Cataclysm

A global catastophe that eventually ended Precursor civilization. The oral legends passed down by the early chroniclers commonly speak of a plague followed by flaming holocaust. Some traditions suggest the Cataclysm as a divine punishment meant to wipe away sinful humanity like a second flood. Others insist upon the meaningless nature of the event and cite the random cruelty of the cosmos as the only way to understand the horror of an entire civilization reduced to anarchy and barbarism.
Some of the earliest written records of the Post Cataclysmic Era are quite frank about the harrowing events that occurred during humanity’s climb out of base anarchy. Those who delve into these records glimpse the human animal at its most vulnerable: the human being devoid of culture and moral restriction. Texts such as the Book of Survivors, reduce human society to its tribal basics and even question the necessity of moral order and the efficacy of law to shape the civilized social animal known as human.
The Post Cataclysmic calendar does not provide an accurate reckoning of when the Cataclysm actually occurred, because the Post Cataclysmic Era marks only the beginning of the new human civilization, which occurred after a true dark age in which no historical record was kept. The only thing known for certain is that the Cataclysm occurred over 1000 years ago and probably a considerable time further beyond that.