The Great War

The Great War
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Vital statistics
Participants	Rat Creatures, Lucius Down, The Royal Army, The Lord of the Locusts,
Date	Unknown
Location	The Valley

The Great War was a half-century long war between the people of the Valley and The Lord of the Locusts. The Great War was an era of rapid change and instability which claimed the lives of thousands and brought upon the end of the Old Kingdom, as well as the beginning of the new.

Cause[]

The War was fought over control of the Valley between the Rat Creatures and Humans, it is unknown as to what caused the Rat Creatures to attack the humans though it is believed it was orchestrated by the Lord of the Locusts to try and escape his bondage.

Ambush[]

The first battle that occurred during the Great War was an ambush laid by the Rat Creatures that occurred when Lucius Down marched the Royal Army into a trap. The battle was incredibly bloody and caused much doubt to fall on Lucius and even some soldiers to suspect him as a traitor.

==
Nights of Lightning == The Nights of Lightning were fast, vicious attacks launched by the Rat Creatures, the attacks were incredibly brutal and caused huge amounts of destruction and resulted in the deaths of the entire royal family except Thorn and Rose.

Sacking of Atheia[]

The Rat Creatures managed to breach Atheia's walls taking the village as well as the main courtyard, burning large sections of the city and destroying the royal palace. The King, Queen, Princess and the Queens aunt Briar were able to escape using an ancient tunnel that led them to the Dragons Stair.

Hiding the Princess and Betrayal[]

The members of the Royal family were able to rendezvous with Rose, who took Thorn to Deren Gard and hid her with the Great Red Dragon, however the Royal Party was betrayed by Briar and ambushed by a band of Rat Creatures led by Kingdok. The King killed Briar sensing her betrayal, but both him and the Queen were eaten alive by Kingdok before Rose could save them.

The Treaty[]

After the death of the King and the Queen, with the assistance of the Dragons, the Rat Creatures were forced out of the valley and a treaty was signed. The Rat Creatures agreed to leave the Valley, and the Valley people agreed to not rebuild the Kingdom. After this, Rose returned to Deren Gard and took Thorn to Barrelhaven and built a small farm.

The Hooded One[]

After an unknown period of time the Hooded One sought out the Rat Creatures and Kingdok bringing with him dreams and the locusts, he convinced Kingdok and the other Rat Creatures that they should disregard the treaty and began to serve as Kingdok's advisor, though slowly taking control of the Rat Creatures and turning Kingdok into his puppet through which he hoped to free the Lord of Locusts.

Breaking the Treaty[]

The Hooded one began to saw a vision of a creature called "bone" would become involved in her plan to free the Lord of the Locust. When Phoney Bone's campaign balloon floated into the valley the Hooded One who apprehensive and jealous of the potential that Thorn presented took the balloon to be an omen of great power and convinced herself that he could free the Lord of Locusts even beginning to obsess over Phoney Bone, dubbing him "The one who bears the star". He told Kingdok that a great leader who could unite the valley was coming and ordered him to send troops to capture him. Kingdok assigned two border patrol officers to apprehend him. They failed to find him and instead came across Fone Bone and the Great Red Dragon whom when they reported to the Hooded One, deployed 1000 troops to the north as a decoy for the Dragon while sending another 1000 to capture Fone Bone however this failed and officially broke the Treaty.

Battle at Deren Gard[]

An unknown period of time after the signing of the treaty a young commander of the Queen's Guard name Tarsil led an expedition to Deren Gard, the Ancient Burial grounds of the Dragons to kill them. After a short battle Tarsil and his men were forced to retreat however the battle caused Tarsil to lose an arm and become horribly disfigured. It also deepened his hate for Dragons something that would deeply affect Atheia later in the war. Tarsil established the Vedu, a group of soldiers who were like the Venu but disregarded the teachings of the Dragons and primarily focused on Venu. Tarsil begun banning all Dragon lore removing it from the Vedu's beliefs and having all Dragon shrines destroyed.

Pawan Embargo[]

The corruption that was rampant within the Vedu along with Tarsil's disregard for Dragon lore most likely led to the detereoration of Atheian and Pawan relations. The Pawans regarded the Atehians as high and arrogant, starting an embargo and stopping trade between the Ancient Cities before declaring for the Lord of the Locusts. The embargo hit Atheia hard causing Merchants throughout the city to lose money as well as cause food to be rationed and the Royal Treasury to be hid.

Invading the Valley[]

Shortly after breaking the Treaty, Rat Creatures and Pawan men invaded the valley destroying farms and killing men and women. The attacks by the Rat Creatures while vicious were short lived as rumours of Kingdoks death caused much confusion through the ranks and allowed for soilders and valley people to regroup at Old Man's Cave

Slaughter at the River[]

Rat Creatures had almost completely surronded Old Man's Cave to prevent this a mission was led by Lucius Down. A unit consisting of Veni-Yan and Villagers moved towards the river, the villagers dug in at the bank and provided a last line of defense while the Veni-Yan led by Captain Knott moved his men to keep the river. Lucius, Jonathan Oats and several Venu were posted as scouts however Lucius was distracted by the Hooded One allowing for the Rat Creatures to sneak past them killing several Venu and Villagers as well as fatally injuring Jonathan Oats, thankfully reinforcements arrived and saved the surviving unit and brought them back to safety, although their objective has been a failure.

Blood Moon Ritual[]

The Hooded one arrives to the eastern mountains to see the mighty Master of the Easter Border, Roque Ja. The Hooded one requests Roque Ja to fetch the bone creature Phoney Bone in order to free the Lord of the Locust. At first Roque Ja is skeptical in accepting the rogue stick-eater's offer since last time, Kingdok had made a fool out of the former. The Hooded one eventually able to persuade the mighty lion, promising him complete sovereignty over the eastern mountains north of the old temple, as well as offering him an eigth of the rat creature's spoils. The Hooded One also promises Roque a full quarter of spoils if he could retrieve Thorn as well.

Roque Ja finds Phoney Bone and Thorn as he promised and takes the two to the part of the mountains where the Lord of the Locusts is still entombed. Fone Bone and Smiley go to that same part of the mountains to save their friends from peril and Rose is right behind them. The Hooded one has bound Phoney to a rock and has seemingly killed Thorn. Rose arrives and tells The Hooded One who now knows that the latter is her sister, Briar tells her that what she's killed was the only chance Briar had in freeing her master. Both Kingdok and The lord of the locust has realized that Briar has recklessly ruined everything. The Lord of the Locust decide to kill Briar by ending her immortality and try to bind with Thorn, but Fone Bone stops him from possessing her by putting a dragon necklace on her neck saving Thorn's life.

Assualt on Old Man's Cave[]

Following the Massacre at the River, this led to Old Man's Cave being completely surronded and preparations were made for battle. Legions of Rat Creatures and Pawan's descended on the old stronghold, following the botched releasing of the Lord of the Locusts the attack began. After the explosion of the mountain, the High Commander ordered a retreat into the shelter, considering the battle lost with the Lord of the Locusts apparent appearance.

Journey through the ghost circles[]

After the mountain exploded, only parts of the Locust were able to escape and he resurrects Briar to help find his missing pieces. Following the Locust's partial release, Ghost circles were plagued upon the valley creating illusions and invisible portals leading to only death. At first, it seems that the only survivors of the explosion were Rose, Thorn and the Bone cousins. Rose decides to take Thorn to Atheia in order to reunite the old kingdom and The bones tag along. The Harvestars and Bones manage to escape Briar's clutches and are able to navigate through the ghost circles, thanks to Thorn. The Bones and Harvestars go through the holy and forbidden place, Tanen Gard and successfully made it past the ghost circles.

Siege of Atheia[]

The Bones and Harvestars find their way to the ancient kingdom of Atheia, but unfortunately find out how corrupt of a city it's become due to Tarsil's influence. Tarsil eventually arrests all of the Bone creatues and Thorn for the crime of dragon worship, at the same time, Briar has begun her attack on Atheia with the rat creatures and even slays the tyrant Tarsil in front of Atheia at the city gates.