Wars against the Gods

The Wars against the Gods, also known as the Great Rebellion, the Immortal Wars, or simply the Wars, were a series of four wars, spanning a period of two thousand years, in which Immortal Houses and their follower nations warred with rebelling human powers. The Wars, which ended in the death or expulsion of all gods from human civilization, are often considered the most consequential events in human history, upending politics and religion, developing and popularizing a new system of magic, and resulting in the deaths of nearly a quarter of the human population.

The early two wars, often referred to as the Former Wars, ended in human defeat, but are thought to have crystallized a lasting anti-Immortal sentiment: the memory of a short-lived uprising in the tiny valley of Keaslior (the First War), weaponized for nearly 400 year by history’s most ambitious empire, the Evindal Malicate. Though the Malicate met its end at the conclusion of the Second War, its propaganda endured. Despite the efforts of the Immortals to wipe it all from existence, a cult of human martyrdom only gained strength, along with the picture of godly tyranny and the knowledge of their actual mortality.

All these rebellious ideas resurged a half century later, with the simultaneous rebellion of several Vadraedic island nations, spearheaded by Makala and nourished by the birth of the Keaslian Church. The Third War saw the tide turn in favor of the human rebels, who now wielded the power of magecraft, as well as superior naval and mercantile capabilities. The Latter Wars, though successfully freeing humanity from Immortal control, are often considered the origin of modern human power, concentrated in the Vadraedic Empires. The Fourth War, especially, is often regarded as an ideological and religious pretense for aggressive Sunyan conquest.