Dark Sun and The Shattering
In the elder years of Edda, magic was a powerful and ever-flowing resource, yet chaotic all the same. Those who could use magic could only, typically, use one or two types of spells, determined by their internal aptitude alone. While they could learn, grow, and develop their particular talents as much as they desired, they were locked into that type. Essentially, they had very limited muscles they could train endlessly.
This all changed when the Dark Sun ritual commenced.
A cabal of 9 powerful mages, each master of their preferred form of magic, came together to create a ritual on par with 12th level Magecraft, theoretically of course, as even in this ancient time only 11th level Magecraft had been deemed possible and actually performed, albeit a handful of times.
Over 50 years, each of them played their part in creating the ritual, designed to be a wish-granting device of pure power, which was devised to drain the power of the Sun in order to fuel its intense magecraft. To do this without destroying the material plane, the cabal created a Demiplane, advanced enough to have a copy of the sun's thermal energy without being tied to the real Sun, thus giving way to the original form of The Midnight Realm.
Once everything was complete, the ritual went off without a hitch, but a traitorous member of the Cabal uttered one wish: "Break all Magic." The device at the center of the ritual, a massive, crimson-red sphere, listened, and shattered magic across all the realms, incredibly depowering magic itself, and destroying the then-standard form of magecraft.
In its wake, we have Magecraft as it exists today, with a magic caster being able to pursue various kinds of Magecraft and spellcasting, but with an upper limit of power, one that is severely lower than what it used to be. There were various other consequences to the destruction of Dark Sun, too many to list out in fact, but needless to say, its an event that left its marks on almost all corners of magic.
Historical Basis
Very little is publically known about the ritual, who was involved, or what form the ritual actually took. All that is known by the general public, with the exception of highly focused and tenacious scholars, is that the ritual was performed in a complex demi-plane by a cabal of mages, and shattered the old form of magic.
Spread
Most people in the modern-day don't know about Dark Sun or its effects, and even magic casters can go their whole life without stumbling across more than a footnote about the information, but those who study the art of casting and the logistics behind magic are the most knowledgeable about it.
Date of Setting
-5000
Related Ethnicities
Related Locations
Related Items
Comments