1. Events

The Shadow Schism

Political
972 YK

The final blow came in 972 YK. The Order of the Emerald Claw—at the time, an extension of Karrnath’s government—was a favored client of the Thuranni family, as well as the most important espionage-related organization in Karrnath’s government. Knight Superior Kadrath ir’Vardikk, a high-ranking Emerald Claw officer, came to Lord Elar Thuranni d’Phiarlan with information that pointed to a Brelish plot to assassinate both Karnnath’s regent and its young king. The plot relied heavily on the talents of the Paelion line, the most fearsome assassins in House Phiarlan. Sir Kadrath demanded that the Thuranni line eliminate the Paelions before the assassins could carry out their mission.

At first, Lord Elar was hesitant to strike against his own house. He first tried to verify the information Sir Kadrath had brought him. What the Thuranni agents uncovered, however, was a far greater threat than a simple assassination plot against Karrnath. Lord Tolar Paelion d’Phiarlan, it seemed, had concocted an elaborate scheme to bring the Last War to an end and gather the reins of power in Khorvaire, not in Breland’s hands, but in his own. Part of this plan, Lord Elar learned, involved exterminating the other Phiarlan families as well as the leadership of the other dragonmarked houses.

Some might have dismissed these plans as megalomaniacal ravings presenting little serious threat. Since they originated in the most fearsome line of assassins in all Khorvaire, however, Lord Elar took them utterly seriously, and he ordered an immediate strike to exterminate the Paelions before Lord Tolar could carry out his plan.

Lord Elar himself killed Tolar and his immediate family, while the Thuranni agents at his command slaughtered every Paelion within the family holdings in Lhazaar, and every one they could find in Phiarlan holdings across Khorvaire. Outraged at this apparent betrayal, Baron Elvinor Ellorenthi d’Phiarlan declared the Thuranni line excoriate. Defiant, Lord Elar refused this punishment, instead declaring the formation of a new dragonmarked house. The clients of the Thuranni family continued doing business with the excoriate house, and Elar—now taking the title of Baron—managed to acquire some clients formerly loyal to the Paelion line.

To this day, Baron Elar d’Thuranni maintains that he acted out of loyalty to his own house and all the dragonmarked houses, quashing a plot that would have thrown all of Khorvaire into even greater upheaval. There are many sides to the story, however, and—as in all tales of espionage—the truth is hard to discern.

Some would suggest that the Order of the Emerald Claw actually fabricated evidence against the Paelions, bringing some of it to Lord Elar while planting the rest in the Paelion holdings for Elar’s spies to uncover. Some further suggest a link between the Emerald Claw’s role in the Shadow Schism and Regent Moranna’s decision to outlaw the order just four years later.

Other theories suggest wilder conspiracies. Some claim that human agents of the draconic Chamber helped to bring the schism about in order to fulfill prophetic claims about thirteen houses or the split of a single house. (Many of these theorists further claim that the same Chamber agents are working to prevent House Cannith from splintering for the same reason.) Others whisper that at least one prisoner in Dreadhold is imprisoned there for his role in fomenting the schism. Still others claim that Lord Elar and Baron Elvinor amicably agreed to a split in the house and used a mutual enemy, the Paelion line, as a scapegoat to cloak their true intentions. 

Whatever the truth, the Shadow Schism was the most important consequence of the Last War as far as the dragonmarked houses are concerned. Just as the empire of Galifar was fractured into smaller nations, so too the Last War left the dragonmarked houses broken, unsure of their role in the new world and their ties to the new political powers of Khorvaire.