The Dawn War was a galaxy-spanning conflict, encompassing even its two satellite galaxies. It took place roughly one billion years before humanity's first interstellar flight. To varying degrees of involvement, several thousand species took part in the war. Though short compared to the billions of years of priming it took to ignite, the Dawn War lasted long enough for whole races to evolve into several splinter species; for organic civilisations to transform themselves into machines, and then return to their original forms when their nostalgia for the ancient past overwhelmed their desire for efficiency.