History Main / ForeverWar

There are numerous reasons to have a Forever War, but in all cases the two sides cannot reconcile their differences for some reason. One side may exist simply to fight the other but despite their best efforts their foes remain indomitable. Perhaps one group simply [[BloodKnight enjoys fighting so much]] that they don't want to stop, or maybe there are political or economic advantages to constant warfare. Maybe it all started with a SillyReasonForWar that has since become tragically serious. Though the most common reason would be that the two factions had a reason to fight long ago and at this point the concept of peace is simply foreign to their culture.

* The UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses: began in 1455 over a dispute in the succession dating back to 1399 and ended in 1485. The man who won the war and became king wasn't even born yet when it began.

** The ongoing nature of this conflict is not helped that the two regions have a sizeable political divide, with many of the prominent Northern States being bastions of liberal politics and most of the former Confederate states being bastions of "conservative" (often reactionary) politics.

** The long-running conflict between the Thals and the Kaleds on the planet Skaro. It runs for so long that technology in the war starts to run backwards; in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", one soldier is found with [[SchizoTech a laser and a musket, wearing a radiation detector and a gas mask]]. The conflict is only brought to an end when an OmnicidalManiac is placed in charge of peace negotiations... which kinda starts a whole bunch of new conflicts.

** The long-running conflict between the Thals and the Kaleds on the planet Skaro. It ran for so long, that technology in the war started to run backwards; one soldier was found with a laser and a musket, wearing a radiation detector and a gas mask. The conflict was only brought to an end when an OmnicidalManiac was placed in charge of peace negotiations. Which kinda [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks started a whole bunch of new conflicts]].
** The eternal war between the Sontarans and the Rutans, which gets mentioned each time either race appears in the series. It was stated to have been going on for ''50,000 years'' as of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]], and was still going on in the serial [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment "The Sontaran Experiment"]], set 14,000 years ''after that''.
** The war between Atrios and Zeos in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor "The Armageddon Factor"]]. It eventually turns out that [[spoiler:Zeons have been dead or gone for years, but the supercomputer built to organise the war effort has been keeping things going without them]].
** The Daleks are shown to be caught up in another one in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks "Destiny of the Daleks"]], that is strangely bloodless. The Daleks and the Movellans (both robotic species) cannot commit to an attack if they do not have an advantage, but since their tactical computers are too evenly matched, neither can attain an advantage long enough to do so. The episode centers around both side's efforts to find a way to end the stalemate. The Doctor even comments that their endlessly maneuvering for position without ever actually firing a shot is actually a peculiar form of peace. He ultimately decides to deny his solution to their problem to both sides so that they will continue endlessly seeking an opening against each other without bothering the rest of the galaxy.

** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]]. Since time immemorial, the two sides have been relentlessly cloning soldiers to keep the war going. TheReveal is that [[spoiler:time immemorial in this case is ''seven days''. They go through about twenty generations of clones in a day, so their knowledge gets corrupted incredibly fast]].

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In ''ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars'', or at least the more famous AnimatedAdaptation, KOMPLEX conquered and brainwashed the toads a century ago, and they've been waging war on the rest of the Aniverse every since. Small potatoes compared to some of the other entries here, but still a really long time to be at continuous war.

* UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}} has been at war since 1986, after 31 years, Somalia has seen many territorial changes, numerous different rebel groups, radical religious militants, a country trying to become independent (UsefulNotes/{{Somaliland}}), 3 UsefulNotes/UnitedNations Peacekeeping missions and at least 3 different Somali governments. And the war is expected to keep going since the new government is still very weak and prone to instability (Since most it's support is done by the UN and the military forces of the African Union) and [[AfricanTerrorists Al-Shabaab]] is still very active and strong showing no signs of wanting to surrender or negotiate.

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* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': "We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia."
** [[InternalRetcon "We have never been at war with Eurasia. We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia."]]
** The Forever War is actually what makes the dystopia of the book tick in the first place. According to "[[AuthorTract The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism]]", it's possible for the regimes to create a wealthy, antiseptic scientific utopia (or a Literature/BraveNewWorld) since they have the resources to create them in the first place, but that will cause hierarchical society, which is based on widespread repression, poverty, ignorance and blind faith to the Powers That Be, to fall apart. War has superseded its former meaning of conquest and has evolved into an excuse to waste resources, decrease living standards, and create intense feelings of constant danger and fanaticism, feelings which have long been associated with loyalty to a group.

* The ''Age of War'' series of Flash games. The premise is simple: You start at the Stone Age, fighting an identical army and evolving through different time periods, gaining more powerful and advanced troops as you do, until you end up with futuristic soldiers and hi-tech weapons. The third and last game, ''Army of Ages'', mixed it up by replacing the carbon copy opposition with an enemy force actually distinct from your own. Namely, a swarm of aliens with their own unique evolutionary path.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls2'': The war between Drangleic and the Giants went on for a ''very'' long time, ostensibly because neither side could really die due to both sides being immortal in some way. The Undead Curse for the humans and [[TheAgeless agelessness]] for the Giants.
* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': Though organized armies haven't been seen in the Lands Between for hundreds of years, the Shattering War is technically still going on because ''nobody can die''; those who were mortal have been turned into undead who have succumbed to madness, while those that were immortal have rotted and decayed to madness, technically capable of death but too powerful to die. None of the above have rightful claim to the throne any longer, meaning the succession crisis never stopped either. It takes the Tarnished, who have both the strength to kill the demigods and the right to claim the throne, to end the conflict for good.
** Another factor in the unending nature of The Shattering is that pretty much all the contenders are locked in a stalemate due to decimating their armies years ago. Malenia and Radahn's forces were at ground zero for the release of Scarlet Rot and are thus indisposed (Malenia's cleanrot knights have succumb to the disease while Radahn's army is fighting against the wildlife of Caelid and seem to have abandoned the war), Mt. Gelmir's army was completely decimated during the siege on Volcano Manor leaving Praetor Rykard to have to recruit Tarnished to act as assassins. Godrick's forces were severely weakened after a failed siege on the capital city of Leyndell and he's pretty much abandoned the campaign to focus on grafting and empowering himself. Ranni and Rennala were turned on by their Cuckoo Knights at Raya Lucaria and simply don't have enough Carian supporters to launch any offensive. The last man standing is King Morgott in the capital city, which is hardly a victory considering [[spoiler: he can't officially take the throne as the Erdtree has locked everyone out and won't accept any new Elden Lords]].
* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Days of Ruin]]'' has Rubinelle and Lazuria, where both sides have fought each other for over a century. The Great War ''should'' have ended with the meteors, but even after civilization ends, the last surviving leaders on both sides (Admiral Greyfield and General Forsythe, respectively) refuse to end it. [[spoiler:However, this is ultimately subverted: neither faction is actually fighting for their now-defunct nations. Greyfield was responsible for instigating the conflict to fulfill his imperial ambitions, while Forsythe was called out of retirement to lead the remnants of the Lazurian Army against the aggression of the 'New' Rubinelle Army.]]

--> ''"War is the struggle to exist. Everything that's real is a combatant."''

* Very likely to happen unintentionally in ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron 4''. Since you can't make peace without having 50 war scores ahead of or behind the enemy, two equally well-entrenched sides can literally duke it out till the end of time. Even the invention of the atomic bomb won't be able to break the deadlock, as you need 75% air superiority to start sending nukes.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', the Tasen and [[spoiler: Komato]] have apparently been fighting for thousands of years. While they still remember why, they seem to have trouble understanding what it would be like to ''not'' be at war. [[spoiler: After the Tasen are wiped out by the Komato, it's heavily implied in the ending that the Komato may turn on themselves now that they no longer have an enemy to fight.]]

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': the Reaper cycle of extinction might not count (certainly it's been going on for [[TimeAbyss a long, long time]] and was never meant to end), but their one-to-three-''hundred''-year exterminations do. Javik mentions it frequently -- by the time he was born, the Citadel had already fallen and his world had been reduced to a blackened wasteland, and it only got worse from there.

* ''VideoGame/MysticArk'' has a mostly-comedic version in the war between the Bloodhook and Gunboss. It's been going for centuries by the time the PlayerCharacter arrives, and none of the crew seem to have a reason for it besides that they've always been at war. Matoya outright states that none of them actually remember what the war was about anymore, and the captains can only manage an awkward silence when asked directly. [[spoiler: It finally ends due to the intervention of the PlayerCharacter, Matoya, and a very large, angry mole.]]

* ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' takes place during a war between an invading force of alien-made machine lifeforms, and an army of androids seeking to liberate Earth on behalf of the human race, which has since fled to the moon. Said war has gone on for nearly 10,000 years by the time the game starts. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, the characters find out that the entire war has been artificially extended by both the machine lifeforms and higher-ups among the androids. Since the human race had gone extinct long before the aliens arrived, leaving the androids with no one to serve, and the machine lifeform network GrewBeyondTheirProgramming enough to know that defeating the androids would rob them of their purpose for being, both of them decided that working together behind the scenes to keep the war going indefinitely would give both sides a reason to exist.]]

*** Then a certain event happened on 11 September 2001, which followed the assassination of the militant's biggest rival. [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror The Americans invaded]], dismantled the militant group, and installed their own puppets, but the militants regrouped and started doing the insurgency. Said insurgency lasted until in 2021 the Americans, much like the Soviets before them, retreated their troops from the country and left it to promptly collapse to the insurgents. As of writing, the situation has fallen into a point similar to the one in the early 90's, with the insurgents taking control of the government and attempting to re-establish some sort of order within it, but new insurgencies (albeit on a smaller scale) still fight against the new government (most notably the ISKP).

* The default state of ant colonies is a costant, never-ending war that would make ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' blush, with numbers of fighters in the ''quadrillions'':

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

** Even after Palpatine and Vader's deaths, the Empire and its successor state the First Order keep on fighting the New Republic for decades. While the Sith did not create the First Order [[spoiler:([[RetCon or at least they didn't when]] Film/TheForceAwakens [[RetCon came out]])]], the Sith are not the only adherents of TheDarkSide.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' this happens due to ScienceMarchesOn within the story. Old slower-than-light ships are mentioned perpetually showing up and attacking their enemies ''centuries'' after the war is over and totally forgotten. And when TimeTravel was invented, things got worse. Battles started happening ''before'' the issues the war [[strike:was]] will be about even arose. Will arise. [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble Whatever.]]

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' starts with the DivineConflict started by Morgoth in which he destroyed the two Trees of Valinor and how it evolved into a WorldSundering war. The good guys win at a great cost, but at least they defeat Morgoth. With the passing of time, everyone forgets about the War, and that Morgoth's Dragon, Sauron, escaped with a band of Orcs and hid for centuries if not millennium. Galadriel is desperate to get people listen to her that the conflict will reignite, which does happens by the end of the Season One, taking everyone by surprise.

** Shavarath, the Plane of Battle, is an eternal war between the angels and the fiends, with the former consisting of the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent legions]] of [[KnightInShiningArmour Justice]] and [[LaResistance Freedom]] and the later having the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent legions]] of [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans Tyranny]] and [[TheHorde Cruelty.]] The inhabitants of the plane believe that this war represents the entire universe; when the angels are winning in Shavarath, good is stronger elsewhere. Of course, there's no proof of this.

* ''VideoGame/ChainedEchoes'' takes place on a continent that's been locked in war for 156 years. While mostly-medieval level of technology means that there's relatively small impact on the nature, many [=NPCs=] note that their whole life has been nothing but war. The war ends after the incident during the prologue scares world leaders into signing a peace treaty, but there are still people so consumed by thr CycleOfRevenge, they want to restart the war in hopes to finally destroy their old foes.

** Another factor in the unending nature of The Shattering is that pretty much all the contenders are locked in a stalemate due to decimating their armies years ago. Malenia and Radahn's forces were at ground zero for the release of Scarlet Rot and are thus indisposed (Malenia's cleanrot knights have succumb to the disease while Radahn's army is fighting against the wildlife of Caelid and seem to have abandoned the war), Mt. Gelmir's army was completely decimated during the siege on Volcano Manor leaving Praetor Rykard to have to recruit Tarnished to act as assassins. Godrick's forces were severely weakened after a failed siege on the capital city of Leyndell and he's pretty much abandoned the campaign to focus on grafting and empowering himself. Ranni and Rennala were turned on by their Cuckoo Knights at Raya Lucaria and simply don't have enough Carian supporters to launch any offensive. The last man standing is King Morgott in the capital city, which is hardly a victory considering [[spoiler: he can't officially take the throne as the Erdtree has locked everyone out and won't accept any new Elden Lords.]]

* On a very similar note to Xenogears, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' begins with a war between two nations called Keves and Agnus. With ChildSoldiers grown in pods until they're maturely 10, then living for 10 years doing nothing but fighting. No one even questions anything until the six main characters (three from Keves, three from Agnus) have a fateful encounter that reveals to them the existence of an organization known as Moebius [[spoiler:who are in fact the Consuls in charge of their colonies]] that secretly controls both nations and wants the war to literally last forever [[spoiler:because the life force harvested from the fallen soldiers is used to fuel their immortality, and they in turn perpetuate the "Endless Now" as charged by their leader Z, who desires to keep the MergedReality of Aionios intact.]]

** For an incomplete summary, listen to the song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc56moy0poA Europa,]]'' and keep in mind that it's watered down for lack of time. If there's one thing in this world you can guarantee, Europeans will always default to kicking the hell out of each other.

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

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' has the Schism that occurred between two groups within the secret society VFD. We (the readers) is never given any information on how or when it started. [[spoiler: Heck, we never even find out what VFD is, what each respective group is after, [[ItMakesSenseInContext what the hell was in that sugar bowl]], who the BigBad is, or the BigGood for that matter. We don't even know if there IS a central villain or hero in the whole mess.]] Suffice it to say, it's been going on long enough for it to thoroughly ruin [[spoiler:the Snicket family and the Baudelaire family]] before the Baudelaire orphans were born.

* In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' the Humans and Demons are in a perpetual state of war, varying from open conflict to cold war. The conflict started centuries ago when humans started persecuting demons due to their [[spoiler:use of MA energy]], which caused the demons to band together and fight back. After the last Hero and Demon King died the war entered a cold phase due to both sides being exhausted, but kicks up again due to [[spoiler:Shiraori needing to sacrifice enough people to prevent the end of the world]].

* It's eventually revealed in the ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'' trilogy that this is the default state of the universe, due to the Dark Forest phenomenon. When one alien civilization discovers another alien civilization, neither can be certain that the other is not a threat. Even if the language barrier gets crossed, a friendly appearance can be used to conceal hostile intentions, and furthermore they are, by simply existing, competing for vital resources. Given this uncertainty, the safest thing for any given Civilization A to do if it discovers any given Civilization B is to immediately destroy them before the reverse happens. Now scale that up to every civilization in the galaxy, and to every galaxy in the universe. To quote the book:
-->The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life -- another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod -- there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization. It’s the explanation for the Fermi Paradox.

* In Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium, the War against Morgoth and Sauron. It started before ''time'' was invented as a DivineConflict, and hostilities [[FlipFlopOfGod will possibly]] be renewed in a FinalBattle at the end of time. It does help that both the protagonists and antagonists contain immortal characters (Elves on the side of good, various wraiths, balrogs, dragons and other miscellaneous creepy-crawlies on team evil). For the first humans without extended lifespans though, it would certainly seem as such, as they entered the world in the midst of a conflict. They couldn't hope to understand.

** Shavarath, the Plane of Battle, is an eternal war between the angels and the demons. The inhabitants of the plane believe that this war represents the entire universe; when the angels are winning in Shavarath, good is stronger elsewhere. Of course, there's no proof of this.

* In [[Creator/MarvelMAX the MAX imprint of Marvel Comics]], it is shown that Characters/{{The Punisher|FrankCastle}} made a deal with...something during the Vietnam War, an entity which promised him exactly what he so desperately wanted: the ability to wage a never ending war (against organized crime).