The Infinite Maw Conflict is remembered less as a war and more as a coordinated pattern incursion defined by relay seizures, infrastructure collapse, and tightly synchronized operations across multiple regions. It was doctrine-driven acquisition rather than conquest by occupation, and it remains the most significant post-Warlord confrontation in Modern Geba.

The conflict began with the destruction of Midreach Lira, long considered untouchable due to its neutrality and cultural weight dating back to the Era of Early Stagnation when Princess Lira became the first known Seraveth Vessel of the imperial line. No demands were issued. Within days, Church forces hijacked relay signals across multiple regions, forcing their own transmissions over existing infrastructure. Their operations included seizure of three mega relay spines from the Era of Absolute Expansion, structures that had never been replicated due to their scale and the resources required to build them, alongside dozens of smaller relays and outposts. These areas remain under Maw control.

The response came from the Shadow Rule, the manufactories, and the mercenary formations that had carried the planet's military capacity since the visible Empire ended in the Era of Fracture over fifteen hundred years prior. Units from the New Emperor's Wrath, Sentinel Division, and Solarn Legacy Engineering engaged Maw forces across multiple fronts. Shadow Operatives deployed into long-term deep cover, many of whom were never recovered. Inland Thazvaar resisted entirely due to extreme terrain and isolation from Maw supply lines.

The conflict itself lasted less than two years. For those born too late to fight in the Warlord Eras, it was simply "the war." The Church of the Infinite Maw issued no ceasefire. They withdrew once their operational goals were complete. The spines were not retaken. Major combat ceased, but skirmishes still erupt along relay borders, rarely lasting more than moments before one side breaks contact.

Trade between Maw-controlled territories and the rest of Geba now moves through illicit channels and grey-zone relays: private outposts and small signal stations with limited range that coordinate passage in and out of both territories. The arrangements are planned, but violence remains constant. Most traders who use these routes are peaceful, but state loyalists and Maw zealots have never stopped hating each other, and that hatred finds expression whenever proximity allows.

The Maw has separated itself in name and claim, but the Shadow Rule has not acted to reclaim the lost territory. This is consistent with their approach to Inland Thazvaar, which is technically part of the governed world but has never been tamed. Full-scale war on territory that is already yours creates more instability than it resolves, and the Shadow Rule does not believe the Maw will last long enough to justify the cost of erasure. The rebuilt western district of Midreach now holds a black spire marking the old capital. The Church has not expanded since, but remains active in Thazvaar's inland regions where its scouts and missionaries move freely.

The conflict divided Geba in a way it had not been divided since the Thazvaari Dominion refused contact with the early Empire over five thousand years prior. The difference is that in the modern era, no one wanted a full war, and no one had the structure to wage one. What emerged instead was a permanent fracture dressed as temporary instability, a border that exists because removing it would require admitting it matters.