Mystra was the target of an ancient mage by the name of Karsus, who existed during the Age of Makers and had discovered the presence of Gods and their innate divine power. Intent on siphoning their power as a new energy source without needing to kneel before them in a pledge of devotion, Karsus developed a spell that would target a deity and draw their power forcibly out of them, allowing the caster to absorb and command it as his own. While he first tested it on smaller deities, his ambition put the goddess Mystra in his crosshairs, and when he cast the spell and drew her innate connection to the Weave out of her, he found that even with all of the power he had already drawn from other gods, he could not hold it within himself. The Weave began to destabilize and would set the stage for the Great Fall of Kaisalis, which would only be accelerated by the following Ravage of the All-Takers and the War of Embers draconic conflict. Mystra in turn, knowing that the Weave's full destruction would spell the end of the world, gave the rest of her life to force the Weave to refocus and stabilize, killing her and causing arcane magical energy to dull out to near un-usability for a time. This time was known as the Famine Arcana, in which arcane practitioners had lost most if not all of their magical power and could no longer use their own magic to protect themselves. This saw the fall of many magic-focused civilizations such as Kaisalis, and the burgeoning of devotion and alliance to the gods in order to gain access to their power, which would allow the remnants of these societies to survive the days to come.
it wasn't until eons later that Mystra began to slowly rematerialize and the Weave began to return to normal, the goddess manifesting within the soul of a peasant girl with an innate penchant for magic. Most of her ascension back to her place as a goddess was lost, but she would fall under fire again during the War of Gods and Mages, in which the returning mages who formed their magistracies and ruled with powerful oppression fought against those devoted to the gods and their individual ideals, unified only in their wish to survive.
The War of Gods and Mages first began when arcane casters began to return to prominence, slowly regaining control of a disempowered and weakened Weave and beginning to be seen as gods themselves due to the feats they could accomplish. Many of these casters would arise to command their own societies as Mage Lords, and in time they Mage Lords would begin to look down upon those who called upon the gods for magic. They believed they should have no right to magic if it was given to them and not innate, and so the Wars began.
Mystra stood as the deciding factor due to being a god and having dominion over all magic, but she refused to take a position in order to damn one side or the other, and so the war waged on. Eventually, Avandra had enough of the warring and stagnation and, through the convincing that her death would allow the war to end and more lives to be saved than lost, sent the god Helm to destroy Mystra. This sparked a civil war between the gods themselves, one side who wished to protect Mystra led by Pelor, Bane, and Corellon, and those who sought her death led by the Raven Queen, Avandra, and Helm. Bane sought to aid Mystra due to his admirations of her, yearning for her creative powers but never able to truly possess her, whilst Corellon had viewed Mystra as a daughter that he needed to protect. Pelor fought due to his refusal to believe that killing her was the only way to end the war between the mortals, feeling it was the obligation of the gods to find another way.
On the other side, Avandra sought to end the war and bring about the next era, the Wars having caught the world at a standstill. Helm, the god of protection, had come under her thrall due to feeling that humanity needed to be saved from the consequences of Mystra's neutrality. The Raven Queen, however, knew the great secret that Mystra would survive her own death once again, as her existence was innately tied to the Weave and was an ultimate impossibility. She would reincarnate so long as the innate magical energy of the Weave existed. Despite the devastation that the war bought, Helm ultimately slew the goddess and caused a new magical surge, which ended the War and saw the side of the divines win in the long run. The Mage Lords were hunted and bought to justice and the churches of various gods began to bloom and thrive.
However, Corellon never forgave Avandra for her actions and in response, had his people the Elves batter down and enslave the people of Avandra: the short-folk, which would continue on until his death at the hands of Tharizdun during the Near End in the Age of Horrors.
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