The Chimeran Wars

The Chimeran Wars refer to a series of three major conflicts between several of the High Houses of Khorl that occurred between 828 P.V. and 889 P.V. within the realm of Nox-Vein. At the time they were the largest conflicts that had taken place post-Erethiel's deconstruction with The Void.

### The First Chimeran War

During the 8th century Post-Void, the Khorlian High Houses went to great lengths to create and maintain a balance of power throughout **Khorl**, resulting in the existence of a complex network of political, economic and military alliances throughout the continent by 816 PV. These began in 789, with the alliance between High Houses, **Crestpyre**, **Hoofwreathe**, and **Howlgloom**.

When the Mid-House Pyre became a subsidiary of House Crest and established Crestpyre as a major political and economic power in 787, House Crestpyre became part of the new **Creed Alliance**. Soon after, in October 792, Crestpyre Matriarch **Visila Crest** formulated the **Khorlian** **Guild of Artisans** which facilitated a boom in artistic expression and scientific discovery within the late 8th century.

While the economic standings of the three houses grew dramatically during the renaissance, in 818 the Guild eventually split into two separate entities following a dispute over resource allocations between the arts and sciences. This split led to House Howlgloom furthering the sciences while Hoofwreathe and Crestpyre continued with the far more profitable arts under the name the **Enlightened Arts Confederate (EAC)**.

This was seen by other houses as a method of countering Howlgloom's influence in the Eastern Provinces as their economic power continued to grow, threatening Hoofwreathe and Crestpyre's position within their home region. The Confederate expanded in 822 when House Dawn increased its operations within **Gatekeep City** joining the EAC in a move that would later become known as the Triple Alliance.

**The First Chimeran War** had begun in 832 PV with an inheritance dispute over the succession of Highhouse **Seacrypt**. With both the **Endura** and **Naedoh** populations still devastated by the spread of the **Dekan Plague** through the early ninth century, many of the continent’s merchants were isolated from foreign markets. Earlier rebellions in North-Eastern Naedoh and Endura’s west had devastated much of the Khorlian economy and with Seacrypts’ ease of access to the **Cryptatic Sea** and its favorable trade routes, sanctions between the Highhouses became an issue of major political conflict. Before the appearance of **Legion**, the Highhouse Crestpyre had nearly achieved their goal of a dual oligarchy over North-Eastern Naedoh and Western Scion while the armies of Dawn, Howlgloom and Hoofwreathe had been unable to secure any major victories for the better part of a decade. In the words of Kyvin Manebask, "The lands and their people were not even a shadow of their ninth century prototype."

The de facto leader of the Triple Alliance, Matriarch Prime Visilia Crest, suffered from bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The Matriarch Prime’s brother and her husband, Garen Pyre's cousin, Ganthus Pyre, Patrician of Gallium, quarreled over the regency of Pyre’s ancestral land and the guardianship of the Matriarch Prime’s children who were now set to inherit Pyre’s holdings. This dispute included accusations that the Orium Levy Hoofwreathe, was having an extramarital affair with the Matriarch Prime. The conflict climaxed with the assassination of Highhouse Patriarch Marcus Hoofwreathe in 835 PV by Pyre operatives disguised as members of the Reshi Liberation Army.