War Wind is a science fantasy real-time strategy game developed by DreamForge Intertainment and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It was released in 1996 for Microsoft Windows and used DirectX 2.0. The game features four unique playable alien races on the fictional planet of Yavaun, each with their own histories, ideologies, and story campaigns consisting of seven scenarios each and an ending unique to that race. The story explores themes of authoritarianism, slavery, revolution, and mysticism. The game also features a map and scenario editor, as well as netplay with up to seven additional players. Some sites list the release date of War Wind as August 24, 1996, while others say September 23 and September 30, 1996. The most recent file on a War Wind CD bought in the United States in January 1997 was October 10, 1996 (as is the date stated in its version 1.0 README.TXT), but this could have been an updated CD release. A sequel, War Wind II: Human Onslaught, was released by DreamForge and SSI in 1997. Both games were digitally rereleased on GOG.com in 2016. War Wind went permanently free on GOG.com on June 3, 2020. Story War Wind takes place on the world of Yavaun, where four races have ambivalently coexisted for millennia. The Tha' Roon—purple Nāga-like oppressors, overlords, and despots of the planet—have dominated the other races of Yavaun and erected a ruling domain known as the Empire; in particular, the Tha' Roon have enslaved the gentle and flora-like Eaggra, forcing the Eaggra to act as their builders and engineers under coercion by the Tha' Roon's acting military force, the elephantine Obblinox. The Tha' Roon accomplished their subjugation of the Obblinox through force of technological supremacy (a knowledge in which they partially shared with the Obblinox in the form of cybernetic replacements for amputations) and the exploitation of the Obblinox's strong intrinsic belief system of loyalty and a strict societal hierarchy. Lastly are the race of the reclusive and traditionalist Shama' Li, monk-like practitioners of spiritual and ancient magic, who desire to unify the four races into a single deific species that physically represents a combination of them all—NagaRom. Plot Yavaun has been under the oppressive control of the Empire—a merciless regime founded and led by the Tha' Roon—for a millennium, known by all as the Thousand Years. The Tha' Roon were once feared for their cruel and ruthless combat prowess,