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.
Names
The Great War is known as several names in different countries:
Third Solar Crusade
The Great War is known as the Fourth Solar Crusade in Sensuîerreí.
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.
Atomic bombing of Ohai
After the mobilization of civilians by the imperial government to defend the remaining territories still under imperial control in early January 1950, the Ngonku estimated that Dain Pain would exact a bloody toll on every inch of land gained by the People's Republic of Qonklaks. Ngonku high command estimated that the push into Jikhein Province would cause a huge amount of casualties that they were not prepared to deal with. As a result, they decided to use one of three Smiling Sage reproductions they had reverse engineered from the original that they had intercepted in 1945, on a major industrial port still under direct imperial control. The city of Ohai was chosen for its proximity to Jikhein. Knowing that fellow Accord powers would not approve such a decision, it was decided to keep the operation classified.
On the morning of April 22nd, 1950, a LhT-3N heavy bomber took off from Meinbaipaw. It unloaded the Smiling Sage at 33.78 dema (09:23) and it denoted 28 seconds later as an airburst detonation. Within seconds, Ohai was flattened to the ground.
News of the event did not reach the imperial government until 36.06 dema (10:01). Dain Pain was not made aware of the event until later that evening, as he buried himself in his library, ordering anyone who disturbed him to be executed. Upon receiving the news as he emerged from the library, Dain Pain threw a raging fit, hurling heavy books at windows and unsecured ceramics. He immediately summoned his war cabinet that night. Over the next week, his advisors alerted that it was likely that the Ngonku had likely reversed engineered the Smiling Sage, and are currently producing their own atomic bombs, thus making a secondary attack within the coming days very likely if they did not surrender. Dain Pain, however, dismissed this, believing that the Ngonku had no means of producing such a weapon with their available resources, and that they likely dropped the original Smiling Sage, the only atomic weapon they had.
On April 30th, unable to come to a consensus, his war cabinet threatened to mass resign if Dain Pain did not at least engage in ceasefire talks to prevent another atomic weapon from being dropped, as Ngonku forces began to establish air superiority above Jikhein. Dain Pain began to view his war cabinet as 'defeatists', ordering the imperial guard to have them all arrested and tried for treason. However, the captain of the imperial guard, X, pointed his pistol at Dain Pain instead, ordering his subordinates to have him arrested for inflicting years of suffering upon the Qonklese nation. Dain Pain was formally arrested at 82.58 dema (22:56).
Immediately, Prime Minister Marshal Hà'auq Nhi Ya ordered a general ceasefire to all units still directly commanded by the imperial government, and reached out to the Accord powers to negotiate surrender under terms.