Immediate background

At irregular periods in history the various groups of people pushed to the margins of the world by the Alliance (a pact between what the elves described as the "fairer races", ie elves and many humans) would begin to coalesce together into a greater whole. Every time the fairer races would recognize this as a growing threat, and respond with brutal speed and overwhelming .

This time is different.

As word filtered back from the frontier that the barbarians were coming together once again, the highest leadership of the Alliance decided that something had to be done to put and end to this threat permanently. It was not enough to scatter this fledgling civilization yet again. The lesser races had proven themselves terminally rebellious. They could not be controlled, and they could not be trusted to remain on the edge of civilization. They would have to be utterly subjugated or entirely extinguished. A plan was crafted to this end.

While a military could, and would be dispatched, its aim would be greater than in the past, and it would be only one part in a grander scheme. The military would shatter any organization these savages could muster, then slaughter or enslave any survivors they could find. At the same time, frontier governors would be sent with caravans of settlers and their own military details. Their role would be to permanently settle this land with civilized people. They would show no mercy to the previous inhabitants and rule with an iron fist. Those that could not accept absolute subservience would be eliminated. Finally, the plan revolved around ensuring none of these races would ever be a threat in the long term. The Alliance knew that males of the lesser races often had incredible virility. Even without this virility, the nature of reproduction among most intelligent species meant that a very small number of males could quickly impregnate many females. Beyond this, males of these species were deemed ideal for an underclass to perform the physical labor necessary to establish new colonies. It was decided, then, that the female population of these barbarians had to be eliminated, so that with time the lesser races would simply fade away. Orders were given to military commanders to target the women of their enemies when possible, but it was understood that this could not be the focus of their mission. Besides, this direct might lead to a resistance, where all the men fought to the to protect their people, leaving nobody left to till the fields.

Thus, a group of elven and human mages worked tirelessly to come up with a better solution. They devised a powerful ritual, borrowing heavily from blood magic, that would simultaneously kill or render sterile almost every single female member of the lesser races. Ultimately it would eliminate femininity from these species, so that even if they could sustain miracle pregnancy after miracle pregnancy, no viable women would be born. It was ultimately a very simple ritual, using some of the oldest and deepest magic in existence. It was also a very demanding ritual, and it would require a great deal of magical energy. Even every elf working together would have trouble providing the necessary magical reserves without risking serious injury or , but by involving the much larger human population they would be able to perform the ritual without issue. Best of all, there would be nothing their enemies could do about it. Even if these savages learned of their plans and understood them, nothing could prevent the magic from doing its work. Their women would simply all just die one day. The ritual and plan, therefore, become almost common knowledge, as every elf and most allied humans were to become intricately linked to it through fundamental magic. Both the common knowledge of the plan, and its magical connection to so many members of society, would become the seeds of a terrible vengeance.

Upon learning of these plans through merchants and travelers, the leaders of the human republics of the south convened a series of meetings. These dark skinned humans shared common kinship with the pale humans who had been allied to the elves for so long, but they did not share the elven favor, and their sympathies, as well as much of their diplomatic and mercantile activity, was with those other species despised by the fairer races. Their leaders quickly decided that this information must be passed on to the society growing around the orc leader Gadresh and her court. They also decided that this final vile plan marked a point of no return. They would have to choose a side and do whatever was possible to end elvish dominion over intelligent life.

When news of the plan reached the outskirts of civilization, it was met with anguish, rage and despair. This was an unimaginable fate, and one that seemed entirely unavoidable. This was the of nearly half their number, and the loss of cherished loved ones, friends and community members for the other half. Even worse, it was the of their communities, their societies, their cultures, forever. It seemed insurmountable. But it also was a stark reminder of everything that was at stake. Suddenly unity and resistance became not just attractive but utterly necessary, and all consuming. The entire frontier came alive as never before, both in preparation to resist whatever came next by any means necessary, but also to explore any option to combat or prevent this hellish ritual.

Try as they might, however, no orcish shaman, minotaur priest or centaur philosopher could lay out a way to stop the ritual or the Alliance's genocidal plot. Every magical solution was suggested, critiqued, sometimes even tested, and they were all woefully insufficient. Their new human allies offered free intermarriage between themselves and these other species, but everybody knew that such couplings were almost never fertile. In the depths of their despair and desperation, a centauride philosopher realized a terrible truth. This truth gave way to a theory, and then a plan. She realized that her and her sisters were doomed. They could not avoid , but their did not have to be on the terms of their enemies, and their people did not have to die with them. They could devise a ritual to place a terrible curse on their enemies. They could use this connection to almost every member of the alliance - the magic could go both ways. Through this connection, the femininity of all of these women could be transferred and enhanced, then implanted in the males of the alliance. The males were specifically targeted both as a rebuke and mirroring of the original ritual, but also because of the elven obsession with masculinity and machismo. Alliance society may well collapse in face of a mass feminization. This ritual would normally be difficult, if not impossible to perform. But if it were performed at the right time, all the connections would have already been made by their enemies. The magical energy necessary was also no issue. If these women were doomed to die, the centauride argued, they should die on their own terms, sacrificing themselves to power their own ritual. With this release of magical energy, the curse could be made unbelievably powerful, with a myriad of other effects woven into its fabric.

Almost every man rejected the plan outright when it was first presented, even those with the most bleak philosophies. They could not bear the thought that they would still lose their loved ones. In the following weeks, however, many women made impassioned cases for this plan of action. They were doomed, they knew it, they accepted it. It was better to leave with dignity, with purpose and on their own terms. This would be a that would keep their people alive, and that would make their enemies tremble. It would strike a blow for self, for family, for community, and for what was right. With broken hearts, the men accepted. After all, it was not their decision to make. This was further finalized when the great orc Gadresh, the closest thing to a single leader any of them had, decreed that this was to be the lynchpin of their resistance. She gave a rousing speech, declaring that this would be her finest moment, her last great battle. She beseeched the men who would be left behind to remember their names, honor their legacy, and fight forever for their people.

When the day came, everybody was prepared. The Alliance, hearing rumblings of discontent from the southern republics, had declared that if these swarthy humans loved their beastly friends so deeply, they should share their fate. The battle lines had been further hardened. Hundreds of millions of elves and humans joined together in a deep magical connection, guided by the finest magi the Alliance had to offer. They reached out with their magic, as sacrifices from the lesser races were offered, the blood magic coursing through their veins. At the same time, the ember of hope smoldered on the edge of civilization, as a parallel ritual was performed. All the preliminary elements were finished, all the women dressed as they wanted to be remembered. Their magic was already nearly complete, they simply awaited the connection to act as a trigger. Finally, the Alliance mages struck a cosmic harmony, the blood of their captives resonating with the same frequency of their targets, and they made the connection. Feeling themselves touched by this unwanted presence, all the women of all these free people let out their fiercest battle cries as they finished their own ritual. All at once their life surged from their bodies, mingling only for a split second before surging back through the connection, carrying their final payload and their dying curse. Men wept openly as the women began to fall, dead before they hit the ground. On the other side of the connection, everyone felt a slight disturbance, a strange feeling passing over them for just a moment. Then, the guiding magi pulled the trigger. They felt through the connection, there was no life on the other side. They had done it. It was only a matter of time before they finally became masters of the whole world.

The remainder of so many distinct societies rose from their grieving. It was done. The sacrifice of the women had been made, and now their sacrifice was to come. They looked to their leaders, a council assembled from all their members. The council had chosen two men to serve as their initial Executors: Gadresh's son Golar, and a black skinned human man named Sumar. They were the first leaders of the Unity, and they would exact a blood vengeance for the crimes their people had suffered.