The Sundering: An Account

The following is an excerpt from the book The Sundering: An Account, a book attempting to catalogue the events both preceding and following The Sundering, a mysterious event that decimated the nation of D'Nalsi at a critical juncture.

Excerpt

The day of 27 Octral, 5E 497 seemed to most as a rather unexceptional day. For most of the world, this remained the truth, with life continuing on wholly oblivious to the catastrophe the day had in store. For, on 27 Octral, in the year 5E 497, a tragedy would befall the residents of The Nexus, the economic heart of the D'Nalsi Empire. An unknown event would decimate the city, reducing a once prosperous trading hub into piles of rubble and corpses. The event crippled the Empire, forcing them to abandon their pursuits in other parts of the world, such as assisting in the aftermath of the Dryassan Civil War and the Izuthi War of Independence.
07:31 am
Early on 27 Octral, just as the city was reaching its peak of activity for that morning, something happened. Some near the city yet still distant enough to survive the event described a massive glittering beam of energy striking the heart of The Nexus. Others describe a deafening burst emanating from the center of the city, while others still only describe a split-second flash of light. Whatever exactly might have caused this event, few could produce any explanation other than some act of divine vengeance.
The heart of the city, home to the province's governor and hundreds of foreign diplomats, was destroyed in an instant, leaving nothing more than a crater the size of an entire village. The outer rings of the city were flattened, either destroyed in the event or toppled in the resulting shockwaves. Within mere seconds, the entire city of The Nexus was reduced to ruin.
The first outside of the city's immediate area to learn of the event were mages at the Grand Arcturian Academy, who discovered a teleport circle pointing to a satellite location within the city had mysteriously shattered. According to Bridghid Theuster, an apprentice working in the Academy's teleportation wing, "none took interest in why [the circle] had shattered, outside a cursory acknowledgement of how strange its happening was."