The United Kingdom — The Dragon War

The majority of this is highly public information - while Great Britain's destruction hardly makes it the only nation devastated by the events that followed the Resonance Event, it is unique in that it is the only nation to have been lost completely in the years that followed the event.

Like all the nations of the world, the events that came to the Earth along with the appearance of the Nevus, the United Kingdom was hit hard by the changes that washed over the world. Unfortunately, while for most countries the fact that even the inhuman creatures needed time to adjust, time to deal with the new realities of the world, the UK dealt with something far worse - an enemy that was prepared, organized, and seemingly ready for the event.

It was the war to end all wars. Shortly after the Nevus ripped across the night sky the United Kingdom was plagued by massive monstrosities. They descended from the sky on wings or rose from the depths of the earth. People were at first reluctant to speak their name, it seemed impossible and yet here they were — Dragons!

Why they converged upon the United Kingdom was unknown. In the face of destruction it was difficult to ponder a relationship between the monsters and the place of which their legend was entwined. These legendary beasts sought to assert themselves at the top of the food chain and claim the island of the United Kingdom as their rightful territory. It was a slaughter, thousands were killed before the military mobilized. The dragons were massive and powerful but no more intelligent than an animal. They were able to develop strategies to counter their marauding attacks and the rest of the world was not far behind.

How long before these creatures set their sights on other countries? That was the question posed to other leaders and those able to spare the troops joined in the war against the dragons.

The campaign lasted almost two years (2011 - 2013). During this time it was learned that there were two strata of Dragons, a 'lower' and 'higher'. The 'lower' were what would come to be known as the 'Common Dragon', animalistic, a direct reflection of the lore of the land. The 'High Dragons' were something else entirely, not unlike gods. The world had no chance against them, understanding of magic was simply too young and that's all that could be used against these titans. Fortunately they were few in number and consisted of two opposing factions, one malicious, one benevolent. While the military forces were winning the war against the 'Common Dragons', these two higher factions wiped one another out. The world as a whole would not have been any more accepting of these supposedly 'moral' Dragons anyway. The human race was not ready to concede their mastery of the planet to a more powerful species.

In the end the 'common dragons' were no match for military might. It was in those early years that technology had not yet began to suffer from the effects of magic and so Humanity was in top form. The creatures were beaten back, hunted down and killed without mercy until they were believed to have all been destroyed.

England and parts of Scotland and the eastern side of Ireland were nothing but smouldering wastelands. Many fled to other parts of Europe and the Tri-Americas, but others stayed closer to home. Western Ireland remained untouched, a new home for millions of refuges.

Today it is not known whether or not any dragons yet live. Occasionally there are sightings, blurry pictures or videos from questionable sources. It is only known that any recent explorations into the desolate waylands of the dragon war have never returned.

The lesser known facts of the Dragon War are as follows:

It was only a few months after the Event itself, in January of 2011, that the 'Higher Dragons' of Shehad Darastrix (Empire of the Dragon) first invaded the island of Britain. It was reported that these 'Greater Dragons' seemed to fly to the Earth straight through the Nevus itself, though these 'particular sightings' were dismissed as the rantings of a terrified populace until the invasion hit.

In truth, the Greater Dragons were few. The majority of the forces were led by the Kluchud (spawn, what the people of Earth referred to as 'Common Dragons'), enormous creatures of varied shapes and sizes. They came like nightmares out of the sea, from under the ground, or from the air, their black scales hiding them at night and striking fear into the hearts of humanity in the daytime. (Among them walked smaller creatures, almost human but for their reptilian features, wielding powerful magic with a talent humans would not be able to match for years, devastating the best the UK could throw at them.) Yet even so, the tenacity of humans might have been enough, if not for the Greater Dragons.

Many believe that it was the resilience of Humanity that persevered against the Dragons. That, in the end the remaining forces dominated but the truth is far more fantastic.

Massive winged beasts the size of the largest aircraft in the sky, with scales that could turn aside even anti-tank missiles, the dragons lay waste to England's air power in a matter of days, burning the airports and preying on military and civilian alike from above. By March, it looked as though the entire country would turn into a slaughterhouse - but finally someone intervened. The remaining human nations on the planet were on their way to collapse on their own, and unable to lend much in the way of help with their own populations turning on one another. Shockingly, help came from creatures almost exactly like the ones who had attacked in the first place.

Led by a massive silver dragon, larger by far than any other dragon yet seen, who introduced herself as Aura'ornaltui, a huge group of dragons crossed the channel from Scotland and Ireland and crashed into the rear and flank of the forces that had been ravaging the UK, opening a new front that devastated the attacker's forces. For nearly six months the battle raged, the dragons and smaller creatures led by Aura put against the nameless monsters of the Empire and the great, dark scaled dragons that led it. In that time, nearly the entire civilian population of the UK was able to escape - most to Europe, some to the remnants of the United States.

Over the course of the battle, things were slowly explained. The forces that had attacked were at the beck and call of Azazel, an enormous black dragon that had been waging a similar war of devastation on his own world, the world the dragons had originally hailed from across the Veil. Aura had been his opposition, considered by many the rightful leader of their kind, but also the one against whom Azazel's wrath was most directed. Their clans had warred for thousands of years, with the great black dragon's parents falling to Aura's claws in the last war.

Yet for all her glory, Aura had grown old even for dragon kind, and was past her prime. Somehow, Azazel had predicted when Resonance would hit (as had some humans, such as those within the Order) and had made arrangements to bring huge portions of his army with him. Aura and her faction had not known, and while she had made it through the Veil to confront him, only a small fraction of her forces came with her. In the end, that was decisive.

The war against the UK had been a stalling action - a chance for Azazel to become massively entrenched in Greenland and Iceland, from which he launched an assault with himself at the head, intending to wipe out his hated enemy once and for all.

Few details of the battle that ensued escaped the country, with Aura having forced the evacuation of even most UK military personnel in the hours before the black dragon's arrival, but some accounts were captured at a distance. The battle between the two armies was cataclysmic, but paled in comparison to the two leaders clashing in the skies - both of like size, seemingly evenly matched in power. The relative youth of the black dragon would, however, prove decisive. Aura was critically wounded, and fell, though it seemed there was one last card to play. A spell of binding, one of terrible power worked before the battle commenced that would force the dragons to take a humanoid form, stealing from them their great size and much of their strength. It is theorized that this may have happened anyway, the magic of Earth following rules different from those that granted the dragons such power on their own world, but someone was able to accelerate the process.

It is unknown who finally cast that spell, and while it ended the fight for a time, it was not soon enough to save the UK. The vast majority of the islands lie in scorched ruin, the elemental energies of dragon breath and magic scouring the soil so deeply that even now, the better part of ten years later, plants refuse to grow. Both forces suffered heavy casualties, but they were far more devastating to Aura's smaller force, leaving fewer than thirty of the now-humanoid dragons to pull back with the remnants of the UK military to Long Island, New York, where they would form a group to continue their opposition to Azazel and his forces.

To this day, frequent patrols by Azazel's monsters make resettling of the English Isles a proposition that is almost universally met with death.