from The Fantastic Story of Din Java by Astor Lendel.
The Twelve Tribes War is an almost mythical war from the oldest history of Din Java and the Naran tribe.
The story goes that the king of the Gel tribe (King eYeti), jealous of Nara's success, wanted to shake up the power structure of the area. He found a fault when it was brought to his attention that a Naran business, the Red Company, claimed land that was also claimed by Gel farmers. The Red Company planned to develop this land as a neighborhood for the wealthy - plus most of the land clamed by the Gel tribe was owned by the king's first assistant.
The Gel's diplomat to Nara then made a proclamation to the High Council that the Red Company rescind their claim to the land in question and repay for any damages to the farmers (Gel spies had planted stories that the Red Company had already tried to build roads in the area - they hadn't). The Red Company refused to do so and denied that they had even begun to build anything, and that they even knew about the Gel tribe's claim to the area.
King eYeti wouldn't accept it and ordered his diplomat to return. The High Council, not wanting any conflict to arise from this, ordered the Red Company to repeal their deed to the area. They not only refused but sent a team out to begin building roads.
About two weeks later, King eYeti found out what the Red Company was now doing and decided now was the time to act. He secured the support of five other nearby tribes (all of whom wanted a piece of Nara) and collectively declared war on the Naran tribe. In response, the Narans were able to gather up the support of five other tribes as well - with the promise that they could use the military technology of the Narans - the Narans got an additional 10,000 professional soldiers to go against the Gel's allied army of 9,500.
Thus began 15 years of on-and-off fighting between the twelve tribes. King eYeti was killed in battle, the capitol of the Gel tribe was destroyed, Wundela-Cy suffered constant raids and suffered from large devastating fires; farms were destroyed; after the Battle of the Northland Hills, even the Stokolm river turned lightly red. In the end everyone was devastated - but the Narans had the most left at the end and therefore won. At the negotiating table, the Naran Alliance was represented only by a Naran diplomat, who secured the annexation of all six tribes of the Gel Alliance. This greatly angered the other members of the Naran Alliance, who launched a brief, two-battle Six Tribes War. Nara was victorious in that as well, and annexed the five tribes.
Nara now had under her control 11 other tribes, all subservient to the Naran tribe. Though it would be a good 20 years before anyone recovered from the devastation of the war, Nara would now have the manpower to accomplish anything, including conquering the world...