Gods' War

Synopsis
The Gods' War was a continental-scale armed conflict that took place at the end of the Age of Arcana, which ended with the Severance, and fundamentally altered the nature of Materi.

Titles
Historians dubbed the war the Gods' War, which is the moniker most commonly associated with it. Some sects have different names for the war, however. In particular, the religious devout refer to the war with reverence as the Holy War; and conversely, arcanists and secularists refer to the war as more of a genocide or slaughter, using terms such a the Massacre or the Cataclysm.

History
The Gods' War occurred in three distinct parts: the initial conflict between arcanists and the devout, the intervention of the gods, and the conflict between the gods.

Part One: Arcane vs. Divine
The war began as a conflict between arcanists and the religious, who took up arms against one another in a war of ideology over magic - whether magic was a natural right of all mortalkind, or a tool of the gods and their faithful. The conflict was bloody and destructive, as both sides fueled their armies with powerful magic, at the height of Materi's magical prowess. The Weave itself strained and thinned from the power being pulled from it, threatening to unleash Primordial Chaos upon Materi.

The gods saw the destruction being caused by the war, and many of them viewed the rise of the arcane as an existential threat to Materi. Nevertheless, they abstained from the war at first, preferring to let mortalkind resolve their own conflicts.

Part Two: The Intervention of the Gods
The gods continued to abstain from the Gods' War for several months, despite the destruction and carnage brought about by the war. Eventually, however, the gods could no longer stand idly by, and they joined with their devout followers to make war against the practitioners of arcane magic.

Once the gods intervened on behalf of their followers and took up arms against the arcanists, the tide of the war quickly turned. Even the most skilled arcanists were far outmached by the unbridled power of the combined gods, who laid waste to entire armies and cities in matter of weeks. When the conflict was over, the great magical kingdoms and armies of the world had been laid to ruin, and the gods and their followers emerged victorious.

Part Three: The War Between the Gods
When the war between the arcane and the divine ended, a new schism formed in its wake - this time between the gods themselves. One faction, now called the Aegis Deities, looked upon the destruction that had been caused by the war with sorrow and regret, viewing themselves as responsible. The other faction, now called the Scourge Gods, wished to take the war a step further and eliminate all life on Materi, viewing mortal kind as beyond hope for redemption.

A final conflict broke out on the battlefields of Materi, between the Aegis Deities and the Scourge Gods. The damage caused by this final stage of the Gods’ War was cataclysmic, leaving vast swaths of destruction in its wake, as the gods waged war against one another. At the conclusion of this final battle, the Aegis Deities subdued the Scourge Gods, banishing them to the Outer Planes.

The Severance and the Divine Gate
After the Gods' War was over, the Aegis Deities knew that their victory was only temporary. The Scourge Gods would never cease in their desire to destroy all that they had created, and would inevitably return. Resolved to prevent the eradication of life on Materi, the Aegis Deities conceived of a costly solution. They returned to their rightful homes in the Outer Planes, and from there, they created a planar barrier called the Divine Gate: a shield which would prevent all of the gods - themselves included - from interfering directly in the affairs of Materi. Surrendering themselves to a life of exile from their creations, the Aegis Deities saved Materi from the betrayal of the Scourge Gods.

This monumental shift in the structure of the planes, and the gods’ departure from Materi, is referred to historically as the Severance.