The Wolf War

While the Empire of Nerath was still the Kingdom of Jhonnodor in the South, there were other powerful kingdoms dotting the landscape. In the North, the most powerful was the Kingdom of Lycar.

In it's earliest days, Lycar was not much more than a powerful barbarian tribe, frequently battling against other tribes for dominance over the Northern Plains. At some point though, things changed. Several of the tribal shaman gathered together and thought up a way to take control of the the plains once and for all. They gathered the greatest of the Lycari warriors and performed a ritual to imbue them with the power of nature itself.

Transformed, these Lycari became the first Shifters. Stronger, faster, they became nigh unstoppable in battle. Quickly, the Lycari subjugated the other tribes and within five years, they dominated the land. They used their captured slaves to build cities and their might to expand into the High Plains.

After some time though, a flaw in the ritual was discovered. Occasionally, when the Shifter Lycari had a child, it was something both more Human and more Animal. They looked Human under most circumstances, but they could change themselves wholly into an animal. The shaman said it was a gift from their gods and soon these lycanthropes became the elite class of the Lycari. Over time, more and more became these elite beings and eventually the pure Human Lycari were gone.

The Lycari knew of the original ritual, but had since lost the complete knowledge. It was alleged that the Greenseers had that knowledge, and the Lycari wanted to empower themselves even more with these primal forces.

But at the same time, Nerath had become a mighty power in the South, and they sought mystic knowledge from the Greenseers as well. A reckoning had come, and thus began the Wolf War.

The Lycari and their wild forces came up against the tyrannical discipline of Nerath. For years, they fought for control over the Greenlands and the knowledge they supposedly contained. Eventually, it became a stalemate, neither side could dislodge the other without immense casualties. But Nerath was not at rest. It's wizards used their own sources of knowledge and developed a devious plan.

On a cold winter night when the three moons were aligned, something that happens only once every thousand years or so, they channeled their powers into the aether and altered the original ritual of the Lycari. No longer would they be able to change from a human to an animal whenever they chose. And no longer would they retain their identities when they did change. From now on, the moons themselves would choose when they changed, and their minds would be gone while in an animal state. They would be raging beasts, uncontrolled and violent to all those around them.

When the spell was cast, chaos and anarchy overtook the Lycari lands and people. Thousands died in the chaos as their loved ones transformed and ran wild. The Kingdom of Lycar was broken, scattering it's people back into barbarism across the North with the added danger of these wild lycanthropes prowling.