The First Wizard's War was the conflict between those Mages within Atlantis that wanted to use the Celestial Ladder in order to achieve godhood and those who opposed this hubris. Those who would later become the Exarchs won and ascended through the ladder into the Realms Supernal and established themselves as rulers of the world. Those who opposed them were terrified by their new power and the havoc they wreaked upon creation and assaulted Atlantis, climbed the Ladder themselves and fought the Exarchs within their own realms.