> *We returned to a world entirely different from the one we started to fight for. Cities reduced to dust, populations starving, our knowledge dead with its scholars. The Scorched forced us to put our Humanity aside. Each one of us was so profoundly changed at the end of the war. We were left broken by decades of conflict. A generation trained to destroy, maim and kill. They showed us how to rebuild, care and love.* The Scorched Conquest is a series of ruinous wars on [[Erathia]] opposing the [[Coalition]] and the [[Scorched Guard]], marking the end of the [[Age of Knowledge]] and the beginning of the [[Reign of Blood]]. Nearly all of Erathia's countries participated, with many nations mobilising their resources in pursuit of total war. The causes of the Scorched Conquest followed the rise in power of the city of [[Urun]] on [[Thakkar]], as well as the progressive separation of the Iconurgies from the dominion of the [[Aspectdom of Than]], leading to major conflicts around the [[Urute Divide]], then called the Sea of Prosperity, and the [[Ovgenian Sea]], then called the Sea of Promises. This tension climaxed at the end of the [[Age of Knowledge]] when the union of the [[Three Cities]] led to the incursion of the Scorched Guard on Erathia. While the exact reasons of this invasion are blurry, at best, it is understood that the Three Cities requested the aid of the Scorched Guard to defeat the [[Aspects|Court of Voices]] and put an end to the existence of the Aspects. This attempt resulted in a series of violent wars across the entirety of the inhabited territories of Erathia, which at the time is believed to have been the vast majority of the planet. Although the Conquest is the term used to describe this conflict, it was an intermittent conflict, which was interrupted by external factors, and several years of truce. The term "Scorched Conquest" was adopted by recent historians as a way to encompass otherwise ideologically and strategically related conflicts. The war is commonly divided into three phases, separated by truces : the [[Invasion War]] (1-6), the [[Lost War]] (19-37) and the [[Umberthil War]] (44-72). # Major Events The study of the events of the Scorched Conquest mostly occurs through the [[Retelling]], as well as the limited amount of documents that survived the period. However, certain events can be listed with relative certainty : - The invasion of Erathia by the Scorched Guard is the only event to have triggered a [[Second Coming of the Aspects|return of the Aspects]] on Erathia, underlining the threat represented by the Guard and its allies. - The death of the [[Patient Hand]] occurred at some point during the [[Lost War]] at the hands of an unknown foe from the Scorched Guard. - The ultimate victory of the [[Coalition]] is due to a plan orchestrated by [[Partha Umberthol|Partha]] and [[Ciarán Umberthol|Ciarán]] Umberthol, leading to the creation of the [[Queendoms of Ovgena]] at the sunset of the war.