The Sundering

It is said that the gods became tired of the many years of conflict between the dwarves and the elves that would be called the First Elder War and made the decision to split the continent in two to stop the fighting.  Mighty earthquakes struck the land, causing great fissures in the earths and move the two halves of the continent halves of the continent from each other.  The empty space was quickly filled with water.  This event causes much damage and destruction to the settlements of both the elves and the dwarves.  The gods left a small land bridge between the two continents in the south hoping that the two elder races could use it to communicate and trade without warfare.