The Fourth Crusade against the Storm Dragons was nearly lost as humankind found that conventional arrows, bolts, and ballistae were ineffective against the new menace. By this time, some purebloods had become hosts for alien spirits and began to comprehend the extent of their accursed powers. So, it was around this time, in the late twelfth century, that Wielders became the first human mages, capable of shaping a new form of energy channeled from the demons inside them. These Wielders would prove to be invaluable against the Dragons, as their defensive magic could protect troops against the scorching dragonfires and their offensive spells could pierce the tough dragon hides. By 1201, Richard and Saladin employed War Wielders to complement their forces.
Richard ordered the Wielders to invoke a mighty spell that would create a magical route through the earth. The Wielders combined their power and summoned magic crystals from the ground, a reckless spell that caused many such crystals to sprout randomly across the earth. Although the crystals were empowered with various effects, and some proved quite hazardous, the Wielders were able to form a few stable bridges between Europe and the Middle East, saving the crusaders months of valuable traveling time. By the year 1218, Germany and France had been liberated, and in 1220 England was also free of the Dragons. In 1222, the crusaders marshaled a vast navy to sail against the Dragons in Norway and attack the heart of the Dragons’ empire, the glacial fortress of Icingspire. However, the sea invasion proved disastrous, because the Blizzard Wyrms summoned their water brethren, the Tidal Dragons, to aid them. The devastating tidal waves and monsoons summoned by the Dragons sank the crusaders’ navy. The largest of the Tidal Dragons capsized and tore apart the fleet’s flagship, the vessel of King Richard the Lionheart. It was presumed the great crusader perished in the churning waters.
The loss of Richard proved so disastrous that the crusaders were not able to muster another fleet for another eight years. In 1230, the crusaders landed in Denmark and slowly captured Nordic territory. As they continued to rout the Dragons, the enslaved Nordic warriors broke free and battled against their captors. In 1239, the crusaders liberated Norway with the help of King Hakon IV and drove the Dragons into the sea. The final battle of the Fourth Crusade took place in Iceland in 1244 at H�nafl�i, in what historians refer to as the Bay Battle. The crusaders brought ships from every coastal province to lay siege to Icingspire. Armed with magical ballistae forged by the Wielders, an enchanted siegecraft designed specifically to hunt Dragons, the fleet assaulted the fortress in a siege that would last two months and result in the extermination of Dragonkind.
The influence of the Wielders and the long war against the Dragons had their effect upon the population. Alarmed by the rapid spread of magical taint across the world, the people of Europe looked to their rulers and the clergy for protection. In 1231, the Western kings and the Papacy agreed to the formation of the first Inquisition, an organization of holy investigators trained to seek out and deal with the evils wrought by the Disjunction.
The combined forces of the Inquisition and the Knights Templar began to drive the organized tribes of monsters away from the cities and into the shadows. But as the Knights Templar continued to expand their influence outward for greater security, the Inquisition turned its attention inward to root out evils that had infiltrated society. With the Dragons driven from Europe, and the Inquisition and the Knights Templar driving the forces of darkness away from cities, there was a brief period of peace. In 1241 this ended with the invasion of Batu Khan and the Mongol army.
As this army surged west, Batu gathered a vanguard of monstrous warriors, hideously cruel goblins formed from the union of dark spirits and humans. These creatures adapted quickly to the Mongol style of warfare, mastering the use of short bows while riding swift beast-mounts into battle. Batu’s Golden Horde swelled with goblinoid forces as he cut a wide swath through the territories of eastern Europe. Batu’s progress alarmed the nations of the West, already weary from their war against the Storm Dragons. In 1243, the Fourth Crusade against the Storm Dragons ended, allowing the Knights Templar and the forces of the West to join the Eastern forces against the Mongol horde.
The coalition succeeded in slowing the advance of the Golden Horde for several years, yet Batu’s forces continued to gain ground. In 1249, the coalition finally halted Batu’s advance in Italy, but not before many Italian provinces had felt the savagery of the Mongol horde. The situation appeared so desperate that the Holy See fled west to Spain, where it has remained ever since.
In 1250, the European armies finally defeated the Mongol forces through terrible attrition, with both sides sustaining heavy casualties. Batu cleverly dispersed his goblin tribes against the Europeans, sending the monsters through the ranks of the Europeans to cover his escape. The Mongols retreated as swiftly as they arrived, and a few of the goblin tribes managed to break through the European forces to race toward the western lands. The furious march erased several powerful forces from the earth, including Byzantium and the Teutonic Knights. Although they fought valiantly against the Mongol horde, many Inquisitors died. The few Inquisitors who survived fled west to Spain to regroup, but the order did not recover its influence for many years.
By 1260, an alliance of ambitious Wielders moved boldly to consolidate their influence in these ravaged areas. Some of the more powerful and audacious Wielders proclaimed themselves to be dukes or governors and established minor duchies or provinces within the Western kingdoms. Using their magical abilities to expand their influence, by 1263 these Wielders ruled nearly a quarter of Spain and parts of France.
In 1268, the rulers of the Western nations and the surviving leaders of the Inquisition convinced the Knights Templar of the need to contain the Wielders in order to ensure the hegemony of the pureblood race. The Inquisition passed a series of edicts to protect citizens against the abuses of magic and to punish those who wielded magic illegally. While some of the War Wielders loyal to the Knights Templar accepted and understood the Inquisition’s edicts, many other Wielders openly attacked Inquisitors to defend their accursed existence and corrupt positions of power.
The Spanish Inquisition was formed to reclaim the lands of Spain taken by the Wielders. The Inquisitors launched the Reconquista, also known as the Reconquest, an incredible series of magical battles that engulfed Spain and France in civil war. The rogue Wielders summoned terrible elemental forces, while the Inquisitors invoked mighty divine magic against the rebels, resulting in a staggering loss of pureblood and tainted human lives. The Reconquista lasted six years, and by 1275, the Inquisition had vanquished the rogue Wielders. The War Wielders still loyal to the Templars quickly distanced themselves from the evil wizards that had controlled parts of Europe. However, the Inquisition still regarded all wizards with deep suspicion and would never again allow them to gain influence over the public.
