Soul War

The "Soul War" is a term often used to describe the conflict between the gods of Dadauar and the oneiriarchs. The more control the oneiriarchs have over the hearts of their people, the better for them, so the leaders of most oneiriarchies have actively worked to induce the people of their nations to forget the gods, the better to focus on their works for the state. Within most oneiriarchies, the gods are forgotten--or substituted with imaginary gods given to the people to worship to pacify them, but incapable of actually responding to their requests.

It's difficult to say exactly when the Soul War began; the oneiriarchs have been strengthening their hold over their dominions since the founding of the first modern oneiriarchy. But if there were one day to be chosen in which the Soul War began in its present state, it might be 2200 years ago, when the god Urudai intervened and destroyed the president of Mamlaas. In retaliation, a number of other oneiriarchs combined forces to destroy Urudai. Until that point, mortals destroying a god was a matter practically unheard of, but apparently that interchange convinced both the gods and the oneiriarchs that the other side was powerful enough to make direct confrontations risky. The Soul War continued, but was mostly one of persuasion and influence. There were some more direct strikes—the capture of Maior, the Enslaved God, two thousand years ago, and the Blessings of Yelay—but for the most part, the war has been fought not with physical weapons, but with words and magic, not over land or money, but over the minds of the people.

The Soul War is so called after the idea that the gods and the oneiriarchs are, in a sense, battling over the souls of the citizens of the oneiriarchies. The gods want the peoples' worship, of course, whereas the oneiriarchs want them completely dedicated to the oneiriarchies. It should be mentioned, however, the the "Soul War" is not a term that will be known to the typical person of Dadauar. Certainly most citizens of the oneiriarchies aren't even aware the Soul War is going on; it would be counterproductive for the oneiriarchs to make it publicly known that they were trying to draw people away from the gods. The term was coined by rebels against the oneiriarchs, but was later adopted by the oneiriarchs themselves, and is even used by some scholars both within and outside the oneiriarchies.

There may be some reason to fear that while the Soul War is not currently a physical war, it may be in danger of becoming one. As it is, it seems that the influence of the gods in the oneiriarchies is ever decreasing—the oneiriarchs are winning. It may be a matter of time before the gods get desperate and revert to more direct tactics. If this does happen, it will mean a battle between two incredibly powerful forces—the gods, and the oneiriarchs who have proven themselves perhaps the gods' equals—and it's likely to result in devastation unparalleled in Dadauar since the Great Plague. Whether or not humanity can even survive such a conflict remains to be seen.

If a full-scale war does break out, though, the gods and the oneiriarchs may not be the only forces to reckon with. The Bathybius, too, is a being of immense power, and while it may not be the equal of the gods, it keeps its motives and abilities secret enough that it's impossible to judge. In a physical Soul War, the Bathybius could be a major wild card, and it's anybody's guess which side, if either, it would throw its own power behind.

Even if the Soul War does turn physical and humanity somehow survives, the world, if it remains livable, will be a vastly different place. Depending on which side won, either the oneiriarchs would rule the world unchallenged by the gods, and perhaps take the places of the gods themselves, or the oneiriarchies will be thrown down and the people either freed or brought under theocracies to replace them. Or, conceivably, the Bathybius, having bided its time during the conflict until both sides are weakened, will have rushed in to take control itself, and brought all of Dadauar under its own control.

Of course, at this point all this is completely hypothetical. It could be that this never happens—that the Soul War never becomes physical, but just continues indefinitely in its current state, or that one side will manage to defeat the other without resorting to anything so crass as a direct frontal attack. It could conceivably even be that the gods and the oneiriarchs will come to some sort of mutually agreeable compromise, though under the present circumstances this seems exceedingly unlikely. Still, even in its current state, the Soul War provides an important undercurrent that has a subtle but significant effect on the lives of all Dadauar's people... whether they realize it or not.