Eldritch-Dwarrow Wars¶
"What followed were genocidal wars that raged for 1000s of years between the highly magical Eldritch and the technological Dwarrow." — Dwarrow (S529)
The Eldritch-Dwarrow Wars, the Ancient Eldritch-Dwarrow Wars of the demon-origin essays, were the long war of the Age of Titans between the Eldritch Keepers, acting for the Elder Gods, and the Dwarrow, the technological earth-elemental fae who had hidden from those gods underground. They are the war in which the Uk'Zarai were brought to Terrun, and the war in which, by one theory, demons first appear in the record.
Causes¶
The Dwarrow had chosen the losing side of the Primordial War: "during the primordial wars, they sided with the elementals against the invaders (the Einar and their subjects). After the defeat of the elementals, the Dwarrow moved deep underground to avoid the influence of the new gods (Elder Gods). They lived there until the inevitable expansion of the new races into the depths." Rediscovered, they fell under the law that had exiled the other elementals: "the Eldritch (the Keepers assigned by the Elder Gods) were tasked with subjugating the Dwarrow under the same law as the other elementals (which would exile them from the material plane)" (S529).
The war¶
The two sides were ill matched in different ways. The Eldritch were "highly magical", the Dwarrow "technological" (S529). The Eldritch reincarnated: "Eldritch reincarnation was well known to be a constant problem for the Dwarrow, as the Eldritch reincarnation cycle was very short (a matter of months), whereas a killed Dwarrow would take centuries to replace via normal birth and rearing cycles" (S520). The Dwarrow sought allies beyond the world. "The Dwarrow brought the Uk'Zarai outcasts to Terrun to save them from the Goddess Sukmaril and to act as allies in their wars against the Eldritch" (S515): eight-foot horned, hooved, winged beings of Fel from the dead world of Sukmaran, cast out of their own matriarchal society. The Dwarrow also sheltered the Uk'Zarai's ancient enemies, the An'Zarai, but settled them on another world, "nor did either of them know of the fate of the other" (S515).
The Dwarrow Origin Theory of demons rests on this war. "There are several instances of stories which predate the Younger Gods and the Succession Wars in which Demons appear to be described. These stories are primarily related to the Ancient Eldritch-Dwarrow Wars and the describe the Eldritch as their primary victims. Scholars argue that Demons would have been a particularly potent weapon for the Dwarrow, as they are Ethereal-based and consume their enemies soul (which the Dwarrow would be immune to, being Fae)." Demons "would have presented a potential solution to the problem" of Eldritch reincarnation; "beyond these conjectures, there is no substantive evidence to support this theory" (S520, S514).
End¶
"With the fall of the Elder Gods and the birth of the younger, the tide of bloodshed subsided for a time. Khardas (a Dwarrow) became the first Dwarrow shard holder/god. In time, there were others (Adranus and Malix)." The Eldritch's own civil war "allowed the beleaguered Dwarrow to regroup", and from the remnant Khardas formed the Dwarves, who turned the Dwarrow's weapons on the Eldritch in the Eldritch Succession Wars (S529). The Uk'Zarai's story ran on past the war: "long after the Dwarrow had faded into the depths, and after the fall of the Elder Gods, a few of the Eldritch devised a plan to achieve revenge against the Younger Gods and the Uk'Zarai", the Spiritfire Orb, which turned them into the first demons (S515).1
Gap
No source dates the wars or counts their dead, names a battle or a commander, or says how many Dwarrow survived them. The Dwarrow's origin itself is an open question of the survey.