Dragon Wars (1485-1505)
The Dragon Wars at Gildensong
1485 DR: Oondarr begins breeding a stronger and more disciplined strain of orc infantry in the eastern reaches. The first companies are sent west to test themselves against the Bladesong Knights at Tiruandar, beginning what is at first dismissed in Edderoth as another season of border violence.
1486 DR: The fighting widens into what becomes known as the Long Orc War, with battles spreading through the countryside of Earlann. At Memorianne, Miraedriel, a wolf-riding Bladesong Knight, destroys Urthgati, a demon of Lolth whose appearance reveals darker powers moving behind the orc offensive.
1487 DR: Orthmeck leads a goblin host against the elven city of Leandor in Isalian. Barrot Ithae, a human sorcerer and Bladesong Knight, organizes a daring sortie from the besieged city and breaks the attack, temporarily checking Orthmeck’s advance.
1495 DR, the Year of the Witchlight War: The Clockwork Coven captures Zybilna within Prismeer, an extradimensional realm deep within Siluvaria. In the same year, Vivianna’s sister, the witch Skylla, is angrily rebuked for reasons never publicly disclosed and removes herself to Silverymoon. Ogdinnion (Magister at Edderoth) later reports that Skylla departed with a substantial cache of arcane instruments stolen from the Vinespeakers.
1496 DR: Elandreth Filarian, a winter elf from the legendary Methedra Vale, arrives in Silverymoon bearing extraordinary news: a third functioning mythal lies hidden among the mountains of the extreme north. The discovery will prove crucial before the coming war is finished.
1497 DR: The Year of the Dragon War
The border conflicts erupt into the Dragon War, also remembered as the War of the Scintillant. Battlefronts spread across the High Forest and throughout Siluvaria. The Scintilliant, the twelve ancient dragons that have claimed the greater Siluvarian world since antiquity, descend into open war against one another and the peoples beneath them. By the war’s end, only nine will remain.
Ches 18: Word reaches Edderoth of the first great defeat of the Argent Legion by Orthmeck’s draconians at the Battle of Jalandhar. Gildensong responds immediately, dispatching 350 Bladesong Knights north to reinforce the Siluvaeren armies.
Tarsakh 1: The first of the terrible void zones, the Milentioch, manifests in Siluvaria. The fortress of Umgareth falls to the draconians and is rechristened Verminar. Thousands of draconians pour into Giants Dale, and Northguard is lost. With the ordinary roads collapsing under the advance, the elves of Isalian open the hidden ways of the Faenkalla to refugees, supplies, and military traffic. By this point the Bladesong Knights have been reduced to only 493 active knights.
Mirtul 1: Yropa the Wise is seen for the last time, bearing Vivianna’s sister Skylla into the gathering war. Neither rider nor mount is seen again by reliable witnesses.
Mirtul 7: Orthmeck and Angmehridon attack Silverymoon. The archmage Telmachion is slain, together with seventy-five Bladesong Knights, during the catastrophic Battle of the Fourth Shield.
Mirtul 28: Amid mounting losses, Ithilbre Glasshair is elevated as the 124th High Captain of the Bladesong Knights.
Kythorn 15: The Argent Legion wins its first major victory against the combined forces of Oondarr’s orcs and Orthmeck’s draconians at the Battle of Three Fronts. Victory comes at a terrible price: another sixty-four Bladesong Knights are killed. Facing the possible destruction of the order, High Captain Ithilbre begins the unprecedented conscription of Gildensong citizens into the knighthood.
Kythorn 24: Oondarr comes against Edderoth itself. Six thousand orcs descend upon the Elder Valley and lay siege to the city and Castle Edderoth, bringing the Dragon War at last to the heart of Gildensong.
Flamerule 12: Shotomio the Moonstone defends Silverymoon against another assault by Angmehridon and is destroyed in the battle. At the same time, Orthmeck lays siege to Everlund, and the city falls.
Later that summer: With Edderoth still threatened, powers older than Gildensong enter the war. The Far Darrig, deep fey out of Faywell, emerge into Edderoth and fall upon Oondarr’s besieging army, routing the orcs and liberating the city. Above the walls, colossal wyrms meet in battle. Castle Edderoth is scarred by their violence, and the ancient Diamond Tower of Valen Gildensong is shattered.
Eleint 13: The lost dragon god Sardior appears within Prismeer and attempts to cross into the Prime Material World. Clairistel the Radiant, sister of Gnimetria, opposes the manifestation and is destroyed.
Nightal 15: Elandreth Filarian and Baertolaine, Champions of the Witchlight, ignite the lost mythal of the Gherivon and destroy the avatar of Sardior. Across Siluvaria, the surviving dragons of the Scintilliant retreat to their lairs. The Clockwork Coven is destroyed and Zybilna is freed. The great Dragon War is effectively over, although the armies it created remain.
The Long Aftermath
1498 DR: The dragons have withdrawn, but their war does not end with them. Draconian armies continue to plague Isalian, while Silverymoon sends troops south to reinforce the depleted Bladesong Knights in the campaign to retake Northguard.
1499 DR: Oondarr’s orcs, now commanded by General Orol Kul, seize the ruins of Myth Adofhaer and fortify the surrounding country. Their new stronghold becomes known as Blood Moon Vale, an enduring base for Oondarr’s power in the region.
1500 DR: The Blood Moon orcs unleash purple worms against Crystal Bed, threatening to destroy the settlement from below. The archfey Orius brokers an extraordinary alliance between the Bladesong Knights and the drow of House Theradril. Together they drive back the worms and restore the community. Afterward, Orius takes up residence at Edderoth, bringing another powerful fey presence into Vivianna’s court.
1502 DR: Gildensong begins the largest defensive works undertaken in generations. Fences, fortified roads, walls, watch posts, and borderworks rise along the principality’s eastern frontier deep within the High Forest. Much of the immense expense is borne by the Dessarin Hold and House Enimdere, binding commercial wealth ever more closely to the military defense of the realm.
1503 DR: The draconian general Ziburizet enters Edderoth under diplomatic protection, claiming possession of Shadowtop and demanding that Gildensong recognize his conquest. Vivianna’s court refuses. During the failed negotiations, Ziburizet attempts to assassinate Moonbow, but loses his black sword in the ensuing melee and escapes with the assistance of a concealed abishai, a fiend bound to draconic power. The abishai is subsequently revealed as Nicandlin, the hidden architect of the Clockwork Coven’s attempt to restore Sardior. More disturbing still, the abandoned black sword is identified as Rendgray, one of the primordial Swords of Doom.
1504 DR: The campaign to recover Shadowtop begins. What is intended as a decisive offensive hardens into a brutal siege that will consume more than two years, drawing knights, money, and supplies from across Gildensong.
1505 DR: After a succession of costly battles, the Bladesong Knights retake Shadowtop. Victory exposes a deeper betrayal. Evidence reveals that Skylla, sister of Vivianna, has been working alongside Nicandlin and Ziburizet. All three escape capture, taking with them the body of Kannoth, the ancient vampire, for purposes unknown.
Divination performed afterward reveals something still more troubling. Kannoth is not merely an ancient vampire but an incarnation, vessel, or manifestation of a far older being from ancient Daotyr: Volukai, an elder power of immense and uncertain nature. Thus the war that began with Oondarr’s breeding pits in 1485 ends its second decade not with peace, but with the discovery that dragons, draconians, witches, and orcs have been moving across the surface of a much older game.
Leave a comment