The Winterheart Massacre is an event that occurred in Year 700, as part of the Drums of War Campaign. The Dark Elves underwent a religious schism when Kallix Erendwain and Jard Stonebrook, chosen champions of Selune, brought evidence to the Dark Elves that Selune and Vandun were not allies. Clan Uri'pe and Clan Toroth rallied against Clans Erendwain, Svalbren, and Vosk. The intricacies of the clans can be found on the Dark Elf clans page.
Timeline
Day 71 — Kallix arrives in Winterheart with Jard, and the clan Knezi (chieftains) Zekhan Erendwain, Ravka Vosk, and Tristela Svalbren meet with them. Prince Asgarion has arrived offering a pact of nonaggression and is kept jailed on Erendwain property. Meanwhile, Markus Thrain is being held by Ravka Vosk, and is offering a potential alliance and seat on the Confederacy for Dark Elves in order to gain their military support to face Hellan’s imminent threat: the Orcish Warlords, who are rallying to attack the southern border of Hellan.
Day 72 — A meeting of the Dark Elf clans is called. Kallix presents her prophecy stone to the Knezi. It shows Vandun’s vision for a world of darkness where the other gods are his slaves. Dark Elves have believed for hundreds of years that Selune and Vandun would marry and douse the world in quiet darkness, elevating the Dark Elves to be its caretakers, so the vision is very disturbing to them as well as Kallix’s claims that Selune appeared to her personally and struck out at Vandun.
Knez Amarinth Uri’pe calls Kallix a fake and a liar, and claims that the horrible vision will come to pass because Winterheart is full of people who do not worship Vandun fully. She asserts that, were all of the non-believers killed, Vandun would show his favor to the dark elves, and their goddess would be saved. Clan Toroth and Clan Uri’pe swear a pact to purge Winterheart of anyone who opposes them. Clan Erendwain and Svalbren swear a pact to follow Kallix and save their people. Clan Vosk abstains from swearing any pacts.
Clan Uri’pe’s warriors suddenly attack and chaos ensues. Knez Zekhan, Knez Ravka, and Knez Tristela all make it out alive with Kallix, and Clan Erendwain begins evacuating refugeees alongside Prince Asgarion. Clan Uri’pe moves through the city and destroys Clan Svalbren’s quarter first, allowing Erendwain to evacuate most of their people. Clan Vosk’s people are mostly left alone.
Day 73 — Knez Zekhan signs an agreement with Prince Asgarion to allow Sun Elf forces unobstructed passage through Dark Elf lands, to nonaggression between their people, and for Vestia to offer aid to Dark Elf refugees. Knez Ravka and Knez Tristela meet with Knez Zekhan and Markus Thrain, and decide on a few important plot points:
Dark Elves Join the Confederacy: Ravka greedily accepts the offer, Zekhan begrudgingly decides it’s for the best, and Tristela agrees given that divine influence seems to be pushing them towards it.
The Confederacy Will Help Retake Winterheart: The Knezi agree they have no choice but to accept the Confederacy's help. Clans Uri'pe and Toroth cannot be allowed to flourish.
The Dark Elf Refugees Will Colonize the Crescent Islands: Tristela thinks that, even if Winterheart is retaken, they shouldn’t return there because it’s been defiled. Ravka offers to appoint her son as Winterheart’s caretaker if it gets cleared out. Zekhan suggests they let heads-of-household decide if they want to volunteer to live in their new allies’ lands, as they’re being offered aid by the Confederacy at this point, and that he will take the bulk of his people to the islands off the coast. Ravka and Tristela decide to follow suit. The islands are large enough to sustain the dark elf population, cold enough that their winter-animals can still live, and isolated enough to be satisfactory.
Clan Erendwain, Clan Svalbren, and Clan Vosk begin to call themselves Star Elves.
Day 74 — On Day 74, the Knezi enact the first of their plans and officially join the Confederacy with Markus Thrain as the catalyst
Day 75 — Markus sends word to Thrain. Asgarion departs for Vestia with Kallix, Jard, and ~300 star elf refugees
Day 77 — Thrain responds. Its army begins marching to Winterheart. Ravielle arrives in Vestia
Day 78 — Zekhan, Ravka, Tristela start moving the star elves to the Crescent Islands
Day 80 — Wood elf emissaries meet the star elves and invite them to come to the Redleaf Woods. 5,000 star elf refugees depart. Queen Tristia Renbran and dwarves reinforcements head south towards the border.
Day 85 — By order of the dwarven Queen, all tunnels beneath Snowpeak are collapsed.
Day 86 — The star elves start to camp and clear the Crescent Islands to be lived upon
Day 88 — Asgarion, Kallix, Jard, and the star elf refugees arrive in Vestia. Star elf refugees arrive in Rivelin
Day 93 — Thrain’s army arrives outside Winterheart and begin making battle preparations
Day 94 — With a human emissary or two, 10,000 star elf refugees set out for Thrain.
Day 96 — The armies strike Winterheart together. Fighting begins.
Day 101 — Winterheart is conquered on the first day of Spring.
Day 106 — The armies have mobilized in the lowlands beneath Winterheart and prepare to head south to the border
Outcomes
In the end, Vestia and Thrain’s armies retake Winterheart successfully. Toroth, Uri’pe, and dark dwarf military forces are cut by 95%. The final 20k escape through dark dwarf tunnels deep into the earth and reach the Dark Below, collapsing the tunnels behind them.
About half the civilians of clan Toroth and clan Uri’pe remain in Winterheart and fight to the death. The other half surrender to the armies now occupying the city. Ravka instates her son as Winterheart’s new overseer. Some of her people want to stay in Winterheart and some want to leave. Zekhan sends military support and civilians to live in Winterheart and help support Vosk’s rule.
Casualties
Total Casualties — 550k Confederacy, 131k Star Elves, 620k Evil Forces
(The Evil Forces are Clan Toroth, Clan Uri’pe, and the Dark Dwarves combined.)
Military Casualties — 450k Confederacy, 26k Star Elves, 370k Evil Forces
(As a note, the casualties incurred by the dark elf clans here include the initial death toll from the schism before the Confederacy got involved.)
- Thrain’s army loses 300k men
- Vestia’s army loses 150k men
- Erendwain loses 20k men
- Vosk loses 1k Shadow Hunters
- Svalbren loses 5k warpriestesses
- Evil army loses 370k men
Civilian Casualties — 105k Star Elves, 250k Evil Forces
- Evil forces lose 250k people
- Erendwain loses 30k people
- Svalbren loses 40k people
- Vosk loses 35k people
- Dark Dwarves lose 10k people from Tristia’s tunnel collapses
Final Population Count — 530k Star Elves
Winterheart Population Counts — 255k Star Elves, 230k Dark Elves
- 230k Clan Uri’pe / Toroth civilians who surrendered
- 175k Clan Vosk civilians
- 50k Clan Erendwain civilians
- 30k Clan Erendwain military
Refugee Star Elf Counts — 275k not living in Winterheart
- 300 mixed civilians / spies / military go to Vestia
- 5k mixed civilians / military go to the Wood Elves
- 10k mixed civilians / military go to the Humans
- 140k Vosk civilians, 20k Svalbren civilians, 65k Erendwain civilians living on Crescent Islands
- 50k Erendwain military, 2k Vosk Shadow Hunters living on Crescent Islands