The history of Mandaria goes back almost three hundred years, to when the first King, Gallion the Brave, united the dozen scattered city states that proceeded Mandaria into one kingdom. But for our purposes we need only recount the events of the past eighteen years, with the accension to the throne of King Gultane Deltorre, and the Holy War against the Witches of Donelan that followed. The Maidens of Donelan, as the Witches were called before the war, had been in existance for almost as long as Mandaria itself. At first a small sect, the order had gained great prominence by the time of Gultane's accession to the throne. Their strange magical powers were well known, and much good forture had been attributed to them, rightly or wrongly, by the common people. Whenever one of the Maiden's died, the next female infant born in the city was taken into the order. Though the child was taken from her parents, it was considered a great honor. The powers the order wielded was said by some to be comparable to the King. Indeed, the order had always held a special place in the kingdom, and even the king himself in past times had been said to hold them in deference.
But this did not sit well with King Gultane. A man of great vanity who had always had a lust for power, now that he had obtained it he was loath to share it with anyone. Shortly after coming to power he began a campaign to discredit the Maidens of Donelan. With the help of religous leaders whom he promised rich rewards, he had rumors spread that the Maidens were really a coven of witches, plotting against the people and even planning to overthrow the king so as to have one of their own placed in his stead. At first most people dismissed these rumors, for the Maidens had always been helpful to the people. But given time and the constant barrage of these rumors, even sensible people began to become suspicious that there might be some truth to them.
Eventually, when the King thought he had enough support, he openly charged the Maidens with heresay, demanding they submit to an Inquisition. Knowing that the Inquistioner was a King's man, (Or perhaps to incite things further, for no one is sure exactly when she turned against her own) Irissa Cardone, the High Priestess of the Maidens, refused. This led to the Inquistioner declaring them all guilty in absentia, branding them as witches, and allowing the King to order their arrest.
The Maidens were protected by the Knights of the Sacred Heart. This group had been formed under King Daclomar the Third after the Maidens had aided him in his war against a neigboring kingdom. The Knights were an elite group, some of the best fighters in the kingdom, but there were never very many of them. They were more symbolic than an actual fighting force. The King ordered the knights to bring the recalcatrant women in for justice.
The Knights had pledged loyalty to the Maidens, but they also had taken an oath of fealty to the King. As a result they were faced with a difficult choice, for they would have to turn against one or the other. Each made his own choice, some siding with the King, and some remaining loyal to the Maidens. When those remaining loyal to the Maidens refused to hand them over, the King ordered them to be taken by force, and thus the Holy War against the Witches of Donalen commenced.
Though the Knights who had remained loyal to the maidens were outnumbered, many of the common people had been helped by the Maidens and were sympathetic to their cause. They provided supplies and in many cases ill trained troops that nevertheless proved essential to the survival of the Maiden's and those fighting for them. And the Stronghold of Donelan, where the Maidens lived, was built on a nearly unassailable mountaintop, so much so that even the few troops they had at hand could easily defend it against a horde. Instead of a quick victory, which Gultane had expected, the war dragged on for almost three years with no end in sight.
But the constant warfare was taking it's toll. Irissa Cardone eventually came to the conclusion that the Maiden's would be defeated. She sent secret messangers to the King saying that she would turn over the other Maiden's with a promise of clemency for herself. The King accepted and a plan was hatched between the two.
Irissa told the leader of the Knights of the Sacred Heart, Talamar Tromone, that a lightly defended convoy of supplies would be passing close to the stronghold on it's way to Teklos, supplies that they badly needed. Talamar took the bait and sent most of his force out onto the plain to intercept the convoy, leading it himself and leaving a promising young leutenent, Ktan Hammerlane, in charge of the defense of the fortress. But the convoy was a ruse, and Talamar soon found himself in a desperate struggle against a superior force. From the stronghold, Ktan could observe the battle, and when he saw that Talamar was in trouble, he led a contingency of Knights out to the field himself, believing that the force he left behind was still enough to hold off any attack that might be made on the stronghold directly. But that was not the end of Irissa betrayal. She also led the King's Knights into the fortress through a secret passage. Taken by surprise from inside the stronghold the defenders were quickly defeated. The King's orders were to kill everyone found inside with fortress with the exception of Irissa, and this order was carried out immediately. All the Maidens were ruthlessly slain. But the Maidens that very day had taken in an infant who had just been initiated into their order. The knight who came upon the child could not bring himself to kill her, and instead left the infant in the now burning fortress, figuring the fire would do the work for him.
On the battlefield, the appearence of Ktan and his troops turned the tide of battle. But even as the enemy fell back in retreat, Talamar turned and saw the glow of flames from within the stronghold. They rode back as fast they could, but it was too late. By the time they returned the fortress was a smoldering ruin and all the Maidens were dead. In his grief, Ktan wandered among the ruins, and it was then he came upon the child, miraculously unhurt. Without a word to anyone he took the child and left the stronghold.
With the Maidens all dead, the Knights of the Sacred Heart had nothing left to fight for. They disbanded soon after, thus effectively ending the war. But before they did, they stripped Ktan of his Knighthood for abandoning his post, and declared him an outlaw to their order.