The destruction of the Anchor of Rethis was the most catastrophic moment during the Great War, though not for its immediate fallout. Nobody knows who destroyed it - the guardians watching over it have not been seen since the Fourth Battle of Rethis. Over the next few weeks after the battle, magical storms slowly became more and more frequent, until eventually the
Iron Hills were like any other region outside the influence of an anchor. Where once the armies only needed to fear each other, now they had to fear something
far worse.
Natural Effects
The greatest effect was the undead: where there is war, there are bodies, and bodies make excellent vessels for uncontrolled magic. Hordes of armed and armoured ghouls, and sometimes worse, awakened throughout the region. Some attacked each other, some vestige remembering their enemy, but most sought out the living, bearing an unbridled lust and hatred for the life they could never reclaim.
But that was only one effect. The portals to the Divine Realms had a variety of effects: each brought a creature into the world. Some were terrible fiends, beasts that could tear through through hundreds of soldiers before they could be stopped by an archmage or someone else with great power, but others were beneficial. A mighty pit fiend was seen fighting a planetar, who struck it down before returning to its own realm. Strange clockwork beings built strange contraptions before leaving - devices that seem to behave like
Anchors over a far smaller radius.
Archmagi
The carnage this caused, however, was not enough. With the loss of the anchor came the use of High Magic in combat. Archmagi unleashed terrifying spells upon the enemy - great pillars of fire hundreds of feet across, acidic fogs that swept the battlefield, and waves of energy that tore the very souls from the still living bodies of their victims. With the loss of the anchor came the loss of any sense of honourable combat. The war quickly morphed to a war of shadows, with ordinary soldiers being used as sacrifices, distracting enemy Archmagi and draining their ability to use magic, while assassins crept about, hoping to catch one unawares.
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