The Long Winter

The winters that strike Auriga are anything but tame, often halting progress and forcing the people of Auriga to seek warmth and shelter waiting for the period to pass over. There was one winter that would live as a permanent black mark on the history of Auriga. The Long Winter.
It seems as if the entire world was at war with itself. The Human Nation of Valdas Imperius had vastly surpassed all of its neighboring races, technology that would make the Gnomes feel shame, its Capital of Saxon-Odessos was truly a gem of innovation far ahead of its time. No one knows the exact reason what sparked the Long Winter, but many believe it was the other races uniting to stop the dominating Humans. The War lasted 4 intense months, no side of the Summerwild or even the neighboring continents was not effected by this war. Suddenly the unthinkable happened. Saxon-Odessos was no more, a massive cataclysmic event wiped the once proud Valdas Imperius Nation into near extinction. The vibrant rich lands now became known as the Mourning Ashlands. Life ceasing to grow in a barren wasteland, the laws of nature even don't seem to obey its twisted lands. 
This event made Humanity from being the largest race on Auriga, to the endangered species list. How events unfolded after the war that resulted in a ceasefire and peace is uncertain, nor does nothing but rumor prevail regarding the cause of the humans destruction. 
Through the ashes of this war, the surviving humans fled, many fled the continent of the Summerwild. Few chose to remain as nomads and vagabonds, trying to survive on the kindness of strangers and mercy from those they conquered and dominated. 
Out of the ashes of this war a leader emerged from the Elves, Emperor Syunyu freed the Dragonborn from the bondage of their Dragon overlords, with the Dragonborn on the Elves side the other races quickly knelled to the might of the new Jade Dynasty.
Today the land surrounding the Mourning Ashlands is surrounded by a large construct called Ghost Gate that keeps the horrors of war to harm the inhabitants outside the Ghost Gate.
Scars of the war still remain vivid even today, the long lived races remember the war as it was yesterday, races such as the hybrid Half Elf often find themselves unable to truly belong with their Elven Nobles and no human culture to return to. One thing is sure, the Long Winter provides a warning and a lesson for the survivors, there is an inherit danger to power. Some fear the new Jade Emperor in his quest to ascend will only lead to another Long Winter.