The Rupture

The apocalypse that brought equal measures of darkness and light into the world.

Some reckon that it’s the dawn of the end times.
Others see it as the dawn of a bright new future.

— A philosopher discussing the Rupture

The Rupture, often referred to as The Apocalypse, took place across the entire world of Melior on Thirday, 10th of Darkfall 514 2A. It was a catastrophic and unforeseen event that wrought havoc upon the world, plunging it into complete and utter chaos on an unfathomable scale.

Rifthounds (WIP) by TJ Trewin

The Apocalypse

On a mundane and rainy day just over fifty years ago, countless numbers of Rifts from unknown planes of existence tore open the very atmosphere with devastating force. The shock waves and ground tremors leveled villages and crumbled structures for miles around causing an unfathomable number of casualties across the globe.
The damage caused by the rifts was only the beginning.
Charging through these portals came terrifying creatures that the world had never seen. Terrifying beasts from small jittering insects to gargantuan horrors the size of large ships (and seemingly, everything in between) suddenly swarmed the lands, seas, and skies like an unstoppable torrent.
The creatures moved in strange and unusual manners, many of which seemed to posses magical powers and seemed to be more aggressive and dangerous than any wild animal native to Melior. The vulnerable and distraught citizens of the world became prey for hungry new predators, and they had very few walls left standing to protect their families.

The Rupture has invited malice and magic to the world of Melior.

First Contact

Beasts and "monsters" were not the only riftbeings to enter the world of Melior through the open wounds of reality; several cautiously armed folks announced their presence including tall ardeans with elegant beaks and vast wingspans, and broad shouldered manavaxians with scale-armoured tails and deep set eyes. Many other kinds of folk stepped through, some with fur, some with scales, some with feathers, and others without, and all of equal intelligence.
The first contact with new folks did not go well. The native folk of Melior, particularly The Jolundrian Empire, saw this invasion as an act of war and retaliated with every ounce of energy they had left. Unprepared for a global ambush, many fought with whatever makeshift weapons they could find or craft from scrap materials. Those who fought stood little chance against the new folk. Aerial archers unleashed a torrential downpour of arrows from the sky whilst manavaxian mystics wielded terrifying magic that no ill-equipped defender could withstand.

A Manavaxian Druid by 3D Model via HeroForge, created by TJ Trewin

Not all encounters ended in bloodshed however, as many of the incoming folk from the new planes showed their peaceful intentions by helping the citizens of Melior rebuild their homes and even fought alongside them in culling the behemoths that emerged from the rifts. As people rebuild, many communities now have a beautiful mix of old architecture and new foreign influences and materials.
As the Rupture took place only fifty or so years ago, there is still a great divide among folks about their alliances and trust. Some societies and generations still see the new outlanders as malicious invaders but others have welcomed the aid from their new allies and are learning different traditions, skills, and magic from their new friends.
All in all, most people are very guarded and uncertain of who they can trust, even among their own kind.

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A Magical Awakening

Before The Rupture, the world of Melior did not know of magic. When the new folks came through the rifts to help people repair and rebuild, they brought with them maisha, a different kind of grown resource that provides living things with magic reserves, akin to the energy and tiredness you feel in your body.

It was like I’d never had food before. This… maisha… filled a void I didn’t even know I had… I feel so alive!

— A person experiencing having maisha reserves (magic engergy) for the first time

During the last fifty years the people of Melior have had a lot of learning to do.
The folks who have embraced magic can now learn how to use it for healing, making potions using alchemy, imbuing objects with magical abilities with enchanting runes, and even to manipulate the elements of the world around them!
Unfortunately the introduction of magic to the world has also amplified the divide between factions and generations of magic-users and non magic-users across the world.

Maisha was never seen before in Melior but a couple of generations ago! Now we’re growing our own variants of maisha based plants and experimenting with grafting and cross-pollination!

— An excited farmer

A Faun mystic using elemental magic by 3D Model via HeroForge, created by TJ Trewin

A Shift in Nature

The introduction of magical flora, fauna, and abilities into the world of Melior has thrown nature itself into chaos. Massive predators have dominated the natural food chain, flying creatures and forest grazers have spread the seeds of foreign plants far and wide in their droppings, and invasive plant species are aggressively suffocating old ones and spreading like green wildfire.
With maisha introduced into the global food chain, native species across Melior are starting to develop their own newfound magical abilities, adding further chaos to the mix.
The effects of nature themselves are also passing through the portals: wind, precipitation, and temperature are all seeping through the open rifts from unknown realms. These imbalances to the local ecology have caused bizarre anomalies in contrasting biomes such as influxes of cold, bitter wind causing patches of rainforest to shrivel, oases in dry regions, or reverse-oases in temperate hillsides.

Questioning Faith

The Creator made a golden guardian called Edutar to watch over the world and prevent disasters. He was never seen except for in times of great and dire need of the world, and oral histories depict him as a golden being with immense powers granted from the Creator that he used to perform wondrous miracles like calming a volcanic eruption that blacked out the sky, quelling mountain-high waves that threatened to wash away the land, or even untangling the furious spiraling winds of great and terrible storms.
Everyone knew how dire the situation was during the Rupture when the golden form of Edutar appeared and began to close the rifts one by one. He tried with all of his might and will power to close a large, growing rift, but failed. His body was torn into fragments, they fell to the world as the golden Pieces of Fate.
The world mourned.
Those who collected pieces of Edutar’s fallen body became Ordained and inherited a small portion of the powers of creation that the Creator had bestowed to the guardian at the beginning of time.
People lost faith and religious groups fractured or dissolved. Some folks clung to their faith and saw the new Ordained as false-gods and thieves, others worshipped these new and powerful beings, and many people became utterly lost and confused about everything they ever believed in.
Magic never existed, now it does. Entire realms of existence have always existed but only now have become accessible, and beyond those rifts lie even more beliefs, technologies, and ideas.

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It's a confusing and overwhelming time for every living being, but things have certainly got a lot more exciting for those with a keen eye for opportunities.

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Beyond the Rifts

Folks native to other realms such as Peior and Timathomar reported great losses on their side of the rifts, too. The explosive openings and subsequent tremors affected many of their settlements and structures, and caused much of their roaming wildlife to flee in panic and rage into Melior.

Complications

Something about the atmosphere in certain realms causes great irritation to the exposed skin of certain kinds of folks and prolonged exposure causes permanent swampskin, which looks toad-like in texture and is very uncomfortable. Many folk don’t want this to impact on their appearance and choose to wrap-up well and wear face coverings whilst visiting.

Conspiracies

Nobody knows what caused The Rupture to happen, but there are several theories which point fingers in all directions.
Some folk theorize that it was caused by some colossal natural occurrence like a big super-volcanic eruption. Others blame various gods or deities and slander other religions.