Cataclysm

Also known as the Calamity or the Catastrophe, the Cataclysm is an ages old event that brought about the end of civilization as it was known. It occurred around year 0 by the current calendar, over two thousand years ago, long before even the oldest elf alive can remember and is the reason the continent was abandoned until only recently. It was an ending of worlds, destroying all known civilization on the continent, warping all known life to monstrous and barely recognizable forms through raw magical power.

Not much is known about the event to the survivors' descendants, just that their ancestors survived by fleeing to the archipelago, where they settled.