A YJA Moment - The Shadow War

Many millennia ago, Known Space was torn about by a terrible conflict that cost the lives of trillions of sentient beings. It is a pivotal event in history, changing the destinies of Empires across Known Space.  It is known by many names throughout history - The Great Darkness; The Shadow War; The Time War; The War of the Ring; and the Last Great Conflict. Strangely enough, few know the full story of those times.  Perhaps only in the Book of Oa, the ancient records of the Green Lanterns does there still remain a full record of the conflict.

Darkseid of Apokolips initiated an immense gathering of forces to descend upon the civilizations of Known Space.  Each of these groups had different goals in the conflict and most knew nothing about the New God's ultimate aims.  Few understood that Darkseid sought the Anti-Life Equation and was using the conflict as a pretense to scout out its location.  The Equation synergized with violence and oppression, and this great war was the best chance to discover where Anti-Life was hidden. 

The Army of Darkness was immense.  It included some of the most powerful forces that the universe had seen up to that point. -  Dark Elves, the Drahk, Ego the Living Planet, the Darleks, Deviants, the Predator tribes, the hordes of Sauron, the Shadows of Z'ha'dum, the Sith Order, the original Technomages, the Skrulls, the Rakatan of the Infinite Empire and their Warworld, and the dreaded Xenomorphs of the Engineers.  All were led by the forces of Apokolips and the Darkseid Elite.

Opposing them in the Army of Light were a rag-tech collection of disparate forces: the Asgardians, the Atlanteans, the convergence of First Ones, the Dwarven Clans,  the Light Elves, the Eternals, the Green Lantern Corps, the Jedi Order, the Old Imperium, the combined space fleets of the unaligned Core Worlds, the ancient Kree Empire, the Minbari Triune, the Olympians, the Time Lords of Gallifrey, the Vorlons, and the White Council.

The War raged on multiple fronts across the then-Known Space, but one of the main battlegrounds lay on a seemingly insignificant planet known as Midgard, Middle-Earth, or simply Earth. In particular, Sauron was seeking a magical item known as The One Ring which the Dark Lord had forged to tap into the Anti-Life Equation, which it knew existed on Middle-Earth.

Even with the last-minute appearance of Darkseid and his Parademons, the White Council and its powerful allies were able to destroy the One Ring, exorcise Sauron back the Infernal Planes, and scattered his forces.  This massive defeat for the Armies of Darkness was but a taste of future events. For where the Army of Light was unified in protecting the universe, their opponents were not.

Because the various species brought together for the invasion had joined for a myriad of reasons, fractures started to appear in their ranks.  Old rivalries flared and disputes emerged between the factions in the Army of Darkness.  The Army of Light was able to capitalize on the dissent and scored significant victories.  This only intensified the animosity forming the ranks of Darkseid's forces, , eventually leading to outright civil war.

The final battle took place in the Orion system, which is known to humanity as Ross 614.  There the last of the Apokolips Armada, the Shadow Vessel Fleet, and Dark Elven Arks were obliterated, officially ending the hostilities.

Though the cost was high, the survivors believed that this would be the last time the Universe would see such warfare.  But the ancient bonds between darkness are being rekindled.  Darkseid moves to remind ancient forces of the oaths that they swore and the commitments they have made.  A new Army of Darkness is forming, and once again Known Space will know fear and death.