The Splinter Wars

For roughly a century after the Necromancers' War and the dust of the Cataclysm had settled, a relative era of peace reigned over Altazia under the banner of the Old Alliance. This peace was shattered when the largest state, Eldemar, attempted a heavy-handed centralization of power, provoking its neighbors into open rebellion and triggering the Splinter Wars.

The Fall of the Old Alliance

Eldemar initially expected a swift victory, aiming to absorb the smaller states through superior magic and numbers. The traditional doctrine of warfare relied heavily on the magical might of the Noble Houses; a single powerful battlemage could decimate an ordinary infantry company. The Great Houses eagerly sent their members to the core of the conflict, anticipating glory and rapid conquest.

The Disruption of Firearms

They were met with an unexpected and devastating technological shift. The smaller states, lacking comparable magical bloodlines, fielded armies equipped with vastly improved, mass-produced firearms. Before the war, guns were considered unreliable, slow, and inferior to trained archers—let alone mages.

However, new manufacturing techniques meant these weapons could be given to completely untrained militias. The sheer volume of volley fire, combined with specialized snipers and advanced cannons, overwhelmed the reckless mage armies. A battlemage's shields could hold off a dozen bullets, but not a hundred.

The Decimation of the Great Houses

Eldemar and the other major powers eventually adapted, incorporating firearms into their own ranks, but the damage was irreversible. The traditional, frontline Noble Houses took catastrophic casualties, losing generations of experienced mages to cheap lead balls. The Splinter Wars permanently ended the era of undisputed mage supremacy on the battlefield, fractured the Old Alliance into fiercely competitive rival nations, and left the surviving Great Houses critically weakened.