Ragdalian Genocide

The Donestre that attacked the towns people were not seen or heard. They operated in silence, without any sign of their presence at all. These beings were not immediately recognized as the Donestre, as this genocide was the first appearance of the Donestre at all. That is, the Donestre seemed to have never existed before this event. How the Donestre were born of this event is unknown, as well as the reasons as to why.   Historians have developed theories as to why and how the deployment of these vicious Donestre creatures was enacted. Evidence suggests the attack started at around one in the morning¹ and ended at around three in the morning at the latest. The attack happened in all three towns at the same time, and the latest killings occurred in the streets or in the outskirts of the town. What we now classify as standard Donestre sights was found all around the areas of attacks. This usually looks like barefoot human tracks that change into bigger, dog-like tracks as they get closer to sites of the killing. The Donestre tracks for each town were unique, as well as the tracks from neighborhood to neighborhood. There was no overarching systematic fashion that the people were killed in, it seemed the only goal was to kill them in silence with no other objectives.   A final note to add is a theory that was originally suggested by the chief beastiologist at Twilland University, Landen Fliande:  

"Donestre are oft' known to attack in silence. Being a theoretical hybrid between the werewolf and the vampire, they adopt their brutality and discreetness from both. This means when they need to be vicious beasts they can be, but when they need to act in silence they may also operate in this mode. The mode that they operated in during the Ragdalian Genocide was unequivocally the latter. But how do they remain so silent in their brutal killings?   Donestre, having adopted their qualities from vampiric species, have the ability to draw blood from their victims as they sleep. Not only does this drain the life force from the victim, but it rids the victim of pieces of his soul. If enough soul is removed, the victim will break down into insanity. If too much is removed the victim will forget how to utilize their basic functions: talking, screaming, eating, and of course breathing. However Donestre don't usually draw the fatal amount of blood. Instead they draw just enough to render the victim silent, and eat them alive. Unfortunately, it seems the Donestre are anything if not a cruel being."  

Landen Fliande, Chief of Beastiological Studies

Beasts of Crismalia and their Historical Significance; 2nd ed.

  We now know even more than Landen did in his writings here. Animoligists have discovered the existence of the Anima Shards that live inside every mortal being. It seems that these Donestre have a particular appetite for these shards that live inside of each of us. The Donestre's habit for feasting on our flesh and drawing from our blood is its own act of satiating an appetite for the mortal soul.

The "Battlefield" was a mess after the fact. The followers of Etris laid mutilated in their beds and in the streets, or had vanished altogether. Only the tracks of the Donestre remained as evidence. Some were only partially eaten by the Donestre but most the victim's heads were found standing upright in puddles of water. This is, as we now know, due to the Donestre's rule of weeping over the heads of its victims after it kills them.    Many beastiologists and Anamologists attribute this to a newly entered Anima weeping over their mutilated head. The puzzling part of this habit is the Donestre allows time for this weeping as a rule. This is in spite of the Donestre having full control over the Anima that enters its body. The theory by these ologists is that the Donestre allows the Anima to weep out of respect for their sorrow. This information is deeply disturbing to Beastiologists in particular because it suggests that the Donestre have moral and ethical codes that intelligent beings don't. Morality in beasts is very rare, especially when the morals are unclear to us as educators and researchers.

Ragdale lost many of its community, and in the next few days even more citizens died from the mysterious werewolf-vampire hybrids known as Donestre that suddenly appeared. The Donestre lure the grieving towns members in by mimicking the voices of the dead and killing them - eating their bodies. Within a week, the entire population of Ragdale was reduced by almost 75% partially from deaths, but mostly from those fleeing the now dangerous country.

The loss in population of Ragdale rendered it as a wasteland. Farmlands dried up as the animals who lived on those farms died. The once fertile land became a desert - as it once was in the past before colonization. Unfortunately Ragdale never recovered its population, as many regard it as a cursed land and refuse to move back. Its economy tanked, as well as its thriving nature. A land once rich in product and people, now rendered empty by the effects of a single day.    What's more is the mysterious Donestre suddenly appeared overnight and started to expand to all edges of Crismalia. The Donestre is responsible for a number of killings each year - all stemming from the one fated day of genocide.