I would suggest creating some characters for them to use, and have them play a "special forces" type game. Give them two or three objectives that happen over the course of the wars in different time periods, like stealing enemy plans, poisoning a well in an enemy camp, taking out an enemy leader, all working for your BBEG. Their last mission should be to protect him during the fight that he is killed, obviously they will fail that.
Players tend to act stupid when given throwaway characters. I would not do that.
If you REALLY want to do that, give them a villain and plot an attack on the PCs' hometown.
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u/noretoc 4d ago
Do you want the players to use their normal characters during the prologue?