Silver Crusade

In the 800s, the curse of the lycanthrope proved to be a problem for the people of the continent of Khorvaire. In the year 832 YK, the Church of the Silver Flame announced the Silver Crusade: a church sanctioned scouring of the continent to destroy all lycanthropes and their ilk. This crusade slaughtered most of the lycanthropes on the continent, as well as a race of lycanthropic descendants known as shifters. Due to the atrocities committed by the templars of the Silver Flame during the Purge, it remains a dark page in the church's history.  

Origin of Lycanthropy

The origin of lycanthropy remains a mystery that defies even divination; spells and rituals will often produce cryptic and often contradictory statements about "moons made flesh" and "the darkness within." The Arcane Congress and the Library of Korranberg have produced many theories over the years: some say it originated in the wild woods known as the Gloaming; some say that the disease came from the plane of Lamannia through a manifest zone; some think it was created by ancient druids; some believe it a gift from the goddess Olarune, corrupted over the years; while some even say that we have the facts reversed, and that lycanthropes evolved from shifters instead of the other way around.  

Lycanthropic Surge

However, no matter the debates on its origins, all agree that the curse of lycanthropy started to reach an unprecedented peak in the 800s. Scholars believe that the confluence of moons caused this surge, but whatever the reason, lycanthropes became more deadly. Formerly peaceful lycanthropes began to become bloodhungry. Even the nature of the disease changed: at first, only those born as a lycanthrope could infect others; however, during this time infected lycanthropes found that they could carry the disease. By the year 800 YK, large groups of werewolves prowled the forests of western Khorvaire, while wererat tribes were creating warrens beneath the cities.   Many scholars began to study the lycanthrope problem. First and foremost of these were the religious sages of the Church of the Silver Flame in Thrane. While the church did the most research into the problem, they also came away with the most flawed conclusions. The priests were already prejudiced against the shape-changing lycanthropes, having fought against the tiger-men known as rakshasa for millennia. The priests found that divination magics revealed the souls of these lycanthropes to be evil, and that curing them was extremely difficult, if not impossible.   Meanwhile, a sect within the Church of the Silver Flame, called the Servants of the Pure Flame, started questioning the reluctance of the church to do anything about the lycanthrope menace. These Servants, who called themselves Puritans, were more militant than their brethren; they enforced the ideas of forced conversion to the Silver Flame and the destruction of anything that remotely hinted of opposition to the Flame. The Servants pressed the Diet of Cardinals to do something about the "lycanthrope plague." The religious fanaticism of the Servants continued to stoke the fear that the common man felt, and the lycanthropes took advantage of that fact: many lycanthropes infiltrated shifter communities in the western half of the continent. From there, these lycanthropes would try to turn shifters against humans.   To make matters worse, the Keeper of the Flame at the time, Keeper Jolan Sol, had his own agenda. In order to help propagate the religion of the Silver Flame, Keeper Sol focused his efforts on the people of neighboring Aundair. Aundair was one of the regions of Galifar most besieged by the lycanthropes, since most lycanthropes were found in the Eldeen Reaches of Aundair. Keeper Sol, a militant churchgoer in his own right, saw this as a way to turn more believers to the Silver Flame.   In 832 YK, Keeper Jolan Sol announced that the church had determined that lycanthropy was not just a disease of the body, but of the soul, and that those infested with the disease were beyond cure. He called for an immediate extermination of all lycanthropes and shifters on Khorvaire, asking for all loyal worshipers of the Silver Flame to take up arms and purge the lycanthropes and shifters from the face of Eberron. Knights and paladins across Aundair, Breland, and Thrane heeded his words, and thus began what the church officially called the Silver Crusade, but was much more commonly called the Purge.  

Long Years of the Purge

During the first few decades, the Purge was a monstrous fight. Crusade parties hunted down large settlements of werewolves and wereboars, fighting tooth and nail against the evil creatures. The lycanthropes continued their cunning strategy of misdirection, putting the shifter population between themselves and the crusaders of the Silver Flame. Many crusaders were slaying lycanthrope and shifter alike, though true paladins of Thrane used their ability to detect evil to differentiate between shifter and lycanthrope. As more Aundairians flocked to the cause, the desire of those to purge the evils of lycanthropy turned from justice to vengeance. Aundairians organized "full moon hunts," which left hundreds of innocent shifters dead.   It wasn't until 835 YK that Keeper Jolan Sol clarified that shifters were, in fact, a separate species than the evil lycanthropes. Though the crusaders were instructed to hunt only those corrupted by the disease, the damage was already done; shifters were as feared by the communities of Galifar as much as their lycanthropic ancestors. With suspicions against the shifter populations of Aundair, Breland, and Thrane still high, cities began forming Inquisitor's Crucibles, where shifters would be subjected to divine vision to see if they were good or evil. Aundair's hatred of lycanthropes and shifters reached a fever when they began creating "purification camps" designed to purge any evil from shifters that were captured. Some shifters detested the Purge, while others joined the ranks of the Silver Flame to purge these evil creatures who besmirched their names.   As the Purge went on, the battle was joined by more parties. The Esoteric Order of Aureon, one of the oldest magical groups in Breland, joined the Silver Flame as well, throwing their magical expertise towards ridding the continent of lycanthropes. In the Eldeen Reaches, a Greensingers druid named Anthelnas ir'Phiarlan left the Greensinger sect to join the crusade. Taking the name Anthelnas "the Pure," he converted to the Silver Flame in 820 YK, turning against his kind and laying waste to portions of the Towering Wood in his zealotry to hunt the lycanthropes.  

End of the Purge

Surprisingly, it was House Medani that helped end the Purge. As the crusaders continued to hunt down remaining lycanthropes on the western edges of Aundair and Breland, the church called upon the help of the Dragonmarked houses. House Medani completed a dragonshard focus, which allowed them to use their Mark of Detection to reliably ferret out remaining lycanthropes from their hiding spots. At this point, most of the more settled portions of Aundair and Breland were considered "clean," with the remaining focus on the Eldeen Reaches.   The Church of the Silver Flame announced 9 Barrakas 880 YK as the official end of the Purge, and the church pulled out all of its forces from the Eldeen Reaches. To this day, all over the Five Nations, children act out great tales of these final battles with toy swords, while adults of the Silver Flame attend sermons on the lessons of the triumphs, the defeats, and the sometimes questionable methods used during the purge. The church calls this day Victory Day.   Survivors of the Purge are scattered throughout the planes of Eberron. A large number of lycanthropes and shifters fled to the Eldeen Reaches, where they either continued to live their lives hidden from the Silver Flame, or fled across a manifest zone to the plane of Lamannia within the Burnt Wood. Some lycanthropes fled all the way to the Demon Wastes, while others to what is now Droaam. Wolf's Paw is a small thorp nestled away in the Eldeen Reaches which some of the lycanthropes call home. In Droaam, a group of lycanthropes called the Dark Pack are almost entirely made up of survivors of the Purge, and a squad called the Beast Brigade served Droaam during the Last War. Some lycanthropes even fled for the wilds of Vrigan.   There are those still that still hunt for lycanthropes, though on a much smaller scale. Agents of the Silver Flame still hunt the Burnt Wood for any lycanthropes that remain in the Eldeen Reaches, and the descendants of Bennin Silverclaw continue his tradition in fighting against lycanthropy to this day, each wearing a single-coated silver claw in his honor.