The Kel'vinshi Cleansing

The elven professor, old though he was, with his silver and white hair, strolled into the lecture hall strongly, straight backed and with authority. Taking his seat comfortably, he waited until the thirty or so students within the halls were silent.

"We need no introductions, as you will all be aware of whom I am, else you would not be here. Now we shall get the shocking words out of the way, and take a moment to digest them as you need with each other, but I will brook no questions until the twenty turns of the glass at the end of the lesson for the day."

Taking a moment to scan the small auditorium style room, Leniv Gorv'alis insured he had everyone's upmost attention, cleared his throat and then sharply and clearly state. "For nearly a millennia the Children of the Ascended have been lying to everyone."

He kept his face cool, calm and professional, even as he wanted to smirk, as his students mumbled back and forth, their shock and tension obvious. As they began to calm themselves, he rose, and as they again graced him with the silence of their attention, he swung into his lecture in full.

"The Arcanis Crusades, a loaded topic, and a singular conflict. To hear the most of the churches tell it, or most common folk, it all started in response to a horrific and brutal assault on Kelethan, the eventual capital of Depenwood, before the country was united. A brutal mass killing of any and all followers of the Ascended and their children and families by a group of apostates. Yet this of course is inaccurate, as anyone should be able to tell by simply realizing that not all 9 temples tell this bit of scripture. Those early years are simply omitted from Talia's works, her faith simply skip from the end of the Sundering to about 400 SuD, and as with all the faiths end their holy scriptures referencing events up to around the 800 SuD mark. So just long enough that no one is left alive whom could confirm or deny their version of things. Now my students, the 9 temples may disagree on a few finer points here and there, but for there to be a distinct lack of reference to almost 400 years of history within those holy works, claiming no lessons, no holy events, no epiphanies, nothing of importance to the faithful of Talia occured should seem strange, no? Oh sure they make broad statements that you can connect to the more robust scriptures of the other temples in similar areas of their texts, however they distinctly choose to not reference any people, any time frame or holy dates or places directly. Save for one. One small tucked away passage about a Saint Elysia, the guide to the lost and the terrified, Talia's caretaker to her people. That is where our lessons will need to begin, with a little bit of theology and establishing a few things about the Lady of the Leaves and her followers, and most importantly this Saint Elysia. We will need to do so coming out of the Sundering, an era as much guess work and archaelogical record as any, since written works are all untranslatable or simply destroyed, and into the post Sundering, or SuD era. I do hope none in this room have family or close family friends whom are particularly hardline priests or church goers of a conservative nature. If so, I apologize in advance for shattering some illusions."

He briefly moved to the table that upon which, a cool jug of peach juice had been brought forth for him by one of the university's kitchen staff. He poured a goblet, and downed it in one gulp. "So let us begin from the beginning, and let the debate rage, for everything you will learn of the events of the period remembered as the Arcanis Crusades hinges on understanding one infallible, logically undeniable, completely irreputable truth. Talia, the Lady of the Leaves was in fact what we today would call...an Emerald Magister."

The Conflict

Prelude

From independent faiths to unified Religion

In truth, we know very little of the time frame leading up to 0010 SuD other than it is for sure a lie of all the Temples and their holy texts that it took a mere ten years. A hundred perhaps, a thousand even more likely. Archaelogical records are indicative of this time frame, perhaps longer. The truth of the Sundering is that it happened slowly. Even after the Divine Conflict, which the world over saw reflected in the sky, it took generations for the world to begin to reconnect again, for societies to emerge beyond their small little pockets and hidden/heavily fortified little enclaves. It is a foolish lie at best, a wilful insult to history at worse, to imply it could all be possible in ten years.

Regardless of this, we know so very little about how we emerged as peoples from the horrors of the Sundering. So much was lost, never to be recovered. Writing, culture, societies, all gone, set back. So little is left to guide us through this era, so little we understand, for even language was not as we know it now. We know not what languages peoples would have spoken before the common parlence and the various codified languages we have today in the modern age. What we do know however, is that in that timeframe somewhere, societies again emerged. In the lands we now know as Depenwood, Valewyr and Waston. These places seem the central regions of growth, seem to be from whence the sapient beings we all know were able to spread back out from and reclaim the lands we once inhabited. Within this context of course, with the heroes and unified armies that supposedly marched thousands of years ago, and supposedly fought a final conflict with the great Nightmares, the twisted avatars of Sin, seen in reflection in the skies across the world, well naturally this gave birth to religion. However they were far from unified at first. Our best guess is holy wars and skirmishes were common place, and it is these conflicts that perhaps result in the nations we have now, as the nine nations all inherently claim status as the ancient homeland and culture of one of the nine Ascended. How true this is we know not.

What is also known however, is that something changes after that first undetermined length of time. As the Children of the Ascended begin to become a thing, written works begin to explain a unity of believers across lands and sea, a unity being built across racial and cultural lines, one that held the ideals and views of healing the world, returning the children of the Ascended, their sapient descendents to their rightful places in the world, even this early, we see the seeds of what is to come. Artwork, the few translated texts, statues, ancient holy buildings, they all depict various scenes of the abuse that those touched by Arcanis would face. Drowning, burning at the stake, drawn and quartered, all the rest of it you can imagine, and a few you perhaps could not. However all this was in context, for the written sources we do have speak of abhorrant practices, such as human sacrifice, cannibalism, bestiality, nercophilia and supposedly even worse atrocities. How true these portrayals are we can only infer by comparing it to the dark tales of the cults that rarely crop up today. As to how frequent they were, well, all we have to go on are the accounts in the scriptures of the organization we are discussing as having been less than truthful. However with the idea of objectivity in mind, given what we do know of those rare instances and horror stories in the modern age, let us say such things are an accurate portrayal of the behavior of those whom walked the darker paths of worshipping the fell things from the Void. Even with that, we understand today that those sorts are the very small minority of individuals born Arcanis Touched, and most, especially with proper care, education and guidance, will not become such monsters.

The reason I point this out is because despite the idea that before the Crusades and the formation of the Magisterium, we know the large majority of those whom were Arcanis Touched had to grow and be relatively functional and live long enough to reproduce safely, and within the beginnings of society because we know that it is influenced heavily by bloodline. That is not to say two untouched parents cannot have a child that is Arcanis Touched, because they can. But the odds are drastically lower. So therefore, it is an unavoidable truth we must contend with that the most logical truth of the matter is that things, while perhaps bad, were not near drastic enough to warrant what the Church of the Ascended would do next in their youthful quest to make the world safe for the 'rightful children of the Ascended.'

Because of this knowledge, this basic truth we need to come to grips with, the logical chain we must follow, what comes next, the events and handling of this by the faithful...well it will most definitely shape the world, of that I can assure you. How it does so, though is unfortunately not exactly how one may think, or wish to believe.

A Crusade Begins

We do not know what incited the proclaimation of a crusade, exactly. But we do know when it was offically declared, at least the month and year. Jundar, 171 SuD. However this too is a misnomer. All this declaration signaled was a more direct shift to full militant actions, the visible and very open action of declaring a holy war, as compared to something of a slightly more subtle nature they might deem 'an inquisition' The truth of the matter is not a whole lot changed in how interations would go between templars or warrior priests or religious mobs and Arcanis Touched individuals and their families. The only real change was it became an organized declaration. A fully, at all levels, organized war effort. As to the auspicious beginnings of this 'most holy' crusade? Well we will need to discuss that in detail, for that first incident, in a small tribal village southeast of Kelethan, in the country of Depenwood....that is really where the whole thing changed. Everything about what was happening changed. The whole tone shifted in a way that was coming, yet had never so overtly been applied. It was also a singularly well documented, yet also controversial for the drastic differences in the accounts, battle. Well battle, even that word is questionable. Regardless we need to cover, deeply in deep context, the Kel'vinshi Cleansing. But before we get to that, and discuss the seminal engagement, the initial encounter that sends all of this spiralling, it is important, I think, to discuss a big part of why coming to understand just how many were lost due to direct actions of this declared crusade. That would of course have to do with the reality that the whole world was basically engulfed in war already.

The Reclaimation Wars

As we are all aware, the age of Reclaimation only ended some two or three centuries ago by most counts, and even the last Reclaimation war only ended 357 years ago. Over a thousand years of major, bloody and massive conflicts all about the world, as we sought to reclaim what was ours by birth-right from the grips of dark beings and beasts, foul creatures, cultists and twisted and broken creatures. These wars were long, ardous and left a great many dead at every stage of them. All throughout them, one cannot understate the importance and value of the Children of the Ascended, as a unifing force, a banner and a motivator for the cause, imbuing a great many with an unshakeable faith, unbreakable will, and a willingness to give absolutely everything to the cause. It is my steadfast belief that without the Children of the Ascended, all of its chapters, the era of Reclaimation does not come to pass as it did, we do not see the world we see now, we do not see the lands brought together, the various kingdoms reclaimed after thousands of years. We do not see nearly as effective a rebirth of society, nor as effective a march of progress and growth. However, within this truth, their is naturally a discourse to be had about how much this good will, and the situation mentioned here, could bury and hide. The Arcanis Crusades are the perfect example of exactly what that entails. For almost 200 years of war, none really questioned or held the faithful to account for their overtly excessive and heavy handed approach to dealing with the matters of the Arcane or those whom were Arcanis-Touched, or their families, kindred and neighbors. All across Wyriel and Gavis-Lune, such activities were perhaps viewed poorly, but done in silence, without opposition being raised.

However this would be very different once the Crusades and the first Reclaimer Armies reached the shores of the continent of Durol. What they would find there would be rather unlike what they had experienced on the other two continents, for here the societies had already begun to reform somewhat naturally, even worshipping their Ascended, a coincidental fact, a convergent behavior. Unlike what the church would have you believe, the nations of Depenwood, Raechin and Suranth were already well on their way, if much smaller, pocket sized regions compared to what they would become.

The biggest difference however, was that these three infant nations were allied in a way of thinking that would bring about a schism, an impasse that would not be crossed without terrible bloodshed. For those three nations were aware of the dangerous natures of the Arcane. However within the teachings of Lady Talia, and with the help of the Woad Elves, they also were aware of the potential benefits and boons that those whom could wield the arcane safely would offer, both in war and in healing the land, their very presence and existence like an ointment for the realm. As such, one can hopefully imagine that there would be....marked disagreement. So as the killings or justified executions, as the unthinking mass violence, or the 'necessary cleansing' began, for the first time the Children of the Ascended were met with resistance. With pushback, with disagreement, very open and vocal disagreement. Everything from mob protest and blockading forces to a complete lack of willingness to provide supplies, aid or shelter, even in the harsh Durolion winters. However the peoples on Durol did everything but resist violently...at first. The Children of the Ascended likely would have gotten their way if they would have continued on with business as usual, as bloody and grizzly as it was.

However to push at all, to begin including civilians as well in any way in this mess, given the views that were already present at this point within the Reclaimation Armies, particularly any religious crusading forces within that larger whole, well it was a nightmare waiting to be given life. A powder keg simply needing the right spark.

The Children of the Ascended would oblige, and happily light that powder keg. We still do not know for certain if those responsible were aware of their....well heresy. Of the blunder of their actions, the sheer scale of the mistake that they made. We cannot even be sure they would see it as a mistake. What we do know, however, is that the mistake can be traced back to one dwarf. One of our two key players in this drama. Father Torvac Helmridge, a warpriest in service of the crusading forces of Sir Kartheart's faithful. This dwarf, then just approaching his third century, was a devout, holier than though figure by all accounts, with an extreme view on the arcane arts. His religious fervor, his unwillingness to consider weight of his actions and the potential consequences that could follow, would be the spark. Within a climate of skirmishes and clashes, along with failing but still maintained talks and attempts to bridge this chasm of understanding, supposedly on both sides, this one dwarven priest and his followers would unknowingly set the world on a path of near self destruction. We know nothing of why Father Torvac made the decisions he made.

All we know is that sometime in Agun of 172, as the sun was setting, a force of some six or seven hundred templars and war priests entered a village of perhaps two thousand that was but two hundred and fifty or so kilometers southeast from the city of Kelethan, somewhere now lost deep in the area known as the Forgotten Moors. This village, for context, was documented by all versions of Talia's faith, as her birthplace, her home and the place her bloodline ran. Kel'vinshi. The incident that would occur here would be the first real hard engagement to show the shift of what was to come, of just how out of hand things were about to get. It would also set the stage, in a twist of fate, for the Magisterium itself. Because without Elysia Tel'in'naviri, their would be no Magisterium. So now it is time for us to discuss that first engagement, and the absolute blunder that would drown Valerick once again in blood and death. It is time to discuss the Cleansing of Kel'vinshi

The Kel'vinshi Cleansing

To this day no historical evidence or direct documentation exists or has ever been discovered to explain the actions of Father Torvac and his small force of crusading priests and templars. None of the churches, even at their most defensive of the incident and the history of the Children of the Ascended, even while singing the praises, claiming such wanton force as the Arcanis Crusades themselves were necessary to keep the world over safe....none of them can justify or offer any insight as to what Father Torvac saw or heard to make him believe the choices he made that night were necessary or even justifiable.

To set the scene, what we know, for all oral and limited written records are consistent in this, is that Father Torvac and his six hundred or so holy crusaders approached Kel'vinshi in as night was falling in Agun. The date is fuzzy, though the most common versions reference the 11th or the 18th, so we can at least assume it was likely within that range. Kel'vinshi was a small village, but well known to the various crusaders operating all about Depenwood as a holy site, a place where they could seek rest and refuge, which is likely exactly what Torvac and his followers were doing. The villagers were apparently quite accomodating, as one might expect, given this small tribe's leading family, the Tel'in'naviri family, Wylde Elves one and all, were the direct bloodline descendents of Talia herself, the Lady of the Leaves. As one might expect, this made the village something of an untouchable place, a place most holy, a place where the violence that the Children of the Ascended believed was necessary to tame Durol was not to be brought, regardless of what one saw, unless it was something truly atrocious, such as child sacrifice or blood sacrifices, that sort of affair. We know the crusaders were welcomed, with families all throughout the village making space, ready to take in one or two of them, provide them with a comfortable place to sleep, food and tend to any injuries. The night started off well enough, from what little we know. The tone of our tale changes however, and with no real explanation, just after midnight. By dawn of the two thousand or so villagers in Kel'vinshi, less than a hundred would be amongst the world of the living.

Did Father Torvac see something? Did he find some sort of evidence of a true corruption, something so deep, a root so embedded, that he genuinely believed he had no choice? We cannot say it is impossible of course, but it seems unlikely such an important holy figure would make such an extreme and....vivid holy decision and not insure the reasons were well documented. Regardless, clearly for reasons unknown Father Torvac decided the village needed to be cleansed, in the most extreme sense of the word. How he managed to coordinate this effectively whilst his men were spread out through the homesteads of the village is also a point of contention that some would suggest, myself included in fact, may point to the fact this was planned from before their arrival, this was a strategized assault, not a responsive act of violence. However, regardless which it was...sometime a bit after midnight the first screams rang out from the village, as well as the first fervored holy war cries, and soon most of the village would be up in flames, put to the torch, as the crusaders sought to 'cleanse' such tainted ground.

Deployment

The Kel'vinshi Cleansing

Regardless if the dark outcomes of this event were preplanned or not, for what evidence and accounts we do have, we know that to label any of this 'deployment' is a tidy stretch of the word. I am sure, like any settlement of the time in Durol, they had watchers both militia and volunteer on the walls of the village, and if there were in fact mages of stable training and mind embraced by the community present, one would do well to assume one or two of them would have been on duty and watch as well. This era still saw the night as dangerous, though not eternally deadly any longer. In normal circumstances, the Templar force would likely have set schedule of some of its own to augment the village watch, but in this circumstance, I should humbly suggest that perhaps this did not take place. Be it by claiming march fatigue, injuries or otherwise, based on the events that would occur on this Agun night, it seems safe to suggest that none of the Templar force were volunteered to augment the village watch. Instead they were spread about the village itself, in the homes of many, taken in by these people's kindness and good will, noted even by the Children of the Ascended themselves.

Battlefield

Not much is known of the actual layout of the village of Kel'vinshi. It was of a traditional Wylde Elf style, a treewoven and canopy village, its many buildings seeming as if part of the woods, built onto the trunks, seemingly woven into the boughs, and about the canopy of the trees of the heartwood grove it was built in. However the few written sources we have do all reference that there was central region that was on the ground, a small clearing of about a dozen or so buildings.

Conditions

In the middle of the night, insuring a lack of preparedness on the part of the villagers. Very quickly the battlefield such as it was, became a hellscape, as it seems that was part of the Templar force's strategy, they set tree and building alike to the torch swiftly by all accounts partial or full. In all versions of the events, within but an hour the entire village was aflame. Amidst fire, smoke and ash in the middle of the night, one can only imagine the panic, especially as the realization dawns on you that the very guests, the very people whom you invited into your homes, whom you did not disarm, did not turn away though you would have been wholly justified, have turned on you. One can but barely picture the terrifying way some families found out, waking to the sound of violence towards their loved ones, to the smell of their homes burning, to the shouting of zealous battle cries.

The Engagement

The crusaders did suffer casualties, this much the Children of the Ascended do admit within their versions of events, doing so in such a fashion in many of the writings as if to try and justify the events that occured. But to call this a military engagement is an insult to the concept. This was a slaughter. A butchery. A despicable and cowardly act, and one with nothing even close to resembling ironclad reasoning or justification, even in holy scriptures and passages written to attempt to rehabiliate this event in some way. But given the environment and the sheer choking chaos of it all once all that fire and smoke was involved, and the nature of the climate, we can infer a few things the scant few sources we have do not provide on their face.

The first is that some of the crusaders own casualties are likely self inflicted. In such a....brutal slaughter and rout, but in the dark, with smoke and ash obscuring vision, it is almost a guarantee that at some point two fellow men at arms, or even Storm-Knights, engaged upon each other, perhaps one even killing the other before they realized they were on the same side. Or perhaps as the fires started spreading without help, one or more of the men at arms were caught in a building as it went up, and were unable to escape it. Along with the nature of the climate and realm at the time, and the geographic location, a place known to be at least, even today and still certainly back then, within the borders of a Scar upon Reality. It is quite likely the fires and smoke drew....*things* into that village that played part on casualties on both sides, things that most definitely did not make the Crusaders more likely to stop the killing. This 'battle' to call it that, would have been brutal, bloody, and vicious street to street, house to house, systematic slaughter. Butchery that too this day leaves a horrendous taste on the lips. The sort of massacre we are discussing here is difficult to even properly explain the sheer...depth of. The intent was and is clear even if the motives are not and are perhaps lost to time. No survivors, every man, woman and child.

Aftermath

Bow not your head in shame, and dry those tears. Look at me. Look at me!!! We are not animals like you and your zealots, the 'Children of the Ascended'. No. We shall grant you the mercy of a swift death. Take a deep breath father, for you will see Sir Kartheart more clearly this night. May he condemn your soul for eternity for the actions you have committed and endorsed. But before we do, I wish you to know something Father Torvac. Something almost amusing, even in these dark and foul times.....which is that you will be right. All your prophecies, all your doomsaying? All that trollop about the Arts of Arcanis breaking and destroying the world we know, about the end of eras, about a cataclysmic change? You will be right. So very right. We mages will break the world as you know it. We will destroy it, tear it down to its foundation stones. We will do this, because if the last century and a half are what you and your 'faithful' mean by the world we all know? That is not worth perserving.

Quoted, an excerpt from a discovered and authenticated journal of Elysia Tel'in'naviri, Matron Saint of the Talian faith, the first Grand Magister of the Magisterium, and the founder of the Emerald Order, circa 342 SuD

Included under Conflict

The Arcanis War

Conflict Type

Battle

Battlefield Type

Urban

Start Date

11th of Agun, 172 SuD

Ending Date

18th of Agun, 172 SuD

Conflict Result

Though Father Torvac and his Templar force quite obviously won this...engagement, little did could they know they had created the circumstances to lose this war.

Location

Kel'vinshi

Belligerents

Crusaders of the Storm, 19th Battery

• Children of the Ascended

Villagers of Kel'vinshi

• The Magisterium

Strength

600 total

50 Shield Priests

400 men at arms and mixed infantrymen

150 Storm-Knights (predecessors to the Storm-Lancers of today)

2000-3000 civilians of various crafts and trades, including a localized defense force, a quasi militia of sorts likely numbering 400 or so.

A handful of magisters of a sort were likely present, though we can only confirm one who died very early.

Casualties

2 Shield Priests
19 men at arms/mixed infantrymen

1900-2900 dead. The few written sources ever found are unclear of the village's population, but do note that less than 200 folk survived the 'Cleansing'.

Objectives

Seemingly, to root out and cleanse a heretical cult of witchcraft and foul sorcery within the village of Kel'vinshi. Otherwise objectives and motivation beyond just a village wide purge, are unknown.

Survive. Flee perhaps, if that was possible.

(Though the Magisterium did not yet exist, one could argue that without this tragic event, the founder and creator of that dream would never have become the woman she did, which is worthwhile enough to note.)