Overview
The Shaoying-Thundermarch War is a series of attacks and invasions between Shaoying and Thundermarch. Cloudrift is the recurring target across multiple campaigns. It begins with cold-war pressure and raids around Cloudrift, escalates into the Green Emperor's attempts to seize the city and force Thundermarch into submission, and ends politically when Khoradyn and Garrik force Shaoying and Linsothar into peace.
The Shaoying-Thundermarch War exposes Thundermarch's weakness under Feng Raoyun and Ren Wuye, pushes Jin Leiyun toward killing Ren, and becomes an early test of Khoradyn and Garrik's peacekeeping project.
Course
During Jin's years at Cloudrift Temple, news of a minor attack near Cloudrift reaches the temple during the rising cold-war pressure between Thundermarch and Shaoying. Jin and Rhalyn later visit Cloudrift and are caught in a night attack by mages in green and crimson. They fight to protect civilians, then flee to Stormpeak when the attackers overwhelm them. The capital responds with no urgency, and no army returns to Cloudrift when Jin expects one. Feng eventually sends what forces he can.
Garrik and Astrid enlist in the Green Emperor's forces during Shaoying's campaign to take Cloudrift and force Thundermarch to bend the knee. Shaoying's march is slow, villages and towns are looted along the way, and combat on Cloudrift's fertile plains devastates soldiers, civilians, animals, and the land itself. The Green Emperor's personal guard drains essence from the ground and from nearby lives, leaving cracked earth, withered growth, and hollowed bodies.
When Shaoying reaches Cloudrift's outskirts, Thundermarch's defenders are badly outnumbered. Ren Wuye, Tianlei's shard wielder, reinforces them. Ren descends with lightning, shatters cosmic and divine barriers, and kills hundreds of Shaoying soldiers. Garrik and Astrid avoid Cloudrift's front line because Garrik is seeking Ren and Tianlei for answers about Malverand and Eremion.
Decades later, Ren has withdrawn and Shaoying prepares another full invasion of Thundermarch. Garrik marches to stop it with over a thousand mages and meets Khoradyn, Kren, Zhang, and their mixed army on the route to Cloudrift. The two armies join forces. Khoradyn offers the attackers a chance to surrender and join him; the attacking force fractures between flight, battlefield deaths, and recruits who accept his offer.
Outcome
Khoradyn and Garrik's army defends Cloudrift, then forces Shaoying and Linsothar into a tense peace. Khoradyn demands that both powers focus on the shapers and remain friendly with Thundermarch. Cloudrift is peaceful again after that settlement, and Shaoying later serves Garrik's alliance from Kaldaryn.
For Jin, Cloudrift breaks his faith in Thundermarch. The failed defense, Stormpeak's indifference, Ren's collapse, and Tianlei's silence all feed into the confrontation that makes Jin Tianlei's next wielder.
For Garrik and Khoradyn, Shaoying's invasion of Thundermarch through Cloudrift becomes the practical beginning of their shared peacekeeping project. Their defense of Cloudrift and settlement with Shaoying and Linsothar lead directly into the Kaldaryn Peace Campaigns.