The Sundering

Disaster / Destruction

The Emperor Lucar, realizing that the Writhing Death was going to destroy the entire Rainbow Empire, ordered its destruction. This split the land into four islands and caused the end of the Rainbow Empire. A new empire was formed, called the Lucarcian Empire.

Around five hundred years ago, the House of the Sun and the Magenta House, both situated in the south eastern corner of the continent in the region known as Granita, grew increasingly competitive. They were engaged in some very advanced research which pushed the boundaries of reality and something went wrong. No one knows precisely which house was at fault, but in their efforts someone opened a gate to the Void, unleashing a devastating blight upon the lands. This blight was a plague of crawling insects, billions upon billions of them which crept out of the gate and simply consumed everything in their path. Only the sea would stop them. The infestation, which is now known as the Writhing Death, quickly destroyed the lands the two houses occupied, eating everything and anything in it's path, whether animal or vegetable. The whole population was simply devoured alive.   As this Writhing Death slowly advanced its way towards the rest of the Rainbow Empire the emperor called an emergency meeting of the heads of all 5 remaining Houses. There they laid their plans against it. But nothing they tried could stop this Writhing Death and each day billions more insects were pouring out of the still open gate to the Void. Eventually it was realized that the only way to stop the Writhing Death devouring the whole continent was to bring together the might of the high magics of all five houses and shatter the lands. The high mages gathered in the citadel in Antissa and together worked the most powerful spells.   Knowing that it would cost them and thousands of citizens of the Rainbow Empire their lives, the high mages shattered the lands causing a huge quake to strike the city of Antissa and the lands for miles around. The city subsided into the earth and the sea waters rushed into the gap left behind. And the effect split the continent, ripping it into four pieces, creating the Inner Sea and the Lucarcian Straits in the process. But the Writhing Death was stopped and the remainder of the empire saved.   A secondary group of high mages were sent to the location of the Gate itself, charged with closing it. They never returned, but the Gate appears to have been closed. A tidal wave crashed into the newly formed island of Granita and washed the Writhing Death into the sea. Perhaps the high mages who had gone to close the Gate perished in closing it, or perhaps they were washed away by the wave, either way the island itself was completely devastated with nothing left living there.   This had the side effect of killing all the high mages and destroying the major city of the empire. The emperor himself, Lucar, survived and moved House Azure to the Ursum region which was now an island, and the biggest on the continent. He formed the city of Lucar on the northern shores on the edge of the Inner Sea with his palace built high on a hill overlooking the sea so he would always be reminded of the huge price his people had paid for their advancement. The Rainbow Empire would never recover from this blow. The Emperor Lucar, the man who had ordered the destruction of the Rainbow Empire, created a new capital on a promontory overlooking the newly created Inner Sea. He took the remaining five Noble Houses - the Azure, Snow, Jade, Rugby and Ebon houses - and created a new, smaller empire. Thus the Lucarcian Empire was born.   The Lucarcian Empire survived almost five hundred years to the day. The emperor banned the High Magic which had led to the creation of the Writhing Death and Lucarcia became a stable thriving place. The five Noble Houses looked after the main areas in the newly split continent. The ruling Azure House controlled the Spine of Ursum. The Ebon House controlled the Tail. The Ruby House controlled the Head. Manabas was under the control of House Snow and Ibini in the north east fell under the control of the Jade House. The Empire of Lucarcia continued on, with each emperor ruling with a powerful hand. The technologies which the Rainbow Empire had discovered were slowly lost and the powerful magic which the previous empire had come to wield slowly dwindled - with the study of arcane lore banned no one was able or willing to keep these things maintained as they had been. The Empire of Lucarcia, though stable and safe, slowly diminished.