The Great Akylli Scourging

It all started with one Mage…

  In the Jarldom of Akylli, there lived a young mage. This mage was not the typical warrior found in villages throughout Enga. He was neither fit nor martially capable. He was rail thin and not very good with the axe or blade. He was frequently sick and generally unliked. His name is lost, but it is known that he was treated poorly by his peers and the other warriors of the Jarldom. In his anger at his treatment, he sought out magic as a means to gain power.
  It took him a number of years to find a teacher that could instruct him on the darker magics that he wanted to learn. The kind of magic that would give him enough power to be able to match with magic what the warriors could do with axe and blade. In his thirst for revenge he sacrificed everything that he must and in time had attained the power he needed.
  During this time, one of the men who had tormented him in his youth became the Jarl of Akylli. The young mage, driven by a lust for revenge, waited until the Jarl was away raiding to strike. Using the magics he had learned, he cast a spell on the Jarls beautiful young bride and seduced her. When the Jarl returned from his raid, he returned to his longhouse to find his wife in bed with the mage.
  The Jarl immediately attacked the mage who defended himself with his learned skills. The jarl was thrown clear of the longhouse by forces beyond his knowledge, and lashed by spell after spell. The longhouse was destroyed by the explosive force of the young mages rage and the Jarls wife killed. However, the channeling of so much power weakened the young mage momentarily. The Jarl, barely able to stand, flung his axe at the mage, striking him in the chest, disrupting his spells and killing him. The Jarl, stunned by the events, collapsed to the ground trying to recover and listened as the young mage laughed, drowning in his own blood.
 

The Declaration of Akylli

  The people of Akylli were stunned. Never had a mage done such things. The Jarl recovered quickly and then declared that magic and its users were to powerful to be trusted. He declared that anyone found to be using magic within his Jarldom would be put to death immediately. He sent riders to all the villages and farms to ensure that everyone knew of his new law.
  The Jarl then traveled to all the bordering Jarldoms and explained to them the event that occurred. He then convinced them to likewise banish magic in their Jarldoms as well. Most were receptive, having little trust for magic users. Within a 6 month period, 7 Jarldoms declared magic punishable by death. An area over over a thousand miles was now effectively a Mage free zone.
  Within the Jarldom of Akylli, all mages were hunted down and brought to Akylli to be imprisoned. It unknown when the Jarls men decided that death was a better solutions, but soon, they began to kill mages on sight. Word spread quickly that the Jarl was killing the mages and they began to fight back when the Jarl’s men came for them.
 

Escape

  Soon, badly outnumbered, the mages began to flee. They headed south toward the mountains known as The Ogledi Peaks and found other groups of mages from other Jarldoms were fleeing as well. These groups joined together for protection, almost 400 of them, but the Jarl pursued them relentlessly and a running battle began.
  The Jarl chased them further south into the mountains, and at the main pass to the south from the Jarldom the mages made a stand in hopes that the bulk of the group could escape. Fighting was fierce, and at the peak, when it was clear that the mages couldn’t win, 3 of the mages used all their power to close the pass by causing an avalanche of stone. They were killed with most of the Jarls men and the Jarl himself. The pass was blocked to such a degree that no one has used it sense.
  The remaining mages moved deep into the mountains, using magic to protect them and find shelter. For more than 4 months they wandered through the mountains, desperate to find safety. Finally, they found a deep valley, heavily forested with a deep lake and only one pass that could be easy to defend. It was in this valley that they founded Toft.