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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 3589646" data-attributes="member: 2020">(muses)  Looking at the detailed history given above, I see a pattern:  The victors were nations and peoples who:  - Had good leadership and good generals (who knew their strategy and tactics well.)  - Had a large number of soldiers to throw into the war  - Were persistent in fighting wars  I note that, as written, more advanced weapons did not win the wars, necessarily.  The Gauls who sacked Rome were in great number and very persistent.  Rome took Gaul and Britain under an accomplished general, with perseverence and huge numbers.  The Germans destroyed two Roman Legions because they had fine leadership.  Rome declined to pursue the war.  Greece fell to Rome in one of the Ten Battles of the World, when the legion proved superior to the phlanx.  Rome finally fell due to internal weakness and the perseverence and numbers of barbarian invaders.  Charlemagne was an able leader and general, making successful war on the Germanic tribes.  The Vikings were extremely perseverent (practically making a new definition to the word), developed a new kind of ship that acted as a superb weapon of war, and employed novel techniques of war.  This enabled them to attack or settle from the northern Russian coast through Normandy to Gibraltor to Asia Minor.  Then the Mongols got into the act with novel ways of waging war, novel ways of transporting food and goods, and relentless perseverence.  And they almost wiped out Eurasia.  Novgorod was saved by luck and strategic position.  The Mongols were stopped short of the city by swamps.  The teutonic knights lost when the ice on a lake broke under their weight.  During the Greyhawk Wars (Canon for Greyhawk) Aerdi was unable to win against Nyrond because of poor leadership and poor generals (the good ones got turned into animuses.)  Aerdi also did not have persistence, but collapsed into numerous successor states.  Almor, had good leadership and a brilliant general, and invaded and caused damage through Ahlissa, the Nauxes lands, and Medegia.  Then Aerdi attacked and through sheer overwhelming force destroyed Almor.  Iuz was neither a good leader nor a good general, but he was reasonably persistent.  He wasn't persistent enough:  when the siege of Chendl was broken, Iuz retreated to Crockport, and Furyondy withstood his assault.  Turmosh Mak was an able leader and general, and doubled the size of his empire as a result.  The Scarlet Brotherhood pursued a slightly different agenda.  Instead of open war, they subjugated other nations by assassination of their leadership, and swift attacks on loyal troops (the rest of the army simply surrendered, typically, after their leadership was gone.)  This demonstrated apt leadership and tactics, and persistence.  All those hoards of Hempmonalanders were not needed, and remained as backup for the Scarlet Brotherhood.  Now, getting away from the Canon ...  The Solistarim were 700 years in the making.  They had an *extremely* fine leader and capable generals.  They were persistent, in that they spent hundreds of years planning the war, and once in execution they were persistent in waging war.  They about equalled their foes in numbers, so they summoned vast armies of elementals, infernals, and undead to assist them.  Their foes were unaware of the impending attack.  The Solistarim gained total surprise.  Their first foe was Iuz.  They had a magical fix on the Old One, Gated in, trapped him within magical boundaries, then Soloron himself slew him.  Their second target was Chendl, where King Belvor of Furyondy still reigned.  Again they pinpointed his location, Gated in, and killed him.  They killed all his family and all high level members of the government as well.  Their third target was Mitrik, and High Priest Hazen of Veluna.  The High Priest had omens of impending danger and was prepared, but the force sent was overwhelming.  A good part of Mitrik burned in the ensuing battle, but the Solistarim won it.  This shattered the government of Veluna.  A very large and determined force struck at the Iron Citadel of Mordenkainen.  At great cost, they took the fortress and seized the magic inside, but Mordenkainen escaped and fled.  At the same time, a army of monsters assaulted the capital of Zeif.  They took it in a single night of slaughter and red ruin.  Most of the attacking strike forces consisted of the Exalted Wizards of Our Lord, the direct servants of Soloron (not to be confused with exalted characters.)  They were accompanied by liches in league with them, beholders, illithid, and the great among the wizards of the dark dwarves and grey gnomes.  Many devils, some notable, were among their numbers, along with fire elementals and salamanders.  Last, and not least, dragons morphed into human form came through the Gates, assumed normal form, and attacked.  The army assailing Zeif was different.  This army consisted of sahuagin and numerous lesser allies led by aboleth, along with elemental and infernal forces.  The Empire of Iuz was weakened from years of war, it's armies were all deployed southward, Iuz was bending his attention southward (to Furyondy) and the attack came from the north.  Furyondy was very badly weakened from fighting Iuz, the Shieldlands were lost, the northern part of the country was lost, and the rest of the country was in recovery.  Veluna had suffered some losses from the assault from Ket.  They had deployed forces to Furyondy to protect it, more forces south to aid Keoland, some of their forces up to the Vesve to help the elves and gnomes there, and their main force was in the west, fronting Ket.  Zeif was intact, but Zeif was expecting no attack.  Their fleet was strong (and useless, against an underwater assault on the mainland), their army was strong and scattered throughout the country.  They were mostly disinterested, ignoring the warnings of Istus, thinking it had to do with problems from the east - and those problems would have to come through Ekbir and Tusmit and Ket first.  The main aerial assault commenced.    Dragons made up the brunt of this assault, acting somewhat like bombers of today.  Devils acted as special forces.  Liches and subject powerful undead summoned hosts of lesser undead, and acted as shock troops.  Fire, frost, stone, and cloud giants aided them.  Efreet, salamanders, and countless fire elementals acted as terror forces.  The dark wizards and dark clerics of the Solistarim, of high power and levels, coordinated the attacks using their magic and psionics.  The illithid and dark dwarves and grey gnomes struck from Below.  Beholders were Gated in and rampaged like berserkers through the chaos.  The lizard kings were waiting in the forests, and closed in.  And from the sky came the Spelljammers, coodinated assaults from squidships and gith mercenaries and even some neogi.  Above all, the might and power of the Wizard Host (for the Solistarim boasted an enormous standing army of wizards) was deployed to crush any determined resistance.  This main assault was directed at military compounds and outposts.  Civilians and civilian targets were generally not struck.  Solistari intelligence had located most of the enemy strongholds, and determined which to strike in order to paralyze the enemy country.  In Delrune, the military targets were Archendrea (the northeastern military city), Miralea (the center for magical studies in Delrune), Delphea (the capital city), Lirrendrea (a strategic city in the southwest), and Kindlerock (a strategic city in the northwest.)  The elves of Delrune had a standing army of a few thousand males, out of 325,000.  Most of these were in Archendrea, watching for Iuz.    Of these elves, none were above 5th level as warriors, or 9th level as wizards.  There were many clerics, up to around 7th level.  The one great strength Delrune had was in her bards, and these - in great number - ranged up to 10th level.  They were scattered throughout the country.  The Solistarim destroyed most of their military targets within the first few days of the Solistari War.  Targets included areas in Zeif, Ekbir, Tusmit, Ket, Ull, the Spirit Empire of Garnak, Istivar, the Valley of the Mage, many targets in the Yatils, Perrenland, Calrune, Delrune, Chautosbergen, Swantmoor, Veluna, Furyondy, Gran March, Keoland, the Principality of Ulek, the Duchy of Ulek, the County of Ulek, many targets in the Lortmils, targets in the Kron Hills, Celene, and Verbobonc.  Neutrality was immediately offered Greyhawk City, Nyrond, the Duchy of Urnst, and the County of Urnst.  These nations accepted, for suddenly Aerdi and the Scarlet Brotherhood was on their doorstep and a colossal war behind them.  (And had Ivid taken the initiative, and had Aerdi been united, perhaps it could have dealt with these nations for once and all.)  Thus, the central and eastern Flanaess were locked out of the war.  But Turrosh Mak took the initiative and invaded Celene.  Likewise, the drow and giants took the initiative (although the Solistarim indicated the drow were their enemies) and invaded Keoland.  Then main army of the Solistarim, composed of shock troops of undead, elementals, fiends, dark dwarves, dark gnomes, the non-wizard and non-clerical human forces of the Solistarim, giants, sahuagin, lizard men, lizard kings, and numerous others, swept south from the Godspires through their forward bases in Blackmoor and across the Burneal (or came in from the skies and oceans, or from Below), and assaulted the Empire of Iuz.  The main strike forces, having accomplished their initial tasks, joined the assault.  In a matter of weeks the western one third of the Empire of Iuz fell, including Doraaka and Molag, and the Solistarim held the Whyestil.  The humanoid armies were massacred (the Solistarim had no use for orcs, goblins, trolls, ogres, and so on ... there would be no place for them in the new world the Solistarim hoped to build.)  By this time, other nations in the Flanaess had mounted defenses against attack.  Armies were marshalled.  Wizards and clerics and others made ready, in case the Solistarim came their way.  Then the Skydwellers attacked.  Striking from on high, in their Flying Citadels, the Skydwellers rained an eager array of destruction down on the cities of the east.  It is a known fact the Lord of the Skydwellers was in league with Soloron, and the timing of this attack was no surprise.  The Scarlet Brotherhood later reported this fact.  They should have known, since they were in secret league with the Skydwellers (to later destroy the Solistarim) and struck from the ground and sea just as the Skydwellers hit from above.  The central and eastern parts of the Flanaess descended into anarchy.    You would have thought that all the nations would have united against these enemies.  But no:  old feuds held.  Ivid had shed too much blood.  North Province wanted Ratik.  The humanoids of the Bone March wanted Nyrond.  The Ice Elves of the Adri broke free and massacred half the denizens in the forest.  Ivid lashed out at all comers.  The vampire lord (see the Ivid the Undying supplement) led the forces of his necropolis against Ivid.  Drax the Invulnerable invaded the Grandwood.  Naelax struck north and west.  Ahlissa assaulted Nyrond and Irongate.  Sunndi invaded Naelax.  The Sea Barons were in league with the Skydwellers and gleefully took advantage of the confusion to raid and plunder.  But in Greyhawk City, a renown figure there called southward for help, and Varnaith - an equatorial nation of tremendous power - answered the call.  So did it's longtime ally, Nippon and it's Dominion.  The Elvish Imperial Navy of Greyspace came to the aid of Celene, and was drawn into the greater war.  They would defeat the scro in Greyspace, and then bring their big guns to bear on the combat below.  The Solistarim ground forces roared southwest through Perrenland, then Calrune and western Delrune (the western half), and on into Veluna.  Another great force swept into Furyondy.  The great strike forces, dragons and archmages leading, were in the forefront.  Veluna and Furyondy both fell in a sea of fire and wreckage.  In the west, Zeif fell, the sahuagin raged into Ekbir and Tusmit, and more Solistari shock forces came down the coast to join up with them.  The Spirit Empire of Garnak conjured up an enormous force.  Enormous is the only word.  They called upon their ancestors, and their ancestors came.  So did whole legions of forests (Garnak was heavily forested, unlike the steppes about.)  Istivar had survived the strikes and joined Garnak.  The combined host roared north to give battle.  Now the battle lines stretched from Verbobonc (besieged) in the east across Bissel (the Kettish occupiers fled for it, leaving hapless Bissel undefended), to the Valley of the Mage (the Mage went into hiding.)  The Solistarim extended their gains.  Soon, the battlelines extended from Sterich through northern Keoland across the Lortmils to the Wild Coast.  (Turrosh Mak tried to join the Solistarim, but his messengers were simply shot on sight.)  However, Keoland and the dwarves and elves of the Lortmils were suddenly and dramatically reinforced, as the hosts of Varnaith and Nippon arrived via magic.  And Varnaith also had fine commanders, a vast army, and enough magical might to equal a quarter of that of the Solistarim.  The elvish navy of Greyspace joined Varnaith in defending Keoland.  Some good dragons joined the war, mainly at the behest of the elves of Varnaith.  The Pearl elves marched up out of the sea to join on Nippon's side.  And in the west, the titanic army of Garnak crashed through the Solistari lines in the Plains of the Paynims.  The war went on for months from that point, with assaults and battles and slaughter all the way from Hyperboria in the polar regions to Varnaith at the equator.  All sides suffered severely.  The Solistarim had spent centuries fortifying their cities, both surface and underground, in the Godspires.  These could not be taken.  The sahuagin did not fare as well, or Blackmoor, or the dwellings of the lizard men and kings, but the main Solistari citadels repelled the assaults.  But the Solistari were stretched as far as they could go, against multiple enemies.  With the Pearl Empire, Nippon Dominion, Varnaith, the Spirit Empire of Garnak all against them, and the Elven Imperial Navy of Greyspace against them, and Keoland and the Lortmils fighting like mad, they found they could not push further south.  The battle lines stalled, then flexed north and south as either side made gains, laying waste to successive region after region as the armies fought back and forth.  The corpses of hundreds of thousands littered the Oerth, then those of several million, and still the fighting continued.    The Solistarim suffered one setback.  They slew the drow wherever they found them, so the drow declared war on the Solistarim.  An irony, drow and elf in alliance.  But the drow and their giant allies then struck out of Geoff and Sterich, in the Yatils, and against the Godspires themselves.  The Solistarim had to readjust their battle strategy, to deal with this new and powerful (and, unfortunately, disorganized - despite the efforts of a certain drow priestess) foe.  In a stroke of luck, said mysterious figure from Greyhawk, was able to strike down Soloron in the midst of battle.    Without their leader, fearful of collapse of the behavioral-modifying magics that welded them - incompatible races - together, all the Solistarim elected retreat.  Their foes magically pursued them to the Godspires, and launched an all out assault.  The assault failed, the attackers were massacred, the Solistarim held together - although greatly weakened - and the exhausted attackers fell back.  The Solistarim then assailed the encampments of their enemies.  Those attacks, partially succeeded.  The alliance against the Solistarim fortified a line from Geoff to Keoland to the central Lortmils.  (Turrosh Mak retrenched in the Pomarj.)  They did not attempt to advance north, but fortified or rebuilt cities and bases as they could south of that line.  Having retaken all the Baklunish lands, Garnak and Istivar fortified and readied against any future war.  They did not waste effort assaulting the Godspires, but did not discount any new assaults.  In the east:  Beaten, the Skydwellers withdrew.  The Alliance of Oerth had formed.  Nations yet further east halted their fighting.  The Scarlet Brotherhood, consolidated gains.  The Solistari War ended.  (In all that, the Vesve Forest and Clatspurs were virtually untouched, and Chauntosbergen took only minor damage.  Somehow they were passed by ... along with the eastern half of Delrune.)  What decided the Solistari War?  1:  Leadership.  2:  Luck.  3:  Sheer firepower.  4:  Perseverence (or lack of it)  5:  Sheer numbers.</blockquote>

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