Great War

The Great War was a global conflict between mostly two major coalitions, the Accord and Mandate powers. Almost all nations participated in some form, with key participants mobilizing all resources to achieve wartime goals. It is considered the deadliest conflict in Abzû history.

Background

The causes of the various conflicts that eventually lead to the culmination of the Great War was...

Southern Tammuz

Warlordism had plagued Qonklaks since 1903, which brough forth a period of political and economic destablization in the region. Additionally, the nation suffered two major floods along the Mya and Ji rivers in 1924 and 1926, respectively, causing sever devastation to the nation's agricultural output. As a result, Qonklaks was still in a state of famine by the time Dain Pain ascended the Dragon Throne as the 11th Celestial Thearch. Lha-Khu leadership, even before the founding of the Qonklese Empire in 1928, believed that expanding their borders to incorporate members of the Quoncosphere was crucial to recovering from the environment devastation during the years of warfare, floods, and famine.

Development of nuclear weapons

In the 1930s, the Archdessodom of Ishkur becomes a hotbed for particle physics. Some scientists begin collaborating with the Ishkurite government to research whether a fission-reaction-power weapon of mass destruction is possible. Most among the scientific community dismiss such possibilities, but the Ishkurite government funnels more funding into developing such a weapon, culminating in the development of the Yodas Project in 1940.

As the Qonklese Civil War reaches its third year in 1945, Dain Pain's government grows desperate for a method to quickly restore imperial control over cenonist-held territories. In May 7, 1945, representatives from the Qonklese Empire and the Archdessodom of Ishkur sign the X Pact, which mainly included the purchase of the first nuclear bomb, the Smiling Sage.

Great Nuclear Sleight of 1945

The Ngonku had been made aware of this weapon since their agents embedded within the imperial diplomatic corps relayed information about the purchase. On August 11th, the Smiling Sage was shipped in a military cargo transport amongst nine other identical duds in identical crates labelled as biohazards to discourage customs officials from investigating too closely. The Smiling Sage was marked by a small red triangle on the side of its crate. A Ngonku agent switched out the triangle during the transit, so that when the bomb arrived in Shitaiq, the decoy was unloaded instead of the actual weapon.

The real Smiling Sage was stealthily removed from the ship on August 20th, during a pit stop at X, Awating, during the return journey, and was transported onto a Ngonku military cargo plane later that night.

On August 22nd, during the rail transit of the Smiling Sage from Shitaiq to Kobus, imperial authorities stopped the train to further inspect the bomb before it arrives in Kobus with a geigercounter to authenticate the bomb, but the radiation levels they detected did not reflect the expected levels of a loaded nuclear weapon.