No one knows what started it, but when the gods reappeared, they warred with one another. They threw their mortal armies at one another and created new races and monsters. This was called the God's War. Records from this time were lost, but it is thought to have lasted on and off for thousands of years. Civilizations rose and fell during the war.
Aengeinhaur and Veaengeihvean maintained an alliance, and the Dryads and Oreads fought for them with zeal. The Nymphs were long-lived and reproduced slowly. In order to expand their armies, the Oreads and Dryads decided to take human forms and couplings with humans proved to bear children. Their children became the Dwarves and Elves. While still longer-lived than humans, Dwarves and Elves matured nearly as quickly, and certainly far more quickly than did Oreads and Dryads.
Veaengeihvean discovered a way to bind a god. The binding required a tremendous amount of life energy and was unwilling to burn her own energy. However, she was willing to burn up the life energy of her followers and taught the Dryads and Oreads the process. Veaengeihvean transported her armies and had her followers perform the ritual. Otreik was the first bound, his priests tortured and used to provide the life energy for his binding. Otreik’s followers launched a retaliatory attack through the forest of the Elves. Using a similar binding magic, the elves closed the western borders of the forest off to fend off their attacks. The magics binding this forest have still not faded despite numerous attempts to dispel them.
Next Nhauswedd was bound to a temple and her continent was sunk to the bottom of the sea. This time, there were no followers of Nhauswedd that could be used for the ritual, and many Dwarf and Elf lives were sacrificed to complete it. This introduced the first doubts amongst Veaengeihvean’s followers.
Throughout the God’s War, various peoples saw that the gods did not care about them. One by one, cities and nations turned against the gods. Once the Elves and Dwarves finally revolted, they brought with them the ritual of binding. It took many mortal lives, but they began to bind each of the remaining gods.
Aengai was bound to a temple in the northern wastes. Angeir was bound to a temple atop a volcano and covered in magma. Waell was bound to a temple in the clouds and was brought down into the mountains. Aengeinhaur was bound to a temple deep in the heart of a mountain.
Veaengeihvean knew how to counter the ritual, but the combined armies were too much for her to overcome. In a great battle, Veaengeihvean’s form was destroyed. This killed nearly everything in the region, including most of the armies, several ancient civilizations and creating the great desert. Winds raced over the dry, hot desert and created terrible storms, isolating the Shielded Sea region.
As a result of the storms and the borders of the Elven forest being cut off, inhabitants know very little of what is going on outside of the Shielded Sea region. The last thousand years have been mostly peaceful and prosperous, though friction still exists, especially toward the former followers of Aengeinhaur and Veaengeihvean.
It’s now approaching one thousand years since the last binding and the death of Veaengeihvean. There are signs that the bindings in the eastern forest of the elves are beginning to weaken. Things like attacks from strange creatures, and while in the past there has been an indescribable sense of dread for non-elves, that feeling has lessened over the past few years. In the eastern regions, where the weather has always been pleasant and calm, hurricanes and flooding have begun. The weather patterns began to change just before Alkanos' invasion of Thrinecia. In the past five years, Thrinecia has begun raiding the halfling lands to the north. The other human kingdom to the north has entered a loose alliance with the halflings and has begun mobilizing troops to the east.
The great tree in the elven lands, long dormant, has begun dropping pinecones for the first time in a thousand years. Elf opinion is split on whether this is a sign of good or ill. This could signal an awakening or rebirth of the great dryads. The elves revered the dryads, but there is some concern that the dryads may still harbor loyalty toward the dead god.
I should probably add something here.