Into the Darkness
Although subtitled The Loss of Magic and the End of an Age, this short work is more philosophical than historical. Instead of focusing on the events that brought about the Mage Wars and the general regulations against magic common in the Inner Seas and Azermathia, Lexicar the Loremaster focuses on events that have occured in the century and half that followed.
Told more as stories than as histories, the University of Karradone focuses on events that had minor impacts on history rather than major ones. In each tale he presents two endings. While the first of these endings remains true to the historical record the alternate ending speculates what might had occurred should one of the characters displayed an arcane talent. The results are not only starky different, they would clearly change history and better the lot of the common people whose fears instigated the Wars.
While the work itself is considered somewhat controversial (and even heretical in some states such as Drakkar and Mennith, most see it as a work of pure experimental fiction or even a critique on the morals of the magi of old. What if they had the morals that Lexicar's characters had? How could history have been altered? Could they have, indeed, made Tarien a better place?