Sacking of Luminaria (Lorica)

Nomadic Raids and the Sacking of Luminaria
While the mage-priests of Luminarism ensured that they were the only ones capable of using magic in all their territory, thereby preventing technological advancement, the same could not be said of the nomadic tribes of the Expanse. They improved their weaponry and their horse husbandry, and struck at luminances throughout Origina, both to the northeast and to the south, as well as retreating to the northwest when the luminarates sent their slower armies in pursuit. Over the course of several hundred years, roughly 1600-2000 AL, the several nomadic tribes attacked more or less unhindered by the mage-priests, who were too few to use their spells to mount an effective resistance. Great stretches of land were pillaged, countless villages destroyed, eroding the power and political support of the mage-priests who were seen as losing the mandate of the deities. The raids culminated in a daring nomadic attack through the great desert, straight into the heart of Luminarian power, in a surprise attack on the religion’s holy city of Luminaria. The mage-priests were caught unawares; a third of all mage-priests in the world were killed that day, including its leadership, and the luminance of Luminarium, of which Luminaria was its capital, collapsed.