There was the War of Darkness. More to the point, the Lord of Entropy attempted to make planetfall on the continent of Egesa. A massive amount of people (nearly half the population) were enticed by the darkness, corrupted, and then transformed into the Orc (Strength), Goblin (Dexterity), and Minotaur (Constitution) races. At first it was a trickle, these dark races suddenly appearing and killing people in murder sprees, but then the creatures began attacking more frequently and in greater numbers. The targets were almost unilaterally followers of the good-aligned deities but then the blood began spilling from those who didn't worship any particular god.
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A call for action was put out to any and all willing and able to fight the beasts and it became terrifyingly apparent that the number of humans still alive were quickly dwindling (roughly 1/16 of the remaining population had been killed by this point). Some of the greatest wizards of the area began systematic destruction of the monsters attacking the realm's people only to find where these creatures were coming from.
It took a lot of magic to track down the gate that was nearly opened and there was not enough strength left on the human's side to shut the portal. A band of adventurers, who had destroyed a corrupted dragon, discovered a vast horde of magic items and, in particular, seven artifacts. These were actually legendary weapons that were lost to time (some say older than even the Changelings) but were the key to the defeat of the dark armies that were multiplying too fast to stop. These intrepid heroes sacrificed themselves by attempting to destroy these artifacts, hoping that the energy that was unleashed from such a destruction would be enough to close the Dark Gate.
The result of the attempt was the destruction of the continent and it's current configuration of islands.
This took place 20 years ago.
