Hi everyone. This will probably be a long and very opinionated topic if I get half the response I''m hoping for. I''d like some input on a story idea I have. Or rather, an idea I''ve had for years and am just now refining. We have a world divided into four nations on the mainland. There was a war going on between two of them until just recently. The war began as a result of religious differences. To be more specific, one of the nations practiced some very unorthodox forms of magic, and another nation resisted violently. I don''t want to be too specific, because my background is FREAKIN'' HUGE. I''ve done a ton of extra development over the last week, and it essentially doubled in size. Now, here is my predicament. This war began over religious differences. It lasted for hundreds of years. Now, it''s not likely that a war over beliefs will last hundreds of years. I need some reasons as to why this war continued for so long. Here is a little background to help out: Only two of the nations have been in direct conflict during the war. The other two nations provided assistance but were not involved in any major battles. So, what we have is a large-scale racial war. The dark elves follow a religion that is starkly opposite to that of all the other elves. They began practicing magic that affected the soul. To the other elves, affecting or even studying the soul is vulgar heresy. I mean, it''s number-one on the list of "worst things you can possibly do." The Soleri, a race or elves that I''ve based on Japanese culture, did not like this. They sent some spies over to find out if the rumors were true, and once verified, they commenced with the whoop-ass. This war was dragged on for centuries. Why? That''s the question I need to answer. I''ve got all the development in between, including the final peace treaty that was enacted just a short while before the game begins (from the player''s point-of-view). I just don''t have a reason for combat to go on for so long. Now, any reasonable person might say, "if there''s not a reason, then leave it out." But this war is literally the basis of my game, so I need to keep it in or else a lot of my development is wasted. All I need are some examples of why a war might evolve from religious differences into something more long-standing. Thanks for your help, everyone.

What about revenge...

The cause of the war was lost to the participants, and they knew and felt was the loss of their patriot brothers who''s blood was shed in the battles befor them. That alone empassioned both sides to eliminate the other. To rid there enemies for the face of the earth.

Sort of like the blood feudes that go on for generations.

Prejudice - these cultures have learned to hate each other so much that they don''t care why they are fighting anymore.

Revenge - to avenge the deaths of their fallen war heroes, family members, etc.

Honor - for one country to stop fighting, ask for peace, give up, or try to end the war would shame the entire country.

Tradition - wars have always in the past been fought until one side is completely obliterated

Zealism - the countries are so religious that they cannot allow the war to end until they have purged the other from the world.

Self-defense - both countries believe they must keep fighting or the other country will kill them.

Distrust - one of the countries doesn''t believe the other when they offer peace.

Any combination of the above

It really depends on the cultures involved. The two countries might have different reasons. The ''Japanese'' culture might favor honor. Also, only one country has to want to keep fighting. So maybe the dark elves are fighting to protect themselves and the other elves want to end the war but the dark elves don''t think the other elves really will stop fighting.

If you have freakin'' huge background information then choosing one of these should not be so hard. I think that the war should come from the cultures beliefs and not the other way around but I have no problem with fudging for plot''s sake.

I hope my ideas are useful.

I''ve made a revision to my background so it makes more sense. I can''t see warfare continuing for centuries at a time, so let''s change this to "open hostility."

Your ideas are great. As Forneiq said, prejudice will raise a lot of tension between two cultures. The Japanese-based culture would definitely hold honor far above humiliation. The dark elves would continue fighting to stay alive. You hit that right on the mark.

The Great Jihad, as it is called, did stem from the cultures'' beliefs. The war itself is not the basis for my races; it is only the basis for my story.

If I need any more advice, I''ll be sure to post. Thanks for the input.

Hello, does anyone know if Tom is still around? If so, how is the game going, Tom? Do you still need this thread?

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There is no reason a war couldn''t continue for hundreds of years. There have been wars and conflicts thats have lasted for hundreds of years already in hunman history. One good way to keep the war raging is to have a stalemate. If neither side ever achives anything then neither side has reason to end the war. You could include fear as another motivation, if the soul magic of the dark magic gives a signficant advantage over any other single nation then they may see the war as their own hope for survial thus the other nations where trying to crush the dark elves while the dark elves where attempting surive the onslaught. There magic gave them the advantage they needed to fight back against the combinded armies of their enimes. However since the combined nations are much larger and more powerful then the dark elves, the dark elves can never achive any significant victories. Thus the war rages for centuries by bothsides carried on by fear, hatred and prejudice.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

Tom hasn''t posted anything since July, so I suspect he may not be around to hear this. If he is, please speak up. Oh, well, this is my last bump here unless Tom returns.

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official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section