The Splitting

The Splitting began nearly four centuries after The Age of Awakening, when tensions between Aeonyra’s regions erupted over the growing use of temporal magic recovered from ancient draconic ruins. What started as scholarly experimentation in Yesteryn soon spread across the continent, as rulers and armies realized time itself could become a weapon.

The first major fracture occurred in Gnomonveil, when diplomats attempting to negotiate control over newly uncovered relics vanished mid-conference, only to reappear several days before the meeting had taken place—each carrying contradictory memories of how the negotiations ended. Panic spread quickly, and distrust between the regions hardened into open conflict.

Morrowtick’s Frostbound Legions, led by the stoic commander Veyr Halgrim, sought to contain the spread of unstable temporal magic by sealing affected territories beneath magical stillness. Solthar responded violently. The Ashen Vanguard of Emberwake, under the warlord Kaedros Pyrehand, believed time should be mastered rather than restrained, using volatile chronoflame weaponry capable of accelerating decay or forcing entire battalions into sudden exhaustion.

Meanwhile, the shifting caravans and dune-riders of Tymorae formed the Golden Wake, a mobile force specializing in navigating fractured timelines and unstable terrain. Their scouts became infamous for appearing days ahead of battles that had not yet begun, carrying warnings of events still to come.

Thistledrift largely resisted direct warfare at first, but after entire forests began aging centuries overnight, the region’s wardens and druidic circles formed the Verdancy Accord, using ancient growth magic to stabilize regions where time had begun collapsing into repeating cycles. Vast stretches of land became overgrown prisons of looping moments, trapping soldiers and civilians alike inside endless fragments of battle.

The greatest devastation fell upon Yesteryn. Desperate to undo mounting losses, factions within the region attempted to reverse entire battles through increasingly dangerous rituals. The result was catastrophic. Cities such as Vaelor’s Reach and Hollowmere were torn from the timeline entirely—remembered by some, completely unknown to others. The region fractured into temporal scars where past and present overlapped uncontrollably.

As the war escalated, the dragons themselves became divided over how to intervene. Cryoveth urged stillness and containment. Pyraxis demanded decisive destruction before the fractures spread further. Ithrys sought to reconstruct the damaged laws of reality, while Vorrath argued that parts of the world may need to end completely for the cycle to survive.

Only Everwhyn stood between total collapse and oblivion.

In the final days of the conflict, the skies above Aeonyra split into layered reflections of different eras. Armies fought beside echoes of themselves, moons appeared in conflicting phases simultaneously, and entire seasons shifted within hours. At the center of it all, Everwhyn descended upon Gnomonveil, where the temporal fractures had converged into a single catastrophic wound in reality known as The Sunder.

There, the ancient Time Dragon attempted to forcibly realign the cycle itself.

Witnesses described every moment occurring at once—birth and death, ruin and renewal, history folding inward like shattered glass. Then came silence.

When the light faded, the fractures had stabilized.

Everwhyn was gone.

No remains were ever discovered, and no dragon has spoken clearly of what truly occurred during The Sunder. Yet remnants of The Conflict of Reversal still haunt Aeonyra to this day: wandering soldiers trapped outside time, ruins that appear only during certain moon phases, and scattered regions where clocks, memories, and even aging no longer move correctly.