The Fallow Wars were a period in Albion history which started after the fall of the Old Kingdom and lasted for centuries until order was reestablished by the foundation of the Heroes' Guild by Nostro.
Mentions[]
The Fallow Wars, although not properly appearing in the gameplay of any Fable game, have been mentioned in many occasions.
Most of the knowledge regarding the Fallow Wars come from the Tales of Albion website, which told the history of Albion in the section Fragments of the Old Kingdom. Other mentions about the Wars are told by Theresa in Fable: The Journey and are indirecty mentioned in Fable TLC and in Fable III. The Wars would be properly addressed in the cancelled game Fable: Legends and its companion novel Fable: Blood of Heroes.
History[]
Fall of the Old Kingdom[]
In the last years of the Old Kingdom, the first Spire – a giant tower built to channel the kingdom’s magic – started to gather way to much willpower, and thus, started to open the rift between the main world and the dimension of corruption called the Void.
Before both realities collapsed, the three mighty heroes of that time worked together and destroyed the Spire. However, this caused a massive explosion of power that completely wiped out the Old Kingdom, ultimately destroying it. Only a few portion of the world’s population survived these events.
The Fallow Wars[]
After the fall of the Old Kingdom, the few villages that survived fell into isolation and Albion was plunged into a state of anarchy. Without a central government, the settlements drifted apart and became self-sufficient communities ruled by a local chieftain or duke. Trade with nations beyond the borders became little more than a distant memory. The regions in between the city-states, including those which would become the Edgelands, Greatwood, and Witchwood, contained numerous Old Kingdom structures and ruins, where scavengers found and traded ancient objects as mere trinkets. In time, the forests grew over the ruins, and it was as if the rich heritage of Old Albion had never existed.
The population dwindled, and those who survived would wake each day to a darker world. Distance bred suspicion which grew into bloodshed. Villagers fought for food, land, livestock, and fresh water. Soon, they were even fighting over women of child-bearing age. Mercenaries sold their sword to the highest bidder and fought in a series of petty squabbles. If they did not like the price being offered, they extracted payment by threatening villagers. The Fallow Wars had begun, an age of darkness and blood which would bring Albion very close to extinction.
Nostro and the Creation of the Heroes Guild[]
Nostro hailed from the East as a young bandit who was driven by his ambition to make a mark on the world. Following this desire, he came to the lands of Albion, a once-mighty land that had fallen into anarchy, distrust, and bloodshed following the fall of the Old Kingdom. Despite being a bandit and mercenary, the young Nostro was not without a sense of decency, but could not reach his full potential until he met a man named Scythe. Scythe saw in Nostro the power of the Archon and his descendants, the former masters of the Old Kingdom, and believed that with proper guidance, Nostro could perhaps even unite Albion and undo the damage that Archon's children inflicted. With Scythe as his teacher, Nostro founded the Heroes' Guild, and using his newly taught powers of Will, he raised an army and enforced peace on Albion's people. With this, the Fallow Wars, which were already diminishing since Nostro’s arrival, finally came to an end.
The Absence of Heroes[]
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Attention: Fable Legends Content This section contains information mainly related to Fable Legends and is considered canon to such game. Due to Fable Legends’ cancelation on 7th March 2016, its canonicity status within the Fable series is uncertain. |
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Attention: Novel Content This article or section contains information original to the novel Fable: Blood of Heroes, which is a licensed Fable work, but does not necessarily conform to Lionhead's Fable canon. |
The Fallow wars were indeed a period of anarchy and bloodshed that lasted for centuries and tainted Albion’s history; however, the absence of heroes and their influence during most of the early period of the Wars was remarkable odd, due to the fact that if even ordinary people had survived the fall of the Old Kingdom, what has happened with the heroic bloodlines that would also have survived?
Fable: Blood of Heroes[]
The novel Fable: Blood of Heroes, which is set at the time of the cancelled game Fable Legends, reveals that during the first centuries of the Fallow Wars, most of the heroes that would appear in Albion were hunt down and eaten by the cannibal witch Yog, who had also survived the fall of the Old Kingdom and feasted on heroes to absorb their powers.
Yog’s actions were directly related to the duration of the Fallow Wars, as Albion would remain in anarchy for as long as she remained killing every hero that appeared, preventing order to be stabilized.
It was only after the lesser-known hero William Grayrock cursed the witch - turning her unable to consume other heroes – that Albion would become “safe enough” for heroes to start reappearing in larger numbers.
Fable Legends[]
Centuries after Yog was cursed, near the end of the Fallow Wars period, just before the Guild’s foundation, there was a relatively great number of people with heroic blood in Albion, and some of these had already manifested themselves as heroes.
The first attempt of stabilizing the New Heroes Age was made by King Wendleglass I, the ruler of the town of Brightlodge, who summoned the heroes in his town. However, this attempt was flustered by the attack of the Lady of Rosewood, and the lack of organization quickly led to the disband of the heroes, who, at the time, acted alone pursuing their separate goals.
An unknown time later the foundation of the Guild by Nostro would unite all the heroes in Albion for good.
Known Events During the Fallow Wars[]
Some of the known main events that happened during the period of the Fallow Wars were directly mentioned in the games.
The Founding of the Enlightened[]
The Enlightened was an order of great seers, sorcerers and the followers of the Three Heroes that had destroyed the Spire causing the destruction of the Old Kingdom. The Enlightened collected the willstones that were formed after the heroes died in the Spire’s explosion and guarded them in hidden temples, until the day, as they predicted, Albion would need their power again.
The Lupine Wars[]
The Lupine Wars were an unseen event that took place around the period of the Fallow Wars. The only mention of such war is found the description of the Wolfsbane sword, which was forged at the time.
| “ | It is said that this sword was forged by wolves during the great Lupine Wars over a thousand years ago. — Wolfsbane's description |
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Necropolis[]
The unnatural destruction of one of the few major towns of Albion by dark forces, which originated the ghost-town known as Necropolis, in the Northern Wastes, happened in the early centuries of the Fallow Wars.
The Burying of the Oracle's Glyphs[]
At some point during the Fallow Wars period, Snowspire Village and its Oracle was under imminent attack, so the four Glyphs that allowed one to comunicate with the Oracle were buried in the Necropolis, and there they remained, until the Hero of Oakvale was sent to retrieve them.
The Creation of the Churches[]
Both the two main religious temples depicted on the first game, the Temple of Avo and the Chapel of Skorm, were founded during the Fallow Wars, around four centuries before the events of Fable.