The Sundering

At the beginning of 1999 several members of the Parallax Club were on board a cruise liner in the mysterious stretch of water known as the Bermuda Triangle.  Also on board was Mendelevium, one of the Transuranic Agents, and he had brought with him one of the most fearsome devices ever developed by the Bureau of Elements.  It was an Arithyde's Box, a weapon that produces a dimensional shockwave capable of destroying entire Realms.

In his madness, Mendelevium used another device to open a portal to The Umbra and threw the Box inside.  A moment later it detonated.

The Bermuda Triangle's reputation came from its location.  That stretch of water contained the largest semi-stable dimensional vortex in all of Reality Prime, a wormhole in the Umbra that led off into thousands upon millions of different worlds.  Furthermore, attracted by the dimensional flux, The Kraken slept deep beneath the centre of the Triangle.  Its depredations, even in torpor, were responsible for many of the disappearances that plague that region.

When Mendelevium set off the Box at the centre of such a massive vortex, the entire Umbra shook.  All over the Earth, psychics, seers and lunatics screamed at the unleashed cataclysm.

It was only much later, when things had settled down, that the truth of what had happened became clear.  A massive storm of spiritual and dimensional energy had torn through the Umbra, and in its wake all but a very few Umbral pathways had instantly collapsed.  Thus, all contact between Reality Prime and the Shadow and Reflection Realms of all the other planets had been severed.  In addition, the links to Earth's own Reflection Realms were severed.  The only remaining portals led to the Shadowlands, Earth's own Shadow Realm, and out into the mysteries of the Deep Umbra.  However, these connections were tenuous at best.

All contact was lost with Arcadia, with Oz (the Shadow Realm of Venus) and with the n-parallel worlds of Earth.  Indeed, the dimensional maelstrom was so severe that some feel those other dimensions may even have been destroyed.  Without contact, however, there is no way to tell one way or the other.

Many were left stranded on Earth in the aftermath of the disaster.  The Fey such as Pandora, The Olympians still on this world and several Bureau Agents.  Indeed, although Mercury retains contact with the Mercury avatar he has no idea if many of his colleagues even still exist.

The legends of the Seelie Court speak of a time "when the Umbra screams with pain / when all reality is torn asunder / when the end comes in a storm of fire and darkness."  They call this time the Sundering, and thus has it come to be known by all.