The Sundering

On that day, the world knew fear.

The Sundering is a major event and historical turning point in the world of COG, and was a cataclysmic event speculated to have killed roughly one third of the world's population over the course of 19 years. It was triggered when Jorval dropped a Messiah bomb onto the city of Karas, New Karas, ending the Last War.

The First Moments
The bomb opened a dimensional gate into the Depths nearly 280 feet in diameter and lasting just over four seconds, causing pressure waves that destroyed a large portion of Karas. This killed approximately 3 million people within the first day. From this dimensional gate, the Nameless One was forced into the world, where it hung unmoving in the sky for the next three days. Due to this major influx of non-reality, the universe created the Light in an effort to maintain homeostasis.

The Following Days
Other nearby nations refused to send aid due to fear of the Nameless One, causing more than a million more people to die from collapsing buildings, untreated injuries, and other related causes. 3 days after it was forced through the portal, the Nameless One began to consume reality within the city through hundreds of large appendages. The Light reached the planet several hours later, engaging the Nameless One in combat. During the fight, they collided with the continent of Boregal with enough force to split the continent in several places, creating the series of deep, sea-like rivers called the Scissiae. They then both flew upwards and into space, colliding with the moon and destroying a large portion of it. During the fight, both Essence and Moss were scattered across the world.

Long-Term Effects
Due to the destruction of a large portion of the moon, global sea levels rapidly began to rise, filling the Scissiae with water and drowning most coastal cities. Debris from the destruction of the moon began raining down, causing seismic and volcanic activity and devastating the land. Large storms of ash, often mixed with Moss or Essence, blew through the land, killing many people and destroying the agricultural industry. The lack of any stable political power combined with the sudden introduction of magecraft through the use of Essence and Moss quickly destabilized the world even further.