Spellplague

Disaster / Destruction

As Mystra was killed by Cyric by order from Shar, the Weave of magic was destroyed, resulting in a catastrophe spreading throughout Realmspace.

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The Spellplague was caused by the death of Mystra, the goddess of Magic, by the hand of Cyric. For aeons, magic had been bound within Mystra's Weave, the universal structure of arcane forces, and her death tore the Weave apart and unleashed the raw magic contained within it, creating the cataclysm that was later known as the Spellplague. However, it is unknown as to why similar things never happened the previous two times the goddess was killed.   The prevailing theory is that the Weave was corrupted by Cyric's madness as dark energies brought by Shar in an attempt to control the force herself. This resulted in the Weave becoming a physical manifestation that tore the world asunder.  

The Plague

Mystra's death caused the Weave to collapse and without the Weave the Shadow Weave was unable to be maintained and collapsed as well. The breakdown of the Weave was felt by all wizards across Faerûn. The corrupted madness of Cyric defiled what arcane forces remained from the dissolution of the Weave, resulting in a new magical source of defiling arcane energy. And since the Spellplague was born from the defiling powers from the Far Realm, a plane that existed outside of Realmspace, not even Lord Ao had the power to stop it once it started.  

The Storm of Blue Fire

The Spellplague manifested in Toril as a storm of blue flames in the Mhair Jungles, west of Halruaa, and quickly grew to a massive size. Halruaan wizards, having divined the death of Mystra and the destruction of the Weave, were able to use the energy of the blue fire to save most of their kingdom by shifting it into another world, Abeir. However, the remaining Halruaan lands in Toril were laid to waste due to the heavy wild magic activity in the area, in such a catastrophic way that the explosion was felt as far as Waterdeep. Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the Nagalands were also affected, and those lands were transformed into an unpredictable and surreal place, dubbed the Plaguewrought Lands.   The blue flames also infected portals and planar gates, spreading even further across Toril. Almost every part of Faerûn was affected by the Spellplague and certain areas were eliminated entirely, while others were created anew. Thousands of spellcasters were either destroyed or went insane due to the collapse of the Weave after Mystra's death. In Cormyr, a third of the War Wizards were either killed or driven mad. Those who survived lost their ability to use arcane magic. Other continents, such as Kara-Tur and Osse, were affected by the Spellplague as well.   It was through the planar gates that the Spellplague travelled across time and space, and reached the world of Abeir. In that world, the Spellplague first appeared in Gontal, the southwestern region of the continent of Laerakond, where it made contact with ancient Glaur, the fortress of the Primordial Nehushta. The fortress detonated when the "Blue Breath of Change" ran through it, in an explosion as potent as the Tearfall, rocking the entire planet of Abeir and creating the Glaur Barrens where the old fortress once stood. Laerakond was torn apart in a powerful earthquake, and a portion of the nation of Skelkor, where the capital of the dragonborn nation of Tymanchebar was located, was torn asunder and disappeared amid the blue fire.  

Effects

Effects on arcane magic

• Despite the efforts, with the structure of magic out of balance, many spells failed or produced unreliable results.
• Most permanent magic items, such as artifacts, were left intact at the end of the Spellplague but charged magical items were either destroyed, warped, or simply ceased to function. Items with dormant magical qualities, which were manually activated, were largely unaffected by the Spellplague.
• The Wards of Silverymoon were shattered.

 

Effects on the Gods

• Savras was thought to have died as a result of the dissolution of Mystra's home plane. He was later found to have been able to hide.
• Azuth was thrown into the Nine Hells, where Asmodeus stole his divine essence, fused with Azuth, and became a god. Azuth was recreated during the Second Sundering.
• Cyric was tried by a conclave formed of Lathander, Sune, and Tyr. They found him guilty of Mystra's murder and sentenced him to imprisonment in the Supreme Throne - his own realm.

 

Other effects

• The Spellplague affected the landscape, making the ground rumble and heave up and down like the surface of the sea. Curtains of blue flame swept the landscape, reshaping the land by cutting crevasses or lifting and sculpting the plain into hills and ridges. Shards of earth wrenched themselves free and became earthmotes floating in the skies.
• Waves of azure fires appeared everywhere, killing whatever they touched.
• Rifts opened in the Underdark beneath the Sea of Fallen Stars, causing the level of water to drop, cutting many ports off from their livelihood and creating the Underchasm. This is mostly undone by the Second Sundering.
• The region surrounding the Great Rift became the Underchasm. Bits of what used to be the Underdark began to float above the Underchasm as earthmotes.
• The halfling realm of Luiren was submerged underwater, becoming the Gulf of Luiren in the Great Sea. In the century since that great disaster, the waters have receded, and stories told by travellers from the south told of halfling communities that survived as island redoubts.
• The sudden shifting of continental bodies sent tsunamis all along the island and coastal regions of Faerûn, devastating them all. Lantan was hit harder than most. Before the waves reached the island, all the smokepowder and magical reagents exploded at the same time, causing great chaos. And as the waves reached the coastline, most of Lantan was engulfed by the blue fire and send to Abeir. What remained of Lantan on Toril was entirely flooded, killing the remaining Lantanese and cleaning away their advanced technology. The island has returned with the Second Sundering, but its inhabitants rarely want to speak about what happened on Abeir.
• Evermeet was pushed into the Feywild, leaving behind a pale shadow of what the island of the elves used to be, though the isle's residents could move back and forth from Faerie to Faerûn at will.
• In Neverwinter,some buildings were affected by the aberrant magic, such as Castle Never, the Cloaktower, and the Fallen Tower. Chunks of earth near and in the Neverwinter's Docks District became earthmotes, including the land on which the Moonstone Mask was built.

 

Aftermath

By 1395 DR, the majority of the effects of the Spellplague had come to an end and most arcane magic had returned to a semblance of normality, with a handful of major changes to the way spells are cast.   By 1480 DR, the Spellplague ended with the event known as Mystra's Return. The Weave was resurrected with the goddess and magic became what it was before the Spellplague, though there are some areas where lingering effects from it remain.   In 1482 DR Lord Ao began the Second Sundering, as a way to restore the worlds of Toril and Abeir of the ravages of the Spellplague.