Heroscape: The Equestrian Siege

The land of Valhalla today is not what it once was.  Before the war started, the land was mostly uninhabited and unexplored, except for very small areas where the Kyrie, Valhalla's primary sentient organism, resided.  Not much is known about the past lives of the Kyrie, for much of their history is written in the blood of those who died in their war.

And that is where our story begins.  Across Valhalla rest oases of water with magical properties, known as wellsprings.  Fifteen are known of in the war torn minds of those on Valhalla, and they are vital to each faction's war efforts.  For any Kyrie who drinks from the water of a wellspring will grow exponentially in power.

They become physically stronger than their brethren, their wings grow larger, and they are granted powerful magics.  Magics that could potentially save or destroy the universe.  Five Kyrie are known to have drunk from a wellspring, each becoming a Valkyrie, and each becoming leaders of a small country and of an army.

These five Valkyries are: Jandar, Ullar, Einar, Vydar, and Utgar.  And these five Valkyries want the wellsprings for themselves.  Because of this, war broke out amongst their respective countries, fighting for control of the wellsprings so that their Valkyrie could become more powerful.

Soon, alliances were made between them; Jandar and Ullar, long time friends before the war broke out, fought against Einar and Utgar, each of whom had expansionist goals, while Vydar merely watched, his lands becoming polluted with the outcomes of the fighting of the others.

The war continued for a very long while, significantly diminishing the populations of indigenous Kyrie.  To stop the decline of their people, each Valkyrie turn to the new magical abilities.  While it is unknown which one of the five was the first to discover it, eventually, the Valkyrie were summoning warriors from other worlds to fight with them.  With this discovery, Kyrie became a rare sight on the battlefield, being replaced by creatures from many different worlds and from many different times.  Humans from Earth, elves from Feylund, soulborgs from Alpha Prime, even dragons from Icaria were brought from their homelands to fight for the outcome Valhalla.  But it was not long until it was discovered that more was at stake.

By this time, there were clear distinctions between how each Valkyrie general led themselves and their forces.  Jandar and Ullar would be considered the 'good guys' by human terms.  They brought peace to their occupied lands; freeing slaves, sharing food and other resources with the populations, and ruled justly.  Einar and Utgar were therefore the antagonists.  Their expansionist agenda led them to rule their lands with an iron fist.  They enslaved their prisoners, ravaged conquered lands for resources, and were quick to deal death.  However, whatever cruelty Einar gave, Utgar gave ten times worse.

With a near indefinite pool of warriors to pull from now, Utgar and Einar pressed their empires even further and harder, encroaching on Vydar's land and other neutral ground.  Most of Vydar's actions have been a mystery throughout his time, but one definitive moment was when he allied himself with Jandar and Ullar to rid his lands of the invading armies.  With three armies fighting two, Utgar and Einar were pushed back, and Vydar surprisingly remained allied with Jandar and Ullar.

The war continued to wage, neither side gaining any real advantage over another.  But one day, Utgar explained his reason for fighting to Einar.  Utgar wanted to control everything.  Einar, already wary of Utgar's villainy, knew that Utgar could not be permitted to do so.  With more than the wellsprings at stake, Einar broke alliances with Utgar and instead turned to Jandar, Ullar, and Vydar, telling them of Utgar's plans.  Thoroughly enraged and feeling betrayed, Utgar poured himself into expanding his army, creating a force sizable enough to fight back the four combined armies to a stalemate.

The drain from such magical expenditure was immense on his mind, but he continued to do so regularly, slowly gaining an advantage over the other Valkyrie's forces, at the cost of deteriorating sanity.  Before long, Utgar had lost it, and madly drove his entire force into the heart of the allied Valkyrie's armies for the final fight.  The greatest battle of all time was finally ending.