The Cleansing

## **The Gift of Magyk**

When humans first appeared in the world, the Fae were naturally suspicious, but also curious as these 'dustlings' with their mortal lives. As they grew in numbers , Oberyn, King of the Fae realised that the two races were not that dissimilar, and should at least try and engage with one another. Mab, his queen on the other hand, saw the humans as a danger to the ways of the Fae, and discouraged her husband from his attempt at friendship, but was overruled by her lord, and while cautious, accepted his command.

As an offering of friendship, he brought the human leaders the gift of magyk, bestowing it upon them in the hopes that it would bring the two peoples together and unite them in use and reverence of the world around them. But men's hearts were more fickle than those of their immortal counterparts, and the human urge for supremacy soon began to rear its head. Within only decades of the giving of magyk, the humans had begun to use their gifts for conquer, slaughter and rule, creating bloody division across Britannia in a race for domination of the land. The Fae, seeing this as a violation of nature itself and a betrayal of their good intentions, sent emissaries to confront the human leaders. All were rebuked, and some even slain.

## **Embers of Revolution**

When the news reached the king and queen, Mab was incensed with rage, demanding that Oberyn seek retribution. Oberyn took no immediate action, further infuriating his queen, but instead decided to meet with the human rulers himself, to give them an opportunity to mend their ways. Mab sought to have Oberyn see this as madness; their people had not only been attacked and killed, but also spurned of the bridging gift they gave, diplomacy should not be the answer. She was again silenced by her king, who had made up his mind.

He travelled to a summit, agreed upon by both parties, in hopes of reconciliation and quelling any further bloodshed. But though the Fae were of a long lived life, their minds were naïve in hoping that the desires of men could be changed. The summit failed nearly as soon as it had begun: Oberyn's retinue were killed by the humans, and Oberyn himself nearly slaughtered, escaping at the last minute, with his life hanging by a thread.

## **The Fires of War**

Oberyn returned to the Fae, alone and scarred. Falling into a deep restorative sleep, his people wept and looked to their queen to guide them. Mab was no longer content with diplomacy or reparations; she would have blood for this act. Te humans that now plagued the world would be cleansed, and the natural order would be restored.

As Oberyn slept, she gathered the Fae in scores, preparing for an invasion on the humans. Many Fae joined her, believing that the humans had broken every branch offered, and deserved nothing but oblivion now. But there were those who shared the beliefs of their sleeping king, that war would not provide a solution. As the armies prepared, Mab, already the most renowned sorceress of the Fae, sank into research of dark magyks, warping existing magyks into new spells with the pure purpose of using them against the humans.

## **The Cleansing**

Mab led her armies of willing Fae and mystical creatures of the realm alike against the human strongholds. Though the humans outnumbered the Fae by now, every one of the immortal race had the advantage of centuries of experience, as well as all naturally attuned to magyk. Many losses were occurred on both sides, but while if a Fae was killed, their spirit was sent back to the life cycle and reborn, any human who perished was ridden for good.

Mab had soon brought the land of Britannia to its knees, and while she sought vengeance most on the rulers of each kingdom, no man, woman or child fell outside of her mercy. Even some of the Fae who had joined her now began to doubt themselves, seeing the bloody swathe their queen was bent on carving. While those had harmed their people and king were dealt with, there were many that fell to the Fae that held innocence in any matters, and this was not what they had set out to achieve.

## **Return of the King**

Mab's grip on the land was almost complete, with many horrific events having occurred and scores of humans having been cut down. As she began her march on the kingdom of Dumnonia to the southwest, Oberyn appeared on the battlefield, flanked by a host of loyal Fae. Mab was shocked to see her king having recovered from his grievous wounds, and was overcome with joy that he had not succumbed to his condition. Her joy was cut short however, when Oberyn displayed his disgust at her actions. She accused him of placing the humans over his own people, an inferior race that had only ever showed that they were unfit to live in such a world. Despite the connection between the two, they swiftly came to blows, with the two Fae and the human armies stopping to witness their battle, a whirlwind of blades and magic clashing.

The battle was fierce, but culminated in Oberyn's sword piercing through Mab's heart. Cut down, the queen of the Fae could only gasp her last as she looked on to her husband, the man who she had loved and given everything for, and who in turn had betrayed her and their own kind. As her body failed her, her spirit became free, as was with all Fae who relinquished their physical form. Yet Oberyn knew more than any how the Fae's cycle of life and death worked, and that Mab would only return, likely more embittered than ever before. And so it was that he made the decision to seal away her spirit where it could never again wreak havoc upon the world of the Fae or that of the humans. Using an ancient Fae ritual, known only by the oldest and most powerful among them, he sealed Mab's spirit away.

## **Pendragon, the Chosen Ward**

Finding a place of great power upon the cliffs of Land's End, he cast Mab's spirit into a plane of existence known only as the void, a barren and lifeless dimension of nothingness. All who had aided her were given a choice: repent, or join her. Her most ardent lieutenants chose to share their queen's fate, their spirits removed from their bodies before being exiled into oblivion.

Among the humans who had aided the Fae in the fight against Mab, Oberyn entrusted wardship over Mab's prison to a young soldier who had fought bravely and risked his own life to stand against the Fae queen, Cailan Pendragon, and decreed that his lineage would uphold the duty bestowed on him, and in turn, would be named as protectors over Dumnonia.

Though many remained, the Fae had lost scores of their own. Even though Mab had fallen into darkness, Oberyn could understand her view of magyk being given to the human as a mistake, and so it was that in a channeling ritual, he stripped the humans of the magyk he had once bestowed upon them, leaving it to be little more than a memory among the younger race. The Fae would also dissapear from the land, as Oberyn set about creating a realm of their own, a world away from the race who had ultimately as a whole, betrayed his trust.

In time, Avalon was created, and the Fae departed until trace of their existence became a mere myth across Britannia. Never again would the lives of the Fae and humans be one. In the meantime, Cailan had claimed rulership of the land, and though he tried to rule it justly, the internal strife of mankind's desires carried on, and much of his time was spent defending his role, a burden which was passed on to his ancestors and remains to this day.....