The Cataclysm! It looms larger than any other event in the history of our world, forever dividing time into before and after. Even our calendar reflects this, marking our last four chaotic centuries in years After Cataclysm (AC), while the millennia before, stretching back into shrouded myth, are Pre-Cataclysm (PC).

Many records of the time before the Cataclysm are lost to us. Those that do survive are often perplexing, referencing nations and cultures that no longer exist and geography that has changed beyond recognition.

Still, it is possible to piece these scattered sources together. At the request of the good knights of Maelgoth, here are my notes, compiling a rough introduction to the histories recorded here at the Great Library of Palanthas.

Nikkas of Palanthas, Assistant to the Librarian