Great Cataclysm

The Great Cataclysm is the name of a worldwide apocalyptic event that destroyed civilization and ended the NS world as it was known, marking the Coming of the Rifts.

In March 2084 AWE, a the dispute over the island of Quky-1123 erupted between the nations of Manguardia, Ammerinia, Davinhia, and their respective alliances of the PGLP, GIN, and KAA. Thanks to a false-flag attack by Manguardia against the capital of the GIN-aligned Afidatrov and its exposure by James Mechan, it escalated into full-scale open war as a final conclusion to Manguardia and Ammerinia's decades long rivalry, being referred to as The Third Glorious Uprising and The Third Manguardian War by either respective side, with the Republic of Davinhia and the Keigan Allies Alliance joining on the GIN side as well.

A previously dormant ancient Ley Line nexus beneath Quky-1123 emerged (causing a volcanic eruption in the process) and opened after being inundated with energy from the ZXZ bioweapon employed during the fighting, but since war had just broken out, this momentous and preternatural occurrence went largely unnoticed at first save for the immense electromagnetic distortions it caused in its immediate vicinity.

On April 30th (referred to as "X-Day"), the war escalated to the point of nuclear and antimatter warhead exchange during a simultaneous rare planetary alignment. The sudden deaths of millions flooded the world's other Ley Lines with mystic energy, triggering unimaginable destruction and upheaval that would dwarf the effects of the war.

The Cataclysm caused worldwide, and literally earth-shattering calamities: Earthquakes, storms, floods, fires and mass destruction on a biblical level, followed by plagues, starvation, blackout of all electrical technology, and dimensional anomalies and distortions, and the appearance of invading demons, monsters and extra-dimensional beings. Sea level rose and fell and rose again, civilization collapsed, with the world of old finally no more as a menagerie of new ones took its place.