(Some belated updates)

The mystic Veil torn by the ancient lich Nyastren's final assault hangs like a terrible wound in the air over the Sea of Despair, obliterating all who come too near it.

Ever since, the strength of the very force of magic itself has fluctuated wildly. Wizards and Battleragers alike "enjoy" alternate periods of feast and famine as the power of magic erratically waxes and wanes. Even the guild of shapeshifters, a group of magi known, ironically, for not casting many spells, has witnessed great variations in the strength of their animal forms.

As rumor would have it, this sort of chaotic flux has not been without consequences, including but not limited to:

• A temporary reformation of the Seneschal of the Five Magics


• Various magi stockpiling supplies to weather the worst


• Strange gem-creatures rising up to attack Cragstone


• The ancient pharoah Sekhtan-Rah rising from his long sleep to prowl the desert once more


• Unbound demons, angels, devils and the like sighted mauling people in greater-than-usual numbers


• Various elemental creatures being spontaneously born, usually surly


• Ents and other relatively docile nature creatures marching on Galadon


• Undead creatures stirring from their normal haunts

Some scholars have claimed that the rise and fall of arcane might can be tracked, even predicted by those attuned to the tides of mana.

Rumors of the fabled Horn of Fate abound, but most dismiss these as nothing more than the periodic dirge of doomsayers.