The Sunfade

[quote]...And so the world plunged into darkness. Rivers and lakes froze solid for years. Creatures from man's earliest primordial nightmares stalked the land in search of prey. And the cold and bitter wind would sometime rise and freeze men solid where they stood. Man was pushed to his breaking point, and as twenty years of ceaseless Howling Winter brought him to the brink, it was a simple spark that would pull him back.[/quote|Account of the Third Rona, 245 of the Age of Flame.]   The Sunfade is an ill-understood cataclysmic event that occurred many centuries ago. It is speculated that for twenty years the entire known world was covered in a thick cloud cover, and was kept in a state of the persistent night while the Unseelie Fae emerged from the North Pole. Humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction and there is still very little recorded knowledge as to how man survived in these conditions. Worse understood is the origins of the catastrophe. Theories range from an astrological alignment to the misuse of Arcane Magic, a power rediscovered over 400 years after the Sunfade.   Occasionally, while traveling through The North Marches, settlers will find pre-Sunfade ruins buried under several feet of snow and ice. It is believed that similar ruins may lie further south, buried underneath layers of snow, ice, and permafrost. These ancient ruins usually contain remnants of glass, ceramics, steel, and elaborate and longstanding stonework. The Wright Insitute of Natural Science has started to excavate these ruins in recent years, as well as search for any additional ruins in the south to find additional words to add to the Arcane Lexicon. In the past, the Rona has hinted to posses a full knowledge of the events of the Sunfade but has continuously chosen not to share it with the denizens of the Kingdoms, opting to focus on the future rather than be dragged down by the cataclysms of old.