The Falling
Not much is known about the land of Shelak before what we now call "The Falling".
Hundreds of years ago, an enormous, sentient "rock" carrying untold magics was summoned from the sky by a powerful and greedy necromancer by the name of Tílok. The endeavor consumed him for decades, and was eventually his ultimate doom.
Source
This rock shattered our land into a thousand islands, and corrupted the life force of our planet. The Rock itself was shattered as well, the pieces flying to every corner of Shelak, and where they landed, the magic within each shard began to infect everything around them.
Almost every living being was wiped out. Many plants and animals went extinct, and the intelligent humanoid races barely hung on by hiding deep within the ground. Over time, we have started to take back the surface from the darkness that corrupts it, and the frontier awaits.
The shards of the Rock are not to be underestimated. Even the smallest piece can overpower the mind of most. It will try and "attach" itself to a living thing, as a means to be something more than an immobile piece of rock. It takes a strong mental will to keep the shard from overtaking a person's entire being. If it succeeds, the magic in the shard will transform the host into something wholly against nature and life itself. The creatures of this world have been tainted, turned into monsters bent on destruction.
Be wary in your travels, the Rock, and it's shards, are a threat to the very survival of life as we know it. We must overcome this terrible darkness, so our world may once again thrive.
- Alistair Giorman
High Magus to the New King
413 AR