Cataclysm

The term "Cataclysm" (with a capital 'C') has come to describe a singularly massive shift in ethere in one area or a global event that dramatically shifts Illaria's development or attitudes. The former happens when magic is used en masse on a scale that actually begins to tear open the fabric separating the mortal realm from the Voidfont. The outcome of such a tear is generally explosive, and ever-lasting. Since time began, there have only ever been four such times when a true Cataclysm has been confirmed.

The First Cataclysm
The first recorded Cataclysm was at the Battle of Dragoza. After the magic from five warring armies clashed over a single point in Aasauria's capital city, Dragoza, the resulting explosion of magic destroyed the entire city, killed thousands of soldiers, and left thousands more with an unknown sickness that slowly turned them into deformed shadows of their former selves. Animals suddenly and violently became monstrous abominations, long-dead soldiers reanimated as savage, deformed killing machines, and the land itself became tainted with ethere such that it could never be more than untamed wilderness. The land was left to rot after the Cataclysm, and was not actively colonized again until nearly a millennium after.

The Second Cataclysm
The second cataclysm is likely to be the imprisoning of Vorenn and subsequent creation of a disruption of the natural flow from life to death by unknown parties around 913 3E. [Placeholder]

The Third Cataclysm
The third cataclysm is likely to be the rising of Skarknd and the subsequent use of forbidden high magic that led to the Withering incident which destroyed Forris in 918 3E. [Placeholder]

The Fourth Cataclysm
The fourth cataclysm is likely to include the destruction of two of the Emerald Towers by high magical forces which caused major shifts in the ethere levels around those areas, leaving the land uninhabitable, much like Aasauria. These events occurred in the Era of Emerald around [forty years?] apart. [Placeholder]