History Main / GreatOffscreenWar

* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' has the Great Turf War between the Inklings and Octarians that took place a century before the first game's events, in which the Inklings ended as victors and Octarians were forced to live underground. Cap'n Cuttlefish was part of this war, and several of its details are revealed throughout the games in [[StoryBreadcrumbs Sunken Scrolls]] and casual conversation.
* The backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' had a war between monsters and humans that resulted in the monsters being sealed away in the underground. Even though monsters are said to be almost helpless in the face of a sufficiently powerful KillingIntent, humans feared monster-kind's ability to [[spoiler: absorb the power of human souls and grow stronger]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'' has the Mutagen Wars, also known as the Basilisk Rebellion. Hyde and Lazarus were veterans of the first while Slim was a veteran of the third on the opposite side, with each of them having various conversations regarding it. The writer eventually released the details of the war, which can be read [[https://talk.turtlerockstudios.com/t/the-basilisk-rebellion-the-mutagen-wars-and-slim/72647 here]].
* ''VideoGame/MissionCritical'' has most of the war between TheAlliance and the [[UnitedNationsIsASuperpower UN]] over limitations on technology. The [[AllThereInTheManual manual goes into a brief overview]], but few details are given. The possible future war between the UN and the [=ELFs=] is also largely undescribed.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'':
** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'': The war against the Everlasting Dragons, which lead to the founding of Lordran and the prosperity of human kingdoms. Only one character who lived through it will remark on his experiences, which are mainly tinged with sorrow that he now that it's over, his purpose as a dragon slayer is now finished as well.
*** Briefly mentioned is the war against the demons of Lost Izalith. Where Gwyn personally led his knights to exterminate the Chaos Demons created by the Witch's attempt to recreate the First Flame. This war ended and failure, and all that's known is that the Black Knights came into being after the Flames of Chaos corrupted them and made their weapons more deadly to demons.
*** The lore makes the occasional mention of an event called the "Occult Rebellion" where a group of humans or giants made war upon the gods of Anor Londo using forbidden weaponry that channeled Dark. The only name tied to this event was Havel The Rock, who was apparently exiled. The ember used to make the weapons was hidden in the Painted World and the entire conflict, [[{{Unperson}} as well as it's participants]], was otherwise erased from history.
** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'': The war against the Giants that took place some 100 years or so before the game begins. It apparently lasted over 120 years and, while Drangleic was ultimately victorious, the kingdom was utterly ravaged by the Giants' attack and never recovered.
** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'': The reason for all those dead knights in Lothric? A civil war erupted between two religions in Lothric, one being the state religion of worshipping and kindling the First Flame, the other being centered around a woman named Gertrude and her "heretical" worship of the Angels (whoever they were). The Winged Knights are the remnants of Gertrude's rebellion.
* ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': The Hundred Days War. It took place a decade or so before the start of the first game, and shaped the personal history of many of the main characters. The protagonist is the daughter of the man who won the war, and whose mother was a casualty of it, and her love interest [[spoiler:is the SoleSurvivor of the village that was destroyed by the aggressors to create a PretextForWar]].
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'': The War of the Lions. It took place two hundred and fifty years before the game proper, but it get referenced regularly, and the war that is fought in the second game is in many ways a repeat of that war. In the third game, there's also the North Ambria campaign where TheHero of the first two games participates in said war and all the details are told through flashbacks as he explains it to his friends. ''Anime/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteelNorthernWar'' is an anime dedicated to finally featuring the events of this great offscreen war onscreen.
* ''VideoGame/AtlasReactor'' has the Titan War, which was fought between practically all of humanity after the Reactors failed and Atlas was the only place left on Earth with power. The War was won by the three {{Mega Corp}}s who currently run Atlas. Several of the Freelancers you can play as were veterans of the War, having gained Resurrection Contracts due to their actions during the war.
* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' has the War, a war between [[{{Precursors}} the Astrals]] and the rest of the Skydwellers, which happened millennia ago, causing the former to retreat to their home island and leaving behind dozens of their creations which still remain in the present.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'' talks about a war in the back story in which the Star Sprites sealed away the Dark Star to keep it from attacking the Mushroom Kingdom.
** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' features the war between the Pi'illo Kingdom and Antasma to keep the latter from obtaining the wish-granting Dark Stone. The Pi'illos were able to seal Antasma in the Dream World to keep this from happening, but Antasma was able to crush the Dark Stone and turn the Pi'illos to stone until Mario and Luigi free them.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', [[spoiler:the Ruined Kingdom is speculated to have gotten that way as a result of its inhabitants having one against the Ruined Dragon. The region is covered in sword-like pins that were used in an attempt to contain the Dragon's electric powers.]]
* In ''VideoGame/CatQuest'', the Dragons Wars which opposed the dragons to the Old Masters and the Dragonbloods, happened a very long time ago but is constantly referred to through the game.
* The Winchester War in ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', which opposed London loyalists to the Reach independentists, took place several years before the game, leading to the very awkward status quo in place at the start of the game. From what can be heard and seen (it left some very impressive debris fields, and you constantly find wrecked locomotives to investigate while roaming the Reach), this war was a gruesome one.
* Several cases in the ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series. The ''Tournament'' series in particular has the Human-Skaarj War; the only concrete references we've got to how anything went down are a pair of Assault maps in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'', one of which depicts the final battle and the other part of the various conflicts in its aftermath. Other cases include the "Strider Wars" mentioned in ''VideoGame/UnrealIITheAwakening'', which very little is known about save for that one of your crewmates served in the war, and was responsible for setting up a trap for the eponymous Striders that resulted in their defeat. Other conflicts that occurred offscreen include the First Necris Invasion and the Corporation Wars (which may or may not be occurring during the events of ''Unreal II: The Awakening'' and ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament3'').
* The most important event in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'s'' backstory is the [[RobotWar Omnic Crisis]], in which the world's [[KillerRobot om]][[NotUsingTheZWord nics]] rebelled ''en masse'' for reasons unknown. It was during this period that Overwatch itself was founded to bring together [[HeroesRUs the world's best soldiers]] to create an elite task force for combatting the machines. They proved so effective at ending the crisis that the United Nations allowed them to stick around as an officially-sanctioned international law enforcement agency for decades into the early [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture "present"]] of the 2070s, at which point [[DividedWeFall internal problems]], [[HeroWithBadPublicity bad press]] and [[DisasterDominoes some critical losses]] forced its collapse, setting up the actual narrative's [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether main]] [[OrderReborn premise]]. In the present, the conflict's effects are still being felt: Russia is engaged with its own conflict with hostile AI left over from the Crisis, nonviolent and sentient [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots worker omnics]] are the subject of [[FantasticRacism persecution and injustice]] throughout the world, and many characters -- most notably Bastion, one of the [[TokenHeroicOrc very same killer machines]] deployed during the conflict that has since developed free will -- struggle with the [[ShellShockedVeteran memories]] of what they [[SurvivorGuilt endured]] during the war. Bastion's and Reinhardt's animated story cinematics mitigate some of the "offscreen" nature of this trope by giving us some glimpses of the Crisis while it was ongoing, and the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen cancelled]] graphic novel ''First Strike'' would have focused entirely on Overwatch's origins during the conflict's height. But otherwise, it remains confined to the background as an explanation for how the world wound up in [[CrapsaccharineWorld its current state.]]
* Several ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher'' data entries reveal that monsters fought in wars in the ancient past. ''4'' goes even further and has wars between humans, monsters, and demons.
* The Sin War, an eternal war between the forces of Heaven and Hell, is given as the background to ''VideoGame/Diablo1997'', but aside from a short mention in [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] it doesn't really make an appearance. It's only in [[VideoGame/DiabloII the second game]], after [[BigBad Diablo]] has been released that angels start making an appearance and the war itself becomes relevant.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonSiege II'' has an ancient war forming the entire background to the plot, although the details are somewhat vague due to the circumstances involved - the war ended when two powerful magical artifacts met which resulted in an EarthShatteringKaboom, wiping out everyone involved and reshaping the world right down to changing how magic worked. The game gives various hints about it, but many of these come from an UnreliableNarrator who [[spoiler:turns out to be the real BigBad and was lying about at least some of it all along]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' mentions a conflict between most of the major weapons manufacturers known as the "Corporate Wars" that resulted in the collapse of the Central Government.
* A recurring theme in ''VideoGame/BookOfMarioThousandsOfDoors'' is an offscreen war. The Persian Empire, The Koop Kingdom, and the 10-Nauties are the primary superpowers fighting in it, though what it's being fought over is...unclear. [[spoiler:''Book of Mario 64'' reveals the Stellarvinden, while controlling Mario, consumed all the peaches and caused a global shortage.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' had two:
** An unnamed war that ended with the ancient Hiigarans being banished to Kharak, [[spoiler:which was entirely their fault: the [[TheEmpire Hiigaran Empire]] attacked the ancient [[TheRival Taiidan Empire]] unprovoked and with [[DoomedHometown enough]] [[AtmosphereAbuse force]] to lead to [[HigherTechSpecies Bentusi]] [[CurbStompBattle intervention]] and banishment of the entire surviving population using ''barely'' functioning prison barges.]]
** On Kharak, the Heresy Wars: two rival religious [[TheClan kiithid]], [[TheFundamentalist Gaalsien]] and [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Siidim]], had spent almost ''three centuries'' tearing apart Kharak and the Kharaki people. Eventually it got bad enough that [[TheEngineer Kiith Nabaal]] decided to leave their HiddenElfVillage and lend their advanced technology - steam engines and machine guns - to Soban, a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy warrior kiith]] born from constant abuse by the warring powers. [[TheDogBitesBack The results were predictable,]] and both major powers faded into relative obscurity until the time of ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak''.
* ''VideoGame/TriangleStrategy'': Thirty years before the events of the game, the three nations of Norzelia engaged in a conflict called the Saltiron War, which ended with an uneasy truce.
* ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand:'' The war outside the galaxy, known semi-officially as the Extragalactic War in the sequel. Rather than being a past event, it's simply far away with almost entirely unknown but impossibly huge threats involved on one side, and the AI on the other. This war is the reason you aren't dead; it takes up so much of the AI's attention and industrial capacity that you, in comparison, are a speck NotWorthKilling. The goal of the game is to remove the local processors to rid your area of the galaxy from AI control, without raising enough hell that it decides it can spare the time and power to ''really'' murder you. And if things [[GodzillaThreshold get too far out of control]], stuff that is an actual valuable asset in this war rather than mere chaff is brought in; the low end is pure pain, the high end is [[HopelessBossFight a death sentence]].
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' has the Great Dragon War where, an unknown amount of time ago, an advanced civilisation controlled the world at large, creating powerful weapons such as the Dragonator and towers that reached into the stratosphere, as well as genetically enhancing themselves, with their decendents who kept these enhancements being able to become Monster Hunters. The titular monsters were used a guards, livestock or slaves by this civilisation. This alone created hostilities between the humans and monsters, [[MoralEventHorizon until the civilisation went to far]] and created the Equal Dragon Weapon, a living weapon made from [[FleshGolem butchering monsters and fusing parts together,]] requiring hundreds of monsters be killed to create just one Equal Dragon Weapon. This act drove the Elder Dragons to wage war against the civilisation, [[InferredHolocaust destroying their cities and creations across the world and driving humanity to near extinction.]] This justifies why the Hunters in the series are so intent of maintaining the natural order, the fantastical and futuristic weapons and locations found in the series, and also the reason Elder Dragons [[SinsOfTheFather are so hostile.]]
* The ''VideoGame/NieR'' and ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' has two offscreen wars before the start of the games. ''[=NieR=]'' has the White Chlorination Syndrome and the infected Legion that Project Gestalt was originally designed to counter long since faded into history. While ''[=NieR=] Automata'' has the proxy war between aliens and humans by letting the machines and androids fight for them respectively, which was said to be ''fourteen'' wars.
* ''VideoGame/ChickenPolice:'' The Meat War, which happened about 100 years before the events of the game. It lasted 27 years, 80-90 million animals died, and 27 species were declared extinct after the war. Some people are worried that a second Meat War is brewing.
* ''VideoGame/{{Guardians Of The Galaxy|2021}}'' is set after the “Galactic War”, which saw Thanos and the Chitauri attempting to conquer the galaxy, with the [[SpacePolice Nova Corps]] and a LaResistance group standing against them and countless planets being pulled into the fray in some way (such as Drax’s home of Katath being razed by Thanos or Groot’s home of Planet X being [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroyed]] as a test of a Chitauri superweapon). It eventually ended with Thanos’s ([[NeverFoundTheBody unconfirmed]]) death by Drax’s hands and Gamora capturing the Chitauri Queen.
* Ophilia Clement from ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' was orphaned as a girl as a result of war. Exactly which war is never disclosed.
* ''VideoGame/OperationMatriarchy'' has the Human-Velian war that occured seven years prior to the game, which is never shown but alluded in cutscenes.
* A number of wars influenced the present-day state of affairs in ''VideoGame/EldenRing'':
** [[TheEmpire The Golden Order]] was not the first to govern the Lands Between, and was only established through multiple wars of conquest. In particular, the hard-fought victory against the giants of the mountains saw that race completely wiped out.
** While we don't hear much about it, there was certainly a conflict between The Golden Order (Marika's followers) and the enigmatic Godskin Cult (A group of skin wearing heretics bent on killing the gods). It ended with the death of the cult's leader, the Gloam-Eyed Queen and the Rune of Death being taken by Maliketh. In the modern day, Godskins are few and far between, mostly hidden in weird areas that aren't particularly fond of the Erdtree.
** A war between Marika's Empire and the dragons of Farum Azula began when [[RentAZilla Gransax]] breached the walls of Leyndell for the first and only time in history. [[TheAce Godwyn the Golden]] ended the war when he [[DefeatMeansFriendship bested and befriended the dragon champion Fortissax]] and integrated the dragons into the Golden Order.
** Radagon invaded Liurnia twice on Marika's behalf. He was turned back the first time by the forces of [[TheArchmage Queen Rennala]], and the second was resolved when [[AltarDiplomacy the two of them married]].
** The most recent and devastating was the Shattering. When the Elden Ring was shattered and both Queen Marika and Elden Lord Radagon disappeared, their demigod children each claimed a fragmentary [[PlotCouponThatDoesSomething Great Rune]] and started fighting one another. In particular: Leyndell was besieged twice; [[TheGoodKing Morgott]] sent an army to destroy [[TheAntiChrist Rykard's]] forces in a gruesome mass-MutualKill; the scholars of Raya Lucaria rebelled against the Carian Royals; and finally, [[WorldsStrongestWoman Malenia]] marched her troops south, defeated Godrick in Limgrave, and finally met with the forces of [[FourStarBadass General Radahn]] in Caelid. The fight between the two left Malenia comatose, Radahn a maddened husk of his former self, their respective armies all but destroyed, and the realm of Caelid a disease-ridden wasteland.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]

* ''VideoGame/KnightBewitched'': A few character mention that the kingdom of Halonia was in a war with a mysterious nation a long time before the current time. In the Dragon's territory, you'll learn that it was a war against the dragons, due to Typhus's manipulation of Zamaste.
* Somewhere between the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' and ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series, there occurred a great war called the Elf Wars, caused by Dr. Weil corrupting the Mother Elf[[note]]An {{Energy Being|s}} made by reverse engineering Zero's viral data and used by X to purge the Maverick Virus off the earth[[/note]] and combining it with his other creation, the reploid Omega, to make reploids wreck havoc in the entire world, causing death to 60% of all humans and 90% of reploids until Zero and X stopped them in the fourth year. This event has shaped most of the Zero series' world and its characters, and yet info on the war is scarce. This, as it turns out, is intentional - it was such a horrific war that the Neo Arcadian government, built after the war, decided to bury all historical texts and info about the war deep in the ground, and declare anybody who knows it a Maverick, out of fear that "Weil's Sin" will repeat.
* Rex "Power" Colt, the main protagonist of ''VideoGame/FarCry3BloodDragon'', is a veteran of many wars across the globe, serving under Commander Ike Sloan in Omega Force. Of particular note is Rex's time fighting in Vietnam War II, where he was killed a rebuilt as a Cyber Commando.
* ''VideoGame/{{RuneScape}}'' has the God Wars which had raged on for 4000 years, making up the entirety of the Third Age. Despite ending 2169 years ago, the repercussions are still felt today: many races were driven to extinction, down to LastOfHisKind or DyingRace; and the gods were forced to depart from Gielinor. Many quests focus on this time: the cave goblin-dwarf railway is postponed due to the discovery of related artifacts, the player rediscovers the myriad, a DyingRace of EnergyBeings, human-vampyre tension runs high but if another war breaks out, [[AllPowerfulBystander Guthix]] would be reawakened to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the world and remake it]]. [[spoiler:Except now he's dead.]]

* ''VideoGame/VectorThrust'' had WorldWarIII in an AlternateUniverse Earth which opened up with a nuclear barrage between Kaesel and Poltavia. Having only targeted each other's militaries but avoiding civilian casualties, they isolated themselves while other nations took advantage of the power vaccum, one nation being The Kingdom, which had [[DecadeDissonance next generation weaponry.]] When The Kingdom suddenly enters a nuclear civil war and attacks everyone they believe responsible, it takes ''all six'' of the world superpowers to stop them, and by then, there was already apocalyptic levels of damage done, and most of the world except for one continent is irradiated. The game pretty much takes place AfterTheEnd, the remaining nations still maintain order to some degree.
* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' has the [[TheEmpire Coalition]] / [[TheAlliance Alliance]] war, the beginning of which was shown in ''VideoGame/{{Starlancer}}'' but which lasted for another century afterward and the winner is not the one the first game would indicate, as well as the 80 Years War between Rheinland and the [[NGOSuperpower GMG]].
** For that matter, ''Starlancer'' opens with a Coalition vessel arriving in Alliance space for some sort of peace conference, suggesting that the two sides had at minimum been in an unusually literal SpaceColdWar up until that point. This is quickly glossed over in favour of establishing the Coalition as a bunch of [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying Villains]]. Some flavour text also alludes to a Lunar Civil War some fifty years earlier that the elderly carrier the player character is assigned to participated in, but this is never elaborated upon.
* ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|Expanded Universe}} VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has the Mandalorian Wars. Much of the information about it is from allusions and AsYouKnow statements in the games, and lots of characters you run into in both games are war heroes or veterans from one side or the other.
** Its successor, ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', has a recent war between the Galactic Republic and the reborn Sith Empire. The war ended when the Empire sacked Coruscant, held it hostage, and demanded a peace treaty (for reasons that vary wildly depending on who you ask). The two powers have spent the intervening years in a very intense just-this-close-to-hot UsefulNotes/ColdWar.
*** ''Rise of the Hutt Cartel'' involves the titular organization making their own bid for power on a galactic scale, but all the players ever see is the guerilla war for Makeb where the outcome is decided. It's not entirely clear if there even were other fronts, since their plan hinged on the resources they were raiding Makeb for.
*** Between the ''Shadow of Revan'' and ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' expansions a massive raiding force from a third side devastates both factions. We see bits of it in a trailer, but in-game the timeline skips over it and rejoins during a combined attempt to track them back to their homeworld. There's then a ''second'' offscreen war with the same enemy's full strength where they conquer the galaxy while the PlayerCharacter is temporarily out of action.
*** The Third Galactic War between the Sith Empire and Republic after that faction is defeated takes place almost entirely off-screen, with the player character only involved in strategically important but small scale skirmishes.
* For the longest time, ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' had the Guild Wars, which were referenced only in vague snippets as a civil war whose consequences still loomed over the Terran worlds. Fast forward many years, it's been more-or-less explained away with [[ExpandedUniverse tie-in literature]]. Still nothing in the games, but this series has always assumed you [[AllThereInTheManual did the reading first]].
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': Several significant wars have been fought in the series backstory or between installments that have shaped the game world.
** The War of the First Council in the First Era set the stage for all that followed. The devout, Daedra/ancestor-worshipping Chimer and atheistic, scientific Dwemer came into conflict in the land now known as Morrowind. After years of fighting, they were [[EnemyMine forced to team up]] to drive out the invading Nords. Their alliance remained under the leadership of Chimeri Lord Indoril Nerevar and Dwemer Dumac Dwarfking, known as the "first council." It was a time of great peace and prosperity for both races. However, the Dwemer DugTooDeep beneath Red Mountain and unearthed the Heart of Lorkhan, the [[GodIsDead creator god]]. Chief Tonal Architect, Lord Kagrenec, crafted tools to tap into the power of the heart, hoping to allow the Dwemer to [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOFExistence transcend mortality]]. The Chimer, seeing this as a blasphemy against their gods in the Daedra, attempted to stop the Dwemer, reigniting their war. The two tribes clashed at Red Mountain, the Nords also may have been involved but that's only according to their history the Dunmer don't mention any other factions participating in the battle. Forces led by Nerevar and Lord Voryn Dagoth infiltrated the Dwemer Red Mountain stronghold. [[TheRashomon Exactly what happened next is up for intense debate]], but the Dwemer disappeared from existence, Nerevar was slain, Dagoth and the Tribunal used the tools on the heart to [[PhysicalGod achieve godhood]], and Azura cursed the Chimer with dark skin and red eyes, transforming them into the modern Dunmer. The Nord defeat in Morrowind also marked the furthest expanse of their early empire, the first empire of Men in Tamriel. Many of their conquests were thanks to their mastery of the Thu'um as a weapon of war. After that defeat, Jurgen Windcaller, one of the defeated Nord leaders, reflected on it and determined that it was a punishment from the gods for misusing the Thu'um. Thus, he created the Way of the Voice and founded the Greybeards to [[HeelFaithTurn only use the Thu'um to honor the gods]]. Afterward, it saw a drastic drop in use as a weapon of war and the Nords were never again able to reach that level as an empire. The aftereffects of this battle can still be felt in the plotlines for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
** The Tiber Wars were a series of wars fought as part of [[TheConqueror Tiber Septim]]'s campaign to conquer all of Tamriel. Septim had conquered all but Morrowind (protected by their [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] and the Summerset Isles (protected by their [[MageSpecies powerful magics]]) during the late 2nd Era, the only two provinces the last empire out of Cyrodiil, the Reman Dynasty, had failed to conquer.[[note]]Reman I was able to get the Altmer to join his Empire, but not by military force. He got them to join via treaty with exceptionally favorable terms to the Altmer.[[/note]] Unknown to Septim, the Dunmer demi-gods of Morrowind, known as the Tribunal, had been cut off from their divine power source by their ancient enemy, Dagoth Ur. Septim's legions easily sacked Mournhold, the capital of Morrowind. Without their gods to protect them, the rest of Morrowind would have been devastated in a protracted war with Septim's legions. Knowing this, Vivec, one of these gods, met with Septim and forged an Armistice. Morrowind would join the empire as a VoluntaryVassal, sparing his people from war. In addition, Vivec offered the Dwemer-crafted [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] HumongousMecha - The Numidium - to Septim in exchange for special privileges for Morrowind. (Specifically, continued [[TheClan Great House]] rule, free worship of the Tribunal, and the right to continue practicing slavery which was outlawed elsewhere in the empire.) Septim then used the Numidium to [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp]] the Altmer of the Summerset Isles (sacking their capital in less than hour), bringing them under the rule of men for the first time in history. With the unification of Tamriel, Septim began the Third Era of Tamriellic history during which the games from ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' all take place.
** The War of Betony was fought between the Bretons of Daggerfall under King Lysandus and the Redguards of Sentinel under King Camaron over control of the strategically important island of Betony in the Iliac Bay. Both kings were slain during the war, which saw Lysandus' son lead the forces of Daggerfall to victory. Lysandus' ghost, however, returned to haunt the city of Daggerfall, which kicks off the plot to the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]''.
** The "Great War" was fought between the forces of the [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]] under the leadership of the anti-human extremist [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] and the [[VestigialEmpire remnants]] of the Septim Empire under Emperor Titus Mede II in the 4th Era. The Dominion's forces sacked the Imperial City, committing gruesome atrocities against the city's populace. With reinforcements from his Nord forces in Skyrim, Mede was able to recapture the city, but at great cost. Knowing that his empire was too exhausted to endure further conflict, Mede reluctantly [[WonTheWarLostThePeace signed the White-Gold Concordat]]; a treaty that, among other things, banned the worship of [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Talos]] in the Empire. This particular provision angered the Nords most of all, leading to the CivilWar in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
** The civil war itself in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' is an optional side quest, allowing the player to completely ignore it and let it happen entirely off-screen if they so choose.
* The battle with the quiskerians and the death of Phaeton in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfHeroes''.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has several examples:
** The Rachni War that ravaged the galaxy about 2000 years ago, the Krogan Rebellions a thousand or so years before the current date, the Morning War between the Quarians and the Geth 300 years ago, and the First Contact War between the Alliance and the Turians which took place about 30 years before the [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first game]].
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has Javik, a revived Prothean from 50,000 years ago, who talks about a series of wars that his people fought (such as the Metacon War) and other conflicts in his timeframe.
** There's also the war on Garvug mentioned by the Cerberus News Network, in which corporate mercenaries attempted to take over a krogan-controlled world, and the Second American Civil War, the details of which can be found during the "Stolen Memories" mission.

* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'':
** ''Prophecies'' has the titular Guild Wars that caused a divide between the three human kingdoms of Tyria. Three separate Guild Wars occurred, ending only when the Charr invaded and presented the humans with a more urgent threat.
** A majority of the war against the Charr also took place off-screen before the game begins, during the two-year timeskip after the tutorial, and after the refugees departed.
** Factions has the Tengu Wars which brought about a (temporary) peace between the Canthan Empire and some of the native Tengu. Much earlier in history there was also a war of unification where the Luxons and Kurzicks were both conquered by the Empire.
** Nightfall has the war between the free nations of Elona and Palawa Joko, .
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'': Several wars took place between the two games.
** A prolonged war took place between the Charr and the surviving armies of Ascalon. Ultimately a peace accord was signed in the face of the common enemy, the Elder Dragons.
** In Elona Palawa Joko diverted the main source of water for the human nations, forcing their surrender. He now controls everything south of the Crystal Desert.
** The dwarves have continued to wage a war against the Destroyers since the end of the first game and so are never seen in the sequel.

* ''VideoGame/MetalWolfChaos'': The Arizona Conflict, of which player character Michael Wilson is a veteran. It's heavily hinted that Michael's presidency, Richard's evilness, and nearly every involved party's past is connected to this event, but details are not given, aside from the fact that Michael received a Congressional Medal of Honor during that conflict.
* ''Franchise/BlazBlue'': The First War of Magic, in which humans (including Hakumen, Jubei, Valkenhayn, and Terumi) fought against [[EldritchAbomination The Black Beast]]. Later, the Ikaruga Civil War, in which Jin became "The Hero of Ikaruga" by murdering Bang's lord.
* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' has the Crusades, an apocalyptic conflict between humans and Gears, led by Justice. In some games you can play duels that happened back then.
* The Seven Hour War from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''. It's the reason why the Combine control the planet: they defeated all of Earth's armed forces in [[CurbStompBattle just seven hours]].
** Additional media expands upon the circumstances of the War: It wasn't so much that the Combine overpowered the ''full might'' of the world's militaries in a matter of seven hours, but that, ever since the Black Mesa Incident, the planet had been devastated by portal storms and the hostile extraterrestrial life that emerged from them. It was to the point that the planet was practically three steps away from total societal breakdown anyways, and the Combine ''just happened to come across Earth'' in the midst of all this. The Seven Hour War wasn't so much of a "decisive battle" as it was simply mopping up what little military resistance could be mustered in the middle of the massive global calamity. The true tragedy of the Seven Hour War isn't that Humanity's forces weren't defeated so decisively and trivially, but that Humanity ''lost the War before it even began.''
* In the ''VideoGame/GroundControl'' games: [[WorldWarIII World War 3]], the Independence Wars, the First Stellar War, the Terran-Viron conflict, most of the Second Stellar War. There are mentioned in a few brief lines in the [[AllThereInTheManual manual]].

* In ''VideoGame/NexusTheJupiterIncident'', the [[AIIsACrapshoot AI Wars]] are mentioned, but no details are given. Other conflicts not mentioned or mentioned/shown only briefly are the war between [[OneWorldOrder IASA]] and the [[MegaCorp megacorporations]], the [[TechnicalPacifist Vardrag]]-[[LizardFolk Gorg]] War, and the Noah-Gorg War prior to the events of the game.
* The Great Keyblade War in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. It took place long before any other point in the game's timeline and was fought between [[TheChosenMany hundreds, if not thousands]] of different Keyblade bearers, all for the right to form the ''ultimate'' weapon and take control of the CosmicKeystone. The result: the weapon was shattered, the great power hid itself, and barriers rose between the worlds to prevent easy travel. All that remains is an absolutely ''massive'' FieldOfBlades on an otherwise abandoned world.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'' which shows the Keyblade War in all its glory. The game reveals that the war was fought over Lux, the light of the world, and not the χ-Blade and Kingdom Hearts as the legends state. On that note, the χ-Blade doesn't even appear in the war at any point nor is it even mentioned during it or prior to it.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has a vague recounting of a war which occurred before Link was born and led to the death of his mother, who left him in the care of the Great Deku Tree. It's implied that this was the war that led to the unification of Hyrule.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has Ikana Canyon, which was the site of an ancient war between the Ikana Kingdom and the enemy Garo ninja. It isn't made directly clear what exactly happened during the war, though the comments of the various undead members of both sides along with the placement of several important characters (the king of Ikana within his ruined castle, the Ikana general in the graveyard with most of his men, the ninjas practically ''everywhere'', and the Garo Master within the stronghold of Stone Tower) seems to suggest the [[PyrrhicVictory Garo ultimately won, but it was a "victory" that ended with everyone dead and the canyon lifeless]].
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' talks about a war[[note]]set shortly after Ocarina of Time in a timeline where Link died before beating Ganon, according to [[AllThereInTheManual the timeline]][[/note]] known as the Imprisoning War in which the Knights of Hyrule fought to give the Seven Sages the opportunity to seal Ganon in the Sacred Realm. It also talks about an even earlier war[[note]]sometime after Skyward Sword but before Ocarina of Time[[/note]] which led to the Triforce being sealed in the Sacred Realm in the first place.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' mentions a similar conflict, describing how an evil tribe of powerful sorcerers (known in {{Fanon}} as the Dark Interlopers) came so close to getting the Triforce that the Spirits of Light had to entrap them in the [[EldritchLocation Twilight Realm]], where they evolved into the Twili.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' mentions an earlier conflict in which Hylia and her armies fought against armies of invading demons to keep the Triforce safe. In this case, the offscreen nature of the war is actually justified: in the early days of the war, the group from whose perspective we see were sent up into the sky on a FloatingContinent with the Triforce to keep both safe and out of reach of the war.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' treats the events of ''A Link to the Past'' as this. There is also [[spoiler:the war fought for the other Triforce in Lorule, very much like the one fought in Hyrule. ''Un''like Hyrule, they destroyed the Triforce to keep it from being anymore trouble, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt which ended up being a very big mistake]].]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has the Great Calamity, in which [[AncientEvil Calamity Ganon]] took over the Guardians and [[AnimalMecha Divine Beasts]] and used them to ravage Hyrule. While an early expository cutscene shows a glimpse of the massacre that took place in Hyrule Castle Town [[spoiler:and Link's last retrievable memory shows the moment he succumbed to his injuries while fighting the Guardians]], the main evidence that the Calamity happened are the blasted ruins and decayed Guardians strewn about Hyrule. There's also the original battle between Hyrule's combined forces and Ganon 10,000 years prior, which is only depicted on a mural in Impa's home.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' has the Imprisoning War (separate from the conflict of the same name first discussed in ''A Link to the Past''), where Ganondorf was sealed away in the Depths after he tried to destroy Hyrule. We only see very brief glimpses of the war itself -- two cutscenes of Ganondorf summoning hordes of monsters, and one of him being imprisoned.
* A recurring element in the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'':
** The backstory of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' covers the 50-year war between the Luminoth and the Ing. By the time Samus Aran lands on Aether, the surviving Luminoth are holed up in the Great Temple waiting for a miracle to beat back the Ing, and dead Luminoth are all over the place.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'':
*** At the start of the game, a Federation technician mentions that he hasn't seen "that many fighters scrambled since the Literature/{{Horus|Heresy}} [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Rebellion]]".
*** Bryyo's Reptilicus civilization tore itself apart with a civil war between the traditionalist Primals and the Science Lords, super geniuses who looked upon the Primals with disdain. This war also did serious damage to Bryyo. Bear in mind, this was ''before'' the Leviathan hit the planet. The player learns about this war from lore scans dotted around Bryyo.
*** The War of Liberation on Wotan VII, which is mentioned in Ghor's backstory. As a result of the injuries he received in that conflict, he was rebuilt as a cyborg, with only 6% of his original body still intact.

* The ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series has several examples:
** Loghain of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' often mentions the Ferelden rebellion against Orlais. Vague references to the war between the Qunari and the Tevinter Imperium are also present.
** The First Blight lasted 192 years, the Second lasted 90 years: the Third and Fourth blight were comparatively smaller and lasted only 15 and 12 years. At the beginning of ''Origins'', Duncan is desperately trying to increase the ranks of the Fereldan Grey Wardens in order to avoid another Blight lasting years or even generations. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' confirms that the Fifth Blight, which is the setting of ''Origins'', lasted a full year, which is comparatively amazing.]]
** The plot of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' is about what ''started'' the Mage-Templar War that has engulfed all of Thedas by 9:40 Dragon. Vague hints are all we actually know about the present in which the framing-device is set, whereas the game itself focuses on the life of Hawke from 9:30 - 9:37 Dragon and how the Champion came to unintentionally participate in the opening shots of the conflict.
** Thedas history is built on one enormous war after another. The titular Dragon Age was predicted to be a time of upheaval, but it's still got some catching up to do in terms of body count. The oldest known conflict, predating the First Blight and the Age system, is the elf empire vs the nascent [[TheMagocracy Tevinter Imperium]]. The sheer loss of elf culture is still being felt centuries later.
** The novel ''Literature/TheStolenThrone'' describes the rebellion against the Orlesian occupation, although the final battle in which Loghain really proved himself as a general is not described (the future King Maric wasn't even present there, choosing instead to settle a personal score).
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' reveals some important info about the war between the Elven empire and Tevinter [[spoiler: - namely that the elves were already involved in a ''civil'' war. Far from the mighty conquerors their descendants imagine, Tevinter was kicking the elves when they were already down.]]
* The First Eptinan Wars exist has only a blurb in the manual for ''VideoGame/VanguardBandits''. The Second, also has this effect, having been going on since before the game starts, and despite still going on most of the backstory for it exists in a single flashback.
* Creator/SquareEnix seems to love this trope:

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': The Great Suwa War, in which Kanako subjugated Suwako; and Yukari's (first) invasion of the Moon. [[spoiler:''Silent Sinner in Blue'' is essentially Yukari taking revenge upon the Lunarians over her defeat 1,000 years ago.]]
* The Belkan War was this in ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'': the only events mentioned in the game were that Bartlett and Pops were shot down together, and that it ended when Belka dropped seven nukes on its own soil. It was later expanded on in ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', allowing you to experience the conflict for yourself, henceforth becoming a major part of the franchise's lore.
** Other wars that form a crucial part of certain games' backstories are civil wars in enemy nations, one big example being the Estovakian Civil War, a brutal knock-down drag-out mess that involved as many as ''five'' factions and lasted six years, essentially a precursor to the Anean Continental War seen in ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation.'' In ''VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception'', the Leasathian Civil War also serves a similar purpose.
* Since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' radio conversations and ads have hinted at a war between America and Australia which happened sometime in the mid 1980s. It's played for laughs.
* ''VideoGame/SepterraCore''. The Resource Wars, the most recent of the wars between Ankara and Jinam. Also the war between Chosen factions that devastated Maya's hometown.
* ''VideoGame/ShiningResonance'': All the player is allowed to see of Ragnarok directly is a mural of the event, along with narration explaining that the High Elves allied with the Shining Dragon and the World Dragons to seal away [[GodOfEvil Deus]]. Since the event took place many centuries ago, the mural is one of the few remaining records of it. The only "living" survivor of the war is the spirit of the Shining Dragon, who explains to Yuma that WarIsHell very much applies. This lack of info sets up an endgame reveal [[spoiler:about [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Deus' true nature]] as a machine made by the elves to harvest Dragon Energy before its catalysmic potential prompted the great war to stop it and those who didn't care for the risks and consequences.]]
* This is the central cause behind the events of ''VideoGame/ShironeTheDragonGirl''. [[spoiler:The war happened between the different races populating the world. The dragonkins' castle fell and everyone in it was slaughtered, including the royal family. The Dragonkin king, in an attempt to protect his daughter, used memory orbs to create an illusion of the castle, where she daughter would be safe. Centuries later, Shirone is mistaken for the king's daughter. She and all neighboring visitors end up trapped in the illusion. As Shirone grew up in a world of peace, she has no trouble teaming up with the other prisoners (all from a different race), and after witnessing their teamwork, the king's ghost finally realizes that the times have changed and the war is no more. He dismantles the illusion after asking Shirone to cherish this peace.]]
* The Ura-Caelondia war in ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}''. It's been over for a while, but a lot of the Ura and the only living Caelondian old enough to remember it (Rucks) are still a bit sore over it.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'': Long ago, during Mithos's time, Sylvarant and Tethe'alla were at war. This war killed the [[WorldTree Giant Kharlan Tree]], which was once a source of ever-flowing mana. [[spoiler:This is also where Mithos met Kratos and Yuan, and where Martel was killed, and thus how he decided to split the world in two.]] Because the Tree is considered a myth, the war is also assumed to have been mythical, especially since the best-known version of the story ends with the citizens of Tethe'alla exiling themselves to the moon by climbing the Tower of Salvation, which is obvious fairy-tale material. [[spoiler:This version of the tale is spread by Cruxis as propaganda, but while it does contain some obvious lies, it's still closer to the truth than one might expect.]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' references The Great War between humans and Entelexeia. One of the party members is a veteran.

* In ''VideoGame/UltimaVI'', there's supposedly a huge war with the gargoyles going on. The soldiers talk about it. You see the wounded being cared for in Cove... however due to the WideOpenSandbox gameplay you travel all over the fairly pristine world and never find a single battleground.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonsOfDredmor'' contains many references to a war between elves and dwarves that's taken place back on the surface; the dungeons are full of discarded weaponry and such.
* ''VideoGame/ExaPico'':
** The thousand-year war between Sol Ciel and Sol Cluster that peaked with the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Grathnode Inferia]]. Only a few people actually remember the events of it by virtue of being over 700 years old.
** ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia'' has the war between Mir-led Reyvateil and humans, which ended with Mir sealed and the Reyvateil treated as second- or even third-class citizens.
** ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'' has the previous period of conflict between the [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Grand Bell]] and the [[AssimilationPlot Sacred Army]]. The current period of conflict takes the majority of the gameplay, so it doesn't feel very offscreen-y.
* The ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series makes reference to a war that occurred tens of thousands of years ago in the First Civilization, between [[{{Precursors}} Those Who Came Before]] and the humans they used as slaves. This war is never detailed, but is instead used as a context to explain how the {{Half Human Hybrid}}s "Adam and Eve" became {{Phlebotinum Rebel}}s and stole the secret of the [[MacGuffin Pieces of Eden]]. And then their civilization was wiped out by a [[CozyCatastrophe solar flare]], making the whole thing moot.
** Later games also establish the Isu had their own war, dubbed "the War of Unification". ''Valhalla'' has characters in the Asgard storyline mention a war between the Aesir and Vanir, which only ended when Odin and Freyja reluctantly married. Whether this has any relation to the War of Unification is unclear, given the Asgard memories are [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness not an accurate depiction of events as they happened]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Hexx}}'' mentions the Chaos wars, which apparently involved one of the four deities in the setting.
* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' backstory includes the [[RobotWar Terraformer War]] in the 2140s AD, during which [[AIIsACrapshoot insane terraforming robots]] wiped out all of Earth's extrasolar colonies and nearly destroyed Earth, too. A Terran warfleet managed to lure them through a jumpgate, which was then destroyed behind them; this fleet became the Argon race. About 200 years later, we had the [[http://x3wiki.com/index.php/Xenon_Conflict First Xenon Conflict]], where the terraformers reappeared, followed by the [[http://x3wiki.com/index.php/Boron_Campaign Boron Campaign]], a more conventional interstellar war between the various superpowers.
* Lt. Surge in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' refers to a war in which his electric Pokémon "zapped [his] enemies into paralysis." None of the subsequent games (except the [[VideoGameRemake remakes]], which repeated the line exactly) mentioned anything about this war. A popular fan [[http://mashable.com/2013/10/12/pokemon-fan-theories/ theory]] theoriezes that there was a large conflict before the first game, which is why there are so few adult males; most are either older, or children.
* A war three-thousand years before ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' serves as the backstory for the game's plot.
* ''Xenoblade'':
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'''s ActionPrologue is the Battle of Sword Valley, which was the last battle of the Mechon invasion of Bionis and where [[DecoyProtagonist Dunban]] became a legend throughout the land for singlehandedly turning back the enemy advance. There was also the war between the Machina and the forces of the Bionis, millennia before the events of the game.
** In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', there is a massive conflict between two alien armies that just so happened to break out over Earth. As shown in the opening sequence, the battle resulted in Earth's destruction and humanity's forced exodus into space, with one of the alien armies pursuing them and causing one of their ships to crash-land onto Mira.
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' has two:
*** The Aegis War, a conflict from 500 years ago that resulted in the destruction of three titans as [[PhysicalGod the Aegis]] [[HumanWeapon Mythra]] and her driver Addam fought against [[PersonOfMassDestruction Malos, another Aegis]] and his army of [[MechaMook Artifices.]] While in the game itself, it is only ever talked about or shown in flash backs, as multiple characters that fought in the war are still alive, the DLC expansion “Torna the Golden Country” is set during the war, showing how the war ended and setting up the main game.
*** An even more vague war is shown briefly in the last chapter of the main game, which didn't even receive an official name. [[spoiler: It was set over Earth - yes, ''our'' Earth, and involved two factions, one of which wasn't even named. The named faction were called the Saviorite Rebels, while the unnamed one was likely made up of the United States of America and an unspecified European nation, and the {{God}} of ''2'''s world, the Architect, was a human scientist working for the unnamed faction. That's not the twist, though - the real twist is that the Architect is [[LiteralSplitPersonality half of]] Professor Klaus/Zanza, the first game's BigBad, and that the event that resulted in the creation the worlds of the first two games happened during the final battle of said war. Said event was vaguely shown at the very end of the first game as well, with the version being shown in ''2'' being more detailed and showing it from the perspective of Professor Klaus. [[MindScrew Yeah, it's that kind of game]].]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLastStory'' had a war that occurred hundreds of years ago that was ended by House Arganan. Later on, another large war engulfed the Empire that killed the families of Zael and Dagran, which led to them becoming mercenaries. In addition to ''that'', it is also stated that the Empire has fought many campaigns against the Gurak people in the past. The game's plot is well and truly kicked off when the Gurak invade Lazulis Island, sparking off another war.
* ''VideoGame/PandorasTower'' has a war that occurred fifty years ago. Unlike most instances of this trope, this particular war and its fallout have [[CataclysmBackstory great plot significance.]] Later on, the kingdoms of Elyria and Athos had been fighting a war that ended only two years before the game begins, and tensions between the two countries are still high despite the peace.

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' and ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' (old verse):
** The Timber Wars between Erathia and [=AvLee=] over the Contested Lands. Some hero descriptions mentions them, they're a key part of the backstory for ''VII'' and one campaign in ''Heroes III''... and the only one we get any real detail is canonically not a proper war (''VII'' involves a renewed conflict over part of the Contested Lands, but the only things that are ''assured'' to happen in the conflict are skirmishes and manouevering for position, followed by peace negotiations. It can escalate into a full-scale war, but hints in later games implies that the path in which that occurs isn't the one that happened).
** The rebellions against the Colonial Government after the Silence (the loss of contact with the Ancients, the mother civilization). The Colonial Government ruling the planet had been strong before the Silence, but after their legitimacy was damaged and their resources strained, and with that came rebellions. Initially the Colonial Government,under Governor Padish, held on by pumping out weapons and armour using the miraculous Heavenly Forges, but without Ancient maintenance the Forges gradually began to break down, and the rebellions chipped away at the Government. Within a century it had collapsed... and that is what is known of the only known ''planet-spanning'' conflict in the history of Enroth.

* Buried in the backstory to ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' is the war between humans [[GenocideBackfire and]] just-[[UpliftedAnimal uplifted]] birds, which started with the disorganized Hitchcock Winter, became formal when birds drew up their own Declaration of Independence, and continued for thirty years until humans surrendered. [[spoiler: Of course things aren't entirely peaceful now...]]
* ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}'' has the Alliance-Imperial War, which shaped the galaxy’s current political landscape by establishing the [[TheFederation Solar Alliance]] as a legitimate rival to the [[TheEmpire New Empire]] and breaking the latter’s dominance of the galaxy. This would lead to the Compact Revolution a century later, in which the New Empire collapsed due to internal dissent and was [[FullCircleRevolution reorganized]] into the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny People’s Alliance for Common Treatment]], or PACT.
* Characters in Season 4 of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadTelltale'' mention that several large communities are at war with each other. [[spoiler: The Delta's raiding party is the main antagonist of the season, but the larger community is never shown. Neither are the other communities they are fighting.]]
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' 's ExpandedUniverse has goblins mention in passing a series of no less than four Trade Wars, and described as worse, the [[RuleOfFunny Peace War]]. Details are sparse, limited to battles having been fought in the tunnels of the goblin capital Undermine, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Trade Prince Gallywix's favorite bakery being repeatedly destroyed over the multiple wars.]]
** There are also the Troll Wars, which are why high elves are friends with humans, humans have mages, and Zul'Aman is in ruins. A few of the Artifact quests also reference it.
** The space-faring demonic [[TheLegionsofHell Burning Legion]] is described as having destroyed over 1000 worlds, many of which had plenty of armies and champions for some probably pretty epic wars. Some of these are described in the chronicles of the Order Halls in the Legion expansion.
** Meanwhile, the Shadowlands expansion describes how the various afterlives of the Warcraft universe need to regularly defend themselves from outside forces in some apparently massive wars. In particular, both [[HeavenAbove Bastion]] and [[WarriorHeaven Maldraxxus]] have been invaded by the forces of the [[ThePoweroftheVoid Void]], while [[CityoftheDamned Revendreth]] had to fight a war against the armies of the [[LightisNotgood Light]] that was so costly, it bathed a portion of the realm in blinding, searing, perpetual daylight.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', The Old War between the precursor Orokin Empire and the Sentients is pretty much the cause of the state of present setting. It was the cause of the creation of the playable faction, the Tenno, the release of the [[ZombieApocalypse Technocyte Plague]], and if the Stalker is to be believed, indirectly resulted in their destruction when [[spoiler:the Tenno TurnedAgainstTheirMasters and]] destroyed them, leaving behind the reams of LostTechnology that everyone is squabbling over now.
* ''VideoGame/NosferatuTheWrathOfMalachi'': The Scripts Of Grimvald Vorius mention that [[spoiler:Malachi was sealed away]] after an event known as "the Crimson Wars" centuries ago.
* The [[NoodleIncident "Great Mistake"]] in ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' is sometimes implied to have been WorldWarIII, or a regional nuclear exchange (India and Pakistan are often brought up in this context). Other times it seems that it was an ecological collapse and/or some kind of unexplained science [[GoneHorriblyWrong going horribly wrong]] -- whatever it was, it's the cause of EarthThatUsedToBeBetter.
** Likewise, in ''Beyond Earth'''s spiritual predecessor, ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', had [[spoiler:the implication that civilization back on Earth completely went to shit not long after the ''Unity'' left. By the time Planet's descendants finally return to their world of origin, Earth is a lifeless rock with a few giant craters in it]].

* In ''TabletopGame/Twilight2000'' World War III is pretty much already over in 2000 when the first adventure is set, with the players as survivors of one of the last major battles. Everybody lost.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'' has an interesting relation to this trope, as it features multiple eras who started out being this trope. The 'classic' ''Battletech'' started in the InUniverse year of 3025 and featured an eight-hundred year backstory filled with these (of particular note were the Reunification Wars, the Amaris Civil War, and the first three Succession Wars). As the game has expanded forward in time, sourcebooks have also been released to allow games being played at these time points, using era-appropriate tech and 'mechs. The main remaining offscreen war at this point is the Outer Reaches Rebellion, as it happened 300 years before the creation of the HumongousMecha the setting is known for.

* Salad Fingers from ''WebAnimation/SaladFingers'' often references an event called the Great War in a few episodes. However, it's so far unknown if the war was nuclear or even existed at all as it could [[UnreliableNarrator be all in Salad Finger's mind.]]

* There are several of these in ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', including several wars of the Surface between the Dark and Light Elves and the conflict that eventually led to the Surface becoming uninhabitable, forcing the remaining elves to flee underground. Then there's the war between the Dark Elves and their children, the Drow, which led to the near extinction of the Dark Elves. The city of Chel'el'sussoloth also has a few of these such as the Sharen vs. the Sullisin'rune and various other times the Imperial forces have come into conflict with rogue clans.
* ''Webcomic/SisterClaire'' has a war between the Witches and the Nuns about 20 years ago that greatly affected the world, including causing bits of the landscape to be missing, and the after effects still linger among the characters, several of whom were on either side, including [[spoiler:Catharine's sister Clementine, who was the leader of the Witches known as The Bright One]].

* More like Great Offscreen Brawls. In various ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Celestia's]] Servant Interview'' comics, [[VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters Gig, Master of Death,]] would antagonize the pony being interviewed that strip. In the comments after [[https://derpibooru.org/879006 Rarity's fifth interview]], he paint-bombed the Carousel Boutique, and... well [[https://derpibooru.org/1024189#comment_4446525 Rainbow Dash gives the fallout both short-term and long-term after the fifth reverse interview]]. To summarize: Fighting accomplished nothing beyond hospitalizing Dashie twice, and [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 the memory spell]] [[StatusQuoIsGod didn't work either]].
** Since Derpibooru's days may be numbered, here is the summary:
--->'''Nightwing''': Gig maybe? since in one of rarity’s asks he did throw a paint bomb into her boutique.\\
'''Rainbow Dash''': That was when I lost my temper and fought with him. I’m not into fashion myself, but Rarity is awesome, and no one does that do her. When [[TalkToTheFist a hoof sandwich]] [[NoSell proved ineffective]], I really lost it and [[GroinAttack gave him a fast-moving shod back hoof to his little monkey balls]]. That only angered him, and he slammed me into the ground. Trip one to the hospital, and that was when I discovered the "[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings One Hocklet to Rule them All]]" trilogy. /)^3^(\ \\
After the fifth Twilight Sparkle interview, Twilight determined that we could safely borrow the Elements from the Tree of Harmony for just long enough to turn him to stone. Gig did not stay petrified, though, and he beat me to a pulp again, If it weren’t for Zecora my wings would have had to be amputated. I still had to go to the hospital again.\\
Then the princesses called the emergency meeting to learn as much as possible about Gig. The six of us were there, as were primate experts Lyra Heartstrings and [[WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls Sunset Shimmer]]. Bon Bon was there though [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E9SliceOfLife I’m not supposed to say why]], and Django was there because he knew about Gig. There we learned about Gig’s former good self as Vigilance, and Twilight decided to use the memory spell to awaken his Vigilance memories.\\
Pinkie found some hotpods, somehow. Just by being Pinkie Pie, I guess. Anyway, Gig came for them and Twilight cast the memory spell. Sadly, the Vigilance memories didn’t stick.
* ''Webcomic/ResNullius'': The story takes place immediately after a genocidal war that (Possibly) left the two protagonists as the LastOfTheirKind. Details of the war, including the name of the species that decimated two spacefaring civilizations, have been minimal.
* ''Webcomic/ReBootCodeOfHonor'': It's said that Megabyte's "Hunt" from the end of [[WesternAnimation/ReBoot Season Four]] eventually escalated into a Net-wide Viral War, which affected tens of thousands of systems. Very little of it is shown, though, as the comic begins in the last days of it.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' is set sometime after both WorldWarIII ''and'' [[WorldWarWhatever IV]].

* The many wars of the Ancient Belka in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''. We have been told some general info about it, such as how it destroyed Old Belka and [[YearZero led to the current age]] where physical-based weapons were banned, but otherwise, it's a big question mark. These wars were not visually depicted until ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', which revolves around the {{Reincarnation}} of two prominent figures from that war.

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' there is the Mainland, a continent where two nations have been waging war constantly for decades. No main character ever gets to visit the mainland, and we only know about it through descriptions, however it is revealed that one of these two nations is allied with the Dragon Descendants, powerful creatures much stronger than Humans, and that the nation opposed to the Dragon Descendants [[spoiler:created the Organization to develop monsters and creatures able to fight the Dragons, the Organization took over the Island and created all the Yoma and Awakened Being using Dragon's flesh as part of a giant Research project]].
* ''Anime/LastExile'' also has the war between its two major powers, which is mediated by The Guild. Much of the action of this war takes place BEFORE the actual story, as a few episodes in we discover that [[spoiler: one of the planets these factions live on is dying, essentially taking them out of the conflict for good. They're pretty much refugees after this point.]]
* In ''Anime/BlueGender'', we don't actually see humanity get overtaken by the Blues.
* The War with "Them" in ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'' is a complete mystery that has become filled with myths.
* Mysterious conflict with ''Anime/MazinkaiserSKL'', whose consequences are related to events of the series.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has the first three Shinobi World Wars; though they play a major role in the backstories of a good chunk of the main cast, we still know very little about these conflicts outside of a few offhand mentions and short flashbacks, plus a single gaiden story starring Kakashi.
* The war between [[TheFederation Megalomesembria]] and [[TheEmpire Hellas Empire]] in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi''.
* ''Manga/PumpkinScissors'' begins with the graduation ceremony of a class of army cadets being interrupted by an announcement that the war everyone thought they were going to be sent to fight in had just ended. The series itself is about a team working to help repair all the damage that was inflicted on their country during the war.
* The war between the [[spoiler: Spiral Warriors and the Anti-Spirals]] in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Parallel Works #8 details this a little focusing on Lordgenome's involvement.
* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' several wars broke out a few days after the Second Impact, one of which resulted in the destruction of Tokyo. We know nothing about these wars other than what's mentioned in [[http://wiki.evageeks.org/Second_Impact Shinji's history textbook.]]
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Shinigami and Quincies have been opposed for over a millennium with two periods of warfare being very important for the main storyline. The first is the original war between Yhwach and Yamamoto that occurred a thousand years ago and led to the creation of the Quincy Clan and the Gotei 13. The second is the Shinigami's attempted [[ThePurge purge]] of the Quincies 200 years ago. Both wars significantly impact the present-day Quincies and Shinigami, including anyone they associate with, be they human or hollow.
* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'':
** In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the backstory tells of a massive war between the Zentradi and a group known as the Supervision Army. This also forms a big part of the plot in ''Anime/Macross7'', where we learn more about what the Supervision Army is and where it came from. The war is actually on-going, and has been for something like 20,000 years, with the Zentradi and Supervision Army having been almost exactly evenly matched from the start. Many Zentradi fleets are still actively engaged in battle against Supervision Army forces far outside of the Milky-Way galaxy, and are far too busy to take note of humanity's affairs. Fortunately for the humans, both groups seem to be largely fragmented, and haven't noticed humanity destroying/assimilating various Zentradi fleets as their civilization expands. The growing human-"cultured" Zentradi alliance commonly skirmish against both forces, but the New United Nations have yet to run afoul of another one of the larger armadas, and already have colonies spread across roughly a third of the Milky Way galaxy.
** There was also a WorldWarIII fought on Earth that led to a OneWorldOrder. Though the prequel ''Anime/MacrossZero'' covers some characters' actions in it, most of the factions and causes are kept vague.
** ''Anime/MacrossDelta'' has the Windermerean war for independence, which took place a few years before the story. Windermere did succeed in securing their independence from the New UN, but are still bitter over the lives lost... especially over the fact that a Fold Bomb was detonated on Windermere during the conflict.

* ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' has the Seven Days of Fire, in which the God Warriors were unleashed on the world and industrial civilization was destroyed.
* Something like this was suggested in the dub version (but not the original version) of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds''. When Bommer summons his Flying Fortress SKY FIRE to use against Crow, Crow is naturally freaked out (as most of Bommer's opponents are when he summons it) and exclaims "That's not a monster, that's World War IV!" The implication, of course, is that World War III has occurred in the time period between the present day and [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture this future time.]]
* Subverted in ''Anime/SpaceDandy'', where the war isn't so much off-screen as that the narrator completely forgets to mention it. It pops up now and again, but typically does not have much impact on the story [[spoiler: until the last episode.]]

* The Joui War in ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' is often referenced throughout the series and many notable characters take part in it, though only a few flashbacks are shown at best.
* The war between the Saiyans and the Tuffles (Tsufuru-jin) in ''Manga/DragonBall'' is very important to the mythology of the series but we never actually see it except in brief clips in some of the anime episodes.
* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' has the dragon war between the Order and Chaos factions. Characters make plenty of references to it, but the fact that the story takes place on Earth (which is an established demilitarized zone) means that it's never shown. [[spoiler:The one time that the plot heads to the other world, the battle that would have taken place is avoided thanks to Kobayashi's intervention.]]

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': The Dragon King Festival is the name given to the civil war between dragons 400 years prior to the start of the series, which resulted in the creation of [[TheDragonslayer Dragon Slaying Magic]], the rise of [[WorldsStrongestMan Acnologia]], and the virtual extinction of dragons as a species due to Acnologia's indiscriminate rampage near the end where he slaughtered every dragon and Dragon Slayer, friend or foe, he could get his claws on. Most of the backstory given on the war is told through the ghost of Zirconis, a dragon on the anti-human side slain by Acnologia, [[spoiler:and Irene Belserion, the creator of Dragon Slayer Magic who also became a dragon from overuse of her magic (and is also Erza Scarlet's mother).]]
* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' has the Carni-Herbi War that happened about 100 years prior to the setting of the story and massively shaped the modern society, supposedly being the source of all animosity between the two sides, but the exact specifics of what happened are kept a secret to the general public.

* ''Manga/HenkyouNoRoukishiBardLoen'': The war between the three families in the region Bard lives in took place before the events of the story, though we occasionally see flashbacks to it.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' has the aptly named Great War between the Mobians and Overlanders (aka. the descendants of humanity). It was started when the KnightTemplar Kodos killed two scouts from both sides and sent them to their respective sides, causing some seriously long-standing racial tensions to explode. It lasted for five years and ended when [[BigBad Dr. Robotnik]] (back when he was still called Kintobor) supposedly switched sides and gave the Mobians what they needed to drive back the Overlanders. Unfortunately, after the Mobians won, Robotnik promptly ''[[TheChessmaster betrayed them]]'' too and overthrew the king with his badnik army. Many of the comic's older characters were in the war and there's still plenty of resentment and bigotry left over from the war.
** There's also the first year of the Second Robotnik War, which saw Dr. Eggman regain his power base and promptly retake Mobius after Sonic had been thought killed in battle.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' and the continuation ''Webcomic/SonicTheComicOnline'' has the Great War between the Echidnas of Megopolis City and the Drakons of the invading Drakon Empire which took place eight thousand years ago over Mobius' Emerald mines which could contain the Chaos energy, a powerful but highly unstable energy source created by scientists on Drak the Drakons home planet, the Drakons were able to steal seven Emeralds before the war began. The gems, when combined with the Chaos energy, formed the legendary Chaos Emeralds. Two days before the war began, Pochacamac, leader of the Megopolis tribe, managed to steal the sacred Emeralds back from the Drakons, both to keep to return them to their true home and to prevent the Drakons from conquering the entire galaxy. Angered, the Drakons sent out a scout to examine the Echidna defenses before sending a full-scale invasion force to claim the Emeralds. A battle erupted inside Pochacmac's command room, with Drakon Prosecutors and Sentinels fighting against Sonic the Hedgehog and echidnas armed with Guardian Robots. The fight was briefly interrupted when a Prosecutor struck the Emeralds with his Dimensional Staff, causing a chain reaction that turned a fallen Drakon warrior into the mighty Chaos. The ensuing explosion weakened the gathered Drakon soldiers enough for Knuckles and the other tribesmen to fight back while Sonic and Pochacmac took care of Chaos. After a final push, the echidnas drove the Drakon invaders out of the city, but the war was far from over. Although no victor was ever declared, the failure of the Drakons to claim their intended prize suggests the Mobian defence held out, albeit at a great cost.
* Continuing the trend, ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' partially deals with the aftermath of a rebellion against Eggman's army, referencing the one that took place in ''VideoGame/SonicForces''. The machinery, social impact, and reconstruction efforts are very much present throughout the comic.
* In the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' universe, the Great Atom War/World War Three started off as this, with only a few incidents in it ever being revealed. However, nearly 30 years later the storyline Origins came along and averted this trope, giving a solid order to events and how they were seen through along Joe Dredd's eyes.
* Most of the event on the backstory of ''ComicBook/OldManLogan'' (on which ''every single villain'' of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse [[VillainTeamUp teamed up]] [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica and took over North America]] (if not the world, it's not really explicitly said), killing (most) of the superheroes) remains unexplained except for the post-apocalyptic wasteland where the story takes place, a number of {{Cryptic Background Reference}}s (and the piles of spandex-wearing skeletons that adorn the sites where they are mentioned), [[spoiler:and a couple of flashbacks to the event, where we see the massacre of the X-Men (by Wolverine, who got such a HeroicBSOD from being duped in such a way (by ''[[NotSoHarmlessVillain Mysterio]]'') that he is ''still'' reeling from it by the time the story starts), and the Red Skull's slaying of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica.]]
* Despite the fact that the chronology of ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' is deliberately murky to the point of parody, one historical event that is often referred to is UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar to the extent that some of Luke's enemies (Jesse James and Joss Jamon's gang) are known to have participated in it as mercenaries (for the Confederacy of course).

* The Creator/MarvelComics mini-series ''History of the Marvel Universe'' established the Siancong War, a combination of the Korean and Vietnam Wars which saw America enter the equally fictional Sin-Cong to try and drive off Communist invaders. It would be this war where people like [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Ben Grimm]] and [[ComicBook/ThePunisher Frank Castle]] would participate in as ComicBookTime made using World War II and the Vietnam War implausible.
* ''ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop'': As befitting the fact it was based on Creator/FrankMiller's original script for ''Film/RoboCop2'' and elements going into ''Film/RoboCop3'', the Amazon War from those two films is part of the backstory, with the Rehabs (much like in ''3'') being mercenaries who'd been involved in the war now employed by OCP -- with the addition of Sgt. Reed having served in the war and recognizing the Rehabs from his time there.

* ''Fanfic/AYoungGirlsGuerrillaWar'': As in canon, the Second Pacific War ended with Britannia invading the Japanese mainland and forcing Tokyo’s unconditional surrender. Even many of the characters too young to have fought in it still remember the devastation. Before that, there was the First Pacific War, evidently waged between Europa Universalis and Imperial Japan approximately seventy years before the canon story, ended so poorly for the Japanese that the country was reformed into the Republic of Japan.

* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', there is supposedly a vast war raging between the three superstates, but it has no actual bearing on the novel's plot. [[spoiler: Of course, it could just be made up to make the party's rule seem legitimate]].

* ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown'' apparently experienced two of these, the Genomic War - which gave rise to a number of genetically engineered HumanSubspecies who have had varying degrees of success interacting peaceably with baseline humans in the years since -- and the Android Uprising, about which we are given even fewer details, but the current society seems to believe that AndroidsArePeopleToo. The biggest effect of the Genomic War on the main story is that it apparently caused the Amish and Mennonites to have to evacuate their territories for a time, and when they finally returned, they were somewhat less closed minded than they had been, and a number of outsiders followed them, making them a much more ethnically diverse group than they had been.

* ''Literature/LaszloHadronAndTheWargodsTomb'': The Sagittarian Extinction is the one most relevant to the story, but also mentioned are the Solar War, the Imperial Wars, and the [[RobotWar Interregnum]].

* This is the central cause behind the events of ''VideoGame/ShironeTheDragonGirl''. The war happened between the different races populating the world. The dragonkins' castle fell and everyone in it was slaughtered, including the royal family. The Dragonkin king, in an attempt to protect his daughter, used memory orbs to create an illusion of the castle, where she daughter would be safe. Centuries later, Shirone is mistaken for the king's daughter. She and all neighboring visitors end up trapped in the illusion. As Shirone grew up in a world of peace, she has no trouble teaming up with the other prisoners (all from a different race), and after witnessing their teamwork, the king's ghost finally realizes that the times have changed and the war is no more. He dismantles the illusion after asking Shirone to cherish this peace.

* This is the central cause behind the events of VideoGame/ShironeTheDragonGirl. The war happened between the different races populating the world. The dragonkins' castle fell and everyone in it was slaughtered, including the royal family. The Dragonkin king, in an attempt to protect his daughter, used memory orbs to create an illusion of the castle, where she daughter would be safe. Centuries later, Shirone is mistaken for the king's daughter. She and all neighboring visitors end up trapped in the illusion. As Shirone grew up in a world of peace, she has no trouble teaming up with the other prisoners (all from a different race), and after witnessing their teamwork, the king's ghost finally realizes that the times have changed and the war is no more. He dismantles the illusion after asking Shirone to cherish this peace.

* ''Film/{{Seventh Son|2015}}'' is set about a century after a war waged by evil witches on humanity, which the world is said to still be recovering from.
* In ''Film/RoboCop2'' and ''Film/RoboCop3'' there is mention of a war in the Amazon, with Cain and the Rehabs having served in the war. The latter film sees Lewis reading a copy of ''USA Today'' in the scene [[DonutMessWithACop of the botched donut shop robbery]] with the headline being the war getting worse. These were elements from Creator/FrankMiller's [[ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop original script]] for ''2'', which had Sgt. Reed as having served in the war and dreading the arrival of the Rehabs as he recognized them as mercenaries from his time in the war.
* ''Film/ShredderOrpheus'' takes place in a future dystopia sometime after the Great Contra War, which left the veteran Axel without the use of his legs and lower nervous system.
* ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'': A previous revolt against Wilford, the [=McGregor=] Riots from four years ago, are alluded to a few times. What happened to [=McGregor=] is unmentioned but likely bad, as the Front Section passengers shot so many advancing rebels that Curtis is convinced that bullets went "extinct."
* ''Film/Timecop2TheBerlinDecision'': The first sign that Miller ignoring HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct is having unpleasant consequences like Josh Chan warned are constant vague references to a catastrophic war where Doc's husband and Chan's parents died and O'Rourke lost an eye.

* King Arthur in ''Film/FirstKnight'' waged several wars to secure and defend Camelot. One of those wars killed Lancelot's family.

* A plot point in ''Film/{{Rollerball}}''. Whenever the protagonist tries to find out details about the [[CorporateWarfare Corporate Wars]] he finds himself hitting a brick wall, as America is OneNationUnderCopyright and doesn't want its skeletons in the closet being aired.

* In ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', throughout the film, there are repeated allusions to an ancient war between Godzilla and Kong's ancestors, but the details are left very vague, including why it happened, which side started it or what the outcome was, beyond the implication that it led to the decline of both species.
* ''Film/ShredderOrpheus'' takes place in a future dystopia sometime after the Great Contra War, which left the veteran Axel without the use of his legs and lower nervous system.

* ''Film/Devotion2022'': UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, which most of the cast trained for but weren't able to serve in: deuteragonist Tom Hudner applied to the Naval Academy after Pearl Harbor and was a month away from graduation when Japan surrendered.

Sometimes people will use the war as a reference point for placing events on a timeline - something happened a few years before the war, or somebody did something after the war.

Maybe people still have to deal with its consequences. The war happened, and it left its ugly mark on the world. But it's [[TakeOurWordForIt never shown to the audience]] - we never see a single {{flashback}} from the war, are never shown more than just a glimpse of what happened. The war will be referenced, but otherwise left mysterious, unexplained. Why it happened, how it ended, and what all the things that took place there (which people talk about [[CrypticBackgroundReference like it should be obvious]]) actually were, are never explained. We may not even know the different factions involed in the fighting. The war is only a mysterious event of the past, included mostly to add a bit of mystery and [[WildMassGuessing give people excuses for insane ideas]]. Needless to say, this trope can easily be processed into FanficFuel.

* The Sin War, an eternal war between the forces of Heaven and Hell, is given as the background to ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', but aside from a short mention in [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] it doesn't really make an appearance. It's only in the second game, after [[BigBad Diablo]] has been released that angels start making an appearance and the war itself becomes relevant.

** Speaking of ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'', it contains references to the Third and Fourth Great (or "Cybertronian") Wars, the assumption being that there were a first and second. (They're probably in the fourth one. Or the fifth, if you consider the ending of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'' to be the end of that particular war.)
** And speaking of ''Transformers: The Movie'', the movie was never seen in Japan until four years after its American release, and even then Japanese fans have already seen Season 3 (there called ''Transformers 2010''). As such, events from the movie were referred to but ''never'' seen. So this would count, as it had gained a mysterious and legendary quality beforehand. Japanese first coined the term the "Unicron War".

** At some point in the process of writing some of the more recent spin-off comics, the writers appear to have decided that all the above were effectively [[ForeverWar one single conflict]] with occasional lulls or ceasefires, thus handily allowing any confusion over which war a particular character happened to be referencing at the time to be HandWaved as [[UnreliableNarrator the Cybertronians having trouble keeping track as well]]: If the only actual ''peace'' was the occasional short interlude where everyone was busy rearming they'd have to start blurring together after a while.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has easily the most war-torn setting in the entire franchise. The land of Fódlan has suffered numerous foreign invasions throughout its almost 1,200 year history, and the continent's three countries have fought their fair share of wars against each other, and put down an even larger number of internal insurrections and rebellions. The most signficant is a war that occurred so far in the backstory ''none'' of the characters in the game were alive to witness it, not even the [[spoiler:the most long-lived surviving Nabateans. That would be the apocalyptic war between the technologically advanced Agarthans and the goddess Sothis, which sundered the continent, led to the destruction of Agartha, and possibly even the extinction and rebirth of humanity as a whole, as the Agarthan descendants in "those who slither in the dark" repeatedly refer to the humans living on the surface as creations of Sothis]].

*** Showrunner Creator/StevenMoffat has gone on record saying that he will never show the Time War since there isn't enough money in the world to do it justice. All we see of it in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" is a few brief scenes of the Dalek invasion of Gallifrey at the war's climax... and it is not pretty.

** The War of the First Council in the First Era set the stage for all that followed. The devout, Daedra/ancestor-worshipping Chimer and atheistic, scientific Dwemer came into conflict in the land now known as Morrowind. After years of fighting, they were [[EnemyMine forced to team up]] to drive out the invading Nords. Their alliance remained under the leadership of Chimeri Lord Indoril Nerevar and Dwemer Dumac Dwarfking, known as the "first council." It was a time of great peace and prosperity for both races. However, the Dwemer DugTooDeep beneath Red Mountain and unearthed the Heart of Lorkhan, the [[GodIsDead creator god]]. Chief Tonal Architect, Lord Kagrenec, crafted tools to tap into the power of the heart, hoping to allow the Dwemer to [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOFExistence transcend mortality]]. The Chimer, seeing this as a blasphemy against their gods in the Daedra, attempted to stop the Dwemer, reigniting their war. Forces led by Nerevar and Lord Voryn Dagoth infiltrated the Dwemer Red Mountain stronghold. [[TheRashomon Exactly what happened next is up for intense debate]], but the Dwemer disappeared from existence, Nerevar was slain, Dagoth and the Tribunal used the tools on the heart to [[PhysicalGod achieve godhood]], and Azura cursed the Chimer with dark skin and red eyes, transforming them into the modern Dunmer. The Nord defeat in Morrowind also marked the furthest expanse of their early empire, the first empire of Men in Tamriel. Many of their conquests were thanks to their mastery of the Thu'um as a weapon of war. After that defeat, Jurgen Windcaller, one of the defeated Nord leaders, reflected on it and determined that it was a punishment from the gods for misusing the Thu'um. Thus, he created the Way of the Voice and founded the Greybeards to [[HeelFaithTurn only use the Thu'um to honor the gods]]. Afterward, it saw a drastic drop in use as a weapon of war and the Nords were never again able to reach that level as an empire. The aftereffects of this battle can still be felt in the plotlines for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.

%%* The Makhash Wars from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': A few, including the Greyjoy Rebellion and the Targaryen Conquest, but the most important is the war seventeen years ago in which Robert Baratheon overthrew the Mad King and drove the last Targaryens into exile.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has many of these. Some have been detailed in the companion books (''Literature/ArchmaesterGyldaynsHistories'', ''Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire'', and ''Literature/FireAndBlood''), but others remain unexplained. Ordered by reverse chronology:

** The Dance of the Dragons, a Targaryen civil war that happened over 160 years ago. The war began after the death of Viserys I, when his eldest daughter, Rhaenyra (the blacks), quarreled with her half-brother, Aegon II (the greens), over the succession to the Iron Throne. The greens officially won, but the blacks ultimately prevailed in the long run; although Aegon II managed to execute Rhaenyra, he later died by poisoning and his heirs all died young, leaving Rhaenyra's descendants to continue the Targaryen line. But the most impactful was the extinction of the dragons, a lot of whom died in combat while others were massacred during the revolt at King's Landing. When Daenerys hatches her three dragons, it is the first time ''anybody'' has seen dragons for more than a century.

** Westeros had several unification wars. The Age of Heroes led to the rise of great Houses such as the Starks, Lannisters, Gardeners and Durrandons. The Andal invasion led to the coming of the Faith of the Seven, the conquest of the Vale by House Arryn. the conquest of the Riverlands by House Hoare and the disappearance of the Children of the Forest. The Rhoynish Invasion of Dorne led to that place becoming a principality under the rule of House Martell.
** The truly ancient wars between Valyria and the Ghiscari Empire, back when the former was still a nascent kingdom, more than four thousand years ago. It was the reason why slavery is prevalent in Essos; when Valyria conquered Ghis, it adopted many of the latter's practices, including slavery, and expanded it to cover the rest of the continent.

** The Rhoynish Wars, fought between Valyria and the Rhoynar of western Essos a thousand years ago. To escape the former, Princess Nymeria led her people to Dorne.
** The Andal invasion of Westeros, leading to the continent's official conversion to the Faith of the Seven (barring the North and the Iron Islands, which stick to their own gods), the proliferation of Andal culture, and the disappearance of the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Children of the Forest]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' has the Great War, a two-hour war during which every nuclear-capable country in the world launched. No one knows who launched first, and given the state of the world afterwards it doesn't really matter anymore.
** Two sources - the leader of the Enclave (the remnants of the US government) and the log of a Chinese submarine commander during the Great War - point to the Chinese. Still, they might be mistaken, and part of the lead-up to the Great War is still undetailed - the war between China and the USA has been given a fair bit of attention, but the other Resource Wars - especially the one between Europe and the Middle East, and the ones that happened in Europe after that - are still mostly names, if even that.

* In the backstory lore of ''TabletopGame/Wyrmlings'', the Order of Dragon Knights fought a massive conflict against the Evil Wizards that were once menacing Dragonsdale. The Knights won and banished the Wizards in the end.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Frontier|SovereignGFC}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''[[spoiler:[=/=]''Franchise/{{Halo}}]]'' MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, it's revealed that the geth Consensus tied up the BigBad so much that its full force is never applied to the heroes. [[FridgeHorror Keep in mind how many casualties they suffered anyway]], so the "full force" of said enemy might have been more like "game over."