Seven Year War

Also known as the Bloody Seven, the Seven Year War was a brutal war that claimed over 30 million lives over the course of seven long years. It involved the vast majority of the realm's nations and ended in the establishment of the Conclave. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. The Seven Year War remains the deadliest conflict in the recorded history of the Forgotten Realms.

Early History

Scholars agree that the biggest reasons behind the war were ethical and moral choices of early Humans and Elves that devastated Goliath culture, and eventually led to their armed resistance. In the first days of the Human and Elvish Kingdoms, Viking pioneers and explorers crossed the vast oceanic body of the Fordvern Advance and discovered the outer lands of early day Jotunrath. Before the days of Noble Goliath houses and cities, Jotunrath was called the Frostback Basin, a winding tundra of colossal mountains and valleys. The largest mountain range, the Frostback Mountains protected miles of untouched land home to undiscovered ecosystems of wildlife, raw minerals, and the Goliaths. The first human settlers cautiously attempted to make first contact with the large, blue-skinned natives that inhabited this new land. Strange, small pale men cutting down their trees and erecting flagpoles didn't do well with the first Goliaths who immediately took up arms and attacked any pioneers that got too close. This was met with greater resistance from the Vikings who treated the Goliaths as wild savages. The first conflicts paved the snow thick with blood. The Vikings eventually overpowered the weaker tribes of Goliaths and began to settle the land they had supposedly discovered. Conflicts like these preceded years of abuse, enslavement, and genocide.

Slavery and Genocide

The enslavement of Goliaths began with the need for manual labor for the expansion of the kingdoms overseas. The Alliance was expanding faster than it could construct, build, and maintain these transforming cities. The Goliaths were added to the rotation of indentured servitude and slavery in Viking territories similar to the early Drow and Orcs. A Goliath slave was capable of carrying twice the load a normal Orc could and for a significantly longer amount of time. The high-altitude physical activity that the Goliaths performed back home, made them physically superior slaves. Back at the Frostback Mountains, the remaining Goliath Clans put aside their differences to combat the foreign invaders that had all but squeezed the life out of their homeland. But the Vikings had the numbers to squash any resistance and raze villages at a moments notice. The surviving Goliaths retreated to the Frostback Mountains, and prayed for a miracle. They got Ygrid Ironborn.

The Goliath Uprisings

Ygrid Ironborn was a Goliath exile turned Alliance officer, turned slave. It was in the fight pits where she was sent to fight and die in, that Ygrid started an underground slave movement hellbent on armed, violent justice. Ygrid and other enslaved Goliath leaders came together to form the Forsaken. The uprisings had officially began on Liberator's Day, a day of celebration for the Alliance's armed service members. With thousands crowding the fight pits in Kartenheim, the Forsaken stormed the barracks, overpowered the guards, and slaughtered anyone in attendance. The goal wasn't just to free everyone they could, it was to send a message. That the masters were outnumbered and all the slaves had to do was rise up.

The Goliath Uprisings were a series of conflicts staged throughout the eastern coast of the Viking territories. Slave cities such as Kartenheim were ransacked and pillaged, and their slaves freed by the Forsaken. For every master and hired sellsword there were three Goliaths ready to fight to the death. In Goliath culture, death is but an honor given to the living who then join their ancestors in the afterlife. Goliaths who fear death have forgotten their heritage. Driven by an ancestral rage, the slaves had drawn out the conflict for over 2 years before the Alliance gave in and given those who wanted to leave, ironclad ships to return to the Frostback Mountains.

The Goliath Tribal Council

The newly freed Goliaths formed an alliance headed by the most prominent Goliath tribes and overlooked by Ygrid's sister-in-arms, Gremala Drathos. Drathos was from a prominent tribe of Goliaths known for taming and raising wild dragons. She had rallied the Goliaths and began construction of Jotunrath, the capital of what would be the Goliath Kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of hours were put into the construction of the Walls of Drathos, a supernaturally large wall of ice. When asked why she built a wall, Drathos said, "So the other races have no confusion about where our land starts."

It seemed, like many conflicts before it, that the match to the powder keg that was the relationship between Goliaths and the Alliance, was land. Once construction of the Walls of Drathos had been completed, Drathos and the Goliath Council leaders ordered that all Alliance owned operations, cities, and settlements were to withdraw from Jotunrath immediately. The Alliance argued that they owned the (imaginary) rites to the land and that Jotunrath technically was everything behind the Walls of Drathos. The Goliaths returned with a second warning, stating that the land was theirs from the start. It was their native home and birthright that the Alliance had taken from them. The Alliance withdrew one small village of Vikings, and called it even. The Goliaths ransacked the two surrounding towns next to it then gave a third and final warning. Leave Jotunrath.

Ygrid Ironborn sailed across the ocean and met the Alliance leaders at an undisclosed location. Neither side budged on the talks which were beginning to turn sour. As an exchange of vulgarities and insults between the two sides flew, Ygrid had grown furious with the Alliance and its ever watchful eye over her people. If the fist would not unclench itself from her people, then Ygrid would unclench it by force. On a warm spring afternoon, when the sun was highest on a cloudless blue sky, Ygrid and the Goliaths formally declared war on the Alliance Superpowers.

The Bloody Seven

Military Factions

The Alliance

• The Human Republic (Knights, Vikings, Samurai)
• The High-Elf Empire (High-Elves, Genasi, Aasimar)
• The Dwarves

The Goliaths

• The Goliaths
• The Orcs (Year 2)
• The Hobgoblins (Year 2)
• The Dragonborn (Year 3)
• The Warforged (Year 7)
• The Drow (Year 7)

Yearly Timeline

A list of commonly known milestones and events during the Seven Year War.

Year 1

• First Contact. The first battalions of the Human Army make landfall on the frozen shores of Jotunrath. Some ships are frozen entirely in place causing a bottleneck on the Human theater of war. Upon landfall, under-trained and under-dressed soldiers are met with frighteningly fierce resistance contrary to Human Intelligence. The Goliaths unleash a stunning display of military organization and decimate the first Human battalions that challenge them on their shores.

• First Winter. Alliance leadership gravely underestimates the elements and are forced to endure a lethal winter. Supply and communication lines are stopped dead forcing many outposts to ration out what little supplies they have. Ships struggle to maintain a steady supply line while fighting the frozen waters. Stories of starvation and frostbite spread across the theater of war. The Goliaths who have natural genetic resistance to the cold gain a significant amount of ground by sending guerilla fighters to raid outposts and bases in the dead of night.

• The Battle of Slaver's Bay. Commander Roman Windhelm of the High-Elves and Prince Edward Tyrell of the Humans make a significant advanced on the first coastal supply outpost located within the Frozen Maw. There they best Drathos in her first skirmish of the war and almost capture her. Their attempt is thwarted by an ambush from Ygrid who covers Drathos's retreat.

Year 2

• The Orcs join the war after fruitful negotiations with the Goliaths. They provide a steady supply of Orc prisoners fighting for their freedom. Among them is Skulk Greymind.

• The Duel at Razgal Cliffs. The Samurai and Orcs fight to a bloody six-hour stalemate between the twin cliffs of Razgal. Skulk Greymind leads a small force under the cover of night and ambush the Samurai at their tents. His victorious duel against Captain Jyunichi Hakai forces the samurai stationed there to surrender.

• The Storm. Aela Stormcaller and her small fleet engage the Elvish supply ships from afar. Her kraken makes an appearance and swallows up the Carsarax, one of the Elvish flagships. While this dealt a morale blow to the Elves, their fleet's superior firepower forced Aela to retreat. The supply line holds.

• The Battle of Coldheart. Ygrid and Boudeca engage Dwarvish engineer teams and attempt to disrupt further construction of outposts. They encounter the Sommgord Ranger Unit, Ygrid's old squadron. Ygrid's experience and training allows her to counter and crush the Dwarves with little challenge. Intelligence warns officers of Ygrid's tactical prowess.

Year 3

• Dragonborn join the war. Dragonborn from the eastern outland territories join the Goliaths. They provide arcane firepower and healing as well as aerial superiority.

• Eye for an eye. Elvish special forces are deployed behind enemy lines and gather intelligence. General Half-Tooth is assassinated in his bunk without any of his men knowing. In retaliation, former adventurer Sven Sheatheshield sinks an arrow into the skull of horseback General Alastor through a farmhouse. Sven escapes untouched and unseen.

• The Flayed Men. Along the Wailing Woods, Boudeca Warborn displays the flayed bodies of slain soldiers on wooden crossbeams. The sight gets the reaction she would hope when Vikings attempt to pry the bodies down and are ambushed by Boudeca's special forces, the Furies. The amount of blood spilled at the battle washes out into the nearby river and down to a nearby Human camp.

Year 4

• Hail Chief Jotunkarth. Grynr Jotunkarth is killed in a one-sided skirmish against Commander Roman Windhelm. Grynr's only daughter, Ymir, is made the new Chieftain of the Jotunkarth clan. She is only five years old.

• The Sky Shall Burn. The Dwarves deploy teams of bombardiers on Wyverns to strike Goliath positions from the air. The Dragonborn engage but are unable to punch through formations. Air superiority is stolen back when Drathos's dragon makes an appearance. The Alliance readjusts their strategies with this new terrifying development.

Year 5

• Terror in the Skies. Frostwing descends upon the freezing supply fleet and cripples it grately. The Elves attempt to repel his attack with helpless small-arms fire and spells that bounce off his gargantuan frame. What took the Goliaths months to even come close to accomplishing, took Frostwing half an hour. The supply route is severed and is not replenished in time for the next frigid winter.

• Dragonslayers. Having lured Frostwing the Wight out into the open and given him false confidence. The Jaeger Corp unleashes a new prototype ballista that punctures Frostwing's icy frame. In the ambush, Frostwing is subdued and forced to engage Elvira and her men on the ground. Outnumbered, Frostwing barely escapes with his life having narrowly avoided a killing blow from Elvira thanks to aide from the Hobgoblins. The encounter takes Frostwing out of the war indefinitely to recover.

• Dug in. As the resources on both sides begin to dwindle, dangerously so on the Goliaths side, a majority of units begin digging in where they stand. The first of its kind, trench warfare becomes the standard across the frontlines. The armies are desperate for any inch they can take.

• Sins of the Daughters. The Windhelm Siblings and Ygrid meet for the first time on the battlefield. Their forces fight to an exhausting stalemate between piles of frozen corpses. It is one of the more controversial encounters of the war as halfway through, the two battered sides turned around and walked past one another to their respective trenches. Neither side is capable of finding the strength to continue on.

• Ceasefire. Given the morale and shape both sides were in, officers from both sides sat down and had agreed to a ceasefire. Bodies were forming small mounds across the theaters of war. Soldiers were succumbing to the cold, sickness, and starvation. The ceasefire gave both sides time to pull themselves together, and even consider a peaceful resolution to the war. A month into the ceasefire, the Alliance and Goliath leaders agree to consider peace talks once their armies have had room to breath.

Year 6

• All Hail the Queen. To celebrate the possibility of an end to the war, the Goliaths held a formal banquet for Ygrid who was due to give birth to twins. The banquet had all the remaining ale that the Goliaths could salvage and traditional foods scraped together in the grand halls of Castle Drathos. It was at this banquet that the High-Elves and Hobgoblins conspired together to indeed put an end to the war. The ale had been poisoned and the effects were felt immediately as Goliath officers and leaders fell one by one. During this moment of confusion and shock, the Hobgoblins stormed the drinking hall and killed any surviving leaders. Among the dead were Drathos and Ygrid's husband. In one fell swoop, the Alliance had completely decapitated the Goliath leadership. Ygrid survived the attempt on her life, but her unborn son had not.

• The Iron Price. A month after the assassination attempt on Ygrid's life, Prince Edward and the 32nd Royal Rangers attempt to cross the Valley of Whispers, a deep canyon between the Gordyr Mountains, in an attempt to reach the Hallowed Forests and head off Skulk Greymind's war party. Unknown to Prince Edward, was that Captain Greymind knew he was coming and had set a trap. The 32nd followed the trail of what they thought was the war party and were immediately attacked by none other than Ygrid, who had seemingly cheated death and set herself on them like a wild animal. The 32nd were forced to retreat back into the valley but found themselves trapped between Ygrid and Skulk's forces who took positions further up the cliffs. With the high ground advantage, Ygrid ordered that the newly named Bloody 99th, hold their positions and not engage. Any attempts on Prince Edward's end at trying to get out of the valley were met with heavy resistance. In the first few hours of the ambush, the 32nd were reduced to a fraction of their original fighting force. They were trapped... It's said that one by one, the 32nd froze to death in the coldest pocket of Jotunrath over the course of a week, and Ygrid watched from the cliffs. When asked whether she would send Prince Edward's corpse to the Alliance, she refused. "They took my son. So I took theirs." At the end of the conflict, Ygrid only sent back Prince Edward's family sword, the Legendary Sword of Embers. His and the bodies of the 32nd remain in the valley to this day.

Year 7

• Endure. By the seventh year of the war, both sides were operating at a fraction of the resources and men that they had at the start of the war. While the Alliance did indeed have the bodies and resources to throw at the Goliaths, they were beginning to lose the support of their people and, most importantly, gold. Throughout the war the Alliance was forced to borrow high-interest loans from the Realm's Bank, who the war was very, very profitable for. The Alliance was forced to look at the cost of the war and weigh how much longer they could afford to fight for. If it was even worth it. While the Goliaths had all but exhausted their resources and soldiers. It turned into a matter of principle, not winning. The Goliaths, even with all the aid they had bought and parlayed for, were going to lose. A decision had to be made as to whether they would surrender, or die. The vote was unanimous to continue fighting until the bitter, bloody end.

• The Siege of Drathos. The Alliance had successfully pushed another wave of soldiers onto the shores of Jotunrath, led primarily by Edgar Castille. While the Elves and Dwarves fortified their trade routes and outposts, what men they could spare would push with Edgar's forces onto a final assault on the last remaining Goliath stronghold. A messenger was sent asking for the Goliaths to surrender, and they were sent back with their head nail into their hands and the note stuff into their open neck.

• The Warforged and Drow join the war.