437–450 AS
The Seventh Sundering
The mana crisis at Ashenpeak, the fractures in the sky and the thirteen-year Everwinter that reshaped the known world.
Origins Before the Everwinter
It is rather tempting to begin the history of the Seventh Sundering in 437 AS, when the frost first creeped outwards from Ashenpeak & the Everwinter began, but both Maevth of Amaryllis and Rayvin of Highgarden agree that it's origins must be seen as beginning many years previous. By the beginning of the fifth century after the Sunderings, the mages of Ashenpeak had grown very bold in the arts that had been lost to time since the fall of the Vastalan Crownrealm. Their greatest achievement perhaps was the movement of islands themselves, great projects in which earth, sea and stone were forced from their natural place through the vast cost of mana. Feng was one of these projects, the chunk of earth was ripped from the ground and brought across the vast Silent Ocean over Ashenpeak. Rayvin would praise these accomplishments as proof that magical decline of the previous century had finally been overcome. However Maevth would write differently, regarding them as foolish stating that magic always takes for what it gives, and the mages of Ashenpeak had become very skilled at counting what was being received but not so much at counting what was taken.
The Mana Beneath Ashenpeak
In time, the cost became impossible to ignore. Mana spent upon these great projects did not simply disappear, but began to pool and gather beneath Ashenpeak itself. It would twist the environment around it, Springs froze despite the volcanic heat bubbling from underneath, plants died or grew strangely, animals abandoned familiar lands and the frost began to spread across the blackstone at the foot of the volcano at the height of summer. Seeking to contain the imbalance, Archimaster Herbivore raised a vast cherry tree whose roots were rooted deep across the entire island. The tree was summoned with the intent of drawing excess mana from the ground and air itself and for a simple night it appeared to work. However the next morning the tree had frozen entirely, it's bark turned pale blue and it's branched encased in crystal, yet it continued to drink from the mana pooling beneath the island.
The Fractures in the Sky
However the events did not stay purely within Ashenpeak. Across the vast continent, magic began to come back as weird creatures and plants seemingly began to summon and sprout from the ground. Many celebrated this as a return to an age lost as many began to practice magic once more. Then in 432 AS, pale blue fractures appeared across the night and day sky, the brightest above Ashenpeak and spreading further each year. Rayvin would describe them as a wonder that must of been seen in person to be appreciated writing that crowds gathered beneath to watch for hours in awe. Meanwhile Maevth saw only warning, noting that the Sunderings of old had also begun with the natural order behaving in ways men were too eager to admire before they learned the hardway.
The Everwinter
In 437 AS the fractures above Ashenpeak brightened together as a great wave of cold erupted owards from the island. Rivers would freeze and forests turned white within hours as the seasons themselves began to break. Thus begun the Everwinter, thirteen years of growing cold in which harvests failed, settlements emptied and whole realms disappeared beneath hard ice and snow. The old outposts of the world such as Shimmershore & Werfort as well as others survived through a mixture of high ground, deep reserves and and according to Maevth of Amaryllis, outposts such as Shimmershore began to resort to the unsavoury practice of sacrafice towards the unseen creator to earn his favour.
The Thaw of 450 AS
The Everwinter however would break in 450 AS however the thawing of the winter proved just as destructive as a period of flood came with glaciers collapsing, rivers bursting and lowland cities being drowned beneath floodwater.