Frostcreep Erupts

Disaster / Destruction

Once a lush jungle, some unspeakable act caused frost and snow to slowly spread, strangling the wildlife, and causing the halflings to flee.

Halflings had seized the opportunity provided by their absentee masters and began absorbing as much magical knowledge and power as possible. City after impressive city rose out of the jungle canopy, but with little outside threat to unify them, infighting came quickly. More and more dangerous magics were unleashed, until the phenomenon known only as the Frostcreep caused all to put aside thoughts of war and see to their own safety. Fleeing their once vibrant homeland, now a frozen hell, the haflings spread across the world, looking for a new place to claim as their own.
The ice continued to slowly devour the land, halted only through the ingenuity of the gnomes of the barrow warrens in conjunction with the Mage-King of the time. Powerful bastions were erected atop the line of mountains that separated their lands, with arcane cannons belching fire and smoke almost constantly to keep back the cold.