𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲

In ancient times, the Titans were the first beings to wield arcane power, drawing from the outer planes through the Chorus via the colossal Echdrassil forests. These worldtrees absorbed raw choral magic through small, stable rifts and distilled it into manageable forms. Beneath the forests, their immense root-web connected the First Surface like nerves in a living body, channeling energy across the land.

The Titans splintered into empires, warring over control of the Echdrassils. Some sought to protect the trees; others sought to siphon their essence to command the Grand Song itself. When the Chorus could give no more, it retaliated with the Late Choral Bombardment, annihilating the Titans and their worldtrees. The First Surface collapsed, tectonics ignited, and much of their civilization was buried within the mantle in what is now known as "The Gravedeep".

Afterwards, the Last Echdrassil emerged, planted by the final surviving Titan, Nimor before her demise. This lone tree birthed mortal life on Yoren and extended its roots deep into the Gravedeep in search of its lost brethren. Finding only death, it spread its roots through the Gravedeep's caverns, creating the Waylines, a new global ley-root system through which residual choral energy flows through smaller, younger Echdrassils. Scholars speculate that the Vistora may have arisen from the Gravedeep or been awakened by lingering choral energy in the Waylines, gaining sentience from this residual magic.

Around 145,000 years ago, Hallenmyr manifested through the Last Echdrassil on Nimoria, blessing three nameless siblings with the ability to channel the power of the outer planes. Their ritual was intercepted by the Hush, destroying the tree and giving rise to the Shattered Spire. This First Shattering created tieflings, wild magic, beastfolk, rogue Chorus rifts, and the world rift known as the Wound of the World, while also paving the way for the great fey migrations. Hallenmyr decayed, and the siblings became the First Mage, Rogue, and Knight, progenitors of future empires.

Millennia later, during the Cinderfall War, Vo’Rosk who is the most renowned wizard of his age and reincarnation of the First Mage, repeated a similar ritual to repel foreign invaders. This caused the Second Shattering, scorching the Nevalo region into the Cinderwilds, birthing Ashnavel and cleaving a new World Rift in its sky, known as the Ashnavel Crevace.

Following the Second Shattering, Vo’Rosk and his wife Mysteria founded the Thaumatarchate, codifying magic through the Shackles of Magic. These restrictions governed life creation, summoning, mind control, and pacts with entities beyond the Chorus, establishing order in the wake of unchecked power.

The Shackles were partly a response to Rafucius, a former colleague of Mysteria and Vo’Rosk, who rebelled during the war to fight against invaders in parallel to Vo'Rosk's forces. Wielding forbidden magic to secure victory, Rafucius discovered necromancy and other forms of dark arts or “antimagic,” garnering a cult in the process who call themselves Rafucians, later called the Shacklebreakers.

He advocated for unrestricted magical practice, believing its potential outweighed existential risk. This ideological conflict culminated in a decisive duel between him and Vo'Rosk: Rafucius lost and was incarcerated beneath Ashnavel’s ruined capital, though his cult persisted in secret for the centuries that would follow.

Vo’Rosk, Mysteria and other surviving Selkians and Thaumatarchate members later led an expedition to Nimoria to establish colonies and Sanctum Eldroot for the Selkian people, aiming to guard the Wound of the World and mend it. The Withering Plague, however, decimated their settlers and a considerable fraction of the continent's native population.