The five Crusades, per Church history. Dates per the Malconti Calendar — see Timeline.
First Crusade (ends MCY 273)
After the Wrath, the Corrupted came out of the dark places. Men — knowing Faith — banded together and over many years drove them off. The Church was formed in this crucible; the humbled Elves and Dwarves looked to Men for protection. During this crusade the Blessed appeared: humans touched by the Maker with great gifts. From their visions came the Book of Light. Their descendants (“the Blood”) became the ruling class and founded the kingdoms.
Second Crusade (333–347)
Iuz, naming himself the Son of God and the Redeemer, preached new revelations. The Blessed unmasked him as a servant of the Deceiver; he fled and was revealed as leader of the Corrupted. The Crusade defeated the Corrupted, but Iuz survived. Afterward the Church founded the six Orders Militant.
Third Crusade (1441–1446)
Iuz built an Empire of the Corrupted in the harsh South, mimicking the Kingdoms. The Crusade nearly won — but on the eve of victory the young Queen of Morrschatten — a sorceress of strength unseen since the First Crusade, and head of the Order of the Raven (GM) — betrayed the Peoples and joined Iuz as his consort (the Great Betrayal). The Corrupted were still brought low, at great cost; Iuz survived, weakened. Morrschatten was split into three Princedoms. The Order of the Phoenix gained sweeping authority to root out inner corruption.
Notable: a surviving prince of Averoigne may have given a significant gift — a magnificent jeweled orrery — to the Monastery of the Dawn after this crusade. (S3) See The Monastery of the Dawn and the Orrery.
From the Balventia library (S7):
- Blessed Benedict asked the Maker specific questions before this crusade — and it is accepted that his questions led to the plans that depended on the Betrayer Queen, and thus to the failure. (Per Church Rituals from a Secular Perspective.) See The Faith of the Maker on True Divination.
- The Vigil of the Ten: ten noble heroes who were to accompany the Betrayer Queen on her last mission — among them Euglerrand de Tarrand. (A Morschatti book.)
- The Sun Without Shadow, an illuminated Cardacci account, describes the horror of “the rising of the Goat Sun” — see The Red Star — and Blessed Caterina, the healer who took soldiers’ scald-wounds onto herself and let her own brother die to keep doing it. “Faith before Family.”
- A Hazadi expedition joined the crusade. Its commander covered the western crusaders’ retreat at the sacrifice of part of his force — violating the Sultan’s orders — and the Sultan forgave him.
Fourth Crusade (1693–1699)
The Order of the Phoenix moved against Hazad, falsely claiming the crown prince — Crown Prince Dakheer (GM), Sultan Fahim’s older brother — practiced the Arts of the Corrupted. Sultan Azzam’s father cast out the Order and rejected the Most Holy; the Order of the Eagle stood with the Sultan. Six bloody years of war between the churches ended with the Sultan and his son slain and a peace declared — but the church remains split into Western Church and Eastern Church. Only ~40 years past; wounds are fresh. A minority of Hazadi nobles secretly keep the Western faith — see Loyalists.
Fifth Crusade (1715)
Iuz had exploited the Fourth Crusade to build a hidden stronghold in the northern wilds of Morrschatten, cloaked in foul sorceries. The Kingdoms destroyed it, but the Crown Prince of Averoigne fell in battle, leaving that succession uncertain — one root of The Troubles.
Salemon Fouquier — now archprelate of Ximes — used divination as a prelate during this crusade, and is still alive. Only simple pro/con divinations, at least according to the book (GM). (S7, per Church Rituals from a Secular Perspective.)