History Main / ForeverWar

* ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'': The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Long War]] between the [[TheFederation Alliance of Free Planets]] and the [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]] is centuries old, and much older than any cast member alive at the beginning of the series, going on for exactly ''158 years, nine months and 21 days'' before it ended ([[ForWantOfANail and it would have continued had one Imperial officer not acted on her own or another arrived at the right place just a little later]]). It's explained that it's spent a lot of that time being a cold war in stalemate, mostly involving border skirmishes, and the only reason it is really still going is because the Terraist Church are intentionally fanning the flames of war to advance their own agenda which requires the destruction of both sides. The only people who remember the reason of the war (workers fleeing an at-the-time oppressive state and refusing to come back) are historians.
%%* The war between Earth and "Jovian Lizards" in ''Manga/MartianSuccessorNadesico'', which gets incredibly stupid and pointless once we learn why and how it started. (ZCE- how did it start, and how long has it been going on?)
* Brogy and Dorry, two giants on the ''Manga/OnePiece'' island of Little Garden, have been fighting one another for one hundred years when the Straw Hats meet them. They casually admit to having forgotten the original reason (which of their hunted prey was bigger) and fight purely for the sake of honor.

%%* This is the setting in ''Theatre/MotherCourageAndHerChildren''

* {{Website/Tumblr}}: The "Skeleton War". A war where "Skeletons fight in Hell for all eternity for literally no fucking reason."

* The history of Europe and the Middle East from [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire the Roman Civil War of 69 AD]] until [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte the Napoleonic Wars]] has been ''one uninterrupted series of wars''. Factions changed, often new players invaded from nowhere, but the relevant fact is that Europe and the surrounding area were at war for ''one thousand, seven hundred and forty-six years straight'', with the wars sometimes spilling in more distant areas (the Seven Years War had battlefields in North America and India, and the French Revolution Wars and Napoleonic Wars were also fought in Central and South America and India, and the British war effort was one of the causes of the War of 1812). Then, after the last round nearly destroyed every single faction, the current combatants settled down and tried to establish a peaceful world order, so Europe went at peace... For five years, after which Spanish, Portuguese and Italian liberals start rising to obtain constitutions (and Italian unification) and Greek rebels start preparing the Greek War of Independence that will erupt in 1821, thus starting the series of wars that will end in 1945 with the end of ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarII''. And in those five years, Spain was ''still'' dealing with the independence wars in its colonial empire sparked by Napoleon's invasion.
** We could say that, in spite of its name, the Cold War caused the longest period of peace in Europe since 69 AD, lasting from 1945 to 1991 (the Yugoslav Wars), a whopping ''forty-six years'' without armed conflict on European soil (though there was still European involvement in some of the wars outside the continent).

** With that in mind, the European Union being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 makes a small measure of sense. The Warsaw Pact and NATO alliances were largely responsible for the status quo following World War II, where none of their members have fought one another since 1945, and those members have include Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and Russia between them responsible for most of the RealLife entries on this page (especially Germany, which prior to unification was in a state of eternal civil war). The expansion of NATO and its civilian component, the EU, to encompass most ex-Warsaw Pact countries as well has continued the peace maintained since then. The reduction of the average level of strife between non-Yugoslav European countries to passive-aggressive sniping is nothing short of astonishing.

* In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' the humans and demons of the isekai world have been engaged in a centuries-long conflict that varies between hot and cold wars. The conflict started when humans began persecuting demons after the collapse of the ancient civilization due to [[spoiler:their misuse of MA energy]]. The demons eventually banded together and founded their own nation for protection and war soon followed. The most recent hot war has left all of the nations on the verge of collapse and they have been trying to rebuild during the current cold war [[spoiler:until Ariel starts a new war]].

* In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' the Humans and Demons are in a perpetual state of war, varying from open conflict to cold war. The war died down after the last Hero and Demon King died due to both sides being exhausted but kicks up again due to [[spoiler:Shiraori needing to sacrifice enough people to prevent the end of the world]].

* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, two galaxy-level empires, The Kree and The Skrull, have been at war for approximately one million years. While the cause ''is'' known -- The Skrulls offered to share their technology with the Kree if they passed a test, but when they failed (and compounded their failure by killing the Cotati, the pacifist PlantAliens who had passed the test), the Kree killed the Skrull envoys and stole the technology anyway -- it doesn't matter anymore. Both races just wish the other dead, and in at least the Skrulls' case, their warlike tendencies have become hereditary (as in, in their genes). The rivalry was first established in ComicBook/AvengersTheKreeSkrullWar. The Kree fight because they are Space Nazis who kill anyone non-Kree for "polluting the gene pool" (despite the fact the Kree themselves are canonically established as being a genetic dead end).

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The ongoing conflict between the two playable factions of the Horde (led by orcs) and the Alliance (led by humans) will not end. Despite [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed numerous cataclysmic threats]] that are hostile to both sides, and numerous instances in the game of interfaction cooperation, there will always be skirmishes going on at the borders of the respective empires and the constant threat of more serious warfare heating up. Each side can point to several reasons for it, but at this point it's more about racial hatred and pervasive militarization than any good reason. (Well, that, and an excuse to earn Honor/Conquest points in {{P|layerVersusPlayer}}vP.) [[spoiler:As of the end of ''Mists of Pandaria'' with the deposing of Horde Warchief Garrosh Hellscream by both the Alliance and most of the Horde, Varian Wrynn[[note]]High King of Stormwind, and Alliance commander-in-chief[[/note]] settles for warning the remaining Horde leaders[[note]]who just backed a new, non-orc Warchief[[/note]] that he won't forgive any more breaches of honor[[note]]despite the fact that Orgrimmar fell to Darkspear trolls most immediately backed by tauren and reinforced by the other nations of both the Horde and the Alliance[[/note]]... but come ''Warlords of Draenor'', and there's ''still'' ongoing skirmishes between the Horde and Alliance bases on the island of Ashran for control/denial-thereof over ancients and artifacts there. This may however be due to how far away Ashran is from the territories this expansion's hostile-to-both-sides antagonists, the Iron Horde.]] Note that this is actually something of a Subversion, as while the conflict between the native Azeroth races and the Orcs (which would eventually evolve into the Alliance versus Horde) has been going on since the first game came out, it's only been about 30 or so years in-universe. While this is still a pretty long time for a war it pales in comparison to some other conflicts in the same universe (Such as the Burning Crusade), or even some real life wars which lasted over 100 years.

* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, two galaxy-level empires, The Kree and The Skrull, have been at war for approximately one million years. While the cause ''is'' known -- The Skrulls offered to share their technology with the Kree if they passed a test, but when they failed (and compounded their failure by killing the Cotati, the pacifist PlantAliens who had passed the test), the Kree killed the Skrull envoys and stole the technology anyway -- it doesn't matter anymore. Both races just wish the other dead, and in at least the Skrulls' case, their warlike tendencies have become hereditary (as in, in their genes). The rivalry was first established in ComicBook/TheKreeSkrullWar. The Kree fight because they are Space Nazis who kill anyone non-Kree for "polluting the gene pool" (despite the fact the Kree themselves are canonically established as being a genetic dead end).

** ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': Though organized armies haven't been seen in the Lands Between for hundreds of years, the Shattering War is technically still going on because ''nobody can die''; those who were mortal have been turned into undead who have succumbed to madness, while those that were immortal have rotted and decayed to madness, technically capable of death but too powerful to die. None of the above have rightful claim to the throne any longer, meaning the succession crisis never stopped either. It takes the Tarnished, who have both the strength to kill the demigods and the right to claim the throne, to end the conflict for good.

* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', the Succession Wars lasted more than 200 years, [[LostTechnology destroying most of the industrial and technological base of known space]]. The first two saw largely unrestricted warfare, while the Third was most like this trope. The Fourth was a flare-up after the alliance between the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth joined into one super-nation through marriage between their royal families, with the two realms smashing their way through holdings of the other realms (mainly the Capellan Confederation) to link their territories. There followed a decade or two of relative peace, then the Clans invaded, then the Successor States formed a new Star League to end the Clan threat, then they went back to fighting one another again.

** The Armadhans are constantly at war as PrivateMilitaryContractor, for a good reason: their world is so poor of resources they have to ''tax air'', and as their only viable export are [[HadToBeSharp the supremely tough people who actually thrive on such a world]] the only jobs they can find are as soldiers.

* In [[Creator/MarvelMAX the MAX imprint of Marvel Comics]], it is shown that ComicBook/ThePunisher made a deal with...something during the Vietnam War, an entity which promised him exactly what he so desperately wanted: the ability to wage a never ending war (against organized crime).
* The endless war between [[ComicBook/NewGods Apokolips and New Genesis]] from the DC Universe has been going on since the beginning of time, and everyone seemed surprised [[ComicBook/FinalCrisis when it abruptly ended]]. That said, there ''have'' been occasional breaks in the fighting, the most notable being when ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} and Highfather gave each other their sons to ensure a truce, but it never keeps.

* ''Literature/PlanetOfNoReturn'', by Creator/HarryHarrison. The protagonist is sent to investigate a ForeverWar being conducted by highly-advanced robots on a primitive world. [[spoiler:Turns out the society that built the robots is run by a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything military industrial complex split into two rival superpowers]]. Rather than risk their own world being destroyed, they decided to conduce their war by proxy on another world that they thought (incorrectly) was uninhabited. When the leaders discover their mistake, they simply decide to find another planet to continue the war, because they're perfectly happy with the way things are (thought the ordinary people are less so).]]

* ''Literature/TimeRiders'': In one bad timeline the American Civil War is still going on in 2001.

* The Land-Grab Stalemate in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is heavily implied to have been planned as this, for reasons unclear at first but were fairly clarified as time went on. It involves Redmond Mann and Blutarch Mann waging war over their inheritance (large chunks of American frontier in the 1860s) which thanks to their connections and desire for power morphed into a cold war that spanned most of the globe between mega-corps RED and BLU. This itself was planned so 1) their father, Zephaniah Mann, [[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning could get one over on his two idiot sons via his will]] by making them fight over what is basically relatively worthless land (the only valuable resource around to be exploited in said territory is ''gravel'', which while not ''worthless'' is still not as lucrative as coal and oil) and 2) a certain persuasive chain-smoking seductress could run ''both'' RED and BLU behind the scenes, exploting this to gather up as much Australium as she possibly can for unknown reasons. [[spoiler:It's eventually ends up ending anyway, when Gray Mann kills the owners of RED and BLU, leaving the mercenaries of both to fight his robots defending Mann Co. property.]] It turns out even ''this'' didn't fully stop the conflict: [[spoiler:while the mysterious woman was relegated to the sidelines and Mann Co. eventually fell, the brothers' ''ghosts'' simply picked up right where they left off and kept hiring mercenaries to fight in their names to try and send each other to Hell]]. And the [[spoiler:Robot War]] ''almost'' became this, but [[spoiler:Gray Mann was smart enough to recognize that he was fighting an intractable stalemate and successfully changed tactics.]]

* This was, in fact, a broader fascist opinion beyond Nazi Germany. Mussolini and Gentile's ''Doctrine of Fascism'' describes fascism as specifically 'anti-utopian', rejecting a peaceful end-state and instead directing humanity to constantly and eternally cleanse and refine itself through violence. This was, in part, a development of the Italian artistic philosophy of 'futurism' (with several people, like the post Filippo Marinetti, closely involved in both) which focused on the beauty of action and violence over peace and passivity. Of course, as the early, violent deaths of most fascists and futurists attested, the problem with ForeverWar as policy is that warfare isn't actually very beneficial to your long-term survival.

* It's not a perfect example but the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar continued to be fought after the initial cause of the war had been resolved (mostly because it became a convenient excuse for other nations to advance their political goals.)
** It was the longest war that was one of continual fighting. Nearly every example listed here is a series of conflicts.

* The endless was between [[ComicBook/NewGods Apokolips and New Genesis]] from the DC Universe has been going on since the beginning of time, and everyone seemed surprised [[ComicBook/FinalCrisis when it abruptly ended]]. That said, there ''have'' been occasional breaks in the fighting, the most notable being when ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} and Highfather gave each other their sons to ensure a truce, but it never keeps.

* In the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series, creating one of these is actually Big Boss' main goal in life. His interpretation of The Boss' will, combined with his disgust at the government for their disregard of servicemen, combined into the concept of Outer Heaven, a private military company turned country where soldiers could fight endlessly with no governmental control. In his mind, this would create a world where soldiers are always needed and valued. The Patriots, however, came the closest to actually creating this in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' when they founded The War Economy and made weapons production and military combat the core parts of the economy.

* In ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', Mega Man worries that the war with Wily will never end.

* In Creator/BruceCoville's short story "[[Literature/OddlyEnough With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm]]", there's an endless one going on between the fifteen kingdoms on the continent of Losfar, and it's gone on for ''so'' long that when one kingdom pulls out, the others decide after a few years that this kingdom deserves punishment for daring to get prosperous while they're still spending their resources to defend themselves, and thus send armies of their own against it. Fortunately, Brion and his ghostly allies are able to finally bring the war to an end.

* Invoked in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'', where the main goal of the Shadow Wars fourth act is to put Mordor in a state of perpetual war (or at least long enough to keep Sauron busy between the time period of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''), meaning that you must fight through a series of increasingly-difficult fortress battles. Eventually however, [[spoiler:Talion ultimately succumbs to his Ring's power and becomes a servant of Sauron, but his actions at least lead to the events of trilogy]].

* In Creator/BruceCoville's short story "[[Literature/BruceCovillesOddities With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm]]", there's an endless one going on between the fifteen kingdoms on the continent of Losfar, and it's gone on for ''so'' long that when one kingdom pulls out, the others decide after a few years that this kingdom deserves punishment for daring to get prosperous while they're still spending their resources to defend themselves, and thus send armies of their own against it. Fortunately, Brion and his ghostly allies are able to finally bring the war to an end.

* This acts as a major background feature of ''Literature/TheLegendsOfEthshar'' series. ''Literature/TheMisenchantedSword'' takes place in the final years of the Great War between the Northern Empire and Old Ethshar. By the time of the novel, Old Ethshar had collapsed due to internal strife, but the massive army and supporting staff fielded against the Northerners had become a self-supporting nation by that point.
* In ''Life on Urth'', there are two factions who have been fighting for years over that fact that somebody once ate an appetiser that someone else wanted. After this went on for a few years, the soldiers' wives decided that the men should only have to fight from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, and also get a lunch break. During the book, one of the protagonists ends the war by pointing out how silly the entire thing is. A little later, the guy stalking them gets the war started again when he explains how the entire country's economy was devoted to war, and without the fighting, everybody is going to be unemployed and stuck with unfarmable land.
* The war in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' has been going on for over a hundred years between the evenly matched Alliance and Syndicate Worlds. Both governments swear up and down that the other side attacked first, nobody really knows what the side that started the war hoped to gain in the first place (they knew they were too evenly matched for the outcome to be anything but a stalemate), and despite a literal century of all-out war and countless millions of lives lost there seems to be absolutely nobody on either side willing to consider suing for peace. There's more at work than the sunk-costs fallacy and stubborn pride, however: [[spoiler: It eventually transpires that a third-party was playing both ends against the middle behind the scenes to keep the war going until one side or the other collapsed, at which point they would roll right over whoever was left]]. It's only thanks to being stranded behind enemy lines and embarking on a months-long fighting retreat that enables the protagonist and his allies stumble upon the clues that let them piece together what's really going on and ''finally'' put an end to the war. The sequel series ''Beyond the Frontier'' spends much of the plot addressing the question of [[SoWhatDoWeDoNow what everyone is supposed to do now]], when an entire generation has lived and died never knowing a time when they weren't at war.
* The war with the gaijan in ''Stormdancer'', first book of ''Literature/TheLotusWar'', has lasted for twenty years, and it's apparently stalemated.
* In ''Literature/{{Metaltown}}'', the war between the Northern Federation and the East has been going on for forty years or more, with no signs of stopping.

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler ''wanted'' Germany to be engaged in a forever war, believing that any peace should be a temporary affair to consolidate gains and lick their wounds, and that the Third Reich should be back at war every 15-20 years. He thought that if a country was at peace for too long it made their people soft and complacent, and also believed that wars encouraged people to have lots of children which would result in Germany having an ever growing population through which they would cement their position as the dominant power on Earth. His reign lasted twelve years and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII his first attempt]] at applying this logic ended with Germany as a pile of rubble, proving the entire concept to be inane and delusional. WW1 veteran and all-around nutcase Erich Ludendorff believed this too, but differed from Hitler in that he thought party politics was completely useless and that Germany should be engaged in total war against all neighbors right away as an Odin-worshipping army with a state.

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler ''wanted'' Germany to be engaged in a forever war, believing that any peace should be a temporary affair to consolidate gains and lick their wounds, and that the Third Reich should be back at war every 15-20 years. He thought that if a country was at peace for too long it made their people soft and complacent, and also believed that wars encouraged people to have lots of children which would result in Germany having an ever growing population through which they would cement their position as the dominant power on Earth. His reign lasted twelve years and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII his first attempt]] at applying this logic ended with Germany as a pile of rubble, proving the entire concept to be inane and delusional.

* The conflict between the Sinhalese-dominated government Sri Lanka and the Tamil separatists seemed to be this, going on for 25 years with no apparent end in sight, until the Tamil Tigers were [[CurbStompBattle suddenly annihilated]] [[http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od alongside a lot of Tamil civilians]] in 2009.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "A Taste of Armageddon", two planets had been at war for centuries. [[AMillionIsAStatistic They used computers to launch mathematical attacks and then order "casualties" to disintegration chambers]]. When Kirk posits that if they could come to an agreement on such a system, they should have been able to end the war, one planet's leader gives the fatalistic reply that they'd just start fighting again later over something else, so why bother with peace at all? The answer: [[GunboatDiplomacy because their system has declared Kirk and his crew as casualties without knowing that a Federation capital ship can bomb a planet back to stone-age in a matter of hours and their own weapons are worthless against such a ship]]. Kirk also ends up noting that the war going on for so long was only ''possible'' because their way of "fighting" it stripped out every aspect of war except for the casualties -- had the attacks actually happened, they would have long since destroyed their ability to make war.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "The Vengeance Factor", when the Enterprise is called in as neutral arbiter to ReconcileTheBitterFoes, it's mentioned during the briefing that the conflict likely started over [[BoringButPractical issues like farming or water rights]], but [[ItsPersonal has turned into a blood feud over the centuries]].
* Also happens in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Battle Lines" -- casualties are resurrected by nanites at the beginning of each day.
** A fate inflicted on them as a particularly terrible punishment: it's set up so they inflict hell on themselves. It's a self-perpetuating cycle, as each day they inflict more pain on each other and hate their enemy that much more. By the time of the episode, the hate has become so deep that even Starfleet's famed speeches AND a Bajoran Kai can't get them to stop; though Kai Opaka basically says "Challenge accepted" at the end of the episode.
** According to the leaders this was done to them because their constant fighting and refusal to make peace for ''generations'' had pissed off the rest of their race, which apparently liked ironic punishments.

* The world of ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' is one where everyone is born as either Good or Evil and with the two sides being incapable of ever reconciling. As such the whole setting is plagued by non stop warfare with no side really winning. And to make matters worse, should one side "win" then [[spoiler:the entire universe will undergo [[FaceHeelTurn Tentsui]] with the winners shifting sides while a new group takes their former place, eternally perpetuating the war]].

* ''LightNovel/DanjonNoMaouWaSaijaku'' has one as the backdrop. Humans and the "demon" races have been fighting, killing and enslaving each other for so long nobody knows when it started or why, and the grudges are too far entrenched for either side to lay down their arms and enter peace talks. "God" has grown sick of it and brought in the protagonist, dropped him and his dungeon right in the middle of the land bridge the armies would need to stop and charged him with building a blockade to make further fighting impossible. So far, Amdusias is doing a pretty damn good job at his assigned task, bringing the hope for peace for the first, possibly ever.