Jordbani

"Of course we can open that up, but are you sure you really want to do that? It seems like a bad idea to me."

— John Bridleman, Foreman of the Jorathar City Underground Utilities Maintenance Crew #7

Cause

There is an entire class of human beings who have less wisdom than a kitten. They are typically over educated, and have no compunction about offering stupid ideas that if taken to their logical end states will result in mass disruption of societies, untold suffering, death and species extinction. They are arrogant and narcissistic, believing themselves to be superior to others. They consider themselves to be more intelligent, enlightened and informed than the rest of humanity, and they blatantly discard the thoughts and warnings of those they consider to be their inferiors to whom they act in an extremely patronizing way. They believe that they are somehow morally superior to others and that that they are always right and cannot fail.

In short, wizards.

Maybe not every wizard. Just a high percentage of them. And certainly all of them at the University of Jorathar Department of Elemental Studies and Research. Not a single one of those researchers even contemplated what negative effects might happen if the containment sheath of the earth leyline at the location formerly known as Jorathar City (now the Miorskrípi ) was broken. This, in spite of being told repeatedly by both their less prestigious colleagues at the University of Sandr, and their more prestigious colleagues at the University of Caledonia that breaking into the protective sheath of an earth leyline was potentially dangerous and required further study before attempting. With a dismissive letter of repudiation, convinced that they needed to move quickly in order to head off discoveries by competing researchers, the professors of Jorathar moved swiftly to secure their place in history.

Which they achieved.

The Jorathar City Municipal Underground Utilities Company was called and the hard sheath encapsulating the flowing magical leyline was breached. The leyline was under extreme pressure from flow through that area, and the resulting catastrophe destroyed the entire city of Jorathar from the initial explosion and a lateral shock wave. A volcano immediately formed at the breach site, and began spewing magically infused earth elemental dust (later named Magichem) into the atmosphere. This Plinean eruption lasted for three years, before the magma chamber collapsed. An entire chain of new volcanic mountains formed stretching north and south for a hundred miles in each direction from the original site, indicating that the leyline sheath, once breached, had unraveled and released magic which challenged the integrity of the planet's crust along the leyline. Eventually the disruption slowed and new pustules of magichem emitting volcanos stopped forming. The existing volcanos have become effusive and periodically erupt spewing hot magic laden lava onto the surface of Eryia forming the Miorskrípi or "center of horror", a place where humans who have lost the will to live go to become corrupted or die.

This was the cause of the Jordbani, the death of the world.

Consequences

The destruction of Jorathar City was an avoidable tragedy and blamed by commoners on wizards. While this blame was fair and true in the particular case of the Wizards of the University of Jorathar, it was unfair in it's generalization to all wizards, particularly those who had warned against the intended actions of the researchers at Jorathar. This was distinction was lost on the common man whose entire existence and future had been turned upside down by the irresponsible actions of wizards. The all too common contemptuous attitude of wizards for the common person did not help mitigate the resentment of most who felt they had a clear and justifiable reason to hate wizards.

Unfortunately, the real problem of the Jorbani was not actually the initial destruction of Jorathar City, the loss of a hundred million people, the loss of millions of acres of fertile agricultural land to uninhabitable lava fields, or even the buildup of active volcanoes that interrupted major trade routes across the continent. The real problem was the contamination of the entire continent's arable lands and fresh water sources with Magichem , the dust that causes Magichem Poisoning and the current in-process-of-happening extinction of the human race.

In addition to the sheer overwhelming impact of Magichem Poisoning on the human population, magic itself became somewhat unstable, with the outcome of the use of common magical items going from virtually 100% reliable to about 70% having desired outcomes. Of the 30% of unsuccessful outcomes, about 50% simply did nothing or accomplished benign but ineffective outcomes, 25% created negative work, and 25% created catastrophically bad outcomes. This made the use of magic inherently more unreliable and risky than it was prior to the Jordbani. Magic was still used as the Magitech it fueled was needed to support the billion person population of the continent, but humans became suspicious and resentful of it's efficacy, and began to look for alternatives to fill roles previously performed with magic items provided by wizards.

Since the Jorbani, Magichem poisoning has led to extremely shortened lifespans among humans, impaired fertility and upheaval in societal structures at an unprecedented level. These impacts include the overthrow of the central government, the establishment of local warlords and gang warfare, the widespread orphaning of children by the time they are twelve years of age, the re-wickering of family structures into tribal groups, economic collapse, widespread illiteracy and loss of life enhancing technology. This virtual collapse of all know societal structures and the immense impact on human longevity hss led to the Jordbani being referred to as "The Great Poisoning".

Those who offer hope are predominantly members and hierarchs of the Church of Sol who provide shelter and protection to wizards who are dedicated to finding cures for Magichem Poisoning or ways of effectively purifying food and drink of the toxic Magichem. The Church of Sol, though not the only religious organization in Eryia, is notable for its commitment to the people of Eryia demonstrated by providing education to the illiterate, salvaging and preserving the knowledge of the ancients, operating free medical establishments, caring for the hungry and ill, establishing protection of the vulnerable, and looking for economic opportunities and hope for a better future in the face of the howling barbarism that is modern Eryia.