The Second Conflict of the Gods

The end of the second age

The second conflict of the gods is the name of a period of two hundred years, where the world was hit with natural and magical disasters and sudden surges in monster infestations. It also marks the end of The second age and the beginning of the third.

Manifestation

Natural Disasters

During the two hundred years numerous earthquakes ravaged cities across the world. Volcanoes erupted and many forests were fully or partially burned down from forest fires.
Normally natural disasters were regarded as the wraths of the gods, depending on the beliefs of in the area, but a few events, gave an indication of something else, something bigger at work. One of these was The Crafter of Life.

The Crater of Life

The entirety of the southern part of what is now known as Erekiath used to be covered by forest, but during the second conflict of the gods a forest fire erupted and burned down a large portion of the forest.
It seemed there was no way of stopping the fires, and the Alvil Forest  grew rapidly smaller, consumed by the flames.
A river streaming from the mountains of The Stone Belt south of the forest drained into a huge lake inside the forest.
The forest fire destroyed the river, and would eventually have destroyed the lake, where it not for divine intervention.
No one knows exactly what happened, but it is widely believed that Colibri, goddess of nature and healing intervened to save the forest.
A large meteor flung down from the sky, landing in the middle of the lake, sending water in all directions, dousing most of the fires.
All that was left of the lake was a huge crafter, now known as The Crafter of Life.
Shortly after, a tree sprouted in the middle of the crafter, which was believed to be the very first Sky Tree, which is now a fairly common sight across the Alvil Forest.

Magical Disasters

During the third age, a lot of knowledge about magic, both divine and arcane, was lost, in part due to the disasters during the second conflict of the gods, but also due to mortals imposing strict rules against magic of any kind, leading to the destruction or confiscation of a lot of magical information, including ancient tomes and magical artifacts. Only a few countries, like Sylvania, didn't outlaw magic, as magic was deeply entwined in their culture.
Due to the loss of this information, not many records exist of magical disasters, except for a few mouth-to-mouth stories, passed down through elven families.

The Noxious Glade

Sylvania is largely covered by forest. In an area, now known as The Noxious Glade there was a settlement known for its research into plant magic. The elves experimented with making the land more fertile by infusing a seed from a midnight tree with powerful plant magic and planted it in the middle of the settlement. The midnight tree was a very resilient tree, and they hoped the essence of that resilience would spread through the soil - And it did. They were successful and after only a few years they had created the most fertile land in Sylvania.
Their success was short-lived, at least from an elven point of view. As it turned out, the spirits of the forest grew restless. Initially, they weren't sure if they somehow angered the spirits with their experiments, but it soon stood clear that something else was going on.
Normally when the spirits of nature were angered, it would result in bad crop yields, sudden sprouts of weeds, or in extreme cases, animals would become more aggressive, and buildings in settlements would be damaged or destroyed, usually by extreme weather or severe termite infestations.
This time it was different. People ended up murdered, mauled to death by what seemed like animals, but the corpses were usually found in their homes, where no animal would normally go. There were also sightings of a large shadowy figure with glowing eyes on the outskirts of the settlement.
A few of the elves, especially those with families, decided to leave, as the murders became more frequent. It soon turned out that they would be the only survivors.
Upon returning to Tihr, they reported the incidents to the Ministry of Magic, Sylvania's authority on magic. They immediately sent out members of The Astral Eye to investigate. Upon approaching the settlement, the forest started to look different. Trees were dying, and spiky wines entangled them. The buildings in the settlement were also covered with spiky vines, and scattered across the ground were patches of green pulsating mushrooms, that sent tiny green spores flying into the air.
The Astral Eye investigated the area for days but was unable to enter the settlement. The spores from the mushrooms proved to be acidic in nature, and touching them caused extreme pain and severe rashes, within seconds.
Eventually, they concluded that it was impossible to enter, but rather than destroy it, they decided to leave it there, as it could prove valuable to study.
Since then, numerous studies have been made, most based on observations as the acidic spores make it nearly impossible to get close.
A long time after the end of the second conflict of the gods, The Ministry of Magic named it The Noxious Glade.
No one entering the Noxious Glade has ever made it out, in fact, nothing has ever come out of the Noxious Glade, and it still remains a mystery of what happened to the settlement. It could be anything from angry spirits, to the reemergence of K'naslah(Poem). Whatever it was, there's a general consensus among researchers that it was related to the second conflict of the gods.

Monster Invasions

Monster invasion is quite a broad term but during the conflict of the gods, dangerous predators like wyverns, Spring-spiders giant rats. There were even reports of the dead rising from their graves.
It was in times like these that people sought The Light for help, greatly bolstering their ranks, which made them a formidable force against monsters, and greenskins, which in most countries are also classified as monsters. This was also one of the reasons why a country like Erekiath prospered after the second conflict of the gods, as people beliefs in The Light got reaffirmed, and many joined the ranks of The Knights of Rahn which eventually made it possible to chase all but a few greenskins out of Erekiath, ushering in a long era of peace and further prosperity.

The End of The Conflict

After the conflict had raged for around two hundred years, it came to a halt, almost immediately. For a period of two weeks, the night skies were littered with shooting stars, of various colors across the world. On the last night, the Celestial Constellations started to shine brighter than they had done for several hundred years. After that night, there was a huge reduction in monster sightings and invasions, and there are no recorded natural disasters for at least ten years after that.
That night has been called many things throughout the years, including The End of the Conflict, The Night of Peace, and The Reaffirmation.

Of course the gods have disagreements! Take the animosity between The Light, and The Disciples of Kazul, for instance. That is not man-made, right? Besides, gods have their good and bad days, just like us mortals. The difference is, they are infinitely more powerful than we are. Just think of how they impacted our world ... It makes you wonder -Will there be a third conflict?

— Daerrik Earthhand, when his son asked if gods ever got into arguments.

Type

Metaphysical, Divine