TIMELINE
START
King Arunidas LXXVII. dies under mysterious circumstances
The Tiefling Archmage and King, Arunidas LXXVII., is found dead in his bed drained of all his blood
The sole survivor of an expedition into the Morthal Ruins reveals the existence of an ancient Blood Curse before succumbing to it himself.
Suspicions rise when the Guild of Necromancy - the guild of the king's firstborn son, Astaroth the Silent - decides to spend all resources that would be needed to invoke the spirit of the dead king to question him about the circumstances of his death to find out more about the blood curse instead.
King Arunidas LXXVII's lesser son (Zardos the White) and his daughter (Kallista) start independently claiming the throne from his firstborn (Astaroth the Silent). Political tension rises.
The goblin baroness Nasha forges a secret alliance with the Guild of Three Leaves
Zardos the White consolidates his power over the many tribes of Hroudhorn, uniting them in fear and reverence, thus considerably empowering his army
Kallista consolidates, through blood bonds and political action, her supposedly good relations with the rich city-state of Istion, the marine republic; the Bank is happy to fund her campaigns
The secret alliance of guilds and lesser nobles begins stealth actions against the three children of the late king, undermining their positions.
An assasination attempt on Astaroth's life by an envoy of the noble House of Andal fails. As the assassin was using a poison that could only be prepared by use of the Seal that is under the Alchemist Guild's protection, Astaroth occupies the Alchemist's Guild's Tower and announces the Guild's dissolvement.
The secret alliance now revealed, the remaining guilds split and join into factions.

The Guild War rages
While Astaroth is on the battlefield, the Guild of Anti-Magic, the Guild of Artifice and the King's Arcane Guard take over the Iridescent Tower and declare a Council will rule the Kingdom until the rightful heir has been determined
Zardos the White mobilizes his troops to occupy the Iridescent Tower
While the Siege of the Iridescent Tower is coming to an end in favor of Zardos' forces, the goblin faction of Baroness Nasha and the Guild of three leaves sabotages the attacking forces from the underground with alchemic devices. As Zardos and most of his troops die, Nasha gains her place in the Council
After the death of Zardos the White and many of their leaders, the Hroudhorn tribes close the Gates to the Mountains and declare their independence
The Gates to the Mountains now closed, the ancient trade-route that was bringing best quality wood to Istion in exchange for salt is compromised, Istion is now forced to smuggle the wood for its ships and is unhappy about the huge costs that this implies.

The enormous losses during the Guild War result in the collapse of the 13 Arcane Guilds
With no one remaining to maintain them, the Great Seals weaken
As the Great Seals weaken, the Blood Curse begins to spread through the land
The Condottiers of the Crownhill order are sacrificing everything to limit the spread of the curse, healing the sick, blessing the doomed ones, limiting the spread of panic and the riots.
The knowledge spreads that, while the Crownhill Condottiers die by the dozens, low rank condottier Iliana Sunshield seems to be unaffected by the curse; some see this as a miracle, many look at it with suspicion.
Working with the spirit of Isolar, the Living Island, the former vampire master of the Guild of Necromancy sacrifices himself in a blood ritual to stop the last seal from breaking.

The post-collapse Great Reform of magic studies happens; the study of the 5 Spheres spreads, co-existing and in attrition with older studies of the guilds era
Efforts are undertaken to research ways to rebuild or recreate the Great Seals. With so much knowledge lost, progress is slow.
A rogue faction of mages, nobles and researcher search for ways to, rather than prevent the Blood Curse, submit to it, empowering them with its dark energies.
As it becomes clear that the vampiric magic that keeps the last seal from breaking will end sooner rather than later, Iliana Sunshield sets out to explore the ancient V'ran ruins nobody else can step into without succumbing to the curse to find a solution
The cryptic, enchanted glyphs in the V'ran ruins do not disclose any remedy to the curse; however they DO tell the story of an ancient war of the V'ran civilization against the so called "Murg Thalai", and about the V'ran developing of "the Red touch of Ta'axos", a curse they lost control of, sealing their own doom

The Blood War
Several secret societies who see the Red Touch as a solution unite under the banner of the "Reborn Kingdom of V'ran".
The actions of the Reborn Kingdom of V'ran to deliberately spread the Blood Curse in order to inflate their numbers come to light.
The remainder of the old noble houses and guilds blame the current course of actions upon the students of the 5 spheres, feeding ideological conflict on top of the already existing tensions
Now revealed, the Reborn Kingdom of V'ran accelerate their recruitment. Despite the dangers and side-effects, many are lured by promises of power and relative safety from the Blood Curse, especially those not magically inclined.
>>> Fights between the different factions in the streets of the capital escalate leading to a magical chain reaction causing the explosion of the Iridescent Tower and death of almost all magic users within the city's vicinity
Isolar, the Living Island reappears in the present

Iliana Sunshield is elected for life as Queen over the remaining provinces
The Human Condottiere Iliana Sunshield, is crowned in the new capital of Ildova as Queen, becoming the first ruler of the Kingdom without any magical ability
END

DESCRIPTIONS

The study of the 5 Spheres is the reformed way of interpreting magic. Magic is seen in terms of what "costs" a caster withstands, in every "sphere" his being reflects (The Movement of Matter, The Spirit of Nature, The Human Matrix, The Veiled Realm, The Beyond), rather than what it manipulates. Many old scholars (and especially the conservative ones, insisting on magic as an elite knowledge) frown at this reform.

The Guild of Necromancy - or officially the Guild of the Inner Light - was one of the original 13 Arcane Guilds, but in contrast to Necromancers in other parts of the world, the guild focused not only on death and undeath but also the healing and preservation of the spirit and the living body.

The Free Republic of Istion - also named the "free cities", the "Radiant" one, or simply Istion -is a mainly coastal territory ruled by an independent, oligarchic, state-city. Seafaring, marine commerce and trading and military / economic hegemony over several colonies / tributaries has made the Republic incredibly wealthy, and thus able to preserve independence. The city Bank wisely administers this wealth to generate more, borrowing and retrieving huge sums to (openly or secretly) sponsor this or that political power.

The Relation between the Guilds and the Nobility of the Inner Provinces at the time of Guild Wars was very complex. In general most Arcane Casters were members of one of the guilds but not all guild members were Arcane Casters. While not all or even a majority of nobles could cast magic, the noble families had to keep up the appearance of being part of an arcane bloodline - which were the basis of their claim to rule - so many became members of the guilds even though they lacked talent.

The Condottiers of Crownhill originated as a small military garrison to protect the strategically placed monastery of Mount Crownhill. Time passed and the monastic order fade away, but the warrior stayed, and found themselves without a master. They refused to be called "knights", because they saw the other knightly orders as little more then hounds in service a master, be it a noble house, guild, or rich men. They chose for themselves the name "Condottiers", and with it they adopted a moral code based on discipline, self-perfection and charity (reminiscent of the original way of the monks, somehow). They are either loved as holy protectors, or hated as holier-than-you hypocrites, with little shades in between.