Dragonscourge

A thousand years ago, the world was wracked with war. The Dragon races, sensing that their power would wane in the coming centuries, set upon the lesser species of the world with a vengeance, attempting to permanently establish their dominance over all living nations. The lands were not just laid waste by physical battles, but also by magical forces which often left cataclysmic aftereffects. While pure dragons are not particularly proficient in magic on their own, the blood of a dragon is capable of granting enormous natural ability to any humanoid blessed (or cursed) to have a dragon somewhere in his family tree. These sorcerers fought alongside their dragon benefactors, who in turn fought against the magical and martial strength of Human and Elven nations.
This savage war, known now only in legend, was called the Dragonscourge. The manner in which the war finally ended is not known, as any records from this time have long since fallen to dust. All that is remembered is that the dragons were defeated, humans were scattered, and elves retreated to their forests, rarely being heard from again. The effects of this period are still felt on the lands and by its people even today, a thousand years later: giant gouges scar the earth, entire forests shift and move, and mysterious shimmering “bubbles” litter some of the more out-of-the-way lands.
Beyond these aftereffects, nothing else is known to remain from the period. The largest scars of the war can be found in The Desolation, evidence of the closing blows of the war.

War's End: Cataclysm

(Taken from the "History" section of The Desolation) Three events would bring the war to an end - but would also destroy the very foundations of the Empire and break the back of the Dragon forces.

Lumine's Eclipse

The first of these was the fall of the largest Elvish enclave. Lumine, the brightest star in the Elves' constellation of floating cities, was brought crashing to the ground through the suicidal infiltration by a trip of sorcerers. The three siblings (they were, in fact, triplets) were extremely strong in shadow magic, able to hide themselves from watchful eyes. Having been bred, raised, and trained for this purpose, the three made their way into the city. Each of the siblings infiltrated one of the three grand crystal chambers - fonts of magical energy drawing from the power of the land below them. With perfect timing granted by a telepathic bond, the three sorcerers sacrificed their lives to raise powerful anti-magic fields around each of the chambers.
The city gave a single shudder, and then dropped to the ground below. The release of magical energy imbued within the city exploded into the night, a shockwave traveling out from the impact. To the west, the shockwave was deflected up by the Bloodpeak Mountains, but the rest of the way around the site was scoured clean to flat stone.
Lumine had been the cultural and social center of Elven society. Losing it was a shock that the species never recovered from. After the war's end, the latent class distinctions within their society would lead to the sundering of Elven society into the scattered remainders of today.

Drake's Fall

The second cataclysmic event to contribute to the Desolation's creation brought an end to the Dragons' coherence as a species, mirroring the loss of the Elves' society at Lumine. After Lumine's desctruction, the remaining elder elven mages, using powerful divination magics, determined the location of the most powerful of Dragonkind. Known as "The Void", one of the seven Lords of Dragonkind, the most powerful of the dragons led the war effort against the Empire from a hidden aerie within the Bloodpeak Mountains. Finding this location, the elven mages launched an all-out attack, without any thought to their own survival.
The combat lasted a full week as The Void, several lesser dragons and a number of sorcerers fought wildly against a dozen ancient elves. As the magical strength of both sides waned, the final strike was landed. Five elven mages expended the last of their strength, pierced the last defenses of The Void, and struck the shadowy form of the dragon from the sky. As its form fell to the ground, an ages' worth of magical energy burst forth before collapsing in upon itself. This collapse created a momentary singularity which extinguished all life - and all magic - within a huge radius. The land surrounding the impact point remains a deadly waste to this day.

Moon's Landing

The final strike brought an end to the Empire - and was the single most deadly event to occur on Lasair since the fall of the Giants. After the destruction of The Void, the remaining Lords of Dragonkind knew their war was lost. Both sides had suffered enormous losses of magical beings, but the sheer force of numbers the Empire could continue to raise even through the war meant that they would never overcome. So they chose to commit to mutual destruction. The world used to have two moons - the first still hangs bright in the sky, phases passing as it moves slowly across the night. However, there once was a tiny, flighty, satellite, passing more frequently, almost appearing to wobble in the sky. The remaining dragon lords expended their lives to power a final devastating spell - one that shattered the moon and pulled a fragment from the sky to strike the world. Their intent was for it to impact upon the capital of the Empire. A handful of remaining elven mages were able to detect the attack and attempted to stop it. In the end, their efforts did little but to deflect its impact slightly. The rock would miss the capital, but its impact just off shore still devastated the lands of the empire and snuffed out millions of lives.

The small piece of the moon, pulled from low in the sky, crushed through the mountains (forming The Glow with the magical energy left behind) and landed in the sea. Three main effects resulted from the impact. First, a magical shockwave (similar to that from the fall of Lumine but on a much vaster scale) scoured the land. Then the land shook, fragmented, and fell, as earthquakes of a magnitude never seen on the world radiated out from the impact point. Finally, a wave a mile high swept over the land, washing away any man-made structures still standing after the earthquakes. The Imperial capital was utterly submerged and much of the empire remains underwater to this day, the shattered landscape reduced to islands referred to as the Thousand Shards.

Who Knows This?

An Intelligence (History) skill check will bring to mind the following depending on the character's roll:

• DC 10 (Could hear it from travelers):
  There was some major conflict that tore up the world way back in the distant past. 
• DC 15 (Education covered it):
  An ancient conflict before the founding of the City-States, between humans and dragons, ravaged the world. 
• DC 20 (Learned Historian):
   There had been an ancient human Empire that was destroyed by the Dragonscourge
• DC 25 (Subject Matter Expert):
  The existence of Sorcerers is due to the dragons' meddling with humans
• DC 30 (Directly Acquired Knowledge):
   There are lingering magical effects across the land, a result of the war, which can cause unpredictable happenings 

Conflict Type

War