War of the Wyrmborn

The War of the Wyrmborn (aka the Schism of the Shards or the Sharborne Schism) was the last great conflagration of elvenkind during the Third Age, marking the death of their fragile unity and the beginning of their ruination. It was not a war of conquest, nor one of survival—but a war of pride, jealousy, and betrayal—fought not against monsters, but kin.

Its roots lie in the aftermath of The Riftfire Rebellion, when the once-glorious True Dragon—those ancient mentors and progenitors of the elven civilizations—had been slain, scattered, cursed, or driven into exile. With the draconic wards broken and their guidance lost, the elven nations turned on one another, fueled by whispers, ambition, and wounds left to fester.

And behind it all, veiled in many faces, walked Malekith, the Sundered Flame.

Causes: Fracture of the Elven Realms

The war was not born in a single moment—it was nurtured over decades by the subtle manipulations of Malekith. Taking many forms across the fractured elven nations, he whispered doubt into the hearts of leaders, sowing the seeds of paranoia.

To the Vanir of Itelion (in Tolria), he whispered that the Solir hoarded the secrets of Sun-Rifting and that they conspired to launch an incursion into their empire by sea.
To the Solir of Itela (in The Sun Realm), he murmured that the Vanir had uncovered forbidden Mythar knowledge and sought to wipe out their civilization.
To the Njordir of The Earth Realm, he warned that both factions threatened the balance of the world with their insatiable hunger for Rift Magic.

The Avatars, once heralded as divine protectors of the Elemental Realms, were not immune. Though noble by blood and purpose, even they were swayed by their people’s outcry to “protect the realm” from the growing dangers of the others. Elves, once stewards of harmony, now saw one another as rivals. And the Age of Unity ended in fire.

The War: Blood of Kin

What followed was one of the bloodiest wars in Tolria’s history.

The Vanir, wielding Ether-Rifting and armed with stolen Mythar relics, launched a fleet from Itelion, seeking to breach the sunlit shores of Itela.
The Solir, fierce and disciplined, met them at sea with searing radiance as they scorched Vanir fleets and at land with radiant armies clad in gold.
When the earth trembled with imbalance, the Njordir of the Earth Kingdom marched south, trembling the very mountains beneath their feet. They joined the war not on their own misguided accord, and soon found themselves bloodied by both sides.
Incursions of Solir struck the archipelagos of Tolria; Vanir saboteurs poisoned the sacred groves of Osira. The battles could be seen from hundreds of miles away, as the world seethed and burned.

And atop it all loomed a singular event: a continental-spanning battle across the great range once known as the Spine of the World, a titanic land-barrier connecting the Earth and Sun Realms. Here, amid a hundred days of ceaseless war, millions perished in the blood-soaked gorge known now as:

The Vale at Spine's End

No victor would emerge from the vale. Only smoke, scream, spattered blood, and shattered stone.

The Second Continuum Crisis

As the final battle wore on and drowned the vale in rivers of elven blood, the hidden efforts of Malekith's occult disciples—the Cult of Infinitum—reached their climax. Deep within the Sanctum of Continuum, beneath the fractured crust of Tolria, they gathered the last of the stolen Infinity Shards, aiming to fracture The Continuum Crystal and bring about a new existence, reborn in Azhorra'thas image.

What they unleashed was no rebirth, but annihilation.

The Second Continuum Crisis shattered the Prime Plane. Reality buckled. Time stuttered. A terrible Rift opened. The ground split open to the stars, and Revenant Titan bled through the cracks. The Vanir of Itelion all but erased in this singularity. The Solir fleets were turned to ash. The earth itself screamed.

Only the divine intervention of the Hosts of Helion, led by Emperor Ezekiel (now ascended Archangel), could seal the wound. But the cost was unimaginable—their power was spent, and the crystal remained cracked, warded, but not whole.

Aftermath: End of the Elven Age

The war did not end.
It was broken.

The Vanir of Tolria were no more. Itelion was swallowed by the sea and the singularity.
The Solir retreated into the sacred core of Itela, a shadow of their former glory.
The Njordir, disillusioned, fortified their halls and withdrew to their stone bound fortresses.
The Vanir of Aerenal severed all ties, retreating beyond the veil.
The Unbekannt of Atla, guardians of the sea, sealed the Seagate.

And Malekith, ever the herald of endings, departed before the collapse, sailing into The Sands of Serrakhan, where a new age—and empire—would await him.

Legacy

The War of the Wyrmborne is remembered not as a war of conquest, but as the genocide of civilizations. The Shardborne Schism tore apart the elven world—not only in blood, but in trust, in culture, and in purpose.

It marked the final fall of the dragons, the shattering of the continuum, and the damnation of the elven soul.