Scarlet War

Overview

In the Year of the Sun 814, the College of Mages was accused of heresy and the promotion and teaching of necromancy. They were ordered to disband immediately and give themselves up to the mercy of the Church by Sundown on 1 Jewel of the next year. The College did not comply.

At sundown on 1 Jewel, 815, the Council declared Arcane Magic of all kind to be a sin, and gave its Orders the right to execute, without trial, anyone suspected of using arcane magic. The witch-hunts commenced immediately.

The war began in earnest on the 28th of Freedom, when the College struck back by unleashing a meteor swarm of epic proportions on the Spire. Huge casualties are recorded, although the Spire itself was undamaged, protected by the Holy Power of Pelor.

The two sides fought for 28 years before one side claimed a decisive victory in Sun-year 843, with the final stroke by both parties. Right before the Church took the Jade Tower, the College caused the Holy Temple at Mt. Daneasus and all its priests and servants to vanish without a trace. This act is the last expenditure of the Arcane power stored at the Jade Tower, but it took the Tower's defenses with it.

The crater where the Temple used to be is considered the holiest of ground, and left as a sort of shrine. Families of those lost take to throwing flowers in to the hole, every year on the Night of the Moon, and it later becomes a pilgrimage location.

An account of the battle to take the tower can be found in Red Day Dawning, by Brother Duram Gangi. An alternate account was recently presented to the Companions by the Amber Dragon, in An Alternate History - The Scarlet War.

Once the Tower fell, the College of Mages was forcibly disbanded with heavy casualties, never to recover. The tribunal held at the base of the Jade Tower is described in Red Day Dawning and in the Amber Dragon's Profile.

The Order of the Sword of Malicean was instructed to bring in all the remaining renegades, but they continued to plague the Church for another thirty-five years.

In Sun-year 868, Shinn the Sorcerer, the last remaining Warlord of the College of Mages, turned to the dark arts, and raised an army of the dead from the Valley of the Magi to augment his Spellswords, and fight the forces of Pelor. In what proved to be the longest and bloodiest single battle in Crescent's history, the forces of the Sun triumphed, but at great cost. The battle decimated a great tract of land, which to this day is an arid wasteland. At the last, the Warlord Shinn sealed his tower with powerful magicks, and leaped to his death on the rocks below.

An account of that battle can be found in Dark Tide Rising by Davilan the Scribe. Additional important information is to be found in the stories of Pandarial, Luz Solare, and Carline Bright-Eyes.

Fifty-eight years after it began, in Sun-year 872, The Order of the Fist of Reverence brought in the last of the Master Wizards, Davilan the Scribe. The Council of Five stilled and executed him without trial.

DM's Notes