The Great Disaster
The Great Disaster is a cataclysmic event that took place around fourteen hundred years ago, and which stands like tombstone to the world, dominating the history of the lands. The event was the unleashing of magical forces of such magnitude that they caused the near destruction of world, and was brought about by a series of conflicts between the great and the powerful. The world barely survived this breaking.
Mighty civilisations had been formed, and were ruled by those who were power-mad. In such civilisations magic and other arcane power had been brought together to build Kingdoms and Empires which demanded dominion, and which continually and violently opposed each other. The world paid the price when magic they held was unleashed, and such magical force should never have been used. Inevitably they proved unable to control this power, and the mightiest among wizards brought destruction almost to the ending of the world. During this time some of these mighty folk had risen to challenge even the power of the gods themselves.
It is said that the world has changed since those times; that the power known as 'magic' is greatly depleted. There are still some who can call upon its power, but the scars of the Great Disaster run deep among the free people of the world. For most folk the fear of magic lingers, and there remains a hatred of those who wield it. This had driven the users of magical power out of view. To be a wizard in modern Arthea has much in common with being a member of a secret society. The peasantry still take their simple view that wizards almost destroyed the world once and they must never be allowed to do so again.
In the long centuries since the Disaster, the attitudes of ordinary people have become more hardened against both magic and its wielders. Fear and hatred of wizards has become an ingrained part of the peasant culture. Other events since have also helped to galvanise this opinion further. Wars have been fought, some quite recently, in which magic was used both openly and to devastating effect. This compounds the fear that magic will, if unchecked, spiral out of control once again. Society has a long road ahead of it before wizardry can become fully integrated and play a wide role.
This view that magic is wholly 'evil' completely shared by the classes above the peasantry. In some towns and cities magical equipment is available for trade in an open (but quiet) way, and a busy trade takes place in such items of ‘quality’ (as they are termed, at least when the serfs are present). The ruling classes are much more open to both the use of magic and the acceptance of those who wield it, indeed many use magic to reinforce their own positions of power. Magic still has its place in human society at least; and it is the world of humans that is dominant among the surface-dwellers in Arthea.
The effects of the Great Disaster could have been far worse. Had it not been for the efforts of one small group of wizards, the world may well have been destroyed. Even as the world was torn from beneath them, they worked to hold the land together, directing their spells inward to the world to heal and protect. These few powerful wizards had seen the coming of the Disaster for months before it happened; they banded together to form a group to co-ordinate their powers and maybe salvage something from the ruin. Those that survived the hardships and destruction became known as "The Pale Flame", and they still survive as an organisation. This makes them one of the oldest organisations in the world, a feat that they are proud of.
Their founders formed the group for the protection of the world; to preserve life and the lands. While their aims have not really changed, the scale of their operation these days is much less. After the disaster, many of their members worked to rebuild society, and repair the harm caused by their colleagues from other branches of the magical world. As time went on, however, they found the increasing hatred of wizards and their magic meant that they faced more persecution. The organisation slipped from the limelight; the peasants owed so much to the group without knowing it, yet they blamed all wizards for the hardships the world had suffered. Many believe the organisation has died, and the Pale Flame were keen to promote these rumours, and buried traces of their existence. While the peasantry are blissfully unaware of their existence, modern day wizards know of them; they are still a big influence in magical circles.
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CategoryHistory