The Shard-Worlds of Varylla

The gears of the Cataclysm Engine were grinding to a halt. The Great Wars had enveloped Varylla. Three empires pounded their armies to dust against one another's relentlessly for decades, laying the lands to waste. Disease and famine struck down the common people by the hundreds of thousands.   There were those who sought to put a halt to the disaster that was to come. But they could only mitigate the complete destruction of their world. The Cataclysm Engine seized, shook Varylla, and exploded. Life would have been no more as the planet tore itself asunder in the shockwaves of destructive power that were unleashed, if not for the sacrifice of the Seven Arcane Masters.   In the moment that the Cataclysm Engine tore apart the world, the combined energy of ley lines throughout the world was also unleashed. The Seven Arcane Masters, wizards of unsurpassed might, burned away their own life forces to direct the power of these ley lines in a defensive line. This energy protected and preserved islands of civilization from the destructive power of the Cataclysm Engine.   Thus the Shard-Worlds of Varylla were born.