The First Cataclysm was the first of the two Great Cataclysms that radically uprooted life in Initia. When it took place is a matter of some confusion, as all the witnesses have long passed along with most records, but scholars from the Institute have begrudgingly accepted the official date to have occurred in 1533.

The cataclysm arose from a long brewing conflict between factions of the Korinthian Empire which had been fractured for centuries but never before at war. This Civil War, the first of it's kind, gave rise to two factions; the Kaian Elves or Sun Elves and those that had converted to Nivarian worship, the Shadow Evles, also called the Shadar.

The Shadar augmented their combat prowess with demons, summoned from otherworldly planes but were overwhelmed by the combined might of the Kaian forces and their human allies, known as the Solara Alliance for reasons which will become clear. As a result they were pushed to the mountains where they held up in long abandoned Marüdian fortresses. Increasingly desparate, the Shadar turned to their goddess with increasing fervor.

Nivaris tasked the Shadar with a magical ritual to 'consume the sun from the sky' and blessed them with great might to do so, however it came at cost, it made the umbral elves incredibly vulnerable to the light of day. The Shadar made great use of their new power and began work on this powerful ritual in their secret fortresses. The Solara Alliance was able to break into the Nivarian fortresses but at great cost.

The day arrived in one winter when it seemed as if hope was lost, the Shadar had been pushed out of all but their greatest fortification, the Medianox Sanctum, where the ritual was drawing to completion. It is fabled as to how, but well accepted that St. Vespasian marched a small elite force into the walls of the temple fortress hybrid and killed the last of the Shadaran worshipers, preserving the sun. By this time, however, the ritual had done untold damage to Initia and summoned all manner of monster and magic phenomenon. For this reason the end of the war is referred to as "The First Cataclysm".