Day 99

[from Aura of Chaos]

[AURA OF CHAOS LORE COMPENDIUM]

[THE WAR ON MAGIC]

On the day of 643.4.20, Third Era, King Claus II of Albion was travelling through the capital city of Clauston on an official visit. Thousands of citizens lined up on the streets to watch the royal procession as it made its way through the city. Claus' carriage was the centremost of the five royal horse-drawn carriages in the procession; accompanying him in it were Michael Arberton, one of Claus II's closest advisors, and two royal guards. The other four carriages each contained four royal guards, for a total of eighteen guards plus Claus and Arberton.

On several occassions, people attempted to step forward and approach the king, something that had occurred on several previous royal visits. As the procession rounded a corner, a woman later identified as 23-year-old peasant girl Eleanor Woodfield rushed towards the king's carriage from the right-hand side, simply wishing to touch the king; she instead collided with the carriage and the right wheel ran over her right foot and ankle, shattering her foot and dragging her beneath the wheel, severely injuring her and causing Claus' carriage to jolt. The carriage behind was forced to immediately halt in order to prevent the horses from trampling the stricken Woodfield underfoot, and the entire procession was thus brought to a halt.

Having noticed the cause of the disturbance, Claus II leaned out of his carriage, looking back at Woodfield, who was lying bloodied in the street. "Is that girl alright?" he asked. Arberton remarked in response that "They need to stop throwing themselves at you; one of them's going to get trampled to death one of these days." With the procession stopped, Claus signalled for the guards in the fourth carriage to check on Woodfield; they exited their carriage and attended to the girl, who by now had fallen unconscious and was bleeding from her mouth. Later reports suggest Claus had been considering ordering the men to bring the injured Woodfield into their carriage and to then peel off from the procession in order to take her to the nearest hospital.

Before he could give this order, however, a man stepped out of the crowd from between the second and third carriages. The man was wearing a long black hooded cloak that obscured his face, and has never been identified. It is unknown whether the man would have proceeded with his assassination attempt regardless of the delay, whether Woodfield was a co-conspirator who willingly threw herself under the carriage's wheel in order to halt the procession, or whether the man simply took advantage of the situation. However, it is generally believed that Woodfield was, at the very least, not aware of the man's plans.

As the man stepped forward, he cast a fire spell aimed at Claus II's carriage, with the intention of setting the king on fire. His guards were immolated and killed within seconds, but Arberton pushed Claus out of the carriage almost immediately and followed him out seconds later. The king suffered only minor burns to his right hand, but was reported to have escaped unscathed, while Arberton's left trouser leg had caught fire, mildly burning him.

Claus was immediately angered by the attempt on his life. As Arberton patted out the flames on his leg, and the other guards rushed to the king's aid, Claus demanded, "Where is the man who did this?", but the assassin had already teleported away. When this was relayed to the king, he angrily replied, "Find him, then! Search the entire city if you must, but bring me that scoundrel's head!" A city-wide search immediately began, but was unsuccessful. Woodfield, meanwhile, was carried to hospital by a group of onlookers, but died of her injuries three hours after the assassination attempt.

The following day, Claus II issued the Magic Prohibition Act, banning the use of all magic within the kingdom with immediate effect. The day after that, with the assassin still at large, Claus expanded the search area to encompass the entire kingdom.

By 643.4.30, the assassin had still not been captured, and Claus had grown frustrated. Despite pleas from some of his advisors, Claus, knowing that the assassin had to have been a Black Witch, issued the Witch Extermination Act, ordering that all known Witches in Albion were to be executed by royal decree. Knowingly sheltering a Witch, or refusing to execute one, also became offences.

The Act immediately proved controversial, with a large number of citizens and even some of the royal guard publicly opposing the law. At least six public protests took place, including one in Clauston; at least one was violently put down by the Royal Guard with dozens of protestors killed. Many in the Royal Guard, however, also opposed the law, and also feared that rising public anger about it could lead to a full-scale revolt or even civil war. A number of Witches were thus spared by sympathetic guards, some of whom helped survivors escape into Niami (where the Act did not apply) or Akeda.

On 643.6.22, at the behest of his advisors, Claus II reluctantly repealed the Witch Extermination Act, but refused to repeal the Magic Prohibition Act. A few days later, Claus amended the Magic Prohibition Act so that the use of magic was now punishable by death; known Witches were no longer executed so long as they promised never to practice magic again.

Over the following thirty years, however, magic in Albion did not completely die out. Though anti-Witch sentiment began to run throughout the kingdom, particularly in more rural areas, this was by no means unanimous, and many continued to oppose Claus II's anti-magic policies. Underground communities of Witches began to form, practicing their craft in secret and developing their own unique slang to help each other communicate. A "Desert", for example, is a location that does not welcome Witches, whereas an "Oasis" is a location that openly shelters them; a "Mirage" is a person or location who pretends to shelter magic users in order to report them to the Royal Guard.

In 662 TE, Claus II passed away and was succeeded to the throne by his son, Claus III, who also became King of Niami shortly thereafter. Claus III, who was only four years old at the time of the attack on his father, is thought to be more tolerant than his father in terms of magic. However, while magic remains legal and unregulated in Niami, as of 673.7 the Magic Prohibition Act, and the death penalty for performing magic, is still in force in Albion.