Rifts and ravines

This is a complex topic that may need some overhauling and revamping to make better sense from - not just the lecture quotes of one individual.

"These Rifts and Ravines are not natural. Look at Felkhath. It shouldn't have those rifts and rocky outcroppings. Something had to happen to cause them. And the become more frequent the closer we get to Estopti and Oestopti.
"When lightning strikes, it deals the most damage to the exact location it hits, and then damage spreads outward. When a mage shakes the world, the same effect. I believe we are looking at something exasperated by magic."

— Ademalian, Baron of Ethnis

Soplas bears scars, the rifts and ravines carved into the earth, and structures have fallen into them. Old maps indicate that these rifts began forming in the final years of the Adrakian Empire, and some of the smaller irregular rifts were described in surviving journals as forming at the feet of Kotzuiyrn's priests in battle.

"These records are hard to verify, but it seems that the rifts grew larger when a more powerful mage-priest was creating them. Records also suggest that the capitals were where the strongest mages would be centered
"When his Late Highness of Tormyra performed his rite to become a lich, he caused a number of quakes and small rifts. He straightened out the damage, of course, as any responsible mage of Tormyra would do, but the records were kept all the same, and only serve to support the idea that some kind of power magic was used, possibly to defy the gods."
"What? Why do I say they were trying to defy the gods? His Late Highness' state is a defiance of our deity of death's ordinance. She's been trying to kill him because the undead are an affront to her, and he was likely taking a piece of her power for himself. Now, he likely took a piece. What would a mortal like the Adrakian Dragon-Gods do in supplanting actual gods but attempt to take all of their power. What would happen then?
"It's a perfect metaphor for taking and taking and wasting what you already have before you, for taking more than you can reach."

— Ademalian