Magoclergy

The **Magoclergy** was a society born during the ancient days of the Khenomeric Empire. A religious institution at first, it grew in wealth, power and influence until they became the de facto rulers of the Khenomeric Empire, leading up to the war with Azan and the Western Elven Empire and the cataclysmic clash in the Battle of Empires. Its later descend into decadence and debauchery, combined with the massive opposition to their power led to their downfall during the War of Supper.

## The Birth of the Magoclergy

The codification of magic is one of the greatest achievements of the Khenomeric Empire. While many would point out that they were not the first ones to use magic in the world, mentioning cases of primitive druids, shamans and others of the sort, it would be the khenomeri who would set up the modern methods of study and work with magic. Humans were not naturally magically gifted, unlike many of the fey, and to learn and master the arts they needed decades of study to even grasp some of its most basic principles. However, it was that exact reason that brought many of the most brilliant minds in the nation at the time together to discuss their findings and studies. The principles and theories they set up are, to this day, the basic of pretty much all magical knowledge in the human world, and even adopted by many other species. Using this knowledge, the small confederation of coastal cities would quickly grew in power and prestige, expanding to become one of the biggest powers the world had ever seen.

The strengthening magic influence of the Khenomeric Empire saw the writing on the wall and heavily invested in the study of magic. The growing interest in magic and in magically gifted people resulted in the creation of the Four Schools of Magic: the School of Green Plant Magic, the School of Black Necromancy, the School of Light Astromancy and the School of Gold Divimancy. The khenomeri monarchy, the pharahkhans, decided to patronage the schools of magic, bringing them to Khoraqualumum. In particular, they saw the School of Gold Divimancy as the key to eternal prosperity. Divimancy was extraordinarily rare, and only few gifted individuals could actually use it, but if done correctly, its future sight allowed the user an incredibly precise prediction of the future, much more accurate than even astromancy. The pharahkhans were incredibly successful at this, to the point that soon enough the only ones allowed to master divimancy were part of the royal family.

It was in this context that the Magoclergy was born. The growing weight of magic in khenomeric society was making many individuals nervous. In particular, many saw magic as taking the power from the gods, and many of the priestly class began opposing the expansion of magic within the army and the administration. The growing tensions within society made the pharahkhans to start talks with the priesthood of the empire, to try to see if a middle ground could be reached. These talks led to the establishment of the Magoclergy, a religious body designed to integrate the worship of the khenomeric gods with the use of magic. They would have the blessings of both the Crown and the priests, and would be tasked to make people see magic as something beneficial for them. The Magoclergy would begin tying themselves within the army, the navy and local forces to make sure magic would be integrated smoothly within all aspects of their working. This worked well enough at first, since it made the expansion to the north much easier now that generals could trust their magical aides with a lot of the burden of conquest. However, it was not as successful integrating magic within regular everyday life, and many saw the Magoclergy as “overbearing”. The local priesthood saw the Magoclergy as upstarts from the capital, not letting them practice their worship the way they had always done so (something much worse in areas where the Khenomeric magic was less than welcome, having been invaded and conquered by wizards). The local population saw them as busybodies that were prying too much in local affairs, and some of the populations less trusting in magic sent clear complains to the capital to voice their opinions.

## Rise of the Magoclergy to power

With the aid of the khenomeric pharahkhans, the Magoclergy became one of the most powerful and influential organizations within the empire. Since it needed to smooth the bonds between the magical and the common world, they were liaised within pretty much all other groups in the nation, both at a local and a higher levels. This granted them an immense level of influence, only rivalled by that of the pharahkhans, and that began to spiral into a darker turn. While monetary gain was not on the mind of the members of the Magoclergy (they were already quite wealthy as they were, and becoming wealthier by the day), the growing dependence of the Khenomeric Empire in magic was causing more and more tensions within the nations, with the wizards’ side getting in the winning side. Adding to this, a series of weak pharahkhans meant that the Crown couldn’t keep on a leash the Magoclergy. Instead, the infighting within the royal family meant that the members of the family began fighting with each other, not passing on the knowledge of divimancy to each other, and not advancing the branch of magic further out of fear it could be used against them. After a couple of weak generations, the entire field of magic had been pretty much lost, with only bits and pieces surviving, written in undecipherable code, and now believed to be lost after the fall of the empire to the gnoll.

The loss of divimancy left the monarchs in a much-weakened position. Unable to properly direct their generals to continue the conquests or inform their bureaucrats of future events in need of preplanning, not to mention the growing corruption in the capital, left the pharahkhans were in real danger of losing their place within the nation. To compensate for this, they gave the Magoclergy more and more power, and slowly but surely, the Magoclergy got control over the entire country, sidestepping the kings in many important things such as taxation, warfare or city planning and administration. The pharahkhans simply could not push back their rise to power, they did not have enough power and influence on their own, and the Magoclergy had the ear of the army, who had become quite dependent on magic to continue their streak of conquests. A failed attempt to kill the biggest members of the Magoclergy (many believing this was a stage coup) gave them the perfect excuse to ramp up their takeover, and by the year 440 ABE, the Magoclergy was the true power behind the Khenomeric Empire. They owned vast swathes of land, organized most of the economy and had control over most of the nation’s armed forces, plus they owned some private armies of their own.

This accelerated the turn of the Magoclergy into darker paths. They began abandoning their religious ways, leaving behind the worship of gods to replace it for worshiping magic. At first, they sidelined all khenomeric gods unrelated to magic, and then only focused their praises to Kagal, the khenomeric god of magic. In the end, not even the divinity was the object of praise, magic and pure power was in and of itself was, and those who wield it were object of adoration. And with that, proving their power and magical knowledge became the biggest priority for all members of the Magoclergy. The growing institution had seen rapid growth in membership, since it was the quickest way to power and success in many fields, but now to become someone you needed to be the best at magic, regardless of anything else. Any moral, ethical, practical or reasonable limitation was sidelined and ignored for the pursue of power. Nothing was too sacred to not sacrifice, and this turned the population’s distaste for them into outright hatred.

## The Dark Spiral

This began a period of calamity within the Khenomeric Empire. With full control of the nation and nothing that could really oppose them, the Magoclergy began competing with each other. The members of the Magoclergy took a mad race to be the most powerful, most knowledgeable and most influential on their craft. Many areas of the empire were set aside for members of the Magoclergy to use as test fields, courting dark entities and forbidden demons in the hopes of one upping their rivals. This began growing a resistance movement, with many different groups like the Nitarishans working tirelessly against the new regime. In retaliation, they began prosecuting their detractors harsher and harsher, with things such as the creation of the Labyrinth Prison, or using their detractors as sacrifices to fuel malignant rituals. They ruled the land with an iron fist, using the growingly worried khenomeric army to expand aggressively the empire and to keep their enemies in check.

However, the Magoclergy were not the only ones in control of magic. The Schools of Magic had seen with horror the abuse of power of the Magoclergy, and the growing hatred the common folk had for magic because of the Magoclergy’s abuse. The schools pushed for limitation in what the organization could do, but those attempts only led to the Magoclergy seeing the Schools of Magic as a possible enemy. However, the internal discussions about what to do about the Magoclergy revealed that many wizards had sworn loyalty to the cult, seeing the rampant experimentation as a positive, oppression and damage to the forest be damned. The Magoclergy themselves saw the Schools of Magic as a possible rival, and burdened by the growing pleas for moderation, the Magoclergy began attacking the different schools, finally creating a schism between them. This fracture would play a big role in the further crisis within the wizarding world in the Khenomeric Empire, creating mistrust between the different branches and starting the trend of wizards abandoning the capital and spread throughout the land to live simpler lives.

The growing tensions did not just affect the Schools of Magic. The increasing weight of the Magoclergy over the army and the navy, superseding their officials or replacing them altogether with incompetent but obedient servants, was becoming a dangerous point. To compensate for this, the Magoclergy ordered the expansion of the conquests in all directions, something that was becoming more and more difficult. By the 1st Century BBE, few areas of Eastern Giantstep were not either part of the empire, paid vassalage to the empire or were not heavily influenced by the empire in one way or another. The Crimson Plateau was of little value and was colonized only in its eastern side and through the Changing Waters. The Ketlovian Kingdom was only independent in theory, serving as a vassal of the khenomeri. And expanding through the Izar Peninsula and the Saint Thinerio Peninsula was not recommended, since they were under the influence of the Merfolk Empire (though were never claimed, only left there as a buffer zone between the two empires). As such, the Magoclergy focused in crossing the sea to colonize the continent of Littlestep and to even try to grasp the faraway lands of what would be called Zemyland. Still, the conquests slowed down. The only feasible possibility was to expand westwards, but there was little way to cross the natural barriers that separate the east and the west of the continent.

## The Battle of Empires

The tensions within the empire, financial crisis, rumors of dark sorcery and the increasingly corrupt government, needed an outlet desperately. And that would be found in the great power of the west. Azan, the Empire of Dragons, was thought to be a nation just as powerful and influential as the Khenomeric Empire, but contact between these two countries was beyond rare. The flat nature of the world, the distances needed to reach each other through sea and the natural barriers between east and west made it so the contacts between them were beyond rare. Other than some token trade and tales from travelers, they simply could not interact with each other fully. However, certain events made a collision course between them inevitable. Rumors tell that somehow, using the aid of shadowy figures, the Magoclergy figured out the location of the last divine dragon egg. An item of incalculable power and might, it was thought it could grant godhood to whoever possessed it. The mere thought of owning such a powerful magical object made the Magoclergy pool the resources of the entire Khenomeric Empire together, to launch a mad dash towards the egg. They could not afford some other nation finding it first, much less the dragon empire in the west, and thus they created a massive army to cross the central lands of Giantstep to reach the egg. Using incredibly powerful magical constructs, they managed to open a pathway through the northern bogs, the lair of the Bog Witch. Despite the invasion, the mysterious entity left them cross more or less uninterrupted, which makes many historians nowadays wonder the reasons of such choice.

The quick advance and the news of the crossing of the Empire of Magics made Azan and the Western Elven Empire increasingly worried. Signing a treaty with each other, they focused their forces into reinforcing their eastern borders and strengthening their armies. But it would be the discovery the Magoclergy was in pursue of the last divine dragon egg what send everyone into panic. Under no circumstances could the Magoclergy be allowed to own the egg, and thus they rushed to find the egg before the khenomeric. The Azan Empire was closer to the Cardammon Plateau, the place which seemed to be the direction in which the khenomeric were moving, and this allowed them to fortify the region to try to bluff them into not fighting. Sadly, by this point in time, the Magoclergy was too far gone to be intimidated. Thirsting for power and in need of a great deed to keep the nation in check, they met the forces of Azan and the Western Elven Empire in the Cardammon Plateau.

The result of that clash was the legendary Battle of Empires, the biggest battle that the world has ever seen to this date. The clash between the innumerable wizards and automata from the khenomeri were met by unleashed fey magic and the wrath of the dragons of Azan. However, after a long and hard fight, it was clear for all that the khenomeri were beginning to lose steam. The fey were able to sense from where the biggest wizards were directing the swarms of automata, and with great effort, they successfully targeted them. In a desperate attempt, the necromancers of the Magoclergy tried a forbidden ritual as a last attempt to get through the armies of the alliance, but despite untold damage and destruction, the forces of the Khenomeric Empire were defeated in battle, and had to come back with their hands empty.

## The Decay of the Magoclergy

The results of the battle marked the history of the world. As the one event that unified the histories of the east and the west, it was taken by the astromancers as the axis point for a new calendar, hopefully one that would allow them to map the passing of time easier than before. This was pretty much the only positive that came from the battle. The ruination of all combatants would take decades, if not centuries, to heal, and the scars of the fight still cover the area where the battle happened. Out of the three, however, none ended more damaged that the Khenomeric Empire. Not only they lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of wizards and innumerable automata and magic constructs in a single battle, but also some of the wisest and most powerful wizards of the empire died in the fight, and with them hundreds of years of magical wisdom.

That second loss is what hurt the nation the most. The loss of men was tragic, and definitively broke the bonds of trust between the army and the Magoclergy, but losing some of the most brilliant magical minds was crippling. The nation ran on magic at that point, and having to revert back to mortal means was something that could not be done without pain. The Magoclergy also lost most of their members, since the lure of the dragon egg was so that many of them volunteered for the hunt. Without the personnel needed to control a nation in upheaval, they showed themselves as weak in the eyes of the population. The contemptuous hatred the population felt about the Magoclergy became even worse, tainting the entire magical arts as a result. Without friends and allies to rely on, the Magoclergy reached the pinnacle of debauchery and corruption. They oppressed their countrymen without any regard or respect for the laws of the nation, without even bothering to make it look as justified acts. They dedicated immense fortunes needed to fix the economy into palaces and wizard towers of their own. Abandoning even the search for magical knowledge, they fully devoted themselves to hedonism.

## The Rise of the Pharahkhans and the War of Supper

It would be the khenomeri monarchy, as belittled and weakened as it was after centuries of being a mere puppet, the ones who would finally put an end to the Magoclergy. Sensing that the presence of the Magoclergy was a clear threat to the nation at this point, the kings began secretly conspiring with the highest rankings of the navy and the army, as well as with the provincial governors and even the heads of the School of Wizards. While all of them hated the Magoclergy at this point, they were still an extraordinarily powerful and influential organization, and could not be taken down head on. Instead, the kings played the long game, seeding the seeds of discord within the Magoclergy. Since the kings were seen by the Magoclergy as mere puppets, they underestimated their actual power, and did not see how the pharahkhans were playing the highest echelons of the Magoclergy against each other. All the while, assassinations of local Magoclergy leaders were crippling their grasp of local power. The kings also began staging rebellions against the Magoclergy, and then positioned themselves to be mediators in the conflict, usually ruling in favor of the locals while ending the rebellion. This made the pharahkhans more popular in the eyes of the public, while the Magoclergy could not complain about these acts, since their power was being bled white and they still saw the kings as puppets anyway. This was a process that took years to achieve, slowly eroding the stagnant Magoclergy into nothing.

The end of the Magoclergy would come at the hands of **Pharahkhan Kleo II**. In a masterfully organized coup, he gathered all major minds of the Magoclergy, lured by parties of decadence and hedonism, located in different places of the nation. At the hour of dinner, when most of the members of the Magoclergy were drunk, the king gave the signal and ordered their execution. Thousands of leaders of the Magoclergy were executed on the spot, and without the majority of the thinking heads, the army and local guerrillas destroyed the local centers of power of the organization. This did not end the Magoclergy in one fell swoop, though. Many had managed to run away or had avoided falling into the traps, and began trying to fight back. However, weakened by decades of a luxurious life and completely alone, they were easy prey for the forces aligned to the pharahkhan. The War of Supper was short, lasting less than a year, and ended up with the complete eradication of the Magoclergy. Their icons and palaces taken down, their treasures were shared between the local populations of the empire to help the new regime gain the trust of the people. The scars of the Magoclergy’s deeds would never heal, though. The once most magical nation on the step would now renounce the use of magic, which would cripple its ability to keep the nation together. The Khenomeric Empire would slowly but surely stagnate, first with the birth of the Forest of Getting Lost, and the finally ripped apart at the hands of the gnolls.