The War of Threes

The War of Threes was a major historic event on the world of Alter-Mana, occuring between the years 26 and 30 WR on the Esperian calendar (2309 to 2313 AD on the Guardian Calendar). It is called the War of Threes because of the triplicate themes that seem to run through the course of the war's story.

In the beginning, the war took the form of three separate wars, beginning nearly simultaneously and running parallel to the others, eventually entangling together into one larger conflict.

The Altenan War

A conflict waged largely between Altena and Forthena, ostensibly fought over the unrealized potential of the magilyte mines at Dorien. Hostilities were instigated by Altena's mage-warriors under direct command of the Witch Queen Valda DeMere.

The Hidden Agenda

Koren the Soulless, a powerful Altenan archwizard, was Queen Valda's ranking advisor and the primary advocate of going to war against Altena. His true objective in attacking Forthena was one of revenge, however: his secret master was Drakonis, the Dragon Emperor, one of the Mana Goddess' four dragons, whose avatar had been slain and banished from the physical realm by the Knights of Gold a generation earlier. To complete this task, Drakonis granted Koren the ability to wield powerful magics, in exchange for his mortal soul. Drakonis' ultimate aim was to open the way to the Pureland and aquire the Mana Sword, said to grant a wish to the one who pulled it free from the Mana Tree's roots. Koren was to do this in Drakonis' name, and wish for his master to be free once more.

The Bestian War

A war fought between the Beast Kingdom and the Holy City of Wendel, ostensibly for control of the city itself. The Bestians had cultivated a strong antipathy for humankind over the course of many years, and the worldwide power of the Church of Wendel was seen as a symbol of human influence.

The Hidden Agenda

A man to this day known only as the Death Jester is credited with instigating the Bestian march to war. Though either human himself, or certainly more human than the average Beast Man, he fomented the Beast King's anti-human sentiments and urged him into conflict with Wendel. The Jester remained at the Beast King's side for the better portion of the war, to guide the Bestian war machine in all of its maneuvers. However, here also was an ulterior motive: the Death Jester was in fact a Gingrim, the lone apostle of Alter-Mana's first and highest priest of Thanatos, Belgar Lightsbane. Belgar had prophesied Thanatos' death in exile to the Place Which Is No More, and planned to use the Mana Sword to wish for his master's resurrection.

The Naba'alian War

This war was launched with the establishment of the Kingdom of Naba'al by the Khan of the Naba'al Raiders. Under the Khan's directive, Naba'al unified the various tribes of the desert under one rule and launched a surprise attack on the Kingdom of Laurent, assassinating King Joster and abducting Prince Elliot. The aim appeared to be nothing more than pure plunder and conquest.

The Hidden Agenda

Flamekhan's wife, Isabella, was behind the move to establish the Kingdom under one rule, and she was also a driving force in sending Naba'al to war against Laurent. Unknown to all at the time, she was not human. She was, in fact, half Neko and half Mavole, and was working in concert with a Darklord of Mindas, Jagan. They worked at the behest of a lord of Hell, the Dark Prince Inimigle, who had been consigned by the Mana Goddess into the underworld guarded by Olbohn centuries ago for profaning the Pureland with his demonic presence. In order to exist outside the underworld, Inimigle required a human body to possess with his spirit, and though he himself was immortal, his human bodies would continue to age and eventually die. Above all others, the Dark Prince preferred humans of noble or royal lineage. Thus the assault on Laurent, and the abduction of Prince Elliot. From there, Isabella (whose true name was Bigieu) and Jagan were to lead the Naba'alians on a quest to open up the Mana Pureland and secure the Mana Sword. They would then wish for Inimigle to not only be freed from the underworld, but to be elevated to a status of Godhood in the process.

The Beginnings of the War

Each of the three separate conflicts would begin in their own ways. Koren, Bigieu and the Death Jester took their time in placing themselves within the governments of Altena, Naba'al and Bestia (respectively), gaining the trust of each nation's leaders, before finally striking.

The Battle of Laurent

Often considered the first melee of the war, this battle was begun with a surprise attack and concerted assassinations of most of Laurent's political and military leaders. A complete rout of Laurent's forces followed, with the surviving Laurentian soldiers fleeing into the mountain passes, and Naba'al securing control of the Kingdom's capital.

The Sacking of Astoria

Not long after Naba'al invaded Laurent, the Beast Kingdom's forces moved south and descended upon the city of Astoria. Astoria was a neutral community of fishermen and merchants, whose only crime seemed to have been lying in the middle of the Bestian warpath toward Wendel. The entire city was destroyed, and what few survivors managed to escape fled across Lake Astoria to Wendel. The arrival of Astorian refugees prompted the Bishop of Wendel to erect a Lucent Barrier around the Holy City's perimeter.

The Battle of Forthena Castle

Altena was the last of the three major aggressors to begin actual hostilities in the war. Though Koren the Soulless had embarked on a few scouting forrays into Forthena, to test the Forthenans' military readiness and ability to repulse a attack from a wizardly adversary, the actual invasion of the Kingdom came much later. The Altenans were repulsed by the Forthenans' Mana Canon weaponry, but most significantly the presence of the Six Heroes helped to turn the Witch Queen's armies away.

The Six Heroes and the Alliance

Six heroes, one from each of the Six Great Nations, had assembled in Forthena and helped to hand the Altenans a defeat. Duran Ferrant, knight of Forthena, was among them, as were Angela DeMere (the exiled daughter of the Witch Queen Valda), Kevin Godhand (exiled half-human son of the Beast King of Bestia), Charlotte Lightbringer (the half-elven granddaughter of the Bishop of Wendel), Reisz Rolante (the crown princess and heir to the slain King Joster Rolante of Laurent) and Hawkeye Navarre (a renegade from Naba'al). Under Duran's leadership, they forged an alliance between Forthena, Wendel and the remnant of Laurent in opposition to what were called at the time "the Three Evils."

The Second Battle of Laurent

In concert with the Laurentian remnant, the Six Heroes lead an army of Forthenan knights and Wendelian priests to assault the Naba'alian garrison in the mountaintop kingdom. From Forthena, the Alliance forces received the all-important Mana Canon weaponry, which proved instrumental in defeating the entrenched Naba'alians. More significantly, the remnant provided the Alliance with white dragon mounts, allowing for air support to cover the ground assault.

Darklord Jagan lead the Naba'alian forces in attempting to defend the castle, but in the end the Alliance had both superior numbers and firepower. A general retreat was ordered, as Jagan spirited the captive Prince Elliot away from the castle. Though Laurent was now purged of Naba'alian occupation, the victory was thus bittersweet: the Prince was still in Naba'al's clutches.

Battle of the Pureland

Each of the Three Evils had managed to, by this time, acquire a Mana Stone, and the requisite rituals had been performed by each faction simultaneously to open a portal to the Pureland. This portal opened up in the air over the Isle of Oblivion, and one by one, each force sent its army to go and secure final victory for their hidden masters.

This, however, worked to the detriment of all three factions. For once they had all arrived in the Pureland, they turned on each other in a massive three-way battle between Naba'al, Bestia and Altena.

The Six Heroes arrived in the midst of this battle with a small elite cadre of Alliance forces. The Alliance established a base nearest the portal opening, while the Six Heroes spread out into the Pureland in pursuit of Koren, Death Jester, Bigieu and Jagan. They found the agents of the Evils together at the foot of the Mana Tree, already engaged in a battle against each other for control of the Mana Sword. This did not keep the Six Heroes from wading into the fray.

In the midst of all the fighting, Duran Ferrant secured and drew the Mana Sword, turning it on Koren and dispatching him while he crossed magics with Angela DeMere. Similarly, Hawkeye (who by this time had acquired the artifact called Deathstroke) slew Jagan, and Charlotte and Kevin together destroyed the long-undead physical body of the Death Jester. Reisz engaged in single combat with Bigieu, and had wounded her before she fled as Jagan fell under Hawkeye's dagger.

The Evils Allied

Despite the sound defeat of the Three Evils' armies in the Pureland, it seemed that the coming of of the Evils themselves was inevitable. The Darkshine Knight still remained to do Drakonis' bidding, Belgar was still at large, and Bigieu still had possession of Prince Elliot. These three agents of the Evils realized that after their defeat in the Pureland, it made no sense to continue struggling against each other. They joined together to combat the Alliance, although their hold over their mortal puppets in Altena, Naba'al and Bestia had been broken.

Forging an army of undead, lesser dragons and Mavoles, the armies of the Evils sought to awaken and control the Mana Beasts, and thereby control the remaining Mana Stones. With the Stones in their possession, they would have the power they would need to acchieve all of their ultimate goals. And with all three Evils restored to full power, they would launch a renewed campaign of destruction and conquest against the nations of the Alliance.

The Forthena Alliance

By this time, Naba'al, Altena and Bestia had broken their ties with the Evils and joined the Alliance. Duran used his wish to restore the world's line of Mana Knights, of which he would become the first, and the Alliance elevated him to the rank of General over the Allied Armies. The Bishop of Wendel predicted that the surviving agents of the Evils would likely attempt to gather the Mana Stones, and therefore an effort must be made to defend the ones that remained. Alliance forces fanned across the globe, engaging in numerous skirmishes with the armies of the Evils. This campaign whittled gradually away at the Evils' forces, most of whom were inherently evil (undead and mavoles) and unable to stand long against a combined assault with the Mana Sword and the powers of Wendel's priests. Still, the amount of effort that the Alliance had to expend in sustaining a defensive emplacement at each of the Mana Stone sites was quickly exhausting the Allies' resources. In time, the Evils would surely have worn down the Allies' resolve and broken through, acchieving victory and ensuring the world's doom.

Battle of Glass

A miscalculation on the part of the Allies enabled Drakonis to come out ahead of his co-conspirators. While the Evils' armies drew the Alliance's focus on defending specific temples and locations which were home to the Mana Stones, Drakonis' hidden agents moved discretely in pursuit of the Dragon Stones possessed by his fellow dragons: Jajara, Akravator and Vadise. Taking their power, Drakonis had all the Mana energy he needed to create a second avatar and walk the physical world once again. As soon as the avatar of Drakonis was ready, the Dragon Emperor withdrew all of his forces from the armies of the Evils, and launched an all-out assault on the Forthenan Plateau.

The Alliance quickly mustered a response, starting what to that day had been the most mechanized battle in the Alter Dimension's history. Forthena turned primitive Mana Canon anti-air guns against wave after wave of dragons, while airships and early aerial fighters swarmed in the skies. White-dragon mounted soldiers from Laurent arrived to reinforce and expand the air battle, while on the ground the Forthenans and their allies crossed swords with the shadole footsoldiers of the Darkshine Knight (who were using stolen or copied Mana Canon technology against the Alliance).

Duran saw an opportunity to seize ultimate victory from this surprise attack. With only the Six Heroes, he cut his way through the assault and reached the Isle of Glass, making a bee-line for the lair of Drakonis' avatar. Destroying the avatar with the Mana Sword, he reasoned, would at the very least break the morale of Drakonis' forces, if not end the threat of the Dragon Emperor forever. Seeing Duran's feint, the Darkshine Knight and a cadre of Drakonis' elites broke away from the main group to pursue the Six Heroes, meeting them outside the beseiged city of Gato Grotto.

With the other five heroes keeping the rest of Drakonis' agents at bay, Duran entered into single combat with the Darkshine Knight. It was only moments before defeating him that Duran realized the Darkshine Knight was, in fact, the damned spirit of his own father. The knowledge that his father had been used by Drakonis to further his evil aims only invigorated him, and he and the heroes pressed on toward Drakonis' lair, ultimately meeting the Dragon Emperor in physical form. Together, the Six Heroes were able to defeat and wholly destroy Drakonis' new avatar, consigning him once again to imprisonment in the underworld. With the avatar's death, and all of his elite agents slain, Drakonis' army split apart, and the various creatures each fled for its own life.

Battle of Mindas

The last battle of the war was fought on the shores of Mindas between the combined armies of the Alliance and the remaining forces of the agents of the Evils, Bigieu and Belgar Lightsbane. Without the forces of Drakonis, the remaining Evils found they could not sustain the sieges on the Mana Stone sites, and were forced to withdraw and defend Mindas.

During the initial siege, the forces of the Evils were charged with keeping the Alliance at bay while two rituals were performed. First, Bigieu was to put the finishing touches on a binding ritual that would allow Inimigle to complete his possession of the young Prince of Laurent. Second, Belgar, who had obtained the Rod of Thanatos shortly after the Dark God's banishment to the Place Which Is No More, sought to use a portion of Thanatos' essence to create in himself an avatar of the Dark God. To fuel this ritual, he would sacrifice his own son, Heath, a young Priest of Wendel whom the Death Jester had abducted prior to the start of the war.

The sudden appearance of two powerful avatars of the Evils occured just as the Allies were breaking through the enemy lines. Together, Inimigle (possessing the body of young Elliot) and Belgar (in the form of a Dark Lich avatar of Thanatos) crushed, destroyed and vaporized whole legions of mechanized Alliance troops before the Six Heroes emerged to confront the twin terrors. All the other forces seemed to stand still and watch as the Heroes and the Avatars engaged each other.

Though the might of the Avatars was terrible, and the cost in lives to defeat them was high, in the end they could not stand against the powers that the Heroes had accumulated in the course of their questing since the war began -- not the least of which were the powers of the Mana Sword. With the last of the Evils broken, their armies dispersed and the world was secure.

Aftermath

Five of the Six Heroes went on to succeed the rulers of their respective nations: Hawkeye became the Khan of Naba'al (in place of Flamekhan, who had died toward the end of the war), Angela became the Witch Queen of Altena (succeeding her mother, Valda, who entered the Sleep of Death and was emtombed in the Tower of Leires when Koren the Soulless was slain), Kevin became Beast King (in place of his father, who simply abdicated and retired to the forests), Charlotte was elected by the Praetors of the Church as the next Bishop (replacing her grandfather), and Reisz was crowned the Queen of Laurent. Duran, rather than assuming the Kingship of Forthena, remained as General over the Armies of the Alliance in the years after. Only later did King Richard Mambrino name Duran as his heir and make him King of Forthena.

Industrialization

Much of Forthena was destroyed during the final battle against Drakonis' forces. When came time to rebuild, this allowed for an easy expansion and entrenchment of the country's fledgling magitek-based industrial infrastructure. By the time the Guardians discovered the Alter Dimension several years after the close of the war, Forthena had a near-to-modern standing army, an industrial economy (the first such economy on the Fringe) and a modest preliminary manned spaceflight program.

Political Allegiances, and the end of the Alliance

When Alter emerged into the Web after the Hivan War, the Six Great Nations were all members of the Forthena Alliance. They joined the Grand Army Charter Alliance as one entity, but with six votes as six sovereign nations in the House of Lords. They often voted in tandem with Guardia, which lead to a backlash against the nations of Alter-Mana among other Web powers.

Eventually, Naba'al, Laurent and Bestia would pull out of the Forthena Alliance, in the interest of pursuing independent agendas in Web affairs.