Editing Continuity/Sendings of Darkness (section)

== Analysis: Empyrean Shadow War ==
We have two contradicting statements regarding the Empyrean Shadow War. According to Aerfalle, it is the second Sending, but according to  the Council of Sages it is the third Sending. We can evaluate the authenticity of of each statement on a few criteria:
# The in-universe sources of the statements.
# The number of sources for each statement.
# The date each statement was released.
# The overall impact on the timeline.

On the first criteria, the Empyrean War being the second Sending has more authenticity: Aerfalle's Letter and her statements in the teaser are both primary sources. The description of the pack doll was written by Isparian scholars and is a secondary source.

On the second criteria, the Empyrean War being the second Sending again has more authenticity: we have two sources stating that it was second Sending, while we only have one source stating it is the third.

On the third criteria, the Empyrean War being the third Sending has more authenticity: It was released the latest, and could have been an attempt at retcon.

On the forth criteria, the Empyrean War being the second Sending again has more authenticity: If the war is the second Sending, and we already know that the Isparian Shadow War is the fourth Sending, then logically, the third Sending had to occur between them - and that is an era we have a good deal of information on. On the other hand, if the Empyrean war was the third Sending, it does not help us determine what the first or second Sendings are.

=== Conclusion ===
It is the opinion of the [[user:An Adventurer|editor]] that the Empyrean Shadow War is the second Sending, for the following reasons:
* It comes from a primary source, Aerfalle, who lived through the Empyrean Shadow War.
* It helps us construct a more complete timeline.
* We cannot be certain if the pack doll text was an intentional attempt at retcon or simply a mistake.