Who won the war?

Here's an interesting lore question from Monica Swiftrider:

Hey! I was wondering: in the battle between the Tritons, Dragons, and Giants, who DID end up winning?

Ok, so this is kind of a convoluted story (as are most background stories) to how things got the way they are today in the spiral. As you go back through even our own world's history and look at conflicts, there's always two sides to every story, or in the spiral's case . . . three sides to every story! That's right, three!

(go grab some popcorn, this is going to be one of those LONG posts with a lot of reading)

There's a quest in Wizard City that you complete as a part of the Boris Tallstaff line of quests called The Trees. On this quest you go around jibba jabbering to all the trees in Ravenwood, and this is where the story of the giants, the tritons, and the dragons all unfolds. Here's what Bernie tells us about the war:

Our history is a fiery one, but worth remembering! The Dragons, ancient Titans of the First World, were the masters of Fire. The Dragons ruled the Land and wanted the Sky and Sea. But it was not to be. The Dragons' siblings, barbaric Giants and the greedy Tritons, fought against them. To defend themselves, the Dragons created the Magic of Pyromancy . . . but alas, it was not enough to save them.

So from what I'm reading there, the Dragons lost. Here's what Kelvin tells us about the war:

The history of Ice Magic, huh? It's simple. When the world was very young, the Giants ruled the skies. The Grandfather Tree created them, as well as the ruthless Dragons and the craven Tritons. The Giants built castles in the clouds above and used Ice Magic to battle the Dragons and the Tritons.

So Kelvin doesn't really admit any kind of defeat for the giants. Maybe they won? I don't really think so . . . I think not admitting defeat is kind of the way ice magic is by nature. Here's what Torrence has to say about the whole shebang:

Oh heavens, the history of Storm Magic? But it's such a sad tale. Well, if you insist . . . Tritons, the Lords of the Deep, created the Storm Arts to harness wind and rain, storm and sea. They used their Magic to battle their siblings, the devious Dragons and the craven Giants. But, sadly, it was not enough. They lost the War and their once noble Art was all but forgotten . . . until recently.

So, it reads like the Tritons also lost.

But is that it? Nah, Boris asks you to go talk to all the old men in Wizard City next, and Ambrose kind of gives us the real dirt on the war.

Ah, yes. The Spiral was born out of an ancient conflict. The three elder races could not stop fighting. The Giants, rulers of the Sky, stole water from the Sea to build their great castles of ice. The Tritons, rulers of the Sea, battered the Dragons' lands with endless storms. The Dragons, rulers of the Earth, summoned Fire to melt the castles of the Giants. The War broke the First World into fragments that spun out into the Cosmos. Those fragments became the Worlds of the Spiral.

So even though Ambrose doesn't really tell us who won the war, he does say that they broke the world in the process. He kind of also tries to illustrate the almost circular nature of the conflict: melting, washing, building. (note back to another question this week . . . boy erosion sure does sound like the magic of all these myth creatures doesn't it?)

Now, I've heard the theory that the dragons were attempting peace between the tritons and the giants, but I don't know, melting a giant's house doesn't really sound like peaceful negotiations to me, and even Bernie revealed the Dragons' true intentions, "The Dragons ruled the Land and wanted the Sky and Sea." It just wasn't so. And in fact, the Dragons were probably the most warlike of all three.

Regardless, this process of battering and building and melting broke the world. Bartleby shows us the true tragedy of the story with his quest text:

I am one of the oldest living creatures here. In the first world, there was only my sister, the Great Raven, and me. We were made just after the creator made the land and the sea and hung the stars in the sky. I sang the Dragons, Tritons, and Giants into existence, but my children began fighting each other, splintering the First World. In desperation, my sister and I began to fashion a Spiral. With her magic and my roots, we sent the Spiral out into the Cosmos to hold the shattering fragments together, forming the New World. Headmaster Ambrose discovered me here and founded Wizard City to help me guard the Spiral. I could tell you more, but right now my mind is getting a bit foggy. I must rest...

So in kind of a sad turn of events Bartleby made the three and then they friggen broke the whole shebang up with their war. I imagine that kind of ended things right there, you know? Now you no longer have one land mass or one sky or one sea to rule. Because by the time our characters enter the spiral, the giant land mass has fragmented and now you have many many land masses each with their own sky, sea, and land. I'm sure this fragmented the purpose of the war and destroyed their links between each other.

By the end of the story in Wizard101, what we find is that Malistaire is attempting to channel this old, ancient magic by awakening a giant dragon titan (note, not dragon "triton" . . . it's dragon "titan," or in other words, a giant dragon . . . you get to see his claws and giant eye as you battle Malistaire). So the dragon titan was obviously an agent of the dragons who was large enough to deal with the giants and pretty much anything else that would get in his way. The Dragon Titan was a leader of a great army of draconians who just laid the SMACK down on Dragonspyre. Luckily he was put to sleep (but not after almost completely wiping out dragonspyre), but you know, love-crazed Malistaire wanted to bring his wife back to life and was willing to awake the number one bad dude of the war to bring Sylvia back to life. Yeah, really bad idea . . . The Dragon Titan would not have forgotten the war . . . REALLY bad idea.

And that's where you come in . . . you needed to stop that, that's why Gamma and Ambrose searched the spiral to find you. That's why Gamma says, "When we learned Wizard City might be in danger, we began looking for a student with great potential." In the end, if it wasn't for you, that Dragon Titan would have brought holy heck to everything! Malistaire would not have been able to control the Dragon Titan, and Ambrose knew you could end up stopping Malistaire's evil and foolish plot.

whew.

I'm interested to see where the story leads us next. We've stopped Malistaire from harming Wizard City through awakening the Dragon Titan, which is what we were summoned from our own world to do. Now what? Doesn't it kind of seem like you would go back to your own world now? How will Celestia tie in this part of the story?

Perhaps you need to learn astral magic in order to send yourself back to your own world? Are Ambrose and Gamma only able to bring you into this world and not put you back to your own? Gamma says your world is a part of the spiral . . . where is "our door"? Is it in Celestia?

I guess we'll just have to wait to see what the story writers of Kingsisle have planned for us next!

Thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!