The Severance

In what is known as the Severance, God let loose a deluge of ethereal energy through the open connection between the heavenly and earthly realms. On that day, such power flowed that the Celestial Falls became over-charged and severed. The mountain of Elvala ceased to serve as a channel between realms. No longer would earth-bound spirits be able to ascend and descend apart from the Creator’s permission. The great flux of ethereal power now turned in on itself, becoming the global energy channels known as “Ley Lines” encircling, but never leaving, the earth.
When God poured out his power upon the mountain of Elvala, the southern ethereal pole erupted in an ethereal blast that not only killed all life across the continent of Arkhea, but flooded the whole world with a wave of ethereal power that impacted life everywhere on the planet.  That is why the Severence is also known as "The Arkhean Cataclysm."
The ethereal deluge effectively functioned as a planetary “exorcism” of all fallen Elemental Spirits from the material plane, driving the rebellious spirits and wicked jinn to the depths of the Eternal Pit. God proclaimed that the fallen spirits would be imprisoned and bound for “a time, and times, and half a time.” The only creatures native to Arkhea (Dragons, Janniri, etc.) that survived the ethereal deluge were those not on the continent at the time.

The Severance (Arkhean Cataclysm) should not be confused with the Solari Cataclysm of 671 SR, which ended the worldwide dominance of the early Fae empires.