Wars of the Warlords (Time of Blood)
The Wars of the Warlords — also known as the Time of Blood — was a prolonged era of continent-wide conflict that erupted in the wake of the death of Emperor Nerovan the Mad and the subsequent collapse of the empire he had ruled. According to A History of Rislandia, the period lasted approximately fifty years and stands as one of the most destructive episodes in the recorded history of Areth.
Overview
The death of Emperor Nerovan left a power vacuum of catastrophic proportions. With no legitimate successor able to assert authority over the whole of the former empire, dozens of would-be emperors declared themselves the rightful heir to power. The result was a cascade of overlapping wars as rival armies clashed across the continent, each faction seeking dominance and none achieving it for long.
As A History of Rislandia states directly: "This period, lasting about fifty years, was called the Wars of the Warlords or the Time of Blood."
Course of the Conflict
The scale of destruction during the Wars of the Warlords was immense. Cities were sacked and burned as armies swept across the land. Refugees fled in all directions, carrying little more than their lives. Millions died — to violence, displacement, famine, and disease. The social and material fabric of civilization regressed by centuries, as institutions, infrastructure, and accumulated knowledge were lost or destroyed amid the chaos.
No single warlord succeeded in reunifying the empire during this period. The conflict ground on for roughly half a century before the era eventually gave way to new political orders, among them the conditions that would eventually allow for the Malaky Dynasty to take root in what became Rislandia.
Legacy
The memory of the Wars of the Warlords left a profound mark on Rislandian culture and political thought. A History of Rislandia explicitly identifies the recollection of this era as the foundation of Rislandia's deep cultural "value of stability." The suffering of the Time of Blood served as a cautionary example, reinforcing the importance of legitimate, continuous governance and the dangers of unchecked ambition.
This legacy can be seen reflected throughout the Malaky Dynasty, whose successive monarchs — from King Malaky I (Cedric Malaky) onward — governed under institutions shaped in part by the collective memory of what unchecked warlordism had wrought. The era remained a touchstone of Rislandian historical consciousness well into the reign of King Malaky XVI.
Notes on Sources
All details on this page derive from A History of Rislandia, the in-universe scholarly history of the world. That text does not provide specific calendar dates for the beginning or end of the Wars of the Warlords beyond the approximate fifty-year duration. Editors should not supply dates not present in the source material.