The Cataclysm of Terros

The Cataclysm of Terros was an even that occurred in 1000BE, on a large clearing in the heart of the Obscuran Range, at the tail end of a bloody and brutal battle between the Empress of Dusk and her Inquisitors, and the combined might of the Three Kings Alliance, headed by Morvala the Mountain, Xanvani the Seawalker, and the replacement king of the Middle Kingdom, Argavir Notusi. Because of the Three Kings' intentions, and their possession of the Eyes of Dawn and Dusk, the battle was hard fought and evenly matched though regretfully for the Kings, since the Heart of Obscura was lost, it was not a complete slaughter for the Empress' forces. However, they still managed to get the end weapon online, Xanvani's Revelation Mechanism, though it cost the life of Morvala to do so. Al-Zehin, one of the Empress' dutiful Inquisitors managed to damage it with a well aimed arcane bullet, but this only managed to make the chain reaction go haywire, forcing Xanvani to grab Argavir and run, since they both held one of the Eyes, and the first burst from the mechanism completely froze both armies.

Al-Zehin survived but was knocked into the depths of a crag below by the burst, and that only left the Empress of Dusk to try and stop the world ending energy that was gathering up a giant storm of arcane winter to wipe out all life on Terros. She managed to contain it for the most part, and due to it becoming damaged its ability to shape energy was changed fundamentally so that it became not a disintegrating spell but an ice spell due to the bullet Al-Zehin fired into it. The Empress used her mastery of animancy, and the fact she was supposedly a vessel for Aradia, to contain the arcane storm as best as she was able, this was not enough to save all of Terros, but it mitigated the horrors that would come to pass.

What followed was a massive and brutal ice storm that froze nearly all of the Obscuran range instantaneously, thankfully for the dwarves they were underground and safeguarded, and the eastern states had the Maiden's Shield Array protecting then. The entire northern hemisphere of Terros is consumed in a century long ice age that nearly destroys all civilization, only those with powerful mages, or shielding are spared form the brutality of the era. Even then it causes and ecological domino effect, and the rest of the world is brought to its knees for a century of pain and suffering as one half of it freezes. While it might have been the end of the world as it was known at the time, it was still a far cry from what would have happened had the Empress and her loyal soldiers not stood against the Three Kings, and held the apocalypse at bay with their lives.

The storms receded after a century, and only exist as an eternal vortex at Obscura's heart making it unnaturally cold in a large swath of the range, and completely frozen over and unlivable in the center of the effect. The vortex has maintained thanks to the void, but has never once managed to repeat the effect it had when first launched, an it is believed that the Empress still remains locked in an eternal containment to keep it that way. Though, with the Void sealed off, and the mana being bled by Divankul Dul-Snasiska, by 1086 it seems like the mechanism is just about to fully run out of power for good.