The Sundering War

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The Sundering War was the epochal conflict that erupted between the children and demigod heirs of Queen Serelyne the Undying and their rival lineages after the Axis Signus was broken. Its aftermath shaped all that followed in Ylnareth, giving rise to the Sorrowed, destroying the old orders, and forever changing the world’s magic, boundaries, and bloodlines.

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The Night of Splintered Shadows

  During the silver dusk of the last age, a fragment of the sealed Sovereign Death was stolen by Bezalyth, the Star Seer, who used it to forge soul-shearing shadow-blades. On that night, her chosen assassins entered the city of Cenavere and struck down Valgryn, the Argent, firstborn son of Serelyne and Valthas, the Fell-Oathed, as he dreamt in the palace roots.   As the assassins escaped, the leader—Virelya, Severed Thorn—was mortally wounded protecting her daughter. The death of Valgryn did not merely end a life: his body was interred within the Rootcrypt, where it festered and became a font of withering death. The breach in the Axis Signus began to seep into the land, giving rise to the first Sorrowed—humans whose souls and flesh were forever marked by chaos.

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The Breaking of the Axis

  The murder of Valgryn and the rupture of the Rootcrypt shattered the balance Queen Serelyne had enforced. In grief and fury, she herself struck the Axis Signus, breaking the ancient pact that separated mortal from wild magic. Her consort, Baelyon, sought to repair the Axis but failed, and both were bound in the Heartstone, locked beneath the Gartheik of Talanth.   This sundering of boundaries corrupted the old laws. Magic ran rampant. The Arcane Orders could not contain the chaos, and the armies of the noble houses fragmented into petty warbands. The land bled new monsters and wonders alike.

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The Dyrneholders

  When the Axis Signus shattered, its Stordyrnes (fragments of destiny and power) fell across Ylnareth. Those who seized them, whether by birth, fate, or blood, became the Dyrneholders. Most were scions of Serelyne and her consorts, but others came from rival houses or stood alone, changing the fate of the world forever:

• Valgryn the Argent
• Firstborn son of Serelyne and Valthas
• The Argent Warden of Cenavere, beloved for his grace and wisdom. He carried the Gloaming Dyrne and was entrusted with the city’s ancient rites. His assassination on the Night of Splintered Shadows became the catalyst for the Sundering War. Even in death, his presence lingers in the roots and crypts beneath the capital, a golden shade bound to fate.
 
• Turgorm the Veiled King
• Secondborn son of Serelyne and Valthas
• Heir to Cenavere after his brother’s fall, Turgorm became the city’s unseen bulwark. Bearing the Silent Dyrne, he ruled from the shadows, directing loyalists and exiles alike, defending the broken capital against all comers. Turgorm’s sorrow and secretiveness led many to see him as both protector and jailor of his own kin.
 
• Temlaz the Crimson Apostate
• Thirdborn son of Serelyne and Valthas
• Drawn to the blood cults and the forbidden arts of the underworld, Temlaz seized the Crimson Dyrne and proclaimed himself prophet of the Deep Veil. He led fanatical Pureblood Knights and built a secretive dynasty in the catacombs and drowned vaults beneath the land, seeking to forge a new order from sacrilege and sacrifice.
 
• Provost Berykan, Lord of Cinders
• Son of Baelyon & Belarynn, Magistrate and Head of the Oathbreakers
• Wielder of the Pyre Dyrne, Berykan was once a wise judge, but the power he claimed consumed him. Devoured by forbidden hunger, he merged with the Ashen Serpent, transforming Sinderholt Hall into a volcanic abomination. His rebellion against all order drew the Oathbreakers and Recusants to his cause, and his wars left scars of living flame upon Ylnareth.
 
• Barkrytan Celnarus
• Son of Baelyon & Belarynn, Warlord of the Burning Plains
• Bearing the Lion’s Dyrne, Barkrytan was a general without equal. His rivalry with Sirelyn the Poisonbound created endless fields of carnage in the Redplains. Known as the Firemane, he fought not for kingship, but for honor and the thrill of battle, even as rot and ruin spread in his wake.
 
• Bezalyth the Witch
• Daughter of Baelyon & Belarynn, Princess of the Dark Moon
• Secretive and cold, Bezalyth seized the Night Dyrne and vanished from mortal sight, becoming a legend among witches and moonwarders. Her plots and alliances set much of the war in motion, and some say she weaves fate from behind the scenes even now. She is remembered as the architect of the Night of Splintered Shadows.
 
• Sorevyn the Skewerer
• Son of Serelyne & Baelyon, General of the Gheimhridh
• Relentless and cruel, Sorevyn bore the Iron Dyrne, wielding it to command the exiled armies of the Gheimhridh. His campaigns were marked by brutality and dark sorcery. Some say the shadows themselves obeyed his word, and that his fall unleashed horrors that haunt the borderlands still.
 
• Sirethyn
• First daughter of Serelyne & Baelyon, Emissary to the Gheimhridh
• Bearer of the Wandering Dyrne, Sirethyn moved between realms as both messenger and judge. Her compassion was matched by her resolve to heal the world’s wounds, but she was often torn between loyalty to her kin and the needs of the forsaken.
 
• Sirelyn the Poisonbound
• Second daughter of Serelyne & Baelyon, the Cursed Lily
• Claimant of the Verdant Dyrne, Sirelyn was famed for her unmatched prowess and the curse she bore. Her loyal knights, now known as the Giltbane, followed her into doomed battles against corruption, even as her touch brought death and new growth alike. Sirelyn is both savior and plague-bringer in Ylnareth’s memory.
 
• Selanon the Unbloomed
• Youngest scion; ambiguous heir, “the Fair”
• Keeper of the Dawnsong Dyrne, Selanon was a gentle visionary, beloved by common folk and veiled cults. Vanishing at the height of the war, Selanon became a symbol of lost hope and prophecy. Pilgrims still seek the “Unbloomed” in the hidden gardens and dreaming halls of Ylnareth.

These Dyrneholders shaped the course of the war and the fate of all who followed, their legends living on in blood, shadow, and prophecy.

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Conflicts

  The First Defense of Cenavere

• The gilded capital was besieged by the House of Abanne and their loyalist legions. Turgorm held the walls against chaos-touched champions and Veilwalkers marauders. Below, the roots festered with death, and star-magi of Belarynn’s court fought to keep the city from falling into utter ruin.

  The Siege of Mirevale

• The Mirevale fortress, ancestral seat of the Abanne, was surrounded by the Veilwood Coven. Wrytha’s witches unleashed the Moonblood Rains: crimson storms that twisted friend and foe alike into frenzied horrors. When the mists cleared, half the defenders had vanished, and Mirevale fell into rot and silence.

  The Fall of Dolmire

• Once a town of trade and joy, Dolmire drowned beneath the tide of the Ashen Host; Veilwalkers and mortals alike driven mad by Berykan’s hunger. The survivors sealed themselves in the crypts, where their spirits still whisper through the mire.

  The Battle of Mirkwound Fen

• At the edge of Starward lands, rival magi sought to mend a breach in the Veil using forbidden rites. The ritual erupted into disaster, drowning Mirkwound in toxic fog and spawning the Mirkwound Wraiths; sorcerous spirits, forever burning, forever lost.

  The Scouring of Thalengarde

• The last holy host marched from Thalengarde, determined to purge the Veilwalkers. Naenia the Veilbound, sworn companion of shadows, slew the city’s high priest beneath the thunderclouds. Thalengarde’s banners burned, and its faith was broken.

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Aftermath

The world was shattered, and no victor remained.

• The Veilwalkers emerged as a new, necessary but feared people—marked by magic, blessed and cursed.
• The great houses crumbled into feuding baronies, their ancient lines forever altered.
• The covens retreated deeper into legend, their daughters the only ones who could truly cross the new Veil.
• Starward magic became rare and wild, its secrets lost or zealously guarded.
• The land itself changed: haunted ruins, cursed fens, ever-shifting boundaries.
• Serelyne and Baelyon, imprisoned and absent, became figures of myth and prophecy.

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The Age of the Fifth Bloom

  With the Sundering War’s end came the Age of the Fifth Bloom.
All modern powers—cities, cults, and covens—trace their roots and taboos to those years of fire and shadow. The Sorrowed walk between hope and curse; annual rituals mark the wounds and try to ward off ghosts. Every ambitious Sorrowed, noble, or magus dreams of finding a lost Stordyrne and rewriting fate.

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Belligerents

• House of Abanne & Loyalists
• The oldblood nobles, knights, and fanatical defenders of tradition.
• Veilwood Coven & Veilwalkers
• Witches, daughters, and chaos-marked sons under the rule of Mother Wrytha.
• Starward Orders
• The last remnant sorcerers and star-magi, striving to restore the old balance and maintain forbidden lore.
• The Ashen Host
• The mad Veilwalkers, chaos cults, and those consumed by the burning wild.
• Outland Freebands
• Smallfolk, beastkin, and unaffiliated survivors—sometimes mercenaries, sometimes just desperate.

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Aftershocks & Legends

 

• The Sundering War lies at the heart of all myth, taboo, and ambition in Ylnareth.
• Relics from the war are coveted, feared, or sealed.
• Every new hero, exile, or Sorrowed finds their destiny shaped by echoes of the Sundering.
• It is said that when the Axis next breaks, the world will end—or be born anew.