The War of the Lance

The first true military test of the Dragon Armies was the Red and Green Dragon Armies’ successful invasion of the unprepared realm of Nordmaar. This victory convinced many neutral bands of hobgoblins and ogres in the Taman Busuk region to align with the Dragon Armies, though many holdouts remain.

The Green Dragon Army was dispatched to the steppes of Khur to subdue the tribes there. Rather than fight a protracted campaign, Ariakas allowed the cunning Khur leader Salah-Khan to defeat the Green Dragon Army’s original highlord in battle, then offered to make Salah-Khan highlord in his place. In exchange for control over Khur and the surrounding lands, Salah-Khan accepted and pledged his people to Tiamat, adding to the Dragon Armies’ ranks. Few can say whether he did so to further his own ambitions or to spare Khur a long, bloody conflict, but many Khur view Salah-Khan as a traitor to his people and fiercely resist the Green Dragon Army’s occupation.

Without substantial military resistance, Balifor and the Goodlund Peninsula fell to the Black and White Dragon Armies. Though the land’s residents are largely resigned to the Black Dragon Army’s ongoing occupation, the kender of Kendermore lead the region’s resistance, waging a guerrilla war against the occupiers.

The Red and Blue Dragon Armies attacked the elven nation of Silvanesti. The elves mounted a stiff resistance, and the siege stretched on in a brutal campaign.

After a year of fighting, the Silvanesti elves evacuated from their ancestral home and sailed for Southern Ergoth. The elves’ leader, Speaker of the Stars Lorac, attempted to use an orb of dragonkind* to protect his homeland but succeeded only in transforming it into a land of nightmares, useless to both sides. 

*The orb of dragonkind was not whole, which probably was why it backfired. It was a rather large piece of what was known as the Red Gem, a source of power that Tiamat required to stay in control, destroyed by the Double Dawners centuries before.

With virtually all of eastern Ansalon under their control, the Dragon Armies have spent much of the last year regrouping and consolidating their power. The Blue and Red Dragon Armies have returned to the Taman Busuk region, tasked with preparing to invade Solamnia. The White Dragon Army has ventured south to conquer Icereach, where its white dragons can fight effectively in its frozen lands. The Green and Black Dragon Armies focus on their occupied lands abroad.

In Neraka, zealots and black-robed mages devise magical plans to empower Dragon Army forces. One such plot, involving the ruins of an Istarian city, captures the imagination of Dragon Highlord Elfredwray. He tasks his devotee, Kansaldi Fire-Eyes, with claiming a devastating new weapon for the Dragon Armies.

Factual reports of war in eastern Ansalon and the Dragon Queen’s return are slow to spread. Many of Ansalon’s communities are isolated, and the Dragon Armies work to suppress information of their conquests. As a result, most people in Solamnia and west of the mountainous Taman Busuk region aren’t aware of the Dragon Armies’ threat beyond vague rumors.

Rumors will be given out to the players when we get closer to play time.