In order to understand the differences between the two significant wars in which the Druas race have participated, it is necessary to know something of the factors which separate this people from the others which inhabit the world.

Unlike Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings and even Orcish peoples, the Druas did not evolve in the usual way. Rather they were the result of mating between Elves and Devils. From the information provided in Twiglix seminal work "Cause and Effect: The Chalet Wars Reexamined", we can surmise that the supposed leader of the Devils sought to establish a network of short-term residential buildings which were to be shared amongst those Devils who had been most loyal to their monarch. To this end the Druas were created as footsoldiers and hosts.

This initial appraisal of the race's origins has identified one of the wars with which we are concerned - the Chalet Wars. The second conflict has more to do with the Druas' cultural rather than genealogical origins. This was the Freedom War, where the Druas revolted against their infernal masters and fought to gain their independence (not to mention their lives).

The most significant difference between the two conflicts lies in the role which the Druas played. In the Chalet Wars, they acted as the Devils' agents, seeking to drive the other major races from the western continent and occupy the land which was so released. In the Freedom War the Druas were subjected to an attack from a section of the Infernal Hordes - the Devils sought to destroy their creations and former servants, whilst the Druas just wanted to stay alive. The hunters had become the hunted.

It should be noted that, although the Druas could be considered victims, in the Freedom War the sides were much more evenly matched than they were in the Druas' first war. Both sides were to some extent prepared for aggression - the Devils because they started it, and the Druas because they had long been unhappy with Devilish rule. In consequence of this, some Drow had observed how the religious orders of the other Bridland continent (where the earlier victoms had fled) hunted down and destroyed Devils. This observation had led to the quick formation of corps of 'Mind Warriors' amongst those dissatisfied with the Devil's regime: many agitators fomented revolution at that time.

In contrast the Chalet Wars were unlooked for by the victims, those races native to the continent. The elder folk were completely unprepared for the sort of total war practised by the Druas, the new race. Their 'armies' were mostly watch patrols and town militia intended for discouraging bandits, not repelling a vast invading army each individual of which could take out one of the armoured mobile bombards proposed by Baron Condor.

The areas over which the wars were fought were similarly at variance. It should be reiterated that although the Freedom Wars were not fought about an area of land, the fighting was restricted to the plains north of the Fireback Mountains. More specifically, a short frontline was established in the foothills of the Mountains.

This restricted area of conflict was due to the volcanoes within the range being the only gates to Hades large enough to accommodate the invading armies. Guerilla warfare by the Devils was rejected early on, largely because the other portals were quickly picketed by teams of Mind Warriors. The Fireback Gates were situated in slightly more awkward country (constantly erupting volcanoes, sheer precipices, that sort of thing) and so Balaal and his Devils succeeded in establishing a bridgehead.

Both the Chalet and Freedom Wars saw intense fighting, despite the already mentioned one-sidedness in the former conflict. In the Chalet Wars, the armies of the elder races sought only to delay the onslaught sufficiently for some sort of evacuation to be effected. In this sense, they were at least partly successful. The people on Bridland attest to this: there are some. Because the elder races worked out quite quickly that they were going to lose, the war was resolved (in the obvious manner) comparatively precipitately.

The Freedom War was more a clash of titans: the landscape north of the Fireback Mountains bear to this day the scars of the monumental battles. The situation was in fact a standoff: since both sides were heavily armed and more heavily armoured, casualties were comparatively low. Ground was neither being lost nor gained by either force - for what was supposed to be a war of mutual genocide, the results were disappointing!

The Druas generals determined a need to finish the conflict as fast as possible, before the small but incessant death rate caught up with the less enormous Druas army. The greatest magicians and mentalists of the time conceived of a daring plan which would rid the Druas of the Devils once and for all by denying Devils access to the world. It would require a strike at the heart of the darkness by a force of the strongest minds and wands at hand: they would seek to infiltrate the Fireback stronghold and destroy the gates. They reasoned that this would set off a chain of explosions in Hades which would shut the other portals.

In the event, they were right. Unfortunately for the force involved, Asmodeus realised what the Druas were trying to do as they began to weave their spells and mind melds. He saw it would be impossible to stop this action (a sort of mental static had been set up by the larger Druas army, so Asmodeus couldn't tell Balaal what was going on), but he could at least make it backfire. He assembled a group of devils to weave their own mental unit and build a reflective screen. When the combined magical and mental bolt was released by the Druas guerillas, its force was such that even with a good chunk reflected back the portals were all destroyed beyond any recovery.

The reflected energy killed the attacking Druas outright. But the flashover from their overflowing minds was enough to cauterise the mind of every Druas alive: their mental powers were reduced drastically, so that even today with millenia in which to recover, the brain of the average Druas can manage nothing much more than some minor telepathy.

The irony is that the elder races who were chased off their home continent have now begun to evolve mind powers which are approaching those of the old Druas. So much for evolutionary shortcuts.

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