History Main / WizardsWar

These wars are most commonly part of a setting's backstory, having happened long before the story's time. Their primary impact is thus in their legacy and aftereffects, which continue to linger in the world many ages after their end. This is a common cause for the downfall of the {{Precursors}}' civilization, which will have destroyed itself in magical conflict at the height of its power and plunged the world into a long dark age. In the modern world, many areas may still bear the scars of the ancient wars, dotting the edges of the map with blasted wastelands, bizarre ruins, and areas still twisted and unsafe from ancient magical residue. Entire species of monsters may trace their origins to these wars when they were created as {{Bioweapon Beast}}s or arose from wildlife and people mutated by out-of-control magic.

A distinguishing trait of these conflicts is that they often don't usually involve regular armies or really anyone besides the wizards, or at least not for very long. Instead, a Wizards' War most commonly consists of powerful wizards in their towers hurling as much magical destruction at each other as they possibly can, such as bolts of force, rains of fire, and far more bizarre and deadly things. When something like troops is needed, this will usually take the form of legions of golems, bound demons, monsters, and elementals, hordes of the undead, and the like; regular soldiery, if used at all, will be relegated to cannon fodder and often entirely overshadowed by the terrifying monsters and arcane destruction that it will face. The result is something not unlike a magical form of nuclear warfare, and indeed a lot of works make this comparison fairly explicit. {{Fantastic Nuke}}s will see significant use, and may well be the primary weapon-spells employed. FantasticFallout is also common and may leave vast areas crawling with twisted monsters, burning with deadly energies, or simply uninhabitable wastes long after the war ends.

Contrast MilitaryMage, where magic-workers are drafted to take part in more mundane conflicts, and WizardDuel, when a more localized conflict occurs between two, or just a few, participants.

** The First Wizarding War of 1970-1981 started with Lord Voldemort's and the Death Eaters' rise to power and their attempt to take over the Wizarding World and subjugate the Muggle World. The conflict ended with Valdemort's defeat and his soul being split into the seven Horcruxes, the capture and disbandment of the Death Eaters, and the disappearance of Harry Potter, "the Boy Who Lived".

** The original ''Age of Wonders'' enables some spectacular (and [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential cruel]]) acts of magical warfare as your wizardly leader grows in power, such as raising or levelling mountains and volcanoes, raising the sea level to slowly flood the map, and blighting the earth to poison armies and kill crops.

* ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroaches'': In "The Magic Pen", an unorthodox version occurs. A pencil from a witch's purse falls to Oggy's house. [[ArtInitiatesLife Everything that is drawn with this pencil becomes real]]. Oggy and the Roaches fight over the pencil and end up splitting it in half. Oggy conjures up medieval warriors, giant elephants, and [[MixAndMatchCritters unicorn-rhinoceros hybrids]], while the cockroaches conjure up soldiers, military vehicles, mechas, and [[OddLastItemIndex a dragon]]. The two armies duke it out.

A distinguishing trait of these conflicts is that they often don't usually involve regular armies or really anyone besides the wizards, or at least not for very long. Instead, a Wizards' War most commonly consists of powerful wizards in their towers hurling as much magical destruction at each other as they possibly can, such as bolts of force, rains of fire, and far more bizarre and deadly things. When something like troops are needed, this will usually take the form of legions of golems, bound demons, monsters, and elementals, hordes of the undead, and the like; regular soldiery, if used at all, will be relegated to cannon fodder and often entirely overshadowed by the terrifying monsters and arcane destruction that it will face. The result is something not unlike a magical form of nuclear warfare, and indeed a lot of works make this comparison fairly explicit. {{Fantastic Nuke}}s will see significant use, and may well be the primary weapon-spells employed. FantasticFallout is also common and may leave vast areas crawling with twisted monsters, burning with deadly energies, or simply uninhabitable wastes long after the war ends.

A distinguishing trait of these conflicts is that they often don't usually involve regular armies or really anyone besides the wizards, or at least not for very long. Instead, a Wizards' War most commonly consists of powerful wizards in their towers hurling as much magical destruction at each other as they possibly can, such as bolts of force, rains of fire, and far more bizarre and deadly things. When something like troops is needed, this will usually take the form of legions of golems, bound demons, monsters, and elementals, hordes of the undead, and the like; regular soldiery, if used at all, will be relegated to cannon fodder and often entirely overshadowed by the terrifying monsters and arcane destruction that it will face. The result is something not unlike a magical form of nuclear warfare, and indeed a lot of works make this comparison fairly explicit. {{Fantastic Nuke}}s will see significant use, and may well be the primary weapon-spells employed. FantasticFallout is also common and may leave vast areas crawling with twisted monsters, burning with deadly energies, or simply uninhabitable wastes long after the war ends.

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'': The entire premise is a war between factions all lead by different wizards.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In the ancient past, when magic was much wilder and more plentiful on the Disc, Wizards warred against each other ceaselessly and apocalyptically. There are areas mentioned repeatedly throughout the series rendered permanently uninhabitable by the fallout from the ancient Mage Wars. Modern wizards see it as central to their job to learn how to do magic and then ''never to do it'', or at least not any of the seriously reality-warping stuff, as they are well aware of the MutuallyAssuredDestruction that the Mage Wars had always ultimately caused. Pratchett generally tended to write magic as a stand-in for nuclear power and radioactivity, and the Mage Wars take the place of thermonuclear exchange in this metaphor. ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'' deals with exactly this scenario: a super-powerful Wizard, a Sourceror, arises in Ankh-Morpork and his first action involves suborning or destroying all Wizards on the Disc to his will. A full-scale magical war breaks out between Ankh-Morpork and the Wizards of Klatch, who are quite prepared to go down fighting rather than surrender.
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': The Wizarding World went through several major conflicts within the 20th Century.
** The conflict that is often referred to as the Global Wizard War began with [[Film/FantasticBeasts Grindelwald's rise to power in the 1920's]], and lasted until the mid 1940's, coinciding with the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]].

A distinguishing trait of these conflicts is that they often don't usually involve regular armies or really anyone besides the wizards, or at least not for very long. Instead, a Wizards' War most commonly consists of powerful wizards in their towers hurling as much magical destruction at each other as they possibly can, such as bolts of force, rains of fire, and far more bizarre and deadly things. When something like troops is needed, this will usually take the form of legions of golems, bound demons, monsters, and elementals, legions of undead troops, and the like; regular soldiery, if used at all, will be relegated to cannon fodder and often entirely overshadowed by the terrifying monsters and arcane destruction that it will face. The result is something not unlike a magical form of nuclear warfare, and indeed a lot of works make this comparison fairly explicit. {{Fantastic Nuke}}s will see significant use, and may well be the primary weapon-spells employed. FantasticFallout is also common and may leave vast areas crawling with twisted monsters, burning with deadly energies, or simply uninhabitable wastes long after the war ends.

A distinguishing trait of these conflicts is that they often don't usually involve regular armies or really anyone besides the wizards, or at least not for very long. Instead, a Wizards' War most commonly consists of powerful wizards in their towers hurling as much magical destruction at each other as they possibly can, such as bolts of force, rains of fire, and far more bizarre and deadly things. When something like troops is needed, this will usually take the form of legions of golems, bound demons and elementals, unnaturally mutated monsters, and the like; regular soldiery, if used at all, will be relegated to cannon fodder and often entirely overshadowed by the terrifying monsters and arcane destruction that it will face. The result is something not unlike a magical form of nuclear warfare, and indeed a lot of works make this comparison fairly explicit. {{Fantastic Nuke}}s will see significant use, and may well be the primary weapon-spells employed. FantasticFallout is also common and may leave vast areas crawling with twisted monsters, burning with deadly energies, or simply uninhabitable wastes long after the war ends.

* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': The Order of Hermes has formalised the rules of these conflicts, in order to prevent the disastrous consequences that usually come with this trope. Any magus in the Order may declare a Wizard War against another member. The attacker must give a month's notice to their victim, and the war lasts precisely a month, and both sides are required to follow certain restrictions designed to minimise collateral damage. Disobeying these rules will get you Marched - essentially, [[CurbStompBattle the whole order will go after you until you're dead.]]

->'''Muggle Prime Minister:''' But for heaven's sake -- you're ''wizards''! You can do ''magic''! Surely you can sort out -- well -- ''anything''!
->'''Cornelius Fudge:''' The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.

** The prelude to the Second Wizarding War began in the early 1990s, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone when Harry Potter began attending Hogwarts School of Wizarding and Magic, and there was an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone]]. The Second Wizarding War began, officially according to Ministry of Magic, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix in 1996 when Voldemort returned and the Death Eaters, secretly, made gains within the Ministry of Magic]] with the ultimate goal of accomplishing Voldemort's vision of [[SuperSupremacist Wizard supremacy]]. [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Second Wizarding War ended in 1998, at the culmination of the Battle of Hogwarts]] when the Death Eaters were ultimately defeated and [[spoiler:Voldemort was killed in a duel with Harry Potter]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': One of these occurred in the ancient past between the Valyrians (an advanced civilization of [[DragonRider Dragon Riders]] who could use [[PlayingWithFire fire magic]]) and the Rhoynar (another advanced civilization who could use [[MakingASplash water magic]].) Although the Valyrians effortlessly conquered most of Essos, the Rhoynar were a WorthyOpponent that managed to put up a fight for centuries. The Rhoynar even managed to kill three dragons and defeat an entire Valyrian army after most of the kingdoms banded together and utilized water magic to drown their enemies. However, the Valyrians responded to this defeat by sending over ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill three hundred]]'' dragons, resulting in a CurbStompBattle that saw the Rhoynar civilization annihilated. Rhoynar culture/people were only able to survive through the brave efforts of Princess Nymeria, who knew that going against the Valyrian Freehold was destined to end in her people's destruction; she led thousands of her people out of Essos and, after many setbacks, eventually settled in Dorne.

* One of these occurred in the ancient past in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' between the Valyrians (an advanced civilization of [[DragonRider Dragon Riders]] who could use [[PlayingWithFire fire magic]]) and the Rhoynar (another advanced civilization who could use [[MakingASplash water magic]].) Although the Valyrians effortlessly conquered most of Essos, the Rhoynar were a WorthyOpponent that managed to put up a fight for centuries. The Rhoynar even managed to kill three dragons and defeat an entire Valyrian army after most of the kingdoms banded together and utilized water magic to drown their enemies. However, the Valyrians responded to this defeat by sending over ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill three hundred]]'' dragons, resulting in a CurbStompBattle that saw the Rhoynar civilization annihilated. Rhoynar culture/people were only able to survive through the brave efforts of Princess Nymeria, who knew that going against the Valyrian Freehold was destined to end in her people's destruction; she led thousands of her people out of Essos and, after many setbacks, eventually settled in Dorne.

* The backstory of ''Literature/TheWarGods'' contains two wizard wars:

* * One of these occurred in the ancient past in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' between the Valyrians (an advanced civilization of [[DragonRider Dragon Riders]] who could use [[PlayingWithFire fire magic]]) and the Rhoynar (another advanced civilization who could use [[MakingASplash water magic]].) Although the Valyrians effortlessly conquered most of Essos, the Rhoynar were a WorthyOpponent that managed to put up a fight for centuries. The Rhoynar even managed to kill three dragons and defeat an entire Valyrian army after most of the kingdoms banded together and utilized water magic to drown their enemies. However, the Valyrians responded to this defeat by sending over ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill three hundred]]'' dragons, resulting in a CurbStompBattle that saw the Rhoynar civilization annihilated. Rhoynar culture/people were only able to survive through the brave efforts of Princess Nymeria, who knew that going against the Valyrian Freehold was destined to end in her people's destruction; she led thousands of her people out of Essos and, after many setbacks, eventually settled in Dorne.

** The conflict that is often referred to as the Global Wizard War began with [[Film/FantasticBeasts Grindelwald's rise to power in the 1920's]], and lasted until the mid 1940s', coinciding with the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]].

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'':
** ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders2TheWizardsThrone'': The story focuses on powerful Wizard Kings that serve as both prominent characters in the plot and leaders of their faction; as such, the game's conflicts take the form of magical wars between these kings and their armies of summons and monsters. In the story, Merlin wages war against conspirators within the Wizard's Circle.
** ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders4'': After being absent in the third game, the Wizard Kings return from the Shadow Realm to reconquer Athla and other realms. Like the second game, it is inevitable that there will be games where war between two Wizard Kings erupts.

A distinguishing trait of these conflicts is that they often don't usually involve regular armies or really anyone besides the wizards, or at least not for very long. Instead, a Wizards' War most commonly consists of powerful wizards in their towers hurling as much magical destruction at each other as they possibly can, such as bolts of force, rains of fire, and far more bizarre and deadly things. When something like troops is needed, this will usually take the form of legions of golems, bound demons and elementals, unnaturally mutated monsters, and the like; regular soldiery, if used at all, will be relegated to cannon fodder and often entirely overshadowed by the terrifying monsters and arcane destruction that it will face. The result is something not unlike a magical form of nuclear warfare, and indeed a lot of works make this comparison fairly explicit. {{Fantastic Nuke}}s will see significant use, and may well be the primary weapon-spells employed. FantasticFallout is also common, and may leave vast areas crawling with twisted monsters, burning with deadly energies or simply uninhabitable wastes long after the war ends.

These wars are most commonly part of a setting's backstory, having happened long before the story's time. Their primary impact is thus in their legacy and aftereffects, which continue to linger in the world many ages after their end. This is a common cause for the downfall of the {{Precursors}}' civilization, which will have destroyed itself in magical conflict at the height of its power and plunged the world into a long dark age. In the modern world, many areas may still bear the scars of the ancient wars, dotting the edges of the map with blasted wastelands, bizarre ruins, and areas still twisted and unsafe from ancient magical residue. Entire species of monsters may trace their origins to these wars, when they were created as {{Bioweapon Beast}}s or arose from wildlife and people mutated by out-of-control magic.

* ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'': Doctor Stephen Strange partook in a GreatOffscreenWar known as the War of the Seven Spheres between the Vishanti and the Trinity of Ashes, with Strange acting as the general for the Vishanti's army. Not much is known besides that it lasted for over thousands of years, but what is seen in ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange2023'' tells is that it was ''[[WarIsHell not]]'' [[WarIsHell pleasant]]. [[spoiler:Not only did Strange commit war crimes, he likely created one when he made a spell to use the corpses of his enemies to fix their own]].

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In the ancient past, when magic was much wilder and more plentiful on the Disc, Wizards warred against each other ceaselessly and apocalyptically. There are areas mentioned repeatedly throughout the series rendered permanently uninhabitable by the fallout from the ancient Mage Wars. Modern wizards see it as central their job to learn how to do magic and then ''never to do it'', or at least not any of the seriously reality-warping stuff, as they are well aware of the MutuallyAssuredDestruction that the Mage Wars had always ultimately caused. Pratchett generally tended to write magic as a stand-in for nuclear power and radioactivity, and the Mage Wars take the place of thermonuclear exchange in this metaphor. ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'' deals with exactly this scenario: a super-powerful Wizard, a Sourceror, arises in Ankh-Morpork and his first action involves suborning or destroying all Wizards on the Disc to his will. A full-scale magical war breaks out between Ankh-Morpork and the Wizards of Klatch, who are quite prepared to go down fighting rather than surrender.

** The prelude to the Second Wizarding War began in the early 1990s, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone when Harry Potter began attending Hogwart's School of Wizarding and Magic, and there was an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone]]. The Second Wizarding War began, officially according to Ministry of Magic, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix in 1996 when Voldemort returned and the Death Eaters, secretly, made gains within the Ministry of Magic]] with the ultimate goal of accomplishing Voldemort's vision of [[SuperSupremacist Wizard supremacy]]. [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Second Wizarding War ended in 1998, at the culination of the Battle of Hogwarts]] when the Death Eaters were ultimately defeated and [[spoiler:Voldemort was killed in a duel with Harry Potter]].

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The war that ended [[TheTimeOfMyths the Age of Legends]] had global {{Magical Societ|y}}ies throwing the full force of their powers against each other. In particular, Balefire, an attack which retroactively burns away the victim's past actions, became a DangerousForbiddenTechnique because its indiscriminate use almost caused reality to unravel from the strain.

** ''TableTopGame/{{Mystara}}'': Such conflict occurs in ''Wrath of the Immortals'' campaign for Second Edition, between the Principalities of Glantri and TheEmpire of Alphatia. It involves both [[spoiler:A thousand of Alphatian Archmages storming Glantri City and Glantri firing a weapon that accidentially ''sinks the entire Alphatian continent''.]]

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The Brothers' War was an apocalyptic war between Urza and Mishra, brothers and artificers who did not realize that they were doing magic. They began as artificers for warlords that craved power, and due to the death of the two separate warlords they each became the ''de facto'' rulers of their sides, increasing the use of magical constructs against each other and, in Mishra's case, allying with otherworldly demons. Their battles would leave devastation across the plane of Dominaria, and concluded when Urza detonated a FantasticNuke which killed Mishra, annihilated a continent, and plunged Dominaria into an ice age that lasted for more than two millennia.

->'''Muggle Prime Minister''': But for heaven's sake -- you're ''wizards''! You can do ''magic''! Surely you can sort out -- well -- ''anything''!
->'''Cornelius Fudge''': The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.

** The prelude to the Second Wizarding War began in the early 1990s, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone when Harry Potter began attending Hogwart's School of Wizarding and Magic, and there was an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone]]. The Second Wizarding War began, officially according to Ministry of Magic, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix in 1996 when Voldemort returned and the Death Eaters, secretly, made gains within the Ministry of Magic]] with the ultimate goal of accomplishing Voldemort's vision of [[SuperSupremacist Wizard supremacy]]. [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Second Wizarding War ended in 1998, at the culination of the Battle of Hogwarts]] when the Death Eaters were ultimately defeated and [[spoiler: Voldemort was killed in a duel with Harry Potter]].

** ''TableTopGame/{{Mystara}}'': Such conflict occurs in ''Wrath of the Immortals'' campaign for Second Edition, between the Principalities of Glantri and TheEmpire of Alphatia. It involves both [[spoiler: A thousand of Alphatian Archmages storming Glantri City and Glantri firing a weapon that accidentially ''sinks the entire Alphatian continent''.]]

* ''VideoGame/BeyondOasis'': The backstory of the first game is that two sorcerers, Raharl, commanding the light, and Agito, with power over "chaos and destruction", waged a "devastating battle" against each other, which destroyed the realm of Oasis.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'': Thousands of years ago, the Suel Imperium and the Baklunish Empire fought a magical war. The Baklunish Imperium destroyed the Suloise with the Rain of Colorless Fire, which turned the lands of the Suloise into ashes and dust.