History of Magic lecture,

  Approximately 3 years ago

  “What was the Greenwich war? Can anyone tell me?” Mr. Donovan asked the class casually.

  “A war waged against the world by the Greenwich Family and the Fae for the domination of the continents.” A classmate replied enthusiastically

  Aurelius sat, twirling his pen around his fingers in pure boredom, rolling his eyes. Literally everyone knew that.

  “Correct. Thank you, Ms. Grant.” Mr. Donovan thanked expertly, guiding the attention of the class to the words on the board now.

  “Our first year syllabus for History of Magic will purely focus on the catalyst that set in motion the most recent era of our world, the Era of Balance.” He started, scribbling on the blackboard casually and smoothly, making rhythmic 'tac’ sounds with the chalk in the process.

  “As one of the most destructive wars of magic that happened on the plane of reality, the Greenwich War and its implications stretch into the present. Therefore, to critically examine this era that we live in, and to further delve into the specifics of our modern institutions, we must first understand the Greenwich War.”

  “Let us start with the conditions of Teotlcan leading up to the War.”

  “In our first lesson, I would like for you to refer to your lecture notes pages 7 through 24.” He instructed, causing a cacophony of rustling paper to fill the lecture hall.

  “For the sake of simplicity, modern historians have mostly summed up the Greenwich war as a conflict between 2 factions.”

  “And those are the 3 noble Houses and Fae under the Central Greenwich Empire, and the rest of the world’s powers, rallied around the Great Hero Rodric and his party.”

  “Before our current era, the noble Houses had the monopoly on the distribution of magic. This as a result of the concentration of power over the centuries of endless wars.”

  “The rather simple idea of warlords gathering mages, establishing small kingdoms and bestowing titles to their followers led to a completely closed system for the distribution of magic, wherein nobility had the access to the higher tiers of magic, and commoners were left with little to no magic.”

  “In our modern eyes, the conditions that this created for the majority of the population, for commoners, were conditions of oppression and exploitation.”

  “Some kingdoms would, of course, argue that their kings and nobility of the past cared for their citizens, and gave them the access to magical items to better livelihoods in farming and industrial output.”

  “Kings and nobles in these stories are outliers. Ideological kings are bound to pop up in the thousands of years of short lived kingdoms after all.”

  “The constant wars and territorial exchanges alone meant that the commoner population lacked stability, were inflicted enormous casualties in war, and oppressed under different rulers.”

  “However, as magical research became more and more advanced, it became more and more costly to wage these conflicts.”

  “A single mage could have had 2 decades of resources piled up behind them, only to die fruitlessly in battle, and leaving their respective kingdoms vulnerable in the next campaign.”

  “Therefore, smaller kingdoms formed alliances, joined hands with bigger kingdoms and created more or less homogenised hierarchies within respective continents over time in a pursuit of ‘peace’. This allowed for the creation of wealth and riches for the nobility, through the exploitation of the commoners.”

  “At the height of this wealth creation is exactly when the Greenwichs came to rise in the Central Continent.”

  “We suspect that the fae may have had made a deal with the noble Greenwich House to gift them with the power to usurp the then king of the Central Alliance. Through targeted assassinations, stealing of names, and many more unsavory acts of subversion.”

  “The father of Blood Emperor Manus Greenwich, King Domicas Greenwich took power 431 years ago, and led a purge against the other nobles, unifying the continent under the central authority of the Greenwichs.”

  “His son, the Blood Emperor would then be crowned upon his passing, proceeding to declare the Central Greenwich Empire in the central continent.”

  “And he would bring devastation upon Teotlcan. Actions that have completely torn apart the noble Houses from magic.”

  “The Blood Emperor would raise an army of mages in his 3rd year. And wage war in his 5th.”

  “He would go on a quest to conquer the world, all under the coercion of the divine entity we know as the Fae Queen.”

  “And in this quest, he would offer the Fae Queen the lives of all citizens of Teotlcan in the pursuit of his foolish dream…”

  ???

  It was a billion lives.

  One billion souls killed in that meaningless conflict.

  It had essentially halved the human population of Teotlcan, and it was all made possible because of one crazed god. The Fae Queen.

  Sages were a rarity 300 years ago, meaning no human attempts could even hope to push back the advances of the Queen.

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  Her rampage across the continents in the 5 brief years of the war, were accompanied by the Greenwichs laying siege city by city and slaughtering all civilians.

  They didn’t care if it were nobility, or commoners that they slaughtered. They merely moved like a machine, like a plague of death throughout the 3 continents.

  The Greenwich Army and their souls had already fallen to the Queen.

  They committed horrible atrocities, used souls for experimentation in blood magic and created undead at a scale unseen in the history of magic, and eventually the Queen would succeed in creating the abomination called liches.

  The three orthodox deities had to step in, alarmed by the death toll and the growing power of the Queen.

  No one could mount a resistance to a divine being in the mortal realm. At least, not then. And humanity didn’t yet know how to summon those who sat at the highest seats of divinity.

  Humanity sacrificed thousands of souls to incarnate angels, and familiars to push against the encroachment of the Greenwichs.

  The Devils would gain power in this war, consuming the blood and flesh of human sacrifices in a self serving alliance against the Queen.

  The elves would retreat into their Forest Kingdom, harbouring refuge under their powerful god.

  And yet, the Fae Queen had been growing in power since the second era, amassing an army of fae and undead, and with the abominations called liches able to stand their ground against even incarnated angels, the Queen continued to advance.

  Understanding the severity of the war, all three orthodox deities marked a single human.

  A mage who would come to be known as the Hero Rodric.

  And through his death, was left a legacy that all Archsages had to carry.

  To protect humanity, no matter the cost.

  300 years ago, no beings as powerful as Archsages existed.

  300 years ago, no spells to counter divine wills existed.

  300 years ago, they couldn’t summon the gods who could have made a difference.

  If Archsage Livia could, at the cost of 300 million lives, prevent a second Greenwich war, she would gladly pull the trigger against each of these heads.

  If Archsage Livia could, at the cost of 300 million lives, prevent the death of 2.7 billion more, she would gladly burn this planet to ash.

  If Archsage Livia could, at the cost of 300 million lives, capture the Fae Queen and seal Her, she would gladly summon the Devil King.

  After all, the Commission existed to protect, to prevent, and to crush all who opposed Rodric’s last wish. They honoured the mission of the Saintess, the Diviner, the Tamer, the Commander and the Hero…

  Archsage Livia summoned one of her fiery devils, intangible in the darkness that occluded all of her surroundings.

  With a deadly smile, one that sent chills across the very instincts of this powerful spirit world denizen, the Archsage used her wand to slash its throat.

  The devil dared not move. The witch would not allow for such foolish transgressions.

  From its ‘wound’, one staining the ever so carefully crafted flesh of the creature, started to drip a dark red liquid.

  Ichor.

  Next to Livia stood Andrew, his staff now summoned, and his magic manipulating the ichor with precision to draw a magic circle in the air.

  He channeled his mana, extending the tendrils of the blood through the air, encompassing the entire city block with the threads of thin bloody liquid.

  It was an intricate symbol, a geometric symbol that evoked emotions of sorrow, fear, and darkness. It would be obvious to any observer that if they looked at it for too long, they would be driven to the brink of insanity.

  Archsage Livia started to channel mana through these thin threads of ichor, creating a massive storm of mana in the centre of Tlacualtzin.

  With a deep, dark voice, one that summoned the darkness of hell itself, she called out to the spirit realm, and its ancient, deep, and disgusting evil.

  “Heed me Devil.

  Your children whose leashes I hold,

  Your seal I had foretold,

  I offer you a contract,

  A contract that bears the will of Rodric,

  King of Temptation,

  God of Daemons,

  Contractor,

  Devil King, Oscarion.”

  ???

  The Commission took its fair share of prisoners.

  One such case was a cult member by the name of Wiley.

  She had been involved with the cult of Marzanna, offering blood sacrifices to the minor angel of dreams.

  She had killed cats, goats and children, all to sate the hunger of her goddess.

  And she had been caught.

  It would be a lie to say she didn’t have regrets. She didn’t feel particularly bad about her crimes, of course. It was for her goddess. She had requested it. And the cult must sate her hunger.

  But it was stifling in a commission cell.

  The food was bland, the days boring, and walls too claustrophobic.

  It was regretful to have gotten caught.

  She had killed her last roommate. It was all she could do for her goddess now. And the Commission had rewarded her display of faith with solitary confinement.

  What boring little bureaucrats.

  “Hm?” She asked, suddenly noticing the smell of something charring in her cell.

  She felt… her skin start to burn…

  ???

  Antonio was a guard at one of the Southern Empire’s prisons.

  His job was to look after the rowdy prisoners, most of whom were sentenced for life under the harsh laws of the Empire in its civil war.

  Crimes had been cracked down with prejudice since the start of the Empire’s civil war. With the nobility launching a rebellion with the support of half the knight corps, it was a messy thing to deal with the increase in crime among the population.

  A few had been imprisoned for political dissent of course, criticising the Emperor in writing and in public and all that, but many had been arrested for assault, murder and rioting.

  Violence had become a daily occurrence in the Southern Empire these days.

  Antonio, though, could not care less for what these people were in for.

  In his eyes, as long as he got paid, he would just do his job.

  He didn’t have a family to support, but he had a nice hobby of collecting those House Valverde figurines, and he would do his job enough to not get fired in the next contract year.

  The most exciting parts of his job would be his poker sessions with the other guards during their shifts.

  Sometimes some of the prisoners even joined in through their bars, trading cigarettes instead of coins in the game.

  Antonio didn’t mind. He could afford to cut back on cigarettes after all.

  “AHHHHHHH” A scream cut through the air.

  Antonio’s head shot up, one which had just been calculating the price of the next figurine he was going to get his hands on.

  He frowned, unable to comprehend what was happening.

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH” More screams joined in the chorus.

  And the cells lit up against the darkness of the night outside.

  The prisoners were on fire.