The Calamity

Construction beginning/end

The battle between Exandira and the Gods versus the Primordials

No record remains of the terrible war that followed, but its effects are still felt today. The sheer magnitude of the energies unleashed in the ensuing battles of gods and mortals alike was enough to fray the boundaries holding back the elemental chaos, spilling unbridled destruction into the world. It completely rearranged the known flow of magical ley energy across Exandria. The dark kingdom of Ghor Dranas was brought to ruin, but the conflict devastated Exandria’s peoples, reducing most cities to ash, inspiring in many a desire to flee from this plane of existence entirely. So great was the loss of life during the war that historians believe no more than a third of Exandria’s population survived, leaving the only remaining bastion of civilization: the Dawn City itself, Vasselheim. The world entered a long, dark period of recovery, when history had to be recovered and purpose had to be restored. The Betrayer Gods were banished once more to their realms of deception and hate, but the threat of their return weighed heavily on the world. The Prime Deities felt that their involvement in mortal conflict was to blame for the cataclysmic damage inflicted upon Exandria. They knew that while the divine gateways were left open, the prison planes that held the banished Betrayers would remain imperfect and temporary.     Thus, in hopes of ensuring such ruin would not befall Exandria again, they left their children to fend for themselves within and beyond the walls of Vasselheim. The Prime Deities returned to their own realms, dragging both Betrayer and Abomination with them and sealing the pathways to the mortal realm behind them with the Divine Gate. Only in this way could they prevent their corrupted brethren from physically returning to the material plane. Sadly, for the Prime Deities, this action also carried with it a self-imposed sentence of exile. They would henceforth never be allowed to visit Creation. The disappearance of the gods is known by many names: “The Second Spark” for those who study the arcane; “The Penance” for those who seek closeness to their gods; but the most common name for this time of warfare and separation is “The Divergence,” and it marked the end of the Age of Arcanum. Much time has passed since, and the world has been reborn once again. The gods still exhibit their influence and guidance from beyond the Divine Gate, bestowing their knowledge and power to their most devout worshipers, but the path of mortals is now their own to make. New cities, kingdoms, and cultures have retaken the world, built over the ashes of the old. New songs fill the air, and the hope of a brighter future drives people day after day, while buried ruins and forgotten relics remind all people of a darker time of mistakes that should never be repeated.