Winter's Treachery

"My family has worked to protect the magic society for 30 generations. They were admired and adored. Then one person, ONE member of the family turns out to be a black sheep. And suddenly all my family achieved, all they stood for, is for naught. Suddenly, 'treachery and treason are in my blood'." - Lycia Wintergale

Winter's Treachery is the term given by the magic society to the events between 1999 and 2004, when a couple of massive magic events, as well as several smaller events, caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Mundanes. These events had to be contained and mitigated by Wardens from all over the world and massive memory manipulations had to be pulled off to hide their true origin.

Summary

When Mafalda Wintergale's treachery was uncovered, Wardens from all over the world, including most active members of the Wintergale family, hunted her and her allies. They worked to reclaim the artifacts she had stolen and to mitigate the damage caused.

The laws, rules and regulations concerning interaction and trade with the Mundane society were severely tightened, causing families like the Clearwater family to loose the majority of their source of income.

Many Magi believed that Mafalda could not have been responsible all on her own and blamed the Wintergale family as a hole. The family was ostracised and the members had to go into hiding to avoid attempts at revenge.

Mafalda's treachery, as well as the time between 1999 and 2004 eventually became known as Winter's Treachery.

Events

The most massive events were

• 19th August 1999 - Kocaeli Province, Turkey An outbreak of uncontrollable energy caused the ground to shake and break open. The event caused around 18,000 deaths and was disguised as a normal eartquake of magnitude 7.6, known as the 1999 İzmit earthquake.
• February-March 2000, Mozambique Freak weather magic caused the unusually long-living cyclone dubbed Leon-Eline. Before Eline's landfall, floods had already killed 150 people. The heavy rainfalls of the cyclone made things significantly worse, disturbing the relief efforts, destroying over 250,000 ha of crop fields, killing 40,000 cattle and around 550 people. A total of about 329,000 people lost their homes.
• 26th January 2001 - Gujarat, India A magic distortion of extreme magnitude killed around 20,000 people. The event was disguised as an earthquake of magitude 7.6, now known as the 2001 Gujarat earthquake or Bhuj earthquake.
• 26th December 2004 - northern Sumatra, Indonesia A momentary convergence between our world and an Anþerwelt caused a massive tsunami to hit the surrounding coasts of the indian ocean, killing almost 228,000 people. The source of the tsunami was disguised as a major earthquake of magnitude 9.1-9.3 and is known as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

Aftermath

The Wintergale family had lost a lot of reputation because of Mafalda's treachery. However, for some this was not enough. The Clearwater family suffered the consequences of these events on an economic level when new laws were introduced, increasing regulation of trade with Mundanes. Since this was the primary means of income for the Clearwater family, they lost most of that almost overnight. Enraged and blaming the Wintergales for their misfortune, they continuously agitated and instigated the people. Eventually, around 4 years after the events of Winter's Treachery, the Wintergales saw no other choice than to separate and go into hiding.