Battle at Scribe's End

The Battle at Scribe's End is the last large-scale engagement that saw the end of the tyranny of the Order of Written Letters against the League of Self-Determination. The battle, lasting two years and some months, took place on an abandoned world on a continent known as Scribe's End, which was the last military base belonging to the Order of Written Letters. Despite the decisive battle, the war was only declared ended when the last few remaining outpost of the Order of Written Letters surrendered some three months after the Fall of Scribe's End. This was also the start of the investiture and enforced limits of Letter Mages, who were strictly monitored and clamped down upon from then on to prevent a similar Order from coming to power.

Background

The Battle of Scribe's End was the culmination of the rise of the League against the Order of Written Letters. The former was a loose coalition of worlds that chafed and then rebelled against the Order of Written Letters. The Order of Written Letters was the combination of several multi-dimensional guilds who were attracted by the idea that words were power and you could shape reality through them. It was they who created the initial Letter Mage bloodline and subsequent talent - to wipe out Letter Mages completely was to destroy the balance of magic.
Through their mastery of language and development of Letter Mages, the Order of Written Letters soon grew to be first a trading power, then a political one, and then morphed into a colonial one, taking "under its wing" unwilling countries and worlds, purportedly to help the latter into achieving their full potential. This was often a cover for slavery and indenture, with systemic destruction of the culture and beliefs of the countries and worlds being taken over. Understanding that haste makes waste, the Order of Written Letters carried out their campaign slowly over the years, often taking multiple generations in order to bring the world to heel.
However, several short centuries after their first dozen colonies, the League was formed, mainly by more established guilds who became suspicious of the Order. With years, open rebellion had begun in the colonised worlds. The Order of Written Letters were prepared though, and even managed to launch several counterattacks that hit the League badly. Despite this, the Order, as one that was more used to focused battles rather all out wars, soon found itself outclassed by the League. Fifteen years after the initial rebellion, the Order had been pushed back to a supplementary home world known as Scribe's End.

Final result

Ironically, this was a war where many of the records have been lost. While some say this is due to the magnitude of others, a quick research will turn up dozens of different and often contrasting reasons.
One reason oft-cited is the embarrassment of the winning powers, in this case the League, as their armies committed atrocities and inflicted the same sort of suffering the Order had inflicted on its colonies upon the hapless mortals of Scribe's End. Another reason said that the Battle was not one fought with weapons and magic, but rather with words. The many armies that showed up were just the pressure put onto the Order by the League to bring the latter to the negotiating table. Still a third says that many of the participating armies were soon swallowed by larger members of the League who had cleverly stayed out from most of the battles, preserving their strength in order to prey on the now-weaker members and perpetuating the cycle of violence and colonialism.

Legacy

The Battle of Scribe's End is one that has repercussions beyond its immediate generations. Millennia later, all mages are required to learn this part of history even though their worlds or even dimensions were part of it, simply because it is important to balance the different types of mages against each other to prevent one gaining power over the rest. The rise of the Letter Mages, who are the first to discover a way to control, bend, tear and then mend the Fabric of Reality reliably as both individuals and as a group, is a lesson in allowing one party to gain too much power. Despite that, the Letter Mages are the only mage path that is restricted by not by the limits of its own practitioners, but by the society of Magic itself, as it has the records, power and clear signposts on how to achieve the state.
End of Report, prepared by Liew Mun Yee, Mage Student Year 2 for History.

Conflict Type

Showdown