The Great Leaving

The Great Leaving is a cataclysmic event in the World of Thera campaign setting for DnD 5e.

This cataclysmic event seems to mark the end of some Great and Terrible War that swept over most of Thera's known peoples. The term "Great Leaving" has taken on several meanings in the current day.

The most prevalent is that the Gods of Thera have adopted a non-intervention policy with mortals. Entire churches collapsed as miracles faded from the world. Once powerful clerics were laid low by the abandonment of their patron gods. This upheaval caused the peoples of Thera to return to a more modest polytheism that commonly involves animism and ancestor reverence.

Another Great Leaving was happening in the mortal world as well. For reasons that remain unexplained, High Elves seemed to vanish over the period of one day, abandoning Thera and sealing off all portals leading into the Feywild. This was seen as an unforgivable betrayal to the Wild Elves, who rightly believed they were robbed of their Fey birthright. Since the Great Leaving, a High Elf has not once been seen walking on Thera.

A less commonly discussed Great Leaving is the mass exodus of Dwarves returning to the deep underground. Dwarven folk are extremely rare on the Thera surface, and nearly all of them are the result of exile from the Dwarven Empires below. Once great fortresses and points of commerce were abandoned by the Dwarves, who locked themselves miles below the surface World.