The Red Tide. Originally, Marauders could only pillage settlements on the outskirts of civilization, as to reach the rest of the world, Marauder Bands had to build ships, which they were horrible at. They were blocked off from the rest of the world on land by Illos, a massive and powerful city.

After two years of apparent peace, Illos was besieged by an overwhelmingly large horde of Marauders. Normally if Marauders were attacking, the fortresses controlled by Illos towards the Marauder Lands could serve as warning, if not outright drive them back. The Marauder horde, known as the Red Tide, outright plowed through the forts -- all of them -- in just five hours. Only one dozen soldiers out of the eight hundred between all forts survived, and three of those survivors were able to return to Illos and warn them of the coming danger. Yet even when Illos was fully prepared two days before the battle, they only held off the horde for three days, before the city was razed to the ground. 3/10's of the population survived the battle, and the city's failure has exposed the entire world to the dangers once contained in one area of the world.