"The world didn't shake, fire didn't rain down from the heavens nor did darkness cover the sun. No, when those damn Aelfs took their experiments too far and their magical cataclysm flooded over every man and beast, it was the bottomless pit of nothingness that welled up within us all that signified that Heimval had changed forever.— Artificer Kern, University of Althachburg
Origin
The Fracture was cataclysmic event that enveloped all of
Svalskogenheim, and possibly all of
Heimval, although few have venture beyond the continent to find the answer.
Although not known at the time the
Aelf of XXX having continued to seek out the
Knowledge of All and had embarked on a magical experiment designed to delve into the laws and fabric of the
Prime Plane. Their own understanding was not enough however to contain the very energies of creation that they had sought to tap, and a immense backlash washed over the elven isle that then spread out to engulf the continent, this roiling chaotic wave a direct outpouring from the Prime Plane itself. Visually this wave went unseen but every sentient being on Graenlandir was touched by it.
Few changes at first seemed apparent, but within days all races across Svalskogenheim reported strange and startling transformations to their surroundings, and worse still, to time and the structure of reality.
Within weeks, it was known that the
Feybeasts had been unleashed on the world, that the Aelf had been irreparably altered as a species, and the term "Fractures" had been coined for these areas of altered reality that continued to erratically spew out the turbulent power of the Prime.
A year to the day later the six remaining Mages of Ylos after months of hurried research and the lives of several thousand of their own kin, performed a ritual to install and activate the
Grand Shard. This crystal, and the rites performed along with it, sealed closed the unwanted connection to the Prime Plane.
Fractures
Fractures is the colloquial term used for an area that has been affected and altered by contact with the chaotic magical energies of the Primal Plane. Changes that could be present can range from shifts in ambient temperature or light, changes to the density or structure of a material within, alteration to the relative fertility of the soil or creatures present through to wild manifestations of raw magical energy or the creation of a connection to one of the other
Planes, or even alter the flow of time or gravity with that area. These could manifest over as small an area as a few feet wide, or even a single object, or affect an entire region.
