The Rift

The Rift is the tear in the magicthreads that separate Necrovar's prison, The Etherworld, from Selaras.   During the many long years of his imprisonment, Necrovar grew steadily stronger, despite the fact that he was bound in a realm that was intended to drain him of power and life. In the Seventh Age, when humans created a magical imbalance on Selaras and the planet was in a weakened and vulnerable state, Necrovar struck upon his prison, and he ripped a hole in the fabric of spacetime itself. He tore asunder the threads of the spell that had created the Etherworld, and through this hole he saw Selaras once more.   Though Necrovar's body was not free, he was able to exert his influence upon Selaras through the Rift. During the Eighth Age the humans became aware of this, and they attempted numerous spells and efforts to repair the Rift and ensure Necrovar remained imprisoned. These efforts failed, and the Rift remained.   Though Necrovar gained strength over the intervening ages, he was never able to exact the sort of catastrophic harm he unleashed during The Great War. Thus, the mortal races of Selaras settled into a wary sort of complacency: while they knew Necrovar still existed, still watched them, they also knew he would never fully be able to return to Selaras while the spell of the Etherworld remained intact.   Since the Rift was never meant to be, and was in fact deemed an impossibility by the gods, scholars are unsure how to classify this magical phenomena. As the Rift technically connects two different dimensions, some have referred to it as a wormhole.   For information on what happened to the Rift during the Twelfth Age of Selaras, see The Shadow War.