Event 3: Magic Council Story

The change was swift, faster than anyone expected. The resulting chaos left the trainees in confusion, their teachers turning on each other as soon as the fights started breaking out. Three sides were in the field of the training grounds, Crusaders they called themselves, against those that remained loyal to the Magic Council as it was before the war. They said they wanted to help the people of Fiore, and if the country needed to burn before help could begin, then so it would. It would start here, in the new Council Base of Era, with the blood of the youth. The third side was the most unfortunate, the side of the honest teacher, who defended and hid their students. They were never offered a chance, the fighting broke out quickly.
The flash of the crimson uniform everywhere, no one could tell who was on what side by simple glance. The only ones who knew were the Crusaders, because they started the attack. A revolution was at hand, and it started with the council, and ended with the world in their hand.

The trainee's who had no idea what happened were cut down, or recruited. The Crusaders brainwashing them into believing the old Magic Council was wrong, that things like seekers weren't needed, enforcers were. To enforce the law in all of Fiore, and punish those that dare question the Authority of the Magic council.

The attack was expected, just not then. It hit the Loyalists hard, they were prepared in the long run, a plan had already been put into motion. However it like all worst case scenario plans, was in reaction to a tragic event, not to prevent it from happening. The tension had been building for years. There was no way to stop the coming storm.

A single man at first led this Revolution of beliefs against Fiore's Grand Councilor. Mordekai Von Argon, the man's own son. The Loyalists were traitors, even his father. They all planned to waste their power, to acquire peace with the biggest enemy, the world outside of Fiore. Kai's men laid waste to the weakest loyalists first, demanding their loyalty, or their deaths. Many more died, then they did surrender.
They all died Honorable men.

Von Argon himself took the field when he realized what had happened. He knew he couldn't react fast enough, however the man didn't give up without a fight. They tried to assassinate him, to keep him from personally getting involved, kill the biggest challenge without a fight. Take him out in his sleep. What they didn't know was the old man hadn't slept the last few days, it was hard for him to close his eyes without being haunted of his failures, his mistakes. It was a bad sign when a ruler was tormented by what he once thought was right.

The assassin barely made it into the men's room before the entire foundation of the room shook with the Grand councilors rage. A power bottled up for years, that yearned to break free. The killer never expected the old man to charge him, let alone use him to break a window on the third floor, and soften his landing. Von Argon was not in the mood for forgiveness, he was not in the mood for mercy. They killed children, they would all burn, and his magic would be the fire, their flesh and blood the kindling.

The loyalists were quickly shown to be the smaller of the two forces in the complex. Commander Mathius had put their emergency plan in motion days before hand, the majority of the loyalist forces were in at the HQ in Oak Town. This was for the best. It wasn't long before Von Argon's public appearance on the blood bathed battlefield that was the Era HQ changed the tide of battle in the loyalist favor. The man was a walking arsenal of firepower, and his anger wasn't helping things at all. Men were reduced to screaming charred remains in the wake of the Grand councilors counter attack.

All but one. A single man stood against the burning might that was Grand councilor Von Argon. Who bore witness to the mass slaughter of his comrades, his allies. It broke him completely. Whatever was left of Mordekai Von Argon that had any shred of belief in his father, and what his father believed in, and stood for died that night. Just like his father the face of these traitors would. No this man wasn't his father anymore, he was fully in their clutches. He believed his father had lost his self, he had been possessed, taken over, brainwashed into working for the Dark Guild he had been hunting for years. A guild he finally had a name for after so much searching, so many clues. The name provided by a Ghost of the past Council, a naïve little shitbag by the name of Nikolas Krossley, "Shadow Heart".

He called his father on his mistakes, on being a traitor, and challenged him to a fight for his title. His father called him on being an idiot, blind, following the wrong path, believing in the wrong people, not trusting him when he was his own flesh and blood. It was then that Mordekai renounced his last name, and drew his blade on his own father. How dare he Von Argon bellowed, how dare he turn his own blade on his father, the man who raised him, the man who loved him.

In the end, Mordekai denied it. He denied everything his father even tried to tell him. Von Argon had no choice after Modekai took the first shot. The wind ripping through the mans near all powerful flames. The two forces of nature fighting against each other for supremacy, in a death match that could be considered catastrophic, and beautiful. The area around them was ruined, attacks that were meant for the two combatants missed and hit others unintentionally.

During this climactic battle between the Loyalist and the Crusader commanders on the feild of battle, Commander Mathius led a small team to get the rest of the younger members to safety. They used an underground tunnel, dug before the building was built, removed from all the papers, and never written about. It led to the City of Era itself, a small underground railroad of safety that only he knew about. It led to an inconspicuous house inside the city, a house that had been abandoned for nine years that now sheltered Mathius and a large group of younglings. He collapsed the path behind them, under miles of smoldering earth, keeping any and all from following them.

The HQ at Era burned that night between the fight of Father and Son. High Councilor Von Argon the only Loyalist left at that forsaken location. The crusaders outnumbered him, waiting for his magic to dwindle before mobbing the man. They didn't need too, for Mordekai had one advantage that his father could never have on him, Youth. No matter how strong the old mage was, no matter how experienced, he couldn't trump old Age.

The blade pierced his side, thrown as a weapon and connected to the wind mage via the strap he used. Von Argon bellowed his rage, and all the flames receded from around him. He fell into a crouch holding himself up with his own sword. He growled, even though he knew he was beaten with that blow, he could not allow this nonsense to stand. These people were going to crush everything he believed in, the kingdom he loved. They would treat those lower than them like dirt, and trod upon his people. He would never stand for that.

The mob of Crusaders surged towards the falling king, intent on dealing a Killing blow. The man roared in anger, defiance at everything the Crusaders believed in. With that his mana surged from his body, no longer controlled, no longer held back against the wall of will power that held the man’s near infinite well of power under control. Everything exploded into fire and light.

When it receded nothing was left of High Councilor Von Argon, nothing remained in the place where the detonation occurred. Nothing except a broken blade, and a shattered heart.

The Loyalists have since then made Oak Town their base of operations against the Crusaders. High Councilor Von Argon survives, but his wounds rend him bedridden, the shock of his sudden depletion of mana, and the stress of his son cause him to be delirious, in a state of shock, leaving him unable to lead. They hide him there, where only the current leader of the Loyalists, Rena Thorn, and those she trusts know where he is.

The Crusaders work to rebuild their empire of power. Their numbers larger, their power inherently greater. Led by the former "secretary" Artemis Tallison, the wizard behind the entire uprising, her second, Harley Everette, and Mordekai "Kingslayer" who blindly and faithfully serves them, as he hunts down "Shadow Heart" and their Loyalist Dogs.