Started and ended a war today

I worked mostly on the definition of Sabria's magic today. I had to clarify the differences between the popular perception of magic, the truth of magic, and the new truth of magic that we are going to learn throughout the series. That isn't always easy, especially when I'm trying to avoid the magical structures that I've used in other books. I figure that if I overlap with other books that are out there, that's unfortunate, but it's not intentional. If I overlap with myself, I'm cheating.

Anyway, I needed to understand why the power that drove Sabria's magic was failing, and how sorcerers got in the position where they. . . well, into a fairly ambiguous position in society. On one hand they live under some annoying legal restrictions, yet they have managed to squiggle their fingers into every pie, and now the status quo is changing out from under them. This meant I had to look to Sabria's distant past, and I discovered feudal Europe (not that this is Europe) where the powerful lords holed up in their castles were sorcerers, possessing books listing their family's spells and children who could be used as-- Well, I don't want to reveal spoilers, which could change dramatically over the next year - only process. The result of my musing was the Blood Wars - a century or so of systematic, magic-fueled violence. [Carol rapidly switches back and forth between her "nature of magic section" and "history" section.] The accord which ended this war [must find a name] installed a system which led to the more modern state of Sabria as we know it in the story, as well as laying a foundation for some of the very problems [oh, yes, some of them would be nasty] we will incur. Cool.

But if the perception of magic is such a formative force in Sabrian society, what is its relationship to religion? Oops. This is a topic I have studiously avoided so far, but which can't be ignored in any real society. I think that's tomorrow...