### **The Second Guild War (4164-4167 AG)** What began as a workers’ uprising in the Stax soon gained momentum and quickly spiralled beyond the control of any authority within the city to curtail. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets demanding more light, more space, more time… and were met with violence. Guild members and Goldwatches opened fire on crowds of civilians, who themselves were not without arms, tactics, and even latent magical abilities. They fought back. The Stax burned. The fires soon spread to other cities, the message of egalitarianism kindling in the hearts of downtrodden masses and disaffected souls. More riots. More uprisings. Where the rebels failed, they fled, only to join with the growing army of Freedom Fighters. “Blue Shields” they called themselves, after the makeshift defences they bore, armour panels torn from the sides of ships of the Shipwrights’ Guild. Leaders arose among them. Strong voices. They promised a better world. Now they lie dead, their names forgotten. After years of bleeding, the Guilds became desperate. Their methods ever-more extreme. The rebels had hope and the esprit of a new age behind them. The Guilds were far more pragmatic. Both sides knew that a great battle was coming, and it would decide the war. The Blue Shields had a fleet. They had a chance. But on the eve of the battle, their leaders were taken, their bodies defiled in view of the rebel fleet the next day, mounted and crucified upon the prows of the Guild warships as they charged the stunned Blue Shields. The Second Guild War ended that day, and the rebels fled, and broke. Their dream was shattered. The Guilds were swift to hunt down and destroy what shards remained, but most of the surviving Blue Shields went into hiding. Forgotten, and denied… just like new world they once hoped for.