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5000 years before the cataclysm that ended the Second Age, war and chaos
took a hold of Serin. Many wars scarred its landscape, none more so than
the one that later became known as the Great War. The fighting began as a
territorial dispute between the ambitious orcish Horde, which had expended
its habitat of resources, and the forest's elves, who had tried with little
success to drive the orcs out of the forests on the mountains. While the
evil-worshipping orc forces struck as hard and quickly as they could to avoid
starvation in the mountains, the elves being smaller in numbers didn't stay
that way for long. A messenger was sent out to the nearby cities, and the
dispute quickly spiralled from a fight over possession of trees, wells and
minerals into a vast, climatic war that changed the face of Serin.
Each side, both elves and orcs, enlisted the aid of giants from the nearby
mountains to act as mercenaries to help with their cause. In addition, each
side gained the help of humans, taking part in the war to protect their own
interests in Greginsham. The clerics, with their formidable knowledge of
the arts of healing and disease, kept things even between the blue robed
magi of the elves and the Horde's warriors, and the battle remained at a
bloody standstill for ten years. With such difficult fighting, new battle
tactics were employed, the dwarf warriors taking the first step down the
path of fury, learning to fight with reckless abandon, and the elves used
their keen eyesight and senses, with their knowledge of nature, to develop
the tactics of the ranger guildhall. At that point, the orcs were already
beaten.
Wishing an end to the fighting, the young daughter of the elven King plotted
the death of her father, building a secret alliance with the orc generals.
Her companions, a sect of savants and a strong, loyal dwarf army, built a
tunnel from the streets of Greginsham into the heart of the orc stronghold.
Utilizing this route, the Great War was soon won by the pillaging orcs and
their armies. Victory did not come without a cost, the elves were driven
out of their lands, and the princess and her army went into hiding to avoid
the wrath of Valour's Knights, arriving late on the scene to cull the
wounded orc Horde. The resultant dispersion led to the reformation of the
torn giants into unique races by the neutral ancients, and its splintered
mages were reformed by Denadlyr into invokers and illusionists, and their
undead besotted counterpart, the mysterious Dark Lord. Hiding underground,
the traitor elves and dwarves evaded death, but were punished by Sarich for
the betrayal, becoming the drows and duergar of present day.
To help restore peace to the realms, Stryth created the most peaceful and
sociable of races, the halfling, and immortalized the pacifistic gnome
Zandar to help cultivate it for him.
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