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Goblinoids of Borka firing on an elven man-o-war
Goblinoids of Borka firing on an elven man-o-war

The Unhuman Wars were a series of armed conflicts between various Goblinoid Fleets and the Elven Imperial Navy and its allies in the Spelljammer campaign setting.[1][2][3][4]

"Racial hatreds are the most long-lasting. It is virtually impossible to erase them without resorting to genocide."
- excerpt from Directions, by Lukaas Benden.[5]

First Unhuman War[]

Called the "Unhuman War" by neutral human communities who felt it had little to do with them,[6] the conflict was a pivotal moment in the history of the Known Spheres as it firmly entrenched the dominance of the Elven Imperial Fleet in wildspace for centuries to come, before the return of the goblinoid races threatened their hegemony once more.

"The elves whipped our ancestors like mongrels, broke their fleets, drove them from the rich worlds, shut them out of the light of a hundred suns, gave them dust to drink and rock to eat and filth with which to clothe themselves, and laughed at the thought that we, the Children of Dukagsh, would ever repay the blood debt owed them."
- Fleet Admiral Halker, Scro Tarantula Fleet[7]

Causes[]

"Never trust an orc... even a dead one."
- Elvish aphorism.[8]

Several centuries ago, the various goblinoid races, including the orcs, goblins, kobolds, hobgoblins, bugbears, and ogres, had a significant presence in wildspace[9], with vast spelljamming fleets powered by shamans and adepts. Though powerful, the goblinoids were split among a huge number of local chiefs, leaders and kings, and spent as much time fighting each other as they did other spacefaring races. Despite being unable to coordinate more than a few scattered assaults, given their numbers these raids caused significant damage, in some cases destroying entire elven installations, human cities and dwarven Citadels.[2]

Most spaceborne communities fought off these assault as best they could, but the Elven Imperial Fleet, after decades of discourse and debate, came to a decision that was both fateful as it was irrevocable: they concluded that the only way to bring an end to the continuous goblinoid depredation was to wage total war against them, and annihilate their fleets entirely.[1]

Conflict[]

Officially the War broke out with the Battle of Kule in Greyspace, which was also the largest battle of the war, involving over a 100 elven ships which crushed a fleet of over 50 orcish vessels.[1] Over the next decade[2] massed fleets of elven Armadas, Men-o-war and pyrotechnic Firewind-modified Flitters engaged goblinoid fleets throughout the Known Worlds, destroying as much as half of their number and scattering the rest into the depths of wildspace.[2]

As the conflict grew and spread throughout the Known Spheres, other spacefaring communities began to take measures to protect themselves from being caught up in the war. Many worlds employed what became a standard defensive tactic of folding up skeletal undead into small bony balls and scattering them throughout local wildspace, similar in effect to a minefield. Packs of these creatures were intended to drift into the gravity planes of enemy ships and attack their crews.[10][11]

Similarly, certain human communities became concerned for the security of their trade routes and formed an unlikely alliance with the illithids to provide protection for convoys of ships carrying supplies and trade goods. They even collaborated to design and build a specialized convoy defense ship known as the Octopus,[12] and in an effort to provide some kind of defense against the capital ships fielded by the opposing fleets, such as the Armada and the ogre Mammoth, these communities used the same design principles to build mobile command centres known as Cuttle commands, which were intended to coordinate the community's defences and serve as mobile fortresses. Of course humans being humans, in the one battle that significant numbers of these vessels were deployed, Cuttles ended up serving on both sides of the battle.[13]

As the War escalated, both sides began developing advanced biological weapons. The first to achieve significant results were the orcs whose shamans created organic first-strike weapons meant to devastate entire planets. Known as witchlight marauders, their efficacy as killing machines was only matched by the speed with which they could breed.[14] While the orc's were developing their marauders, the Imperial Fleet developed weapons of their own, including bionoids, organic fighting machines created from elven and human volunteers which served as shock troops,[15] and spirit warriors, enormous manned battlesuits created from undead insects which served as the Fleet's primary long-range infantry weapon.[16]

The overall objective in developing the marauders was in pursuit of a scorched-earth strategy that would render elven worlds barren, lifeless rocks. Fortunately, the Imperial Fleet got wind of their plan before the marauders could be unleashed, and deployed their own newly developed biological weapons, destroying the orcish superweapons.[14] Some elven sages believe that the yitsan were also developed by the orcs as biological weapons, though this theory remains purely speculative.[17]

Though the Imperial Fleet was gaining ground steadily in the War, not every battle went their way. In Greyspace, the elves had deployed their ships to engage enemies elsewhere, and so were caught completely off-guard when the goblinoids of Borka attacked their rear garrisons and supply lines. Borka was a small planet dominated by a native population of goblinoids, and while the elves of Greyspace were fully aware that the planet was heavily populated by their racial enemies, they considered them to be a race of groundling primitives that would never pose a threat to their might in space. What they weren't aware of was that the goblinoid fleets had begun recruiting marines from Borka, and that the Arcane had offered to supply certain tribes with spelljamming technology in exchange for minerals and other valuable resources. Because of their smug over-confidence, the elves hadn't even stationed pickets to watch over the goblinoid planet, so when the small, ill-trained and poorly equipped fleet from Borka boiled over into wildspace, the elves were taken completely by surprise, allowing the Borkan fleet to inflict significantly more damage than they would have achieved under normal circumstances.[18]

Unable to divert enough ships and personnel to invade Borka and suppress their military forces, the elves came to a realization that has colored their thinking ever since: planetary invasions were expensive, in terms of manpower, ships and material; planetary destruction was not. Having made their decision the elven high mages began formulating spells of cataclysmic power, while their priests began praying to their gods for aid. When all was in readiness, and with the aid of their gods, the elves struck the world of Borka with a blast of extradimensional magic titanic in scope, shattering the planet into thousands of rocky fragments. Most of the population of Borka was killed, though some lucky individuals survived to eke out a subsistence living on what remained of their world.[19]

When they learnt of the catastrophe that had struck their people, the fleet from Borka immediately returned to save as many survivors as they could. Some captains loaded their ships with as many refugees who wished to leave as they could and sought sanctuary elsewhere. Other crews swore vengeance, dedicating their lives to destroying as many elven ships as they could before meeting their own ends. Some, however, decided to remain on what remained of Borka and rebuild what the elves had destroyed.[20]

As for the elves who had committed genocide on the people of Borka, they met their fate soon after. The entire Greyspace fleet was destroyed to the last ship, through a combination of accidents (which the natives of Borka claimed as retribution by their own gods) and relentless attacks by goblinoid forces. The details of exactly how the elves of Greyspace annihilated an entire world died with them, though many races have tried to replicate the magical rituals required to release such destructive power, fortunately without success.[20]

The War was drawing to a close as the elves began driving the goblinoid forces out of the Known Spheres. In almost all cases, the goblin races fought as individual bands and tribes, never cooperating fully, and sometimes actively hindering each other's plans. However, in one case a number of tribes, including representatives of all the goblin races, did something completely unprecedented: they united under a single overall war leader, a half-orc named Gralnakh Longtooth. Gralnakh proved to be a great leader, a brilliant strategist and a wily tactician, and under his command the Combined Goblin Fleet managed to hand the Imperial Fleet its first truly telling losses.

The Combined Goblin Fleet was doomed from the start, however, something Gralnakh must have been fully aware of. As goblinoid fleets in other crystal spheres were destroyed, the elves were able to redeploy more and more of their forces against Gralnakh's beleaguered command. Astonishingly, even against massively escalating opposition, the Combined Goblin Fleet managed to fight on for years.

Eventually, the Grand Admiral of the Elven Imperial Fleet, an ex-battle poet named Aldyn Leafbower, realized that the continued fighting was tying up a good portion of his fleet, which meant that enemies in other spheres could take advantage of the situation and attack the relatively lightly defended elven worlds. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any quick way of ending the conflict. The system that the Combined Goblin Fleet had chosen as their battleground was filled with tiny worlds and moonlets, each of which could be used to hide a great number of ships while being repaired or when setting up an ambush. Using powerful magic, the Imperial Fleet had already reduced two of the worldlets to rubble, but this hadn't inconvenienced the Combined Goblin Fleet at all. The only military option left was to assault each of the myriad planetoids one at a time, in a space-going version of house-to-house fighting, which would be both time consuming and expensive in terms of lives and resources.

Instead the Grand Admiral chose to parley with Gralnakh Longtooth in person, offering him an official cease-fire - an armistice. Gralnakh realized that the war had been lost, and that to continue fighting would only lead to the death of all of his followers for no gain. Proving his worth as a great leader, Gralnakh accepted the armistice, but only on condition that he and his people be given a world of their own, unmolested by elven interference. Reasoning this was a small price to pay for peace, Leafbower accepted without hesitation.

When the Admiral returned to his fleet, however, his senior officers were outraged, and wanted to renege on the deal. Leafbower was an elf of his word, however, and forced the Council of Admirals to follow through with the bargain. Unfortunately, neither Gralnakh nor Leafbower had specified exactly what the planet must be like. In what many still consider to be a decision driven solely by spite, the Council of Admirals shipped Gralnakh and his followers to the most inhospitable place they could find - a cold, brutal world known as Armistice.[9]

Having been routed by the elves, the surviving goblinoid fleets either fled into the depths of wildspace, or sought sanctuary with their groundling cousins. The Imperial Fleet attempted to bombard their lairs from above, but when their barrage brought down the ire of powerful groundling wizards, priests, and their deities, the elves were forced to withdraw, forming the basis for their present policy of limited ground engagements.[2] The Council of Admirals was determined, however, to track down and eliminate those elements that had fled into the depths of wildspace, in an effort to prevent them from regrouping or attempting to emulate the successes of the Combined Goblin Fleet.

To this end, patrols were detached from the main Fleet and sent out to hunt down the remnants of the goblinoid fleets in what became known as The Great Hunt,[21][note 1] resulting in the virtual disappearance of the kobold Angelship, the orcish Scorpionship, the goblin Porcupine ship and the huge ogre Mammoth from the spacelanes, as surviving vessels were either abandoned or stripped of parts and equipment.[2]

Aftermath[]

After defeating the goblinoid races, the elves had the largest and most powerful fleet in the Known Spheres. As a result, they became condescending, pushy and presumptuous in dealing with other spacefaring races, especially humans and other short-lived races, who they believed were unable to take the long-term, protective view that they were capable of.[1] Soon the other spacefaring races, already sensitive to elven arrogance, began to chafe under their imperious control, and tensions began to mount. The elves were unwilling to abandon their huge fleets, perceiving them as necessary for maintaining the security of the various elven nations, leading many to believe that a war pitting elves against humans and dwarves was looming.

Sindiath, an admiral in the Imperial Fleet and a hero of the Unhuman War, proposed a compromise. He offered to retire from the Fleet and to consolidate a large proportion of the Fleet's vessels into a private concern, known as the Sindiath Line, that would serve as a merchant navy and provide regular passenger services throughout wildspace. The Line would ensure there was an elven presence across the Known Spheres, but it would be a commercial presence, not a military one. To the Council of Admirals, Sindiath pointed out the value of the Line for intelligence gathering. With ships in every sphere, the Line would be able to inform the Council of any issues that could affect the Imperial Fleet. After the usual period of debate and discussion, the Council agreed.[22]

Although it was commonly believed that the elves had eradicated all of the witchlight marauders, evidence existed that indicated that a few marauders may have survived. Some old scrolls hinted that one of the space marauders escaped the elven onslaught, burning its way through the elven blockade into space,[14] Other sources suggested that marauders had also been locked in stasis via time stop fields, while others had been rendered dormant through the use of various arcane spells and rituals.[23]

On the elven side, the bionoids, who had sacrificed so much and had played such a pivotal role in the War, were abandoned and cast out into the cosmos, to make their own way far from the sight of the elves. Years of being ostracised, of living apart from the rest of elven society like plague victims, instilled in those who remained a deep distrust of all other elven races.[15] The spirit warriors, on the other hand, were placed in stasis and were occasionally deployed in times of crisis, even into modern times.[16]

Second Unhuman War[]

The brutal Unhuman War ended with the elves victorious over the goblinoid races, who were crushed and humiliated. The surviving goblinkin scattered to the far corners of the universe to lay claim to new territories and plot vengeance against their conquerors. Meanwhile, backed by their powerful fleets, the elves continued to dominate the Known Spheres, and though they kept the peace and maintained order, they were by no means universally respected or loved. Many resented their strict laws, while others felt their arrogance bordered on racism. It was against this backdrop that an unknown faction, both rigidly disciplined and tightly organized, and with an intense hatred of the elves, made their presence known.[4]

"... [T]he admirals of all other fleets now at war with the elves were doing what had to be done, following the words and plans of the Almighty Dukagsh, the Scro Father. Only by uniting all humanoids into the War of Revenge could the elves be driven from wildspace like sparrows in the claws of a gale."
- General Vorr, Scro Tarantula Fleet.[24]

Causes[]

"Never forgive, never forget."
- Orcish aphorism.[25]

Known as the War of Revenge[26] or Retribution[27] by various goblinoid races, the seeds for the Second Unhuman War[28] were sown during the closing stages of the first War. As the goblinoid fleets were driven from the Known Spheres, they were forced to abandon those ground forces that had been deployed to conquer certain planets, such as the invasion forces on Plata. Without ships to reinforce or resupply them, these armies were forced to adapt to their new homes.[29] Similarly, when the Combined Goblin Fleet eventually agreed to an armistice with the elves, and were exiled to the inhospitable hellhole that is Armistice in Winterspace, they too were forced to adapt to their surrounding if they had any hope of surviving.[30]

While the troops that made up these forces had been trained and disciplined veterans of the first Unhuman War, over time things began to change. When their commanders began to die due to conflict or natural attrition, the disparate members of these forces naturally began to band together with others of their own kind. For the first few decades, the tribes would cooperate freely with each other, but as goblinoids are wont to do, they began to compete for resources, and eventually they became locked into a cycle of continuous warfare. However, even while the goblinoid tribes fought each other, they kept alive their "heritage" as members of the Goblinoid armies, as well as their intense hatred for the elves (even if their new homes didn't even have native elven populations). Despite being aware that spelljamming technology existed, they had no way to acquire helms or even make them.[29] In the case of Armistice, the Elven Imperial Fleet made it very clear that any attempt to sell spelljamming technology to the inhabitants would be considered a declaration of war.[30]

Meanwhile on Borka in Greyspace, many of the surviving orcs, hobgoblins, goblins and kobolds chose to stay and rebuild what the elves had destroyed. Fortunately, goblinoids breed very fast and they were able to recover some of their lost population in short order, and as the first Unhuman War drew to a close, surviving fleets began to arrive looking for sanctuary. Even as these refugees provided some much needed man-power, more importantly, they brought with them the spelljamming technology, weapons and ships that would form the core of what would become the Borka Retribution Fleet. While the inhabitants of Borka were divided along racial lines, rarely did any rivalry spill over into armed conflict: afterall, everyone knew who the true enemy was, and they all recognized that any infighting would ruin any chance they had of getting the vengeance they so lusted after.[20]

Over the centuries, the Borkans secretly transformed their shattered world into a significant military base, hiding their warfeet within several hollowed-out asteroids in the center of their cluster-world, and turning several other asteroids into supply dumps and training camps. Most of these facilities were concealed within the asteroids, as the Borkans feared, with good reason, that the Imperial Fleet would descend on them with force should they ever discover their plans, and the elves were surely not going to do such a slipshod job this time and leave survivors behind.[20] As their warfleet took shape, with more ships being built all the time, the Borkans had yet to decide on their over-all objective in the coming time of retribution, with various prominent orcish nations arguing for their preferred objective. Torgnakh[31] of the Alkarmor ("elf-killers") nation[32] favored a quick strike against the Imperial Fleet headquarters, while Ragininth[31] of the Sors Invicta ("Unstoppable Destiny") nation[32] advocated for conquering Greyspace and using all available resources to build a Fleet big enough to destroy the Elven Navy once and for all.

However, events would unfold that would preempt their decision, as the Scro began their invasion of the Known Spheres. The scro are a highly militaristic and violent goblinoid race that are descended from orcish survivors of the first Unhuman War. Led by a visionary warchief named Dukagsh, who gathered together as many ship crews and troops as he could, a small fleet of surviving orcish vessels made their way to a remote but habitable planet and settled down.

Recognising that the orcs had lost the Unhuman War because of their one-dimensional ideas, outmoded tactics and reliance on brutality, Dukagsh realized that the orcs needed to become more organized, and that each soldier must be made to realize their full potential. Naming himself the first Almighty Leader, Dukagsh whipped his people into shape in the ensuing years, making sure they learned everything they could about warfare, survival, and even culture. To make sure no one forgot who was to blame for their misfortune, each orc had to learn fluent elvish. Before Dukagsh died, he declared that his people were on the path to success. The old ways were dead, he claimed, and a new race was born, a race that was more than any orc could ever be. He named them the "Scro".

The scro weren't interested in conquering the Known Spheres. Their sole purpose appeared to be nothing short of replacing the elves as the dominant power throughout the Known Spheres, by annihilating all elves and driving all groundling humanoid races out of wildspace for good. The scro war priests saw this, not planetary conquest, as their holy mission. As for those races native to wildspace… well, the scro would need slave labor, and those races would do quite nicely.[33]

Conflict[]

Dukagsh moulded and honed his people until they became the perfect tool to enact his vengeance on the elves,[34] and each of his successors dedicated their lives in achieving this goal. After decades of careful preparation and planning, the scro finally began the opening stages of their long awaited War of Revenge.[35] Aware they faced a vast conflict across numerous crystal spheres, the scro established several large bases, such as Gamaro Base in Moragspace,[36] to coordinate their various fleets and establish and maintain their supply lines.

In an effort to bolster their forces, the scro actively recruited mercenaries and malcontents from all races, especially among the various goblinoid races. They even managed to convince various renegade bionoid battle-clans[37][38] to support their war-effort. The scro promised the various factions power and dominion over the Known Worlds: all they had to do in exchange was to swear fealty and recognise scro dominion (and pay their tribute on time). No spacefaring nation or organization allied with the scro officially, though several spacefaring nations agreed to remain neutral should they go to war with the elves.[3]

Due to careful planning and intelligence gathering, the scro knew a great deal about the other spacefaring races, but they strove to ensure that the others remained ignorant of their own existence, save for a few rumors from unreliable sources.[33] Due to their poor skill at espionage, the scro often employed other races, especially the insectare, to serve as their spy masters[39][40] (unaware that the insectile humanoids had their own ambitions to rule the Known Spheres). To capitalize on the disorganized state of the Imperial Fleet, as well as their notoriously poor communications, detached units such as the Sky Shark battalion were dispatched to key points to destroy lone elven ships and isolated facilities, weakening elven forces and interrupting their communications even further.[41]

So successful was this strategy that the various scro fleets had managed to inflict significant damage over an extended period time without the elven command taking any notice. In fact, it took the complete destruction of Lar, an isolated elven world in a remote crystal sphere, for the Council of Admirals to finally take the incursion seriously.[42] Even then, the elves had very little information regarding the threat posed by their foes, and they responded by sending mercenary groups on espionage missions to gather information.[43]

In the year since they began their invasion, the various scro fleets had attacked several elven worlds and destroyed elements of the Imperial Fleet throughout the Known Spheres; the Tarantula Fleet, for example, had completely destroyed the elven presence in two crystal spheres, and had conquered an elven world in a third[44] before inadvertently revealing their presence to the Rock of Bral Fleet under Admiral Cirathorn when they attempted to capture the Cloakmaster over the gnomish world of Ironpiece.[45]

However, once the Imperial Fleet awakened to the threat posed by the scro, the elves began to put up a credible fight, though they suffered heavy losses in both ships and personnel. In Greyspace, a fleet of 75 scro Mantis ships attacked the 69 ships of the Greyspace fleet (including 24 Armadas) in what became known as the Borka Maneuver, destroying over half the elven fleet before fleeing into the Grinder at the cost of all but 15 of the scro vessels.[46] Similar events unfolded throughout the Known Spheres, to the point where even the Grand Admiral feared that the Imperial Fleet would be overcome.[47]

On the other hand, the scro themselves had suffered significant losses during the opening stages of the War of Revenge. After a year of near continuous fighting, the Tarantula Fleet had lost over two-thirds of its ships, including all of its Mantis ships, and had been forced to press hastily repaired derelicts and hijacked ships into service.[35] Similarly, many of the scro fleets and detached units, such as the Sky Shark battalion,[40] had suffered such heavy losses due to attrition that the scro commanders were forced to supplement their troop compliments with orcish auxiliaries, despite their innate disdain for such "lesser" creatures.[24][48]

As the War progressed, the scro began to suffer a number of significant setbacks. The Tarantula Fleet, which under Fleet Admiral Halker and General Vorr had performed admirably in destroying several elven worlds across three spheres,[26] suddenly diverted from their given mission. In an attempt to capture the Cloakmaster, Teldin Moore, the Tarantula's inadvertently revealed their presence in the system, and were ambushed over the gnomish world of Ironpiece by elements of the Imperial Fleet based at the Rock of Bral.[49] The Tarantula Fleet lost several ships, including Admiral Halker's flagship, the Mammoth Thundertusk, but only destroyed a single Man-o-war in return.[45] Admiral Halker would continue his ill-advised pursuit of the the Cloakmaster to a remote crystal sphere known as Herdspace, where the Tarantula Fleet was eventually defeated, costing both Admiral Halker and General Vorr their lives and destroying most of their ships, though in turn all but one of the Rock of Bral Fleet was lost, including Admiral Cirathorn[50] and his flagship, the Armada, Empress Dorianne.[51]

Unfortunately for the elves, the scro had recovered two ancient weapons of mass destruction created by their ancestors, known as witchlight marauders; one was hidden at the heart of Gamaro Base in Moragspace,[52] while a second was hidden below the Twin Tusk Peaks on Armistice in Winterspace.[53] The scro (or some other goblinoids) would temporarily waken a primary marauder from its torpor long enough for it to produce a secondary marauder, which in turn would be allowed to spawn several tertiary marauders. The secondary and tertiary marauders would then be used as weapons against elven vessels, either by launching them from a catapult or simply dropping them onto an enemy vessel's deck.[54] The first ship known to be overcome by marauders during the second Unhuman War was an elven Armada patrolling Winterspace, with the loss of one hundred crew[55] as well as all members of the recovery parties sent by the elven Battle dolphin, Starfoam. The elven Man-o-war, Windwalker, which was standing watch over the planet Armistice in Winterspace, was later overcome by a dozen or so tertiary marauders deployed by a bionoid Shrike ship.[56]

Fortunately, the freelance agents dispatched by the Imperial Fleet returned with warnings regarding the presence of the primary marauder hidden deep within Gamaro Base, as well as the fact that the scro intended to recover a device known as a witchlight key, which had been hidden in a remote sphere known as Shadowspace. The device would allow the scro to gain complete control over a primary marauder, allowing them to deploy the monstrous creature and use it to annihilate an entire elven world.[57] Silanos, commander of the Armada Constellation and chief advisor to the Grand Admiral, devised a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the threat posed by Gamaro Base: while a raid would be conducted on the hidden base, freelance agents were tasked with recovering the witchlight key before the scro, and to return to Gamaro Base where they would take control of the primary marauder.

When the agents dispatched by Silanos returned to Moragspace with the witchlight key,[note 2] they discovered that Gamaro Base had been abandoned after suffering significant damage from both external attack[58] as well as internal conflict among the various factions that were stationed onboard.[59] However, the primary marauder remained in torpor, ensconced within the derelict base, but before the agents could lay claim to the creature, they had to fight off one last assault led by a senior war-priest before returning to the Imperial Fleet.[60]

The final blow to the Scro's ambitions took place in Winterspace, where the elven Swanship Trumpeter, under the duel captaincy of Vallus Leafbower and Teldin Moore, discovered that the goblinoids of Armistice had been equipped with ships and helms[61] by members of Clan Kir, a rogue bionoid battle-clan allied with the scro Sky Shark battalion. When Hecate Kir, the Cloakmaster's navigator and former member of Clan Kir, was captured by his former comrades, he discovered that a primary marauder had been hidden beneath a mountain range on Armistice, and that the bionoids had been responsible for deploying secondary and tertiary marauders against Imperial Fleet vessels.[54] To prevent the primary marauder being woken and used against the Imperial Fleet, Hecate sabotaged their ship and caused it to crash, killing everyone onboard except himself and the insectare spymaster K'tide.[62][63]

Having rescued Hecate from the crash site,[64] and having learnt of the scro's plans,[63] Teldin Moore and Vallus Leafbower were determined to prevent the goblinoids from leaving Armistice. The Trumpeter, together with the radiant dragon Celestial Nightpearl, would go on to defeat the scro Sky Shark battalion and the Ice orc fleet.[65] Vallus would later allow the aperusa Rozloom to return to Armistice, where he awakened the primary marauder (at the cost of his own life), dooming the planet and all of its inhabitants.[66]

Aftermath[]

Once it became clear that they had lost control of both primary marauders, and that the Imperial Fleet was in possession of the witchlight key recovered from Shadowspace, the scro leadership began drastically cutting back on their military operations, and even offered to open negotiations with the elves.[67][note 2]

In the end, despite the Imperial Fleet having "won" the second Unhuman War by all accounts,[68] the Scro were firmly established as a dominant faction in wildspace,[69][70] while the Imperial Fleet was decimated, leaving them vulnerable. According to one historian, the elves may be fated to eventually disperse throughout the Known Spheres, much in the same way the goblinoid fleets were scattered at the end of the first Unhuman War.[68]

Appendix[]

Notes[]

  1. Although the term "Great Hunt" is only used once in the source material, the context makes it clear that it refers to the closing stages of the war when patrols were detached from the Imperial Fleet and sent to hunt down the remnants of the goblinoid fleets.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Although SJQ1 provides information on a number of ways the Adventure may be concluded, this article assumes a mostly positive result, including the capture or destruction of the primary marauder and the recovery of the "witchlight key" by agents of the Imperial Fleet.

External Links[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Jeff Grubb, AD&D Adventures in Space, Lorebook of the Void, 1989, (TSR Inc.), The Elven Armadas section, chapter 3: Spacefarers, page 55
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Jeff Grubb, AD&D Adventures in Space, Lorebook of the Void, 1989, (TSR Inc.), Goblin Races section, chapter 3: Spacefarers, page 59
  3. 3.0 3.1 Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Background section, chapter 1: The Mission, page 4
  4. 4.0 4.1 Rick Swan, SJQ1 Heart of the Enemy, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Introduction, page 3
  5. Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), sidebar, page 56
  6. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 39
  7. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 154-155
  8. Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), sidebar, page 55
  9. 9.0 9.1 Nigel D. Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Armistice section, chapter 2 Earth Bodies, page 11
  10. Jeff Grubb, AD&D Adventures in Space, Lorebook of the Void, 1989, (TSR Inc.), Undead section, chapter 3 Spacefarers, pages 62-63
  11. Nigel D. Findley, SJA2 Skull & Crossbows, 1990, (TSR Inc.), Billy Bones section, chapter 4: Monsters of the Void, page 54
  12. Jeff Grubb, The Legend of Spelljammer, Captains and Ships, 1991, (TSR Inc.), The Shipyard, pages 17-18
  13. Jeff Grubb, The Legend of Spelljammer, Captains and Ships, 1991, (TSR Inc.), The Shipyard, page 12
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Newton Ewell, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Witchlight Marauders entry
  15. 15.0 15.1 Newton Ewell, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Bionoid entry
  16. 16.0 16.1 Newton Ewell, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Spirit Warrior entry
  17. John Terra, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Yitsan entry
  18. Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Borka chapter, pages 54-55
  19. Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Borka chapter, pages 55-56
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Borka chapter, page 56
  21. Ed Greenwood, SJR1 Lost Ships, 1990, (TSR Inc.), Ship Catalog chapter, page 40
  22. Curtis M. Scott, CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook, 1992, (TSR Inc.), The Sindiath Line section, chapter 7: Spacefaring Organizations, pages 90-91
  23. Rick Swan, SJQ1 Heart of the Enemy, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Witchlight Marauder entry, page 94
  24. 24.0 24.1 Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 18-19
  25. Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), sidebar, page 54
  26. 26.0 26.1 Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 19
  27. Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Borka chapter, pages 57-58
  28. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 29
  29. 29.0 29.1 Nigel D. Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Plata section, chapter 6 Unusual or "Non-Standard" Worlds, page 49
  30. 30.0 30.1 Nigel D. Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Armistice section, chapter 2 Earth Bodies, pages 11-12
  31. 31.0 31.1 Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Important NPCs section, Borka chapter, page 59
  32. 32.0 32.1 Nigel D. Findley, SJR6 Greyspace, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Borka chapter, page 58
  33. 33.0 33.1 John Terra, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Scro entry
  34. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), chapter 3: Gamaro Base Description, page 42
  35. 35.0 35.1 Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 18
  36. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), chapter 2: Events on Gamaro Base, page 10
  37. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), chapter 3: Gamaro Base Description, page 38
  38. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 180-181
  39. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), chapter 3: Gamaro Base Description, page 26
  40. 40.0 40.1 Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 50
  41. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 49-50
  42. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), The Briefing section, chapter 1: The Mission, page 5
  43. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), The Briefing section, chapter 1: The Mission, page 6
  44. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 17-19
  45. 45.0 45.1 Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 104-107
  46. Dale "Slade" Henson, War Captain's Companion, War Captain's Guide, 1992, (TSR Inc.), chapter 3: Spacefleets of the Void, page 20
  47. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 25 and 28
  48. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 53-54
  49. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 89-98
  50. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 291
  51. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 287-288 and 293
  52. Roger E. Moore, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Maelstrom's Eye, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 43-44
  53. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), frontispiece map
  54. 54.0 54.1 Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 206-208
  55. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 52-53
  56. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 238-240
  57. Rick Swan, SJQ1 Heart of the Enemy, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Introduction, page 4
  58. Bruce Nesmith, SJS1 Goblins' Return, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Continuing From Here section, chapter 3: Gamaro Base Description, page 56
  59. Rick Swan, SJQ1 Heart of the Enemy, 1992, (TSR Inc.), chapter 5: Morkitar and the Marauder, page 81
  60. Rick Swan, SJQ1 Heart of the Enemy, 1992, (TSR Inc.), chapter 5: Morkitar and the Marauder, pages 83-86
  61. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 224-225
  62. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 234-237
  63. 63.0 63.1 Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 281
  64. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), page 236
  65. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, 1992, (TSR Inc.), pages 283-305
  66. Elaine Cunningham, The Cloakmaster Cycle, The Radiant Dragon, pages 307-309
  67. Rick Swan, SJQ1 Heart of the Enemy, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Aftermath section, chapter 5: Morkitar and the Marauder, page 86
  68. 68.0 68.1 Dale "Slade" Henson, War Captain's Companion, War Captain's Guide, 1992, (TSR Inc.), chapter 3: Spacefleets of the Void, page 19
  69. Curtis M. Scott, CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Scro section, chapter 2: New Spacefaring Races, page 24
  70. Curtis M. Scott, CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook, 1992, (TSR Inc.), Corsair section, chapter 3: Spacefarer Kits, page 31