Wars of Dominion

Warning: This page concerns archaic world setting information from the I.C.E. Age of GemStone III. It is not canon in contemporary GemStone IV, nor is it canonical for Shadow World as the details may be specific to GemStone III. It is only historical context for certain very old parts of the game and these things should not be mixed.

The Wars of Dominion were a major conflict in the historical setting used in the I.C.E. Age of GemStone III. The Dark Gods and servants of the Unlife attempted to conquer the world but they were ultimately stopped. This took place between 6450 and 6825 Second Era on the archaic Shadow World timeline, which was approximately six thousand years ago. This never happened in the modern Elanthian history.

The Wars of Dominion are the original context for several stories and areas that were written before late 1995. The most important of these are The Graveyard and The Broken Lands.

Behind the Scenes

The Wars of Dominion have scattered bits of lore throughout the Shadow World books. The Shadow World setting was formulated in 1989, but it incorporated older books. "Wars of Dominion" dates all the way back to 1980. The texts blaming the wars on the former servants of Kadaena, which are used in The Graveyard, exists in earlier books from 1984. There is even wording in the 1989 books making it sound like Kadaena is somehow leading the Wars of Dominion. In the books copyrighted 1990 and later the emphasis is shifted onto the Dark Gods, which is relevant to slightly later areas such as the Broken Lands.