Great Lunar War
The Great Lunar War (or, simply the Lunar War) was a mythic battle, fought in ancient times in the Crystal Dimension. The battle was waged over control of what is now known as Eblan, but to the Xsian was called the Lo-Xsian Province, and the Elemental Crystals.
Contents
The Sides
There were two principle sides in the Lunar War: the Eldrakyn and the Xsian Empire.
The Eldrakyn
The Dark Lunarians had never fully given up on the Lunarian idea to colonize the main world of the Crystal Dimension. This desire was twisted by the Eldrakyns' evil nature into a drive toward conquest. They began by taking control of Lo-Xsia and enslaving the native human and ogre populations.
Ogres
Because of their great strength, the ogres were the favored slaves of the Eldrakyn. And unlike the humans of Lo-Xsia, the ogres were more agreeable to Eldrakyn rule and less prone to rebellion or acts of betrayal.
Oni
Certain ogres who were especially loyal were rewarded with special magical gifts from their Eldrakyn masters. These were the dreaded oni, creatures transformed by exposure to the Elemental Crystals, gifted with enhanced intelligence and powerful Lunarian magics. A prolific race, the oni continued to be a problem in the untamed regions of Lo-Xsia through to the reign of His Magnificence, Kai Tsao Shou Lung Xsia Chin, Who Soared with Dragons and Ruled All Under Heaven.
Centaurs
Less prominent among the Eldrakyn forces than the Ogres, Centaurs were brought from the moon of Krolunaris as slaves and slave-soldiers.
Automata
Supplementing the Eldrakyn, ogre and oni forces were the assorted automata left behind by the Lunarians with the Tower of Babil.
The Xsia
Lead by the Emperor Shang-Ti, the Xsia fought both to protect their own existence and to expel the Eldrakyn from their world.
Dwarves
The first known alliance between humans and dwarves occured during the Lunar War. The dwarves had long been bothered by the presence of the Tower of Babil, regarding it in all of their folklore as a symbol of terrible, evil power. Its reactivation and use by the Eldrakyn alarmed the Dwarves, and prompted an alliance with the Xsia. A crater-passage was engineered by the Dwarves to access the surface world on the island known today as Agart, and travel and communication between the Xsia and the Dwarves was facilitated by Gold and Red Dragons (see below).
Dragons
In the mythology of the Lunar War, Dragons are said to play a significant role. While the evil Moon Dragons of Krolunaris did provide limited support to the Eldrakyn, the better part of dragonkind is said to have come down on the side of Shang-Ti. The following dragon breeds are associated with fighting alongside the Xsia against the Eldrakyn:
- Gold Dragons
- Silver Dragons
- Red Dragons
- Blue Dragons
- Green Dragons
- Yellow Dragons
Shang-Ti's association with dragons (especially Gold [and sometimes Yellow] Dragons) is traditionally believed to be quite strong. Popular mythology holds that several dragons in human form held positions of prominence in Shang-Ti's bureaucracy, and that the dragon breeds who fought with him against the Eldrakyn were rewarded with positions in the Celestial Bureaucracy after Shang-Ti ascended to godhood.
Major Events of the War
The following are highlights of some of the important points in the Lunar War.
The Defection of Fang and Guo
The spark that started the Lunar War was no less than Shang-Ti's succession to the throne. After Shang-Ti bested his twin half-brothers, Fang and Guo, they departed the kingdom of Hai-Xsia along with their mother ShiCaga. While it was well known that ShiCaga, the late Emperor's first wife, was a Lunarian priestess, the truth of her Eldrakyn heritage was kept secret. Her placement in Hai-Xsian society and marriage to the Xsian Emperor had been an Eldrakyn ploy of subversion, which was ultimately thwarted when Shang-Ti was named heir. ShiCaga and her sons fled to Lo-Xsia and rejoined with the Eldrakyn. Learning that ShiCaga's ploy had failed, the Eldrakyn leaders knew that they would have no choice but to take Hai-Xsia by force.
Invasion of Hai-Xsia
Fang and Guo returned to Hai-Xsia, leading a contingent of Eldrakyn and Ogre warriors aboard Lunarian airships. The first true battle of the war, it went badly for the Xsia until the arrival of a flight of Gold Dragons. It was after this fight that Shang-Ti determined the Will of Heaven was that Eldrakyn power in the world be destroyed.
Alliance with the Dwarves
The Xsia built ships and set sail, using dragon scouts to track the Eldrakyn back to their base in Lo-Xsia. They landed on Agart and established a halfway-point stronghold, to resupply their ships and allow their soldiers to rest from the long voyage. It was here that the Xsia first discovered dwarves, whose engineers had been constructing a large crater-passage to the surface on the directive of their deity, Ilmarinen Heaven-Hammer. Shang-Ti is said to have ventured up into the mountains of Agart alone and communed with Ilmarinen, at which point the Emperor forged a lifelong pact between the Xsia and dwarvenkind.
Invasion of Lo-Xsia
With the Xsia attacking from the sea, the dragons attacking from the air and the dwarves burrowing up from underground, Shang-Ti and his allies repaid the attack on the Imperial Province in full. Enslaved populations of humans were freed and conscripted by the Imperial forces, and in good time the Dark Lunarians and their armies were forced back. The Eldrakyn unleashed their full fury on the Xsia during this campaign. The Tower of Babil was used as a frightful weapon, obliterating Xsian vessels that were miles distant from Lo-Xsia's coast and burning whole flocks of dragons out of the air. From the lower levels of the Tower, an enormous automata, the Giant of Babil, was set loose upon the allies of Shang-Ti. The final push to siege the tower took a heavy toll on the Xsian forces. The end result, however, was in Shang-Ti's favor: the Eldrakyn were forced to abandon their foothold in the world, the oni and ogres were broken and scattered, and the Tower of Babil (with its Elemental Crystals) came under Xsian control.
