Buruthran War

In 1823, after months of maneuvering and fakes, the forward elements of the Witch Horde found an opening where the other side had obviously got tired of it all. Within a week, the city of Helmstar found itself under siege. Led by a witch war councilor named Arhibess, this was to be a war to sate the thirst of the war god Ares. After the fall of Helmstar, battles were fought to the east and west against a quickly formed pact named the Luran Alliance. Ambassadors of Malacost offered soldiers and arms, but were refused. The northern peoples of the Luran Alliance wanted to prove that they could remain independent of their southern neighbor, and keep their ways of devout worship; what Malacost called "crusader visions barely tempered by good".

In 1827, Helmstar was liberated. During the occupation it had been turned upside down with looting, rapine, conflagrations, and the citizenry sent north as slaves. Cathandril, leader of the Luran Alliance, vowed that all would be returned by sword and prayer. After the war, true to her word in recovering nearly all the surviving slaves, Cathandril's actions led to Helmstar voting in favor of becoming a holding of the Divine Empire.

In the Black Tide War, the people of the area west of Luran were holy fighters, zealots. Battling the evils of Thasmudyan and his pawns, their valor and heroics were subject of many tales, and envy by some. Their crusader methods are something that doesn't sit well with some sects of Athena.

- Natti-Zîn, Malacost senator, "on the announcement of the Divine Empire's formation"

After Helmstar, the Luran Alliance drove north into the Northern Hordelands, crushing their foes and building war shrines to Athena along the way. The barbarian fortifications of the Northern Hordelands, of outdated design, proved no match for batteries of Athena Hammers and Bearded Bellies.

At the Battle of Qijerqul, the Witch Horde leader Arhibess was killed by Cathandril. Defeated, the Witch Horde sued for peace. Reparations included all the slaves of Helmstar to be returned, and Kugirmuk made a holding of the Divine Empire.