For the miniseries, see Exandria Unlimited: Divergence.

The Divergence is the most common name for the departure of the gods from—and the diminishing of their influence on—Exandria, with their return to the Material Plane barred by the creation of the Divine Gate. It marks the end of the Age of Arcanum and the beginning of the Era of Reclamation.

Many of the devout call it the Penance, and scholars of the arcane call it the Second Spark.^[1]

The end of the Calamity[]

The proximate cause of the Calamity, a war that killed two-thirds of Exandria's population and left permanent scars on its continents, had been the release of the Betrayer Gods from their extraplanar prisons. When the Prime Deities and their allies finally defeated the Betrayer Gods, they hoped to seal them away for good.^[2]

Days after the Strife Emperor's defeat, the Stormlord happened upon some mortals fleeing from the inhospitable area of the aftermath. The Stormlord told one of those mortals, Crokas, "We are leaving, forever. You witness the final miracles. You will need to be strong. You will need to stand and lift up those who cannot lift themselves. Our age of doing so is at an end. I hope you will be strong."^[3]

Following the Betrayer Gods' defeat, Melora, the Wildmother, went to the most desolate land, the Barbed Fields where the cataclysmic final battles of the war had occurred, and planted the seed of the Arbor Exemplar as a symbol of rebirth.^[4]

The Divine Gate[]

To prevent a recurrence of Armageddon, the Prime Deities dragged the Betrayer Gods and their fiendish spawn from the Material Plane. Behind themselves and their defeated brethren, they erected in the Astral Sea a barrier known as the Divine Gate, which would prevent any god, including themselves, from physically crossing over into mortal realms.^[1][5]

The idea for the Divine Gate dated back more than a century before the end of the Calamity. The All-Hammer declared that if it was purely of divine make, other deities could undo it, so mortal hands had to be involved; he decided to incarnate as Garen Hearthheart, a mortal dwarf from Uthtor, to work on the project himself.^[6]

The records of the Scalebearers state that it was the Platinum Dragon and the Lawbearer who came to Vasselheim and declared that the Prime Deities would also leave Exandria. Though this was initially met with protest from both the divine and mortal, the other gods ultimately agreed, finding this "unimpeachable and just".^[7] This was not a unanimous decision; some Prime Deities didn't think creating the Divine Gate was truly in their best interests. But those deities were outvoted.^[8]

After the Battle of Ghor Dranas and immediately following the foiling of a plot by the Lord of the Hells to remain in hidden mortal form on Exandria, the Platinum Dragon appeared over Vasselheim and breathed a line of light that began to cover Exandria with a degree of divine protection.^[9] However, the Gate was not completed for some years after the apparent departure of the gods. The Divine Gate could not be finished until all the gods left Exandria,^[10] and Garen Hearthheart continued living in the world for some years helping in the construction of Kraghammer and the town that became known as Stilben. Unknowingly, he was completing the mortal component of the keystone of the Gate. When the Platinum Dragon, whose mortal incarnation Erro Mordaurum had been a companion of Garen's, found him and reminded him of his divinity, they departed and the All-Hammer placed the final keystone to complete the Gate, sealing it behind them.^[11]

What was left behind[]

Not all creatures of great power were destroyed or banished before the construction of the Divine Gate. Some servants of the gods remained on Exandria. Some remained faithful to the gods they had served, while others developed their own interests.^[13] The great leviathan Uk'otoa, who had been a servant of Zehir until he was abandoned, was one of the latter.^[14] The twilight phoenix Desirat, mount of Asmodeus, had been trapped by the original Cerberus Assembly beneath Mount Mentiri.^[15] Udaaks were left behind in Xhorhas and lost their connection to the Abyss.^[16] Quajath, who had served as a scout for Torog, was presumed dead, but a fragment survived, trapped beneath Eiselcross.^[17] The solar Xalicas, who had served Corellon, was left profoundly disabled for more than a hundred years in the Greying Wildlands.^[18] Some immortal creatures remained deliberately trapped in prisons with the hope that they would remain there forever, including the Laughing Hand and Jourrael.^[19]

Of the greatest magic items bestowed by gods on their champions or crafted by the most powerful mages for the prosecution of the war, most were buried and lost in the devastation, others were locked away out of fear, and some were passed down from generation to generation. These items came to be known as Vestiges of Divergence.^[20][21]

Diminished divine influence[]

Many tieflings, who had been persecuted due to others suspecting them of ongoing association with demons and Betrayer Gods, felt relief after the Divergence seemingly locked those beings safely away.^[22]

The gods can still project power onto the Material Plane by whispering and making promises to mortals,^[23] bestowing knowledge and some measure of divine magic to their followers, or sending minions who can pass through the lattice of the Divine Gate, but their influence is paltry compared to what it was before the creation of the Divine Gate.^[24] Following the banishment of Lolth, her followers could feel the waning of her influence, which created an opening for some of her drow to stray to worship of the Luxon.^[25] Many mortal mages grew complacent about the Betrayer Gods' limits beyond the Gate until the Battle of the Umbra Hills, when fiends and even a Demon Prince tore their way back into Exandria in support of supernaturally twisted armies.^[26]

In the days around the Divergence itself some people interpreted the farewell of divinity in different ways. There was at least one cult that believed that the gods had died and that they were the new gods.^[27]

References[]

Art: