The Horizon Wars (Revisited)
The last twenty years have seen unprecedented changes within the World of Darkness for the Awakened. The escalation and sudden détente of the Ascension War have combined with other supernatural events to shake the various magical factions to their core. It began during the late eighties.
During 1987 a shift occurred in the nature of the battle between the Traditions and the Technocracy. Since control of nodes ultimately helped control of reality, the two sides had always fought over them. Centuries of war and magic hiding these hearts of the world had always interfered with their ability to discover and steal each other’s great assets. There was, however, a single chink in this armor – the vast Horizon realms controlled by both sides required the energy of many nodes to sustain, the connections of which could be traced from within the realms by whoever controlled them. After a series of tentative strikes, the advantages of unhindered magical warfare and the potential benefits began a long and dark series of battles crashing through the umbrae. The prize: a chance to take the earth’s nodes unhindered by their earthly protection and to destroy the greatest resources of their rivals without involving sleepers. Neither the Technocracy’s nor Traditions’ leaders could resist. As the Nephandi laughed and preyed upon the fallen, the War of the Heavens continued.
Even as a “hot” war, this battles of this war were not constant, though it was filled with many sieges. Hidden umbral realms used as staging areas were found by bound spirits and few attacks were without great planning. Some great losses were inflicted upon both sides. The Sons of Ether played, perhaps, the largest role in the war for the Traditions, being the masters of the Etherjammer fleets, though a great manner volunteers from other Traditions helped to man their vessels. The Technocracy’s battle plans put heavy strains on the Void Engineers requiring them to surrender some of their authority to Iteration X and New World Order operatives. The political strains of these choices are still being felt to this day.
In one of the largest battles in the war (1995), the Technocracy assaulted the Hermetic stronghold on Mus, Mercury’s umbral moon, and during the confusion a large host of Nephandi sprung upon both sides who were forced to retreat (the Technocracy refusing to aid the Traditions). They lost a small number of nodes, but not before the Hermetics destroyed most of the chantry’s connections and resources as they abandoned the College through a portal constructed by Lord Gilmore bani Tytalus. The last remnants of the building were destroyed by three Ali Batan who had helped teach at the chantry for over a century, in self sacrifice.
Another notable battle (1996 also) involved an umbral storm being created (attracted?) during combat in the space near Titan. It swept all the mages fighting over Saturn’s moons into the Shard Realm of Time. One of the Etherites, Clifford Mirrium appeared a week before the battle on the streets of Mexico city, forty years older than when he had last been seen, and a marauder to boot. It is suspected he managed to escape the Shard Realm alive – while his “earlier” counterpart was still near Titan and in confirmed active communication with other Tradition mages before the storm. The only decipherable words the scientist said were “Chronos” and “Gatorade.” Shortly there after a team of Men in Black subdued him with primium darts and took him from the scene. None of the other mages have been seen or heard of. Careful inquiries to observant spirits suggest that the Incarna guarding Titan from mortal intrusion reached the limit of its patience with human visitors. As said Incarna refuses to interact with humanity directly in any manner, nothing can be confirmed or denied.
In 1998, internal strife between cabals looking for even larger scale open warfare and more subtle magi came to a head in Doissetep. Archmage and master manipulator Caeron Mustai and his Janissaries (with the support of the Glass Eye cabal, Doissetep’s heads of interal security) attempted a coup on the Druashi – Porthos Fritz-empress’ own cabal and the strongest power-base within the chantry. Mustai advocated a form of open-warfare that went beyond anything that the older magi could consider acceptable. The resulting violence reduced the chantry. Its mystical shockwaves damaged and altered several of the nodes connected to Doissetep and even caused a whiteout so massive it re-set the Digital Web. Of the very few survivors, witnesses suggest the destruction’s fallout would have been much worse, but Porthos, the most powerful of the mages present, used his craft to contain the violence.
Finally, the battle came to Horizon during early 1999. Disenfranchised younger Traditionalists who were, offended by the actions of their elders, opened the way for a new Technocratic assault. This plan had unexpected consequences. The battle weakens the five hundred year old seals trapping the umbrood Urushlakhg’run, a godlike spirit trapped by the mages who constructed the realm. Lord Gilmore lead his second retreat from Horizon as the weakened Technocrat and Traditionalist forces alike were destroyed. He sealed the ways behind him and since then none have entered the Realm.