The Dwars: Greatest Hits
The Dwars were 100 years of outright conflict between Dwarves and Humans (and their allies and “allies” etc). Here’s a brief timeline of the highlights:
340 years ago (approximately): The Dwars begin. There are A LOT of theories as to the instigating event, but the main two are:
(if you side with the dwarves) The Dwarves gift the Humans with seven incredibly valuable (and powerful?) metal spheres, and the Humans naaaaaturally get greedy and wage war to get more precious material from the Dwarves’ mines.
(if you side with the Humans) The Dwarves are so racist/sexist/speciesist against some group (Rule 34.34 applies) that they burst from their lairs in the Komars and wage war to eliminate that group.
335 years ago: The battle lines are clearly drawn. If you live on the surface, you’re with the Humans. If you live underground, you’re with the Dwarves.
325-323 years ago: The Dwarves’ Shadekat “allies” begin their encroachment in earnest. They capture, mass teleport, and enslave entire settlements of surface dwellers somewhere deep underground.
322 years ago: The Dwarves politely ask their Shadekat “allies” to kindly stop.
321 years ago: The Dwarves ask a little more insistently, but no less politely.
320 years ago: The Dwarves sigh heavily and cut ties with their “allies.”
328 years ago: The Dwarves, after being accused by the Humans of still siding with Shadekat, officially cut ties with Shadekat forces, even sending token support against Shadekat troops. It doesn’t seem to slow the Shadekat invasion.
315 years ago: On the verge of complete victory, the Shadekat troops suddenly return underground with no explanation. Humans try to get Dwarves to help them rescue a decade worth of taken slaves, but both those rescue missions and those Human-Dwarf talks fall through, whether out of ineptitude or malice.
300 year ago: A brief round of peace talks is attempted, led by the King of the Seven Spheres. He is assassinated on his way into the forum. Humans accuse the Dwarves. Dwarves accuse the warmongering Humans of just wanting to keep the war going. Eventually, the murder investigation peters out, and everyone just makes up their mind that it’s Their fault, not Ours.
300-250 years ago: Periods of minor skirmishes, mostly between Human allies and Dwarven allies, with support from the Humans and the Dwarves. Both Humans and Dwarves seem tired of this whole stupid war thing, and both sides get headaches when their allies demand aid and troop support.
250 years ago: The Dwarven High Counsel is completely replaced by a younger group of Dwarves with fresh ideas. This is not a peaceful takeover. Also, this new group of Dwarves has been raised on Tales of Human cruelty and savagery, and they renew their assault on the surface forces, opening passages to the surface that had been barricaded for almost a century.
249 years ago: A plague of unknown origin sweeps through the Elven population, resisting magical treatment (anything short of Heal only suppresses it for the day). The Elves refuse to blame anyone (the newly surfaced Dwarves or the dirty uncultured Humans), but withdraw completely from the Dwars to find a cure. They never do; the plague runs its course within the year, but they maintain their quarantine until after the Dwars are over.
247 years ago: High Clerics of Desna announce publicly that they will be providing triage to both sides. This initially makes them very unpopular with noncombatants and military leaders, and very popular with the enlisted, refugees, and families back home.
245 years ago: Worship of Desna is now the largest religion on The Mainland. A young elven cleric named Rose travels to the Komars and requests a meeting with the Dwarven Council. She is thrown into a Dwarven prison for 5 years, during which she is visited by various members of the Council, high-ranking Dwarven generals and others. She is regarded at first as a spy, then as a double agent, then as an advisor, then as an ambassador, then as a friend.
241 years ago: Fable Snow, a werewolf with a cause, unites most, if not all, of the lycanthropes on The Mainland under one unified banner of Universal Lycanthropy. Within two weeks, half of the continent (above and below ground) has been infected. The Dwarves and the Humans finally have an enemy worth teaming up against, and they do so, taking out enough of the lycanthropic elders to cure almost all of infected. The lycanthropes scatter, and Fable Snow flees, never to be seen again.
240 years ago: The Dwars officially end. There is no Peace Treaty, but – and the irony here is not lost on anyone – the Dwarven High Council and the King of the Seven Spheres do exchange gifts: a Legendary Hammer for the Dwarves and a Legendary Sword for the Humans.