Fall of the Age of Wonders

The Fall of the Age of Wonders was the catastrophic conflict that destroyed the great civilization of the ancient world and fundamentally reshaped the planet.

The conflict began with the rediscovery of the The Five Gifts and ultimately resulted in the creation of six new gods, the destruction of much of the civilized world, the separation of Demmazon's Realm from the mortal world, and the loss of the pervasive magic that had sustained the Age of Wonders.

Rediscovery of the Gifts

The Five Gifts had been lost or hidden following the Korvak War.

Near the end of the Age of Wonders, the Gifts began to reappear.

Correries obtained the Red Gift and used its power to begin conquering the world. Forces opposed to Correries eventually obtained other Gifts and began resisting him.

The struggle became increasingly focused upon locating the remaining Gifts before the opposing side could obtain them.

The conflict eventually drew in much of the civilized world.

Correries' Ascendancy

Correries used the power of his Gift to create and empower forces to serve his growing dominion.

His actions were associated with the creation of the orcs and undead and with the corruption of the elves that ultimately produced the drow, later known as the Dark Elves.

Ulanthar assisted Correries with experiments involving the elves. Eventually Ulanthar discovered how to make the experiments successful, resulting in the creation of elves whose evil was fundamental rather than merely imposed upon them.

The conflict became particularly severe around Seratollia.

At the same time, both sides continued searching for the remaining Gifts.

The Gifts Become Weapons of Ascension

The Gifts were more than powerful weapons.

During the conflict, Correries discovered a way to absorb the power of a Gift directly into himself.

The process transformed him beyond the limits of a mortal and began his ascension to godhood.

The forces opposing Correries were led by Magerris, keeper of the The Aegisstaff. Magerris ultimately concluded that the only way to oppose Correries was to undertake the same transformation.

Magerris absorbed Gift power and became a god.

The remaining Gift power was divided among allies on both sides, resulting in the ascension of:

• Krom
• Tarmikos
• Ulanthar
• Milaynee

Together with Correries and Magerris, these six became the new gods whose conflict would destroy the old world.

The Six Gods

The newly ascended gods possessed power far beyond that of ordinary mortals.

Their conflict continued on a scale that the mortal world could not withstand.

The six gods fought one another, and the forces unleashed in their battles shook the world.

The devastation was not the wrath of Demmazon, as later traditions would sometimes claim.

The breaking of the world was caused by the battle between the newly created gods.

The Breaking of the World

The conflict between the six gods caused enormous physical destruction.

The great civilizations of the Age of Wonders were shattered.

Rictaria was destroyed when a mountain rose beneath the city during a battle between Magerris and Correries. That mountain became known as Godsmount.

Aegea was ultimately destroyed and swallowed by the sea.

Menasta was eventually destroyed in its war against the undead and demons emerging from Demon's Horn.

The elves suffered enormous losses during the conflict and the subsequent struggle between the good elves and the drow.

The world itself was permanently altered.

The Separation of Demmazon's Realm

The devastation caused by the six gods eventually forced Demmazon to intervene.

The connection between the mortal world and Demmazon's Realm had existed since the creation of the Five Gifts. It had allowed the world to draw upon the magical environment associated with Demmazon's realm.

Demmazon ultimately separated the realm from the mortal world.

The separation was catastrophic.

The old connection disappeared, the world was physically transformed, and the pervasive ambient magic that had characterized the Age of Wonders was lost.

The world that remained was no longer capable of sustaining the civilization that had existed before the Fall.

The Loss of Magic

The end of the Age of Wonders did not mean that all magic ceased to exist.

Dedicated magic users could still wield magic.

What disappeared was the pervasive magical environment that had existed during the Age of Wonders.

Much of the civilization's magical technology depended upon that environment. Without it, many of the systems that had supported the old civilization ceased to function.

The great magical civilization therefore could not simply rebuild itself after the war.

Its knowledge survived in fragments, but the conditions that had allowed that knowledge to produce the wonders of the old world were gone.

The End of the Great Kingdoms

The great kingdoms did not all meet the same fate.

Toreon survived and became the only major human kingdom of the old age to remain.

Aegea, Rictaria, and Menasta were destroyed.

The great elven kingdoms of Alliandea and Seratollia were devastated by the Fall and the conflicts surrounding it.

The dwarves of Krondos eventually withdrew from the surface world.

The Travel Gates ceased functioning after the realms were separated and the pervasive magic of the old world disappeared.

The civilization that had connected the great kingdoms therefore fragmented.

The Gap of Otheron

One of the lasting physical scars of the era was the enormous mountain pass later known as The Gap, and much later as Oath's Gap.

During an early clash between Magerris and Correries, both still mortal, Magerris was carrying the White Gift when he was knocked unconscious.

Otheron, one of the Heroes of Aegea, picked up the loose Gift without understanding its power.

He unleashed a blast from it at Correries, but Correries dodged with the aid of his own Gift.

The blast tore a trench miles long through the mountains.

The resulting feature became known as the Gap of Otheron, later remembered as Oath's Gap.

This event involved the White Gift only.

Later accounts that combine this event with a separate battle involving the Red and Blue Gifts are incorrect and should not be treated as the history of the Gap.

The End of the Age

The Fall marked the end of the civilization that had defined the ancient world.

The surviving peoples entered a radically different era without the magical infrastructure, political unity, or technological capabilities that had characterized the Age of Wonders.

The old kingdoms became ruins, legends, or fragments of surviving civilization.

The Gifts themselves continued to shape history, but the civilization that had created the world in which they once existed was gone.

The world that followed the Fall was the beginning of the long historical period that eventually led to the civilizations of later campaigns.