Hundreds of years before the age of Galifar, this war established the recognized dragonmarked houses, and made those with aberrant dragonmarks an outcast people.

When dragonmarks began appear among the peoples of Khorvaire, they were wild and unknown magical phenomena. But as the numbers of the dragonmarked grew, they began to group and realize the connectivity of the people who manifested the marks (House dragonmarks are also usually identical). These groups eventually became the Houses. But a smaller percentage of marks did not fit into these categories; their marks were differently colored (often ominous colors like black and red), none of the marks were identical, and they produce different effects person by person, often tied to significantly dangerous powers. To consolidate their power (and remove “bad” dragonmarks from the public eye), the Houses classified these marks as “aberrant”, hunting down, imprisoning, excoriating, and even executing the mark bearers. This effort was also the first serious collaboration of the Twelve.

Eventually, these prosecuted people began to gather for protection and to fight back. The largest and most organized of these fell under the leadership of Halas Tarkanan, and they made their last stand in Sharn in 452 YK. When the Houses’ imminent victory became clear, Tarkanan and the other aberrant-marked unleashed their powers and destroyed the city. This disaster helped formalize the villainous reputation of the aberrant-marked, and today, the only semi-official grouping of aberrant-marked is House Tarkanan.