When the EWF leadership was assassinated in 1042, many of the dragon magics learned by the EWF ceased functioning. The immediate effect was drastic: Cities built with this magic began to crumble, the strange draconic crops (and all the harvests) turned into putrid slime just as if they had been carried out of the EWF, and the draconic husbandry fell ill and perished. The clans' magic that had been turned into draconic worship was lost.
It isn't absolutely clear what side-effects these assassinations had and how the ability to speak Auld Wyrmish was affected. The loss of the "favourable terrain" effect of the dragon dream had gone, and even with split tongues (and possibly, split braiins) only basics of Auld Wyrmish could be applied.
Not all dragon magic was affected, primarily those magics that built upon the chain of veneration within the pyramid scheme channeled through the draconic leaders fell apart. The rare cases of true draconic mystics and the individually acquired transformative spells of the Path of Immanent Mastery still may have had their powers, though in much weakened form since the terrain had become unfavourable. This may have allowed the people of the EWF to maintain their defenses for some time, and to aquire some non-draconic seedstock and herds after famine had claimed many of their numbers.
The immediate effect of the collapse must have been worse than the effect of the Irish potato famine. I would expect a death toll of about 40% of the Dragon Pass population, and another 30% of emigrees moving out of the region. I'm convinced that Enfrew's settlement of Suchara Vale (then a narrow strip on the Creek-Stream River) fell into this time, and that there was a huge influx of refugees into Nochet and Esrolia. Even Pavis may have seen refugees, despite its troubles with Jaldon's hordes.
Some might even taken to the Remakers to survive this catastrophe in any way, e.g. as pain centaurs.
Few clans would have survived this emigration intact, so there would be few collective clan memories of participation in the EWF.
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