The Great War

The longest war in the history of Sylos. Originating to what was previously known as the Harmonic Isles (now known as the Black Islands), the conflict started as a war between the ancient elves. Originally, Prozecks and Hyzecks worked in unison. Although they did not group together and affiliate with one another, they balanced the cycles of life and death on the islands. When the Prozecks destroyed all life and moved to another spot on the island, the Hyzecks would follow and restore life. For thousands of years, this was the accepted ideology by both races.

History
In the year 1218, a Prozeck by the name of Warthall started a small cult-like following of dark elves, where he convinced them that the traditional cycle of life and death was wrong. He spoke of a vision where he claimed to have communicated with one of the Ulgundar. In this vision, the angel revealed to him that it was not the Prozecks purpose in life to maintain a balance of energy. It was their duty to destroy all life on the planet, in order to successfully and purposefully end their own lives. He spoke of how elves who had been around since the dawn of time were not meant to live as immortal beings, and that the purpose of the Prozeck race was to bring mortality to the ancient elves. It was through this path to mortality that they would become the most powerful Prozecks in existence. So over the next year on the island that they resided (Mount Vultran), he and his followers killed all Hyzecks and destroyed all forms of life in its domain. While it did not affect other people and civilizations, it is unofficially referred to as the start of The Great War.

The period from 1492-1608 was known as the Black Plague. Public executions and kidnappings were at its highest and whole towns and cities were burned down to the ground. Countless acts of genocide were committed as a new order of murderers and thieves came to power. This group was known as the Shadow’s Hand, led by the Commanding General of Warthall’s army to instill terror into the people he ruled. They acted as a reminder of his rule, and to end any rebellion or the thought of it by committing heinous acts of cruelty. Those who were thought of as defiant or rebellious were dragged from their homes and slaughtered in the street. Family members of rebels were kidnapped and tortured into revealing the location/secrets of their family, until they were eventually killed. Many were hung from street posts while others were butchered and put on staves. Some were unfortunate enough to be killed during interrogation, and were never to be seen again. They would remain missing forever. The methods of interrogation are very cruel, so I won’t go into much detail. But here are just some of the common interrogation techniques used by the Shadow’s Hand: built to the size of one’s body so they cannot move. Most died. And a whole lot more… The point is, Warthall had built up an elite branch of his military dedicated to terror tactics on enemies as well as civilians. As one citizen who saw his impending invasion from Warthall’s Forksaken Army said, “Better to die at the hand of myself than at the hand of him…” (He killed himself with a crossbow shortly after). In certain regions of the world at that time, it wasn’t considered a cowardly thing to do, to take one’s life. Hope was lost, and hell was upon them. People’s morals began to change. No longer was it taboo for someone to be killed in the street during the afternoon. Most heads would turn and see who had just died. Others were either too tired or too preoccupied to even care, and kept on walking. It was a different time back then, and a lot of people were in the wrong place; both metaphorically and geographically.
 * Bodily dismemberment
 * Drowning
 * Suffocation
 * Solitary imprisonment for days/weeks in an iron box,
 * Castration