The Darkest Events in Mytharae History
The Sundering of the First Sky
History, in most worlds, begins with memory. In Mytharae, it begins with absence.
The earliest age, what scholars now call the Age of Creation, left no written record, no preserved testimony, no surviving observer. There are no chronicles from that time, no tablets etched by careful hands, no oral traditions that can be reliably traced without distortion. What exists instead is pattern. Geological anomalies. Magical inconsistencies. Ruins that do not align with later architectural logic. And most telling of all, a silence in the structure of Magica itself.
That silence is not natural.
It is the residue of an event so foundational, so destabilizing, that it reshaped not only the world’s physical form, but the behavior of magic, the evolution of races, and the limits of what is now possible.
This event is referred to, cautiously, by modern scholars as The Sundering of the First Sky.
Before the Sundering: A World Without Constraint
To understand the scale of what occurred, the initial condition must be defined clearly.
During the Age of Creation, Magica was not regulated. It was not studied, contained, or even consciously used in the way later civilizations would understand. It was ambient. Environmental. Autonomous.
Magic did not respond to will. It expressed itself through existence.
Mountains did not erode into shape. They rose.
Forests did not spread gradually. They appeared, fully formed, ecosystems materializing in compressed spans of time.
Oceans were not stable bodies. They shifted, expanded, and altered composition under the influence of deep Magica currents.
Life itself emerged as a function of magical density interacting with environment. This is why the earliest races differ so radically in structure and origin:
- The Montari formed where land was most stable, resulting in beings of immense scale and structural durability.
- The Thalryn emerged in coastal convergence zones, where oceanic and terrestrial Magica intersected.
- The Thalori developed in dense forest regions, where ambient magic exhibited cyclical and communicative properties.
- Dragons arose in high-energy zones, particularly near volcanic and astral convergence points, where Sun and Star Magic were most concentrated.
- The earliest stone beings, later known as Durakai, formed in regions where Magica compressed into mineral states.
There were no kingdoms. No hierarchies. No political systems. Only territories defined by environmental dominance and magical compatibility.
Critically, there was also no restriction between realms. The Veil existed, but it functioned less as a barrier and more as a membrane. Passage between planes, while not trivial, was possible.
This matters.
Because the Sundering appears to have changed that permanently.
The Event Itself: What We Can Infer
There is no direct account of the Sundering. What exists instead is convergence evidence across multiple domains.
First, there is the Global Fracture Pattern.
Across Mytharae, deep beneath later geological layers, there exists a discontinuity. A break not caused by tectonic motion, but by simultaneous stress across multiple regions. It suggests a single event exerting force across the entire world at once.
Second, there is the Magical Attenuation Curve.
Modern measurements of Magica density show a distinct decline when traced backward through residual signatures. At a certain point, the curve does not gradually increase, but spikes sharply and then collapses. This indicates that at some moment in early history, Magica density exceeded current levels by an order of magnitude, followed by an abrupt reduction.
Third, there is the Veil Stabilization Effect.
Before the Sundering, evidence suggests that the Veil was permeable. After the event, it becomes resistant. Not impenetrable, but structured. Regulated. Later in history, Dravaryn would seal it more completely, but the initial shift appears to originate here.
Taken together, these observations point to a single conclusion:
The Sundering was not a natural fluctuation.
It was a catastrophic release or collapse of Magica on a planetary scale.
Competing Theories of Cause
Scholars generally divide into three primary schools of thought regarding what triggered the Sundering.
1. The Overconvergence Hypothesis
This theory proposes that Magica, left unregulated, naturally accumulates in high-density regions. Over time, these regions may reach a critical threshold where stability fails.
In this model, the Sundering is analogous to a pressure system collapsing. Too much Magica, concentrated across too many points, resulted in a cascade failure.
The problem with this explanation is scale. Localized collapses are observed in later eras, particularly during the Age of Magic. But none approach the uniform global impact implied by the evidence.
2. The External Interference Theory
This theory suggests that something beyond Mytharae interacted with the system.
Given that the Veil was permeable, it is plausible that entities or forces from other realms entered and altered the balance of Magica. This could have introduced instability, either intentionally or as a side effect of their presence.
Supporters of this theory point to irregularities in early dragon evolution and certain non-native magical signatures embedded in ancient strata.
The limitation here is evidential. While anomalies exist, they do not conclusively indicate external agency at the scale required.
3. The Proto-Divine Intervention Model
This theory argues that the Sundering was an act of control.
Not by later gods as they are understood in Mytharae’s religious frameworks, but by earlier, less-defined entities or systems that recognized the instability of an unregulated magical environment.
In this model, the Sundering was not an accident. It was a correction.
A forced reduction of Magica density. A restructuring of the Veil. A limitation imposed on a system that would otherwise collapse or become uncontrollable.
This theory aligns most closely with the observed outcomes, particularly the shift from free-flowing Magica to constrained magical systems in later ages.
Immediate Consequences
Regardless of cause, the effects of the Sundering were immediate and severe.
1. Collapse of High-Energy Lifeforms
Creatures that depended on extremely dense Magica environments would not have survived the transition.
This likely explains the disappearance of numerous early forms that are referenced indirectly through fossilized magical imprints but have no surviving lineage.
Dragons, notably, do persist into later ages, but their dominance emerges after a period of apparent decline. It is possible that only certain lineages adapted successfully.
2. Environmental Stabilization
Post-Sundering, the world becomes more predictable.
Mountains stop forming spontaneously. Forests follow growth cycles. Oceans stabilize into defined basins.
This marks the beginning of what could be described as natural law in Mytharae.
Not the absence of magic, but its integration into consistent patterns.
3. Veil Reinforcement
The Veil becomes more resistant to traversal.
Inter-realm movement does not cease, but it becomes significantly more difficult and less frequent. This isolates Mytharae from external influences and limits the potential for further large-scale disruptions of this kind.
4. Emergence of Evolutionary Pathways
With Magica no longer shaping life instantaneously, biological and magical evolution begin to operate over extended timescales.
This sets the stage for later ages, where races develop culture, technology, and structured use of magic.
Long-Term Structural Impact
The Sundering did not simply end the Age of Creation. It defined every age that followed.
The Age of Giants becomes possible because the world stabilizes enough for large-scale construction. The Montari do not build in a chaotic environment. They build in one that has rules.
The Age of Dragons reflects a redistribution of power rather than absolute dominance. Dragons operate within constraints, competing for territory instead of existing as an uncontested force of nature.
The Age of Magic, particularly the Solari civilization, represents an attempt to understand and, in some cases, overcome those constraints. Their study of Star Magic, the Veil, and the cost of magic can be interpreted as an indirect response to the limitations imposed by the Sundering.
Even the later Age of Collapse, with its magical storms, blood magic conflicts, and Veil instability, shows signs of systems being pushed back toward conditions that resemble pre-Sundering dynamics.
In other words, history in Mytharae is not linear progression.
It is oscillation around a boundary condition established in the earliest era.
Why This Is Considered the Darkest Event
Darkness, in historical terms, is often associated with destruction, loss of life, or moral failure.
The Sundering qualifies on a different axis.
It represents the permanent loss of possibility.
An entire mode of existence, a state where Magica flowed without restriction and reality itself was fluid, was erased. Not diminished. Not transformed. Removed.
Every limitation that defines the current world traces back to this moment:
- The cost of magic
- The separation between realms
- The decline of certain races
- The impossibility of recreating early-world phenomena
Even the most advanced civilizations, including the Solari at their peak, never rediscovered what was lost. They studied it. Approximated it. Attempted to access fragments of it through Star Magic and Veil manipulation.
They failed.
Because whatever was broken during the Sundering was not a surface-level system. It was foundational.
The Magical Attenuation Curve does not reach zero before the Sundering spike. It suggests that Magica was still increasing in density leading up to the event.
This implies that without intervention or collapse, the system was moving toward an even higher-energy state.
Whether that state would have been stable, or whether it would have resulted in a more catastrophic failure, is unknown.