Hollow Truth

Hollow Truth was a cabal of mages that took part in the Clash of the Cabals in Armakania the city state based around the city Tor Armakan before it was joined to the Aurian Empire.

## Organisation

Hollow Truth followed a tier system of elitism and power blocs. As the powerful mages Odineth, Crownfage and the Third Wonderer were the strongest they alone occupied the highest tier. They had claimed the title of archmage for themselves and reserved it from their lesser members as had their old master Arkadius. Yet they determined the actions of the guild based onmutual decisions with precidence given to the mage who had the most support in the lower eschelons of the guild.

These lower tiers were mages, wizards and wizard's apprentice.

To be acknowledged a wizard one had to not only demonstrate individual magical competance in at least three disciplines of Arcania but you had to persuade at least one other to become your wizard's apprentice.

To be acknowledged a mage you had to have proved yourself comptetant in six disciplines of arcania and elite in at least one. Such a judgement had to be made by an archmage of the guild.

To be raised to archmage a mage had to gather enought support amongst the other mages. This was very difficult as a mage could only be in the bloc of one of the archmages at once though they were allowed to switch as they chose. Some such as Winder made themselves powerful by carefully switching their allegiance at key moments.

This left it very difficult to unseat or to join with the three powerful leaders of the cabal. Odineth had the greatest sway with almost 40% of the mages behind him where as Crownfage only had 32% and Third Wonderer just over 26%. There were some others who were declared for but not enough to raise a forth archmage.

## Events

371BE: Arkadius Secondsight died leaving no clear heir to the rulership of Armakania. His apprentices sought to claim his inheritance and this resulted in a conflict called the Clash of the Cabals. The powerful apprentices Odineth, Horefrost, Crownfage and Third Wonderer conceived the concept of forming an alliance with themselves as its leaders. They each brought several loyal apprentices and the beginnings of the Hollow Truth Cabal was formed. They were heavily involved in the fighting called the First Clash. Crownfage in particular proved herself extremely dangerous and gathered increased support among their loyalist mages as a result. Yet this ferocity scared some of their followers though and drove many to declare for Odineth who was seen as more moderate and safe.

371BE: There was an attempt at a peaceful resolution to who should rule between the apprentices of Arkadius but this resulted in a battle called the Conflagration. It was a spell battle of tremendous proportions and resulted in the deaths of many and the scattering of the apprentices. Horefrost was killed in the battle. Many powerful mages banded together to form alliances called cabals and one of the most important and intact of the cabals that survived the Conflagration was Hollow Truth. The cabals then continued to fight for dominance of Armakania.

370BE: The two strongest cabals Olquam's Cold Comfort and Ebsix's Circle of Friends fought each other and broke each other's power. Then at Crownfage's urging the cabal Hollow Truth, which had been holding itself back, a move suggested by Third Wonderer, decended on the remnents. The organised power of the cabal had drawn increasing amounts of mages to them and their successful breaking of previous minor cabals had allowed them to gain new recruits. Crownfage's strike basically wiped out the remainder of the Circle of Friends. Those that remained were no longer a cohesive organisation and the Circle was permanently broken as a power.

Cold Comfort was also in a weakened state after its clash with Ebsix's Circle of Friends. So they were also vulnerable when Hollow Truth struck. There were two traitors within its ranks that had been providing Odineth and Crownfage intelligence for months. Cold Comfort was barely able to avoid the Circle's fate as they withdrew under Glacius' leadership. As the Cirlce was gone and Cold Comfort had left Armakania, Hollow Truth was left able to declare themselves as rulers of Armakania with no single power able to dispute them. Thought it must be noted the mage Volkanis still held the Ark-Tower and due to that fortress' properties he was unassailable.

370BE: Hollow Truth ruled Armakania. Lesser cabals either surrendered themselves to Hollow Truth leadership, most entering at the wizard level unable to seize power from within the cabals system. Many others fled the city and the state as Cold Comfort had. Yet things were not able to become fully peaceful as the leadership of the cabal rarely agreed on methods of rulership or priorities for the cabal.

369BE: Unrest built and as the cabal was organised into factions anyway it became increasingly divided between the three archmages. Several mages tried to bridge the gap and get themselves acknowledged as archmages (more than one arguably more powerful than the leaders themselves). Yet these attempts were fruitless as other mages were reluctant to give their support to someone outside of the main three as it would be wasted as no one could get enough support to become a fourth archmage or so it was thought. At first the struggle was primarily a political one but when all the major players were able to wield killing levels of arcane power it was unsurprising that it escalated and fairly quickly. Though the three archmages continued to meet and struggle to run the country in the open in the shadows they tried to undermine and destory each other's power base with increased desperation.

Breesal 369BE: Hollow Truth continued to rip itself apaprt in its shadow war between the internal factions. In this month the first non-mage assassins started to be used. This move surprised some of the cabal and Crownfage in particular had not expected it. Many of her most important supporters were killed with knives in the night or poison in their food.

Early 368BE: By this time the use of non-magic underlings to carry on the shadow was being fully emplouyed by all sides. Cronwfage reacted strongly even though she could not prove who was killing her mages. It was she who made the conflict more open as she began to make decisions about rulership without consulting the others. The city split into armed camps and rival mages were killed openly if they trespassed into another's territory. Blood ran through the streets and most of the normal people of Armakania finally fled the city as it became an open war zone. They went to outlying towns and many to the protection of the fled cabals such as Cold Comfort, the Dragon's Eye and the Crystal Scepter.

Lifsal 368BE: The mage Volkalis, who was in possession of the Ark-Tower unleashed some of its weaponry upon the city. He used the Star Guardians openly to secure the entrances of the city. They also slew Crownfage at the lower gate when she led a sortie against the new threat. When Odineth tried to organise the remnants of the cabal he was unable to get Crownfage's followers to unite with him. With what strgnth he could muster he planned an assult on the Ark-Tower itself.

Volkalis however was not done with merely taking the streets back and stopping the infighting. He also used Soulcraft, the first recorded time of him doing so openly. It was a level of the power not previously seen in the hands of humans. He used mages slain to fuel his power and was able to use this power to forcably control other humans and invoke magical bonds on those he captured. One by one he slew captured or forced the mages in the city to swear to him. Those that did were forced to take soulcrafted magical brands to ensure that loyalty. It was rumoured that Third Wonderer was killed by wights working under Volkalis' direction.

Sunsal 368BE: Odineth was never able to gather enough stength to even attempt his almost certainly doomed attack on the Ark-Tower. The cabal was too divided and his own forces weakened even as Volkalis' grew. Eventually he and the majority of his remianing faction were smashed and Odineth as many before him was made to take a soulcrafted brand of eternal loyalty to Volkalis.

This ended the rein of the cabal of Hollow Truth. It left Volkalis in control of Armakania and those sworn to him now were named called the Eye of the Tower due to the brands they all wore upon their foreheads. As a united organisation the cabal was finished. Though nothing was ever so complete and as at every stage in the clash there were survivors who managed to flee before they were destoryed or enslaved.

Late 367-366BE: One of the remnants of the Hollow Truth cabal decided to retain the name and moved south into the city state of Vale Celer. There under the leadership of a group of powerful mages including the a combat specialist who called herself Azurisle, an enterprising mage named Winder and the soulcrafter Vichter. They attempted to insinuate themselves into the control of the city and were partially successful. However despite the subtlty of Winder and use of magic, including mind controlling enchantments their attempt to seize dominion over Vale Celer was exposed. It was likely that the use of the forbidden Soulcraft of Vichter was one of the factors in this exposure. So the cabal's claim to leadership became more open.

366BE: It was then violently opposed by the church specifically by a priest of Celer known originally as Stephen or Stephen of the Stone. Stephen was already an influential priest, if not the most influential leader of Vale Celer. He stood atop a stone to denounce the cabal of wizards claiming they sought only power and to bring the same destruction they had visited on their own land in the north to peaceful, holy Tor Celer. The cabal demonstrating Winder's lack of control over the mages attacked Stephen even as he preached atop the stone. Apparently, a miracle took place whereby the stone protected Stephen from the arcane powers of the wizards. He was then declared by the acclamation of the clerics and the people as Celer's leader in the Vale. He took the title Theonist, or if the records were believed it was forced upon him by the adoring and fearful masses. He then proceeded to organise the clerics and Templar, or martial clerics, against the Hollow Truth cabal.

The resulting conflict almost destroyed Vale Celer. Fighting included open physical combat, divine and arcane magic and eventually the assassins that had marked the destruction of the cabal's chances in Armakania. Interestingly, historians pointed to three reasons why the cabal lost.

One it opposed the fundamental state of the people, their religion which prevented them securing allies.

Two the murder of Stephen of the Stone. Just when the people started to feel the hardships of the conflict and some started to give up and leave or lay down arms the cabal successfully murdered the Theonist. This backfired on them horribly as it reinvigorated their opposition and drove them to demand vengeance rather than simply wish to survive.

The final point was the gathering of a party of heroes made of the faithful called the Golden Force. This group of faithful heroes defeated wizard after wizard. They destroyed the undead troops Vichter used to control the city after curfew, they met the champions of the cabal the Azure Blades in direct combat and defeated them. They united the people of Vale Celer and had them refuse to pay taxes to the wizards or offer them succor or shelter. Finally they killed off two of the pretenders claiming to lead the cabal and Vale Celer. Winder himself it was rumoured fled the vale. Other cabals seeing the ruin brought about by this attempt avoid the country thereafter.

365BE: After their failure at Vale Celer and of other cabals elsewhere to remake an Armakania the remaining wizards began to look back to their home city. So the remants of the cabal attended the convocation between the six cabals at Golden Lake. The main point of this meeting was to decide what was to be done about the Eye of the Tower and Volkalis. The remnants of Hollow Truth were of course eager to support any solution to this dire threat. Indeed many of the cabal's remaining surviviors bore testimony of what had happened in the city to help sway the opinions of those who knew little of the events. This proved crucial to the convocation's key findings. One was that Armakania needed to be reclaimed as the Eye of the Tower and its leader were abominations. Two, that single dictatorial leaders using magical power to compel subservience was not what Arkadius had ever had in mind. In the final struggle the remaining members were part of the new united conclave and no longer Hollow Truth in any meaningful way.