I hinted at this war in the writeup of Pumii. Of course, it was written during lunch (go fig!), and was a blast to write. It's a bit on the light-hearted side, with a few gamer jokes ;) Enjoy!
The War of Burning Tides
Conflicts abound on the so-called Elemental Planes, but they rarely affect the Prime Material Plane, and even less so the great void known as wildspace. One conflict, however, has boiled over into wildspace, leaving behind many small worlds created by conflicting elemental forces.
The War of Burning Tides began as a dispute between two elemental lords over a game of cards. The quick thinking of an elemental lady prevented a full-scale war, instead shifting it to a series of “contest battles” to be fought in wildspace. The last battle has yet to be fought, so thus the war remains inconclusive.
The Players
The chief antagonists of the War of Burning Tides are Hurn the Brimstone Sultan and the Lunii Tidal Prince. Their two empires are deadlocked in the war, using wildspace as their battleground. They sometimes hire out other elementals as mercenaries, but Hurn and Lunii remain the key players in the war.
Hurn, the Brimstone Sultan
A monster of fire and glowing coals, Hurn is believed to be an extremely powerful Efreeti. He is constantly angry, though he can never really tell why.
Hurn was insulted and embarrassed when Lunii accused him of cheating. The fact that he *was* cheating only further embarrassed him, and he let his temper (and pride) get out of hand. He has almost completely forgotten why the War of Burning Tides was started, and that there’s a final battle to fight. He has bigger issues to worry about instead of some silly game…or so he tells himself.
Lunii, the Tidal Prince
Lunii is a tall, pale humanoid of great girth. His mood changes from calm and cold to a raving lunatic with the cycles of the moon.
Lunii was in one of his lunatic moods when he accused Hurn of cheating. Of course, Lunii was cheating as well, having slipped an illegal card in his deck. He also had a bit too much to drink that night, which only made things worse. Lunii constantly frets about the final battle, as he lost the last five battles in a row. He thinks that Hurn is cheating again, and refuses to finish the game until he has some edge over his rival.
Brez, the Princess of Zephyrs
This creature appears as a blue winged elf, not unlike a sylph. She has sapphire-blue hair that she dyes auburn. Brez wears a flowing, pastel dress, an act of defiance to irritate her mother (who constantly nags Bez; “why can’t you wear see-through silk garments like your sister?”).
Brez it the chief architect of the War of Burning Tides. It was her suggestion that the war be a series of contests fought in wildspace. Her reasons for tricking Hurn and Lunii into fighting their battles in wildspace instead of the Inner Planes are simple: she knew that a full-scale war would spill over into her own realm, causing a great deal of damage. By moving the war to a neutral ground, the Inner Planes escaped the worst of the conflict.
Carbron, the Lord of Diamonds
This elemental lord appears as a giant made of granite. He prefers long coats made of black leather.
Carbron is in charge of creating the battlefields for the War. He got sucked into this duty mainly because Brez asked him to, promising to allow him to court her. Naturally, he jumped on the proposition before he thought it through. Now, he’s stuck doing most of the grunt-work in the War, although he does now have several elemental ladies interested in him after he was seen with on several occasions with Brez on his arm.
Sheem, the Caliph of Vapor
Hailing from the Plane of Steam, Sheem is a lanky, clumsy humanoid. He is usually found hanging out with Carbron, who he hangs around with in hopes of meeting other powerful elemental lords.
For his part, Sheem has little to do with the War. He sometimes sells the services of his armies to one side or the other, but has little impact on the war. Generally, all of the other elemental lords use him to fetch them snacks and drinks and otherwise treat him as an unwanted kid brother that just won’t take a hint.
The War
The War began over, of all things, a card game. Hurn, Lunii, Brez, Carbron, and Sheem (actually, Sheem was getting drinks and snacks for the lords) were playing a game of cards when Lunii accused Hurn of cheating. Embarrassed and insulted, Hurn returned the accusation with one of his own. As creatures of great pride, the argument turned to threats of war. Brez offered a compromise: the two would fight a series of battles in far-off places (namely, wildspace), where the damage would be minimal. After a set number of battles were fought, the winner of the majority of these conflicts would receive an apology from the loser. The terms were agreed to, and the war fought under these “civilized” terms.
There have been no less than 20 major battles. The battles usually begin with Carbron and Sheem creating a battlefield in the middle of space. Armies of fire and water teleport in and have at one another. Sometimes, mercenary forces are also used. The forces are almost even at the onset, with each general carefully choosing his troops to best counter the expected army of the opposing general. The winner is determined by a predetermined set of victory conditions, such as destroying certain units, holding key parts of the battleground, capturing banners, and the like.
After the battle, both sides pack up and leave. The battleground is simply left behind; usually, it becomes a minor world or asteroid cluster to be claimed later by natives to wildspace. Each side has won an equal number of battles; the last (and final) battle has yet to be fought; neither side is quite ready to fight it. Neither Hurn nor Lunii are willing to risk losing the last battle, and have found excuses to put it off for a thousand years.
How to use the War
The main purpose of the War of Burning Tides is to create all kinds of new minor worlds for spelljammers to visit. The DM is free to place these worlds wherever he chooses, and may adjust to the number of battles to suit his campaign (keep in mind that both sides have won an even number of battles, so the last battle determines the winner). Optionally, the DM may choose to fight the final battle, with the PCs as mercenaries for one side or the other. Such a conflict is beyond the scope of this article, but should be a truly vast and terrible battle (perhaps it creates a whole new, full-fledged world as the battleground, one a peer to Toril or Oerth).
It may indeed be a little light-hearted, but it has just the right amount of dymanic and complexity to be useful as a background piece for a casual SJ adventure.
I figure I'm going to use it mostly as "background material" for minor worlds like pumii.