The Great Displacement

avaging much of the history of Daënfel, the Great Displacement was a cultural phenomenon made up of a series of consecutive historial events which led to an almost world-wide amnesia of the world before Avlar's ascension as the lord of Death.
Before Avlar's time, the Kingdom of Eá-galwen ruled much of this land. Formed from the Dagnir SenDagnir Sen - the first beings to live in the grace of the Avanís Pantheon - this harmonious kingdom of many races lived at one with the land, and built many of the great structures still seen today.
During Avlar's brutal conquest of the continent he destroyed the kingdom of Eá-galwen, butchering half of its population and taking many people captive, sending most back to his home city of Avalon and the first city to fall under his rule, Trinity.
His forces sacked the capital of Carrag Nuine, destroyed towns such as Wallsend and Whimbrel, and burnt down religious iconography such as the Gods Willow of Ban Elsir. In this rampage and destruction, much of the written history of the land was lost. Even Helias - the one city to resist Avlar's forces - was part of a brutal revolution which set much of the city ablaze for weeks.
And then, when the people were already grieving at what had been lost, disaster struck. Avlar, the God-King ascended. His capital city of Avalon was mysteriously destroyed, with many of the subjugated peoples transported there perishing in the chaos. The doors to the Maw opened soon afterwards in an event known as The Breach, and monsters swarmed this world, wreaking havoc and death in every direction.
It is thought that less than a third of the beings who existed on Daënfel at the time of Avlar's birth survived to see the end of this period of darkness, and the world has never fully recovered. Many of the secrets of Avalon and Eá-galwen were lost, and the cities that remained developed in isolation for decades, as few were able to travel the continent unharmed. In addition, many cities saw large changes in their governance. As the established nobles and leadership failed to protect their people from the Maw's spawn, desperate and enterprising people rose to prominence, overthrowing much of the ancestral nobility and bringing this world more in line with how it operates today.
In many of the cities of Daënfel, the new leadership united the people under one banner and worked collaboratively to ensure survival. The city of Trinity did the exact opposite. Predominantly made up of humans, the zealots of Trinity, now leaderless following Avlar's disappearance and ascension, turned their anger and loss at the captured Galweni slaves that had been transported back there. Turning to religion, they justified acts of cruelty as divine punishment to the legacy of a kingdom that stood against their Lord Death, and as such the people rebelled. It was during this time that the Forsaken were formed, as the more 'monstrous' races were pushed to the fringes of society and were radicalized.
Unwittingly furthering this agenda, The Green Knight chose the Davistan line of Emperor's to rule the newly founded Dawning Empire - a family of Men. Needing the support and funding of Trinity's elite to establish the Emperor's legitimacy and fund the building of a new capital, Hope, the Davistan line turned a blind eye to the subjugation of the lesser races. Thus, this inherent intolerance for those beings who less closely resemble Man and could have their heritage attributed to monstrosities of 'the Maw' continue to be persecuted against to this day.
All of these events put together are referred to by scholars as 'the Great Displacement' - a dark period of Daënfel's history whose scars can still be seen today. Interestingly, scholars and historians who have studied Avlar's conquest believe that many of his actions were taken intentionally to cause an event such as the Displacement, but to what end none are sure.