losses to their name, they compensated with raw talent what they lacked in musicality, in an era where songs were believed to be absolute. In the late stage of the war, when encounters became increasingly unhinged and destructive, the squad endured loss after loss, until they were reduced to no more than a few dozen fighters and ultimately disbanded.

The Moonlight Squad

Organization | Jul 26, 2025

The Immortal Fleet

The Valkzen were already a spacefaring civilization when all the others received the Calling. Even though, they joined the galactical community late, chosing to watch the budding civilizations from afar. Contrary to the others, they had not been granted the honor of the Voice, and none of them could use any Song. Still, they watched and learned. When the war broke out, they had the largest and most advanced fleet by far, crushing anyone who dared to cross their path. Furthermore, they had engineered devices able to use the melody they couldn't hear themselves, playing on an even field with the virtuosi of the other species. The oldest civilization was presented to be the ultimate winner of the war, even though they were not chosen themselves.

The Immortal Fleet

Military Formation | Jul 28, 2025

Graeth Warfare

The implacable war made little case of casualties, whether civilians or planets. It was not a war for territory, but annihilation. The Graeth system was an exception to that rule. Considered an eden by multiple species, with seven verdant planets lush with life and resources, at the crossroads of multiple navigation lines, it was one of the few systems that had consequential strategic interest. Thus, for three centuries, ground warfare shed the seven fields in red. Six factions were involved, each trying to uproot the others and gain total control over the planets. When one was finally repelled, it would simply fall back on another world to rebuild its forces before attacking again. Space battles were of course numerous, but relied more on traditional weaponry, sending the virtuosi on the ground where their devastating powers would not threaten the system's integrity.

Graeth Warfare

Military Conflict | Jul 28, 2025

Doomsday

Common causes were almost nonexistent, diplomacy rarely going further than circumstantial alliances. The greatest of those was the time when a multi-species group of lunatics, Lights Out decided that the best outcome of the war was the disappearance of all life in the galaxy, or the destruction of the galaxy itself. Their assumed goal was to snuff out the black hole at the centre of the galaxy, untying the immense gravitational force keeping everything together. Despite their best efforts, the Coalition of tomorrow, an alliance formed between four major factions, was unable to stop them from reaching their objective. Unexpectedly, they were enough people believing that the best course of action was the end of everything to fight off the combined power of four armies.

Doomsday

Plot | Jul 28, 2025

One showdown to govern them all

Somehow, the war lasted longer than the first stardom ever did. It was not a constant flow of engagements, and some periods of peace happened here and there, but the killings never truly stopped. After nearly a millennium of a war that was going stale, the species still standing strong gathered to find an agreement.

Since none of them were ready to yield, they found a common ground in the avoidance of total annihilation. Rather than fighting tooth and nail until the last one, why not set up a grand confrontation between champions chosen among the fiercest generals of each army. A final battle, whose victor would be proclaimed the uncontested leader of the galaxy, the true chosen one of the Voice.

Every belligerent put their all into this battle. No pulling punches, no rules or convention applied. The scenery was a neutral ground, the home system of a species that was exterminated a few centuries prior. Massive fleets gathered together in a way that didn't happen since the Battle of the Pillars. The clash was as impressive as expected, reducing to ashes multiple systems. The bloodbath went on for a long time without a clear victor in sight.

Ultimately, when the most powerful fleets in the galaxy were reduced to nothing but shreds of their former selves and all but a few champions had perished, the will to fight died quietly. They went home, broken, wounded, the greatest question that sparked a thousand year of conflict still unresolved. The surviving champions, including Illyn Tydale and Real Tanar, were hailed as heroes of their people, a bittersweet prize when all they had to show was their lives.

From the chaos, order shall rise again

The Canticles at the time were far from the rulers of current times. They were a group of like-minded individuals, linked together by their song and sharing a common purpose: to restore order the way the Voice intended. After the Clash of Champions, they seized the opportunity when no one seemed keen on pursuing the fight. For many, it felt that they were pursuing it out of a macabre habit rather than a true belief.

The Canticles spoke to their respective species of the same voice, the Voice. They claimed to be the only ones able to hear directly its plea, and that it was time to stop the fightings and unite once again. Mutual destruction was not why they had been brought together, and it was pained to see the galaxy torn apart like this.

Where Scheomna was right however, is that the political play of the first stardom was not meant to be either. The Voice was a deity, an entity far beyond their comprehension they had to revere and execute its will. The people of the galaxy lived to do its bidding, not to elevate themselves to reach godhood.

The soothing words hit right for the societies deeply scarred by a war without purpose. They had lost their drive, and the futility of the conflict they lived through hit them right in the face. Obediently, they accepted the Canticles as leaders and relinquished their influence, out of tiredness and aided by the intoxicating melody that kept repeating.

A new rule under the Canticles

Cautious not to repeat the errors of the past, the Canticles established a centralized theocracy, with heavily restricted local autonomy. They set up the network of the Obelisks of the Song of Things, largely ignored during the war, and spread their dogma across the civilisation that had not heard of it, including to the most remote planets that had not been impacted as much by the war.

Under their direction, the galaxy was to strive, and come ever closer to the Voice, listening to its desires through the collective voice of its heralds. A new stardom, one that is meant to last forever. And ever.

Bah, all good things come to an end. But all bad things do, too. They can't last forever, no matter how strongly they believe it. And when they do, it's me who'll become the star of the show again! In the meantime, there's other ways to enjoy myself.
— Illyn Tydale

Entry for Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2025

Answering: "A war that resulted in the creation of something new"

Visit Rumengol's Competition Page Check all other answers to this prompt Competition Homepage

War of the Chosens

At the beginning was order

Then chaos ensued

A few words like gasoline on an open flame

Every race for itself

It's like a fever

Why won't you die?

Unlimited power

Notable events and people

The Battle of the Pillars

The Battle of Kalima

The Moonlight Squad

The Immortal Fleet

Graeth Warfare

Doomsday

One showdown to govern them all

From the chaos, order shall rise again

A new rule under the Canticles

Entry for Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2025

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