Thousand Year War

The Thousand Year War was a conflict between dragonkind and the giant nation of Ostoria. It began in the Time of Dragons, c., and lasted until c. , after both races reached a truce.

Causes
In the few centuries that followed their arrival to Toril, the dragons had many minor conflicts with the giants of Ostoria.

The war truly began when the dragon god Garyx sent an avatar to lead a flight of red dragons to attack the giant nation, an assault that led to the burning and destruction of a cloud giant city. Soon afterward, all races of dragonkind were involved in the conflict.

Battle
The giants also created a powerful colossus construct called Vonindod to help them in the fight against the dragons. The battles acquired such an epic scope that they became the source of inspiration for many dwarven, elven, and even giant classical ballads.

One of the most renowned heroes of the war was the frost giant Hjurnur Wyrmrever, who killed many dragons single-handedly. He was reputed to have killed an adult blue dragon with a single blow of his axe, to have broken the spine of a black dragon over his knees, and to have challenged Tiamat in a contest of riddles. He lost that contest, however, and had to allow the Queen of Dragons devour his own child. Some claimed Hjurnur died while killing a dragon king, while others recorded that he had died fighting an ancient gold dragon general that had previously destroyed many a giant city. His story was immortalized in the Saga of the Dragon Queller.

Despite the giants best efforts, the dragons ultimately drove them out of the southern portion of Ostoria.

After more than a thousand years of warfare, Ostoria finally reached a truce with dragonkind. Accounts of the nature of the truce were conflicting because many races accounted the event differently. Historians among the smallfolk typically claimed that the dragons had abandoned the war for reasons of their own. According to dwarven historians, the dragons wanted to end the war with the giants because they were fighting in a violent civil war that led to the separation of the chromatic and metallic species.

According to giant traditions, Annam All-Father and Garyx settled the war by playing a game of wah-ree. The game ended in a stalemate. A result which allowed the dragons to keep the territories they had won in the war.

A third account stated that the war ended as a result of a curse that struck Tiamat after she slew an unknown giant deity. She was doomed to become a prisoner of Tiamat's Lair in Avernus, only able to leave the plane if summoned by a powerful ritual.

Aftermath
After the end of the conflict, the giants dismantled the construct Vonindod.

By the time the war concluded, Ostoria had been reduced to a shadow of its former self. On the day the truce was declared, the nation occupied only the northernmost edge of Faerûn, the areas now known as the Great Glacier, the Cold Lands, and the Savage North.

Some sages believed that, if Tiamat were to be successfully summoned back to the Prime Material plane, it would result in an end to the truce and the return of hostilities between the two races.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Storm King's Thunder
 * Video Games
 * Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
 * Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
 * Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance