The Doom of Deepwater

“	The Doom, they called it, for that inciting incident, clouded in fable and mystery, was the very casus belli that turned a proxy conflict for control in the west into a world-wide war.	”
The Doom of Deepwater is an event clouded in mystery which took place in the Westerland port town of Deepwater Motte on the 13th of August 1428, and became the casus belli for the Western War between Vichin and Corveaux. 
==Background==
When one of the Vichinian protectorates in the Westerlands revolted against King Florence's pro-Cister Cartian proclamations, King Louis of Corveaux declared his support for the independence and religious freedom of all Vichinian protectorates and ordered his vassals Ludwick Valois and Gean Dampierre to muster their forces. However, Gean Dampierre acted against his orders and marched on the barony wherein Deepwater Motte laid to reclaim his mother's ancestral seat of Dun Tynne. The day before the Doom, the insubordinate captain marched into enemy territory and captured the castle and over night, Deepwater Motte, situated on a stream leading to Turokh's Eye saw a huge influx of peasant immigrants fleeing the fighting. 
== The Doom ==
It was early morning when the incident took place, only a day after Gean Dampierre's forces had captured Dun Tynne Castle and killed the local baron. As taken from the poet and scholar Alayaya Timsch's treaty on the Doom of Deepwater, wherein she questioned over fifteen different eye witnesses to the event: 
"A flash of light ripped through the sky and engulfed the keep atop the cliff. An instant explosion of tremendous power erased from existence the stone and mortar castle and the entire cliff on which it stood. The river raged up, overturning boats. Debris shot through the streets and reduced entire houses to rubble. Then, most monstrous of all, two hulking beasts of wind and fire rose from the ruins of the keep, spiraling upwards, and began to fight one another high above the village, before breaking apart to stride in opposite directions, causing as much havoc as possible. Then, silent as a grave, a cloud of ash rolled across the charred desolation." 
Refugees from Deepwater soon made it to the Isle of Pyor from where the word spread. Fear and paranoia struck Magnia and after a brief investigation by the Chapter of Wizards, it was declared that Corveaux had made an act of military aggression using arcane powers and broken one of the international treaties regarding the use of magic. Vichin was forced to declare open war on the Corvians. 
== Aftermath ==
After the Doom of Deepwater erupted the Western War, which saw Vichin reduced from the largest and most powerful Kingdom in the world, to a small state, bereft of all its protectorates and provinces, and launched several other brutal wars, including the civil war in Magiore, the Thyssen War of Succession, and the Dissolution War in Chorene. Deepwater Motte seized to exist and the barony became completely depopulated as it soon became apparent that no crops would grow in the area, the water was poisoned, and every new baby was stillborn. Monsters and other foul creatures have taken to dwell in the area and kill anything that come too close. To this day, mages who dare approach the charred desolation claim they can feel a terrifying power hanging in the air and burning in their skin.