Fifty-five years ago, a strange phenomenon was sighted in the Stoneborn settlement of Khar’muduk in the northernmost reaches of Danaros’ largest continent. Within a single house every living thing, from people to plants to the organic matter composing their clothes, all had dissolved into nothing, and everything still standing had turned the same shade of dark grey. Curious to find a cause, several of Khar’muduk’s enforcers entered the house, only to suffer the same fate themselves: their bodies and clothes dissolved in a matter of seconds. A few hours later, the entire settlement—at least those who hadn’t fled—had suffered the same fate.
From there, the strange affliction that would later become known as the Unbinding spread rapidly, killing everything in its path. People, animals, plants, when the Unbinding touched it, only dark grey dust and stone remained. No magic could halt its progress, and any magic items caught in its spread—even artifacts—lost their power instantly. No amount of magic seemed to affect the Unbinding, and it did not take long for the various peoples of Danaros to flee their lands and take to the seas. There, at least, they thought they would be safe. But the oceans of Danaros only slowed the Unbinding, their ships dissolving as soon as they got too close to land. Each day, the Unbinding spread farther from their shores.
In the end, seeing their civilizations in ruins and vast numbers of their people dead, the survivors of Danaros—whoever had ships to sail and the means to cross the planes—fled to Eluneia, a world of many islands, many of them still uninhabited.