Chapter VI · Timeline and Events
The Dark Sunder
It was supposed to be the runekar's greatest gift to the world: instant travel from one end of the continent to the other. Instead it tore the world open, and the world has been bleeding ever since.
What Happened
In a monumental effort, the runekar worked together to create a new way to travel. If it had worked, it would have allowed instant teleportation across the land. The first trial took place near what is now Ashborne City. Instead of linking to the intended destination, the portal opened a link to the alternate reality where the broken exspiratis lived. The result was a cataclysm that ripped through dimensions and began a new era, known ever since as the Dark Sunder.
The blending of the two realities distorted the land, forming volcanic and polar regions in the area now called the Fiend's Chasm. One side of the Chasm pulled the heat from the other, creating rivers of lava in the west and solid ice in the east.
Consequences
Fibrolite
The blending of the two dimensions created fibrolite, a rare material that revolutionized technology. Fibrolite can store aetheric patterns, and those patterns can be complex enough to include logic. Every mechanoid, souldriven and engine since has depended on it.
The Exspiratis
For the first time, the exspiratis could reach into Eldriloch. They still can't touch the world without a host, but the veil around the Chasm is thin, and in places it is torn.
The Ashen
The ashen were born as a new kind of people. Because the Fiend's Chasm is so inhospitable, mining fibrolite requires the help of the exspiratis, which makes the ashen essential to the harvest.
A Ban and an Apology
Using aether and flux together was banned after the Sunder, and no one has dared build another portal since. The runekar built the runekar rail as their apology.