The Last War

Soldiers and their warforged comrade shelter between battles during the Last War.

The Last War began in 894 YK, after the death of King Jarot of Galifar. Rival successors fought over the kingdom rather than accepting a peaceful succession. The five provinces became the competing powers remembered as the Five Nations: Aundair, Breland, Cyre, Karrnath, and Thrane.

The fighting outlived its original claimants. Successive generations inherited borders, losses, and claims that had begun before they were born. House industry and specialized magical services supplied the conflict, including Cannith's production of warforged.

More than battlefields

Conscription, displaced families, industrial contracts, propaganda, and broken friendships carried the war into ordinary lives. National loyalties could divide neighbors. The country someone had served could matter more to a stranger than their ancestry.

A veteran's experience might include military service, medical work, manufacture, transport, or keeping a household alive while others were away. The war created obligations and grievances far beyond the people who fought on its front lines.

How it ended

Art: Frazer Irving. Image source and credits, Eberron Wiki.

The destruction of Cyre in 994 YK transformed the conflict. An entire nation had been devastated by a catastrophe nobody could explain. The Treaty of Thronehold formally ended the war in 996 YK and recognized a new political order. It left disputes and resentments unresolved.

Memory in 1250

Most people now encounter the war through family stories, monuments, and the institutions that survived it. Some long-lived residents and warforged veterans remember events firsthand. A household's inherited account and another family's memory can emphasize very different losses.

The Mourning remains the defining catastrophe. Its memory is still used in arguments about dangerous magic, public safety, and how much authority institutions should hold. The present chronology follows the growth of House services through the centuries after the fighting ended.

Source: The Last War.