The Bonding

Following the Great Sundering, the three planes of Aleron, the Feywild and the Shadowfell were seperated from one another. During the Sundered Era of the new world, travelling from plane to plane was a feat of magical endeavour, with most not knowing the other planes even existed beyond myth. Elves were rare in Aleron, with only a few communities and settlements dotted across the continent. Fey were a mysterious concept that were told as nothing more than fairytales and rarely seen by the mortals of Aleron, and the creatures of the Shadowfell were nothing more then scary ghost stories.
A few centuries before the turning of the First era, Queen Titiana and the Queen of Air and Darkness in the Feywild both established their courts, the Seelie and Unseelie, which sparked a mass conflict that swept across the plane. The elves found themselves pawns of this conflict, forced to pick a side in a war which they believed shouldn't concern them. So, many elves came together to open a permanent gate to the material plane, and migrate into this new world where they may establish their own empires. This gate opened into Virthwood, where Feyvault now stands. The magic was so powerful, that it even contacted the third plane, the Shadowfell. Some elves got lost on their way to the material plane, being swept up into the Shadowfell where they would evolve into Shadar Kai. This bonding reconnected the three planes completely, creating shadow and fey crossing across the lands of Aleron. These creatures of myth and legend now weilded the powers to traverse the planes with ease, with adventurous folk of Aleron able to do the same. Danger and opportunity swept across Aleron, as the whole continent felt the wake of such a seismic event. This prompted the beginning of the First Era, and the end of the Sundered Times, prompting an era of uncertainty, but also of oportunity and rapid development.