Crossposting my MotF entry
The Imperial provinces of Valenwood and Elsweyr have never co-existed peacefully. Since the crisis of the Simulacrum, however, the homelands of the Bosmer and Khajiit have found themselves more at odds than ever. During Uriel VII's absence and imprisonment, the provinces warred amongst themselves. The Five Year War, fought between 395-399 of the Third Era, saw some of the most brutal fighting of this turmoil-filled time. Without direction from White-Gold Tower, the Legions stood by as wood elf and Khajiit slaughtered each other mercilessly in the arid wastes, razor-sharp mountains, and dense forests of the two southern provinces' mutual border.
Valenwood was accused of starting the war in early 395, when a party of Bosmer crossed the border and sacked the Khajiit capital of Torval. After several failed attempts at a response by the beleaguered Khajiit army (which had not seen battle of a significant kind since the conquests of Tiber Septim nearly four centuries prior), Valenwood's troops seemed poised to seize a great deal of the Tenmar Forests and controlled outright the plains and deserts of the western No-Quin-Al. Desperate for a reprieve, Elsweyr successfully negotiated a temporary truce, but broke it very shortly thereafter and fell upon the undefended village of Athay on the western side of the Xylo River, slaughtering hundreds of civilians. After the nearby town of Grenos was sacked as well, the tide of war had changed entirely; Khajiit forces - dispersed and loosely organized, yet no less effective - threatened even Valenwood's northern stronghold of Arenthia. With their forces scattered, the Bosmer of Vindisi, the only town standing between Arenthia and Elsweyr's armies, made the ultimate sacrifice, channeling the mythical Wild Hunt to repel the invaders. Consumed by bestial and arcane forces, they transformed into beasts larger and more powerful than even the strongest Senche-Raht of Anequina. Although Vindisi stopped the Khajiit in their tracks, its people did not recover.
Both nations, traumatized by unprecedented ferocity of fighting and dishonorable conduct by both sides, agreed to a truce in 3E 399. The Silvenar and other leaders of Valenwood (which had lost its southern islands and seen the vital port of Woodhearth destroyed in the concurrent War of the Blue Divide with Summerset), considered themselves lucky to only cede Athay, Grenos, and the west bank of the Xylo to Elsweyr, with some minor border adjustments in the south. Elsweyr, for its part, was only kept politically intact for the duration of the war by the calming influence of the Mane, the nation's spiritual leader. After the conclusion of the war and the restoration of Uriel VII to his throne, the kingdoms of Anequina and Pelletine again became fragmented in an unofficial sense, with much tension centered on the border town (and vital oasis) of Rabi-Ajo.
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