War of the Scrivs

A holy war [...] a very quiet, circumspect crusade where each side was sure they were protecting the immortal soul of the Archives.

– Fela

The War of the Scrivs occurred about 50 years before the events of The Name of the Wind. The "war" started after the University went through four new Master Archivists within five years causing the scrivs to split into factions, each firmly believing that their cataloging system was the best. The war continued for almost fifteen years and would probably still be going if Tolem's scrivs hadn't managed to steal the Larkin ledger books, effectively ending the conflict .

Casualties

While there was no known loss of life during the War of the Scrivs, an estimated 200,000 books were lost when the Larkin ledger-books were burned. An unknown number were permanently lost during the war due to factions stealing and hiding the books they cataloged.