The first major conflict to engulf the entire Anrel Isles, which united the northern cities against the "Slave-State" of Oracil. The utter destruction of Oracil laid the foundation of bitterness that has soured north-south relations ever since.

Political Background

Since the island group was formed at the end of the last Great Ice Age, the main landmass came to be known as Anrasard. It had no single government, but there was a loose league of interrelated, self-governing cities reliant on their agricultural hinterlands. These towns and cities had many feuds and disagreements, and occasional skirmishes, but never had the need or resources for full-scale war.

Rasee (Rasir or Rasia) had long since become the cultural capital, and during the Little Ice Age when the land mass grew, it came to be a political hub. As the various towns grew into powerful duchies and city-states, the Rasian Academy became extremely influential as advisor, mediator, and in time, political arbiter of a negotiated mutual will. The Masters of the Academy became powerful men, courted by the rich, having their pick of the children of the nobility to become students trained in the ancient arts.

Anrasard had a long history of peace in which castles, armies and fortifications were unheard of, until this first great conflict; called in later histories: the Dragon War.

The Dragon War (2420-2422 HM)

The "Dragon War" was short in terms of conflict, but it had taken nearly two generations for tension to reach the point of armed mobilisation. The war is now so shrouded in myths and legends that it is hard to distinguish truth from fiction. However, the known facts are as follows.

Oracil

The city of Oracil in southeastern Anrasard had grown in the shadow of the volcano, Mount Arent, into a powerful flourishing metropolis. The slopes of the mountain were covered with rich green fields producing cereal and vines, but it was most famed for its metal-working, particularly its jewels mounted in gold. Treasures from Oracil still form the centrepiece of the Anretien crown jewels. As well as jewellery and precious artifacts, Oracil also produced fine steel, which they wrought into ornate hunting weapons.

The city-state had a regime that seems brutal to modern eyes. It was a strictly hierarchical society, ruled by a class of learned nobility benefiting from all the arts and artifices such riches could provide. Children of noble families went through many tests to publicly prove their intelligence, skill, artistry and physical perfection, and any child not living up to these standards was outcast. Defective children were "returned" - hurled into the volcano which gave them their life.

The city's workers mined the ores and tended the foundries, and worked the fertile but treacherous fields on the slopes of the mountain. Their precarious existence was often short-lived. Eventually, many cities to the north accused Oracil of slave-raiding, attacking their outlying towns and villages for workers to drive their hungry city.

The truth of this is uncertain. Certainly Oracil came to use slaves, but whether it was a deliberate policy of the city to use their own militia to raid for slaves, or whether unscrupulous bands of brigands sold slaves illegally to the city, is perhaps a moot point.

The Rasian Masters

The Helevosien, the great work of myth that has evolved and been added to over millennia, tells the legend of the Goldstone, a gem of blazing beauty that was the source of all the magisters' power at Rasee. In the tale, the wise men of Oracil stole this stone, or tried to steal it, in order to make their city the greatest in Anrasard. The magisters therefore launched the war in order to recover their stolen treasure.

This tale is almost certainly allegorical, and suggests that the artificers of Oracil tried to steal the secrets of magistry, and establish the city as a new centre of power and learning.

Outbreak of war

As the years passed, increasing hostility developed between Oracil and the cities of the north. Both sides began to manufacture weapons and train men in arms, in suspicion of the other. The northerners feared the superiority of Oracil's weapons and swordsmen, though the northerners were superior in number. Eventually, a force from the North marched south, demanding an end to slavery. They met the Oracilians in a series of vicious battles.

Not only were the Oracilian nobility skilled warriors with fine weapons, but they had a workforce of strong, brutalised men. They promised their slave-workers payment in gold for their services, and took their wives and children hostage against desertion. With their chariots they moved quickly, and savagely beat back the northern "barbarians", though they were outnumbered four to one.

Ferokian and the Dragons

The masters of Rasia turned the tide by terrorising the enemy with visions of a host of mythological beasts, that broke discipline in the Oracilian ranks.

According to the Helevosien, the Grand Master Ferokian (2379-?2480 HM) flew with a host of dragons over the rebellious city of Oracil, paralysing all with terror. He cracked the great mountain, causing a titanic eruption of lava which burned the city to the ground.

(NB Ferokian was indeed a prominent Master, but he did not become Grand Master until after the war, in 2428 HM. The "Ride of Ferokian", though apocryphal, is one of the most famous tales in northern mythology.)

Aftermath

After the war it was clear that the Magisters' power exceeded the might of armies. The Magisters argued that in future, political differences must be resolved by negotiation and non-violent means. The Dragon War had achieved nothing except the destruction of a vibrant city, and had brought only death and suffering.

As a result, over a period of time the city states gradually stood down their armies, except for token companies responsible for guarding civic sites, maintaining law and order and responding to civil emergencies.

The Age of Watchers

It was a time of peace. Oracil was destroyed, and its refugees dispersed westwards to found new towns and cities. Many former slaves formed or joined nomadic bands in the mountains and plains, intermarrying with the indigenous population. There was minimal threat of external attack, Anrasard being so remote from any rival power. Nevertheless, the Masters ordered the construction of a series of towers across the land, and placed journeymen in them as Watchers. Their task was to watch for dangers of all kinds: strange ships, rebellious armies, even dangerous storms.

As time passed the Watchers were expanded to monitor border disputes, and eventually took their place in the very seats of power as Court Sorcerors. These Masters held position at every important place of government in Anrasard, acting as Ambassador, Truth-Teller, Arbiter and Guardian.

Watchers gradually took on a more clandestine political role. By 450 of the Hornum Calendar (3000 HM), under the Grand Master Belikast (ever after known as Belikast the Black) the Academy had established what was essentially a highly developed, esoteric spy network, keeping watch for internal conspiracies and border disputes.

The Watchers had the highest motivations and standards of ethics, and the system worked very well for a time. All intergovernmental negotiations were carried out under the auspices of the Court Sorcerors, who were regarded as having the ability to tell Truth, and see falsehood and conspiracy. This was of course untrue - the truth-telling ability is not infallible - but enough plots in the past had been uncovered to encourage rulers to deal honestly with each other, so that peace was ensured for five centuries.

Corruption in the system of Watchers was one of the eventual causes of the Long War, which saw the destruction of Rasia and the end of the Magister's power.