The Lords Realignment
Many centuries ago many looked at the four lords of destruction in a completely different way. Lord Bane's inaction was famous and made few fear him, Melkor was the newest Lord and some still questioned if he could hold his own against the others, and Antharg's ambition was at an all time high constantly competing with Sartek to prove himself as the most powerful of the four lords
During this time Sartek was in his full demi-god glory and ruled the realm of war in confidence and comfort, Antharg was the runner up, and last was the ever-passive lord bane. but all of this changed during what would come to be known as 'the war of destined death' where the elves had angered Lord Bane too much and he declared a war of eradication with the intention of wiping their race from the world.
The high elves took this treat seriously and prepared their entire military might to defeat the Lord of Death should he come to march upon them and Lord Bane knew he couldnt overcome them on his own so he approached the Lord of War, Sartek. Having no reason to refuse Sartek agreed to come to Lord Bane aid during the conflict but when the day in question came to be Sartek never arrived and Lord Bane's endless legions of undead were successfully pushed back forcing Lord Bane to retreat. Mere hours later Lord Bane would learn the reason Sartek didnt aid was merely a whim, a flight of fancy, for he 'didnt feel like it' that day.
the fury lord bane felt that day changed the power dynamics for the lords of destruction permanently as Lord Bane left his black citadel, by himself, and marched into the realm of war to challenge Sartek in one-on-one combat. it is said that the land Lord Bane floated over during this trek was converted into blight by the sheer anger resonating off the lord of death. Sartek never even considered the possibility of losing and happily accepted the challenge seeing this a a good way of putting Lord bane in his place. what proceeded was a one-sided slaughter as an eraged Lord Bane ripped Sartek limb from limb, collected his corpse, and left. Sarteks servants were so dumbfounded by what they had beheld the lord of death had already arrived in his black citadel before they began to react.
the news of lord bane's actions shook the world, anyone who knew who the lords of destruction were heard of sarteks death and who killed him by the end of the day. with Antharg hearing that his great foe having been slaughtered like a lamb his ambitions were crushed by proxy no one considered him second place anymore resulting in the power balance of the lords of destruction being inverted with Lord Bane at the top.
But this story isnt quite over yet for the servants of war werent willing to give up on their lord quite yet, the minotaurs and kazra came to an agreement to form a truce with all the factions of the realm of war and to march upon the realm of death. it took several weeks but eventually the entire race of minotaurs and kazra teamed up with countless pigmen tribes, greenskin tribes, gnolls, fire giants, and even a few recruited naga as well as any war-beasts they had available and marched the blighted path to siege the black citadel in the heart of the realm of death.
despite their numbers and dedication they all knew that sieging the only territory of the lord of death was a doomed endeavor. the undead they faced were literally endless, they did not suffer losses, they fired upon the besieging army day and night endlessly, and every death added to their enemies endless numbers. but they werent there to claim the castle or kill lord bane. they were there to demand the return of their lord and they would annoy and embarrass the lord of death until they got that
Lord Bane was very quickly annoyed by their attack but it wasnt until several months passed that the though occured to him the shame he would face if he didnt stop this seige. 'the lord of death not able to end a seige by mere mortal serving their dead god? are the lords of destruction really all that destructive?' was a thought lord bane didnt want spreading from his own mind, but try as he might by fireing countless spells, repeated sallying forth with floods of undeath, day and night harassment without end the army persisted and 6 months had passed when lord bane noticed his direct servants were starting to share his concerns. so lord bane devised a plan to compromise, he had already long consumed the flesh of Sartek but his skull remained so long bane prepared a powerful ritual permanently converting the giant minotaur skull to that of a giant humans skull as his final act of spite toward Sartek and tossed said skull into the besieging army proclaiming "you want your dead pissant of a lord back so bad? fine! take him!". lord bane had figured if they refused then he could use the irony of them rejecting exactly what they asked for as a distraction from the amount of time it would take to kill them all and if they accepted then he doesnt need to bother with them anymore, win-win. as the skull crushed a few of their army the former high priests of sartek gathered to murmur somthing as they inspected the skull before the entire army returned to the realm of war
during this seige the realm of war was for the first time in many millennia at peace. besides native fauna there was little to no life in this massive desert so some tribes of humans started to move in, those tribes would eventually become the modern reghedmen and the amazons. now back to the aftermath, weeks had passed until news started to spead that the lord of war had been revived. lord bane found such a rumor to be absurdist, there is no way to possibly restore sartek without far more of his old body and so he sent a projection of himself to investigate. once he spotted the giant skull with glowing eyes strapped to a wagon the projection dissipated due to the lord of death laughing so hard he couldnt maintain the spell. once a mighty warrior that held no interest in combat in anyway that isnt a fist or axe being shoved into his enemies now is a skull wheeled around by servants attacking via magical beams it fires from its eye sockets. the servants of war had managed to acquire sarteks soul and forcefully bind it to his skull calling sartek a shadow of his former self would be an insult to shadows, 'a fitting end' lord bane laughs to himself.