The Fractioning

Alucar, the Human Pinnacle, would often visit Starhelm to spend time with his most senior priest. He came to her in many different manifestations but she always knew it was he. Eventually he began to visit her as a man and they would walk for hours, talking of the world and their place in it. She marveled at the golden age that was upon them and often lamented having to die for she so loved the world and Alucar.
Alucar found her to be everything he wanted in a mate. She was sensitive and kind, strong and ambitious, confident and whimsical. His affection for her grew until it finally blossomed into love. It was Alucar's fervent wish for her to become his wife but her mortality was a problem. She refused his request to marry unless she could be immortal and divine like him, otherwise their love would stagnate and die. Loathe to lose her Alucar came upon a radical plan to infuse her with divinity. Looking to the past he thought about the success they had stripping Flane, the Avariel , of his divinity. Alucar surmised that if he could do the same thing in reverse he could infuse his love with the divine spark.
By fortune or divine circumstance his desire to obtain the crown reached Flane's ears. A plot hatched in his dark heart and he knew the time had come to exact his revenge on one of his enemies. Through a series of machinations Flane arranged for the crown to reach Alucar. It was Alucar's pride that allowed him to think he had schemed his way into the possession of the crown, but it was Flane who had orchestrated it from the beginning.
With the crown as his own, Alucar and some highly trusted advisors began working on a way to reverse the effects and give his wife-to-be divinity and immortality. For months they worked, never tiring until finally they came upon the secret. A special day was set and there was to be a grand ceremony in her honour. Alucar would place the crown on her head with all the nobles and the citizenry in attendance. So confident was he in his ability and plan that he never once thought there could be calamity.
As the day finally arrived both Alucar and his love were giddy with anticipation. Their love would last forever and they would be an inspiration to the world about how love conquers all, even death. In the centre of the city there was constructed a great open temple and all the senior priests and nobles stood at their lord’s side, marveling at his greatness. Alucar looked deeply into the eyes of his betrothed and with an incantation started the process. The crown glowed with a white hot blaze and as he finished he placed it onto her head.
The white hot fire seared her scalp and her joy turned to sudden agony as the flame started to course down her face and into her body. Alucar, horrified at this turn of events quickly tried to remove the crown but it would not budge. He called upon his great strength and finally pulled it from her head but the damage had already been done and Flane's revenge was set in motion. A divine explosion burst through Alucar and the twelve gems that had once represented the twelve floating cities of the Avariel ripped through him, shattering him into twelve separate entities. He was scattered across the continent, his divine essence dividing equally.
Alucar's love stood frozen, unable to move or process anything. Her skin began to shrivel, her hair turned white, and her colour was that of cold, cracked stone. The explosion that followed incinerated all in Starhelm and much of the surrounding countryside, but the blast was so powerful that it resonated across the entire continent. The settlements of Seven Tribes to the north was destroyed as the quakes tumbled every single building in the area. The fields of Goldensheaf in the south were razed and salted at once, as the city itself burned in a matter of hours.
To the west the shockwave was so powerful that it ripped Avandar asunder and much of it separated from the mainland, eventually settling a few miles out to sea. Separated from its inland harbour and fortress of Brightwave, Avandar grew sullen and struggled to maintain order. The only Human city to survive relatively unscathed was Essillion to the east. Well protected by the mountains, Essillion felt the shock but did not endure lasting damage. The Dwarves and Halflings to the east were also unscathed, though understandably concerned. Essillion was now cut off from the rest of the continent, as all paths and roads to Starhelm and Avandar were destroyed.
The divine essence that flowed from the crown did not kill Alucar's mate, and it certainly did not work as expected, but it did achieve one thing - it gave her immortality, of a sorts. Neither alive nor dead, Alucar's beloved found herself alone with the corpses of the citizens of Starhelm. Unsure what to do she wandered around aimlessly, beyond shock and horror. At first she did not even notice the crown at her feet, bereft of its jewels. She looked at the bodies and wondered why they did not turn to ash. And where was Alucar, she wondered. As she came back to the site of the explosion her foot nudged the crown. She looked down, blankly, confused by her new reality. When she saw the crown a wicked smile crept across her face and she bent down and picked it up.
‘I am the Witch Queen of Starhelm,’ she crowed to the sky. ‘Bow down to me all who would oppose me. I shall rule this world as intended. The Gods will not have their victory this day’. As she placed the crown on her head the gem sockets began to glow and the corpses began to move and animate. Shuffling to life these zombies gathered to her side, unable to speak but their intent was clear. They would follow her forever.

The cataclysmic event of the destruction of Alucar, the creation of the Shards, and the upheaval of the continent of Starhelm.