The Crimson Square Massacre

Military: Skirmish

Commander Harrick Varadyn fell defending Queen Evelyne during a devastating ambush within Aurendell, Eldoria's capital—his legendary last stand saw him cut down by seven rebel assassins while sustaining mortal wounds that would have felled lesser men thrice over. The attack occurred precisely when envoys from Houses Caerthall, Syltharis, and Valcairn were in the capital seeking an audience with the Chancellor. Loyalists denounced this meeting as a calculated distraction, while the rebels vehemently maintained that the assassination attempt was not their doing but rather a ploy to discredit their cause. Regardless of these conflicting claims, this bloody event ignited the spark that would engulf the kingdom in the flames of The Gilded Rebellion.

The incident earned its grim name from the distinctive ruby-hued cobblestones of Aurendell's central plaza, where the royal procession was ambushed during what should have been a routine ceremonial appearance. Witnesses later recounted how the square literally ran with crimson that day—not merely from Commander Varadyn and the three loyal royal guards who perished defending their queen, but also from dozens of innocent bystanders caught in the ensuing chaos and panic. Queen Evelyne herself suffered a glancing wound to her shoulder before being whisked away to safety by the remaining members of her royal escort.

In the tense hours following the attack, Knight-Marshal Dorren Blackwood ordered the immediate apprehension of all representatives from the three Great Houses present in the capital. This severe response, which included public interrogations under magical scrutiny and the controversial use of truth-compelling enchantments, only widened the growing chasm between the crown and the noble houses. Though no irrefutable evidence directly linked the house envoys to the assassins, incriminating documents recovered from one of the slain attackers contained elaborately encoded messages that royal cryptographers confidently attributed to House Syltharis.

The true identity and allegiance of the assassins remains fiercely contested to this day. Royal historians steadfastly maintain they were hired mercenaries in the employ of the rebel houses, while those sympathetic to the rebellion suggest more sinister possibilities—perhaps agents of rival foreign powers seeking to destabilize Eldoria from within, or even rogue elements operating from the shadows of the royal court itself. What remains undisputed is that within a fortnight of the massacre, the three Great Houses had withdrawn to their ancestral estates and begun marshaling significant forces, formally declaring their opposition to what they termed "the corrupt influences that have poisoned the mind of our beloved monarchy."