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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Velderan" data-source="post: 8839110" data-attributes="member: 7038056">The 2e game material has pretty close to an entire page theorizing what caused it while summarizing with "we'll never know what actually happened" so they seem to agree it's best to blur the facts and let DMs figure out what they want it to be. As best I remember it, there were a few possibilities suggested:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Kingpriest had gained enough followers to bind the gods and prevent them from taking any direct action. If the gods did throw the mountain down, it was the result of a last desperate act with whatever power they had left.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How did the Kingpriest manage to gain this level of power? By gaining the devoted followers that blindly followed him, he violated the gift of free will that was given to mortals at creation which threatened to unbalance the world and destroy it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It's possible the Kingpriest himself summoned the mountain. He had gained some level of arcane ability since he took up the abandoned Tower of High Sorcery in Ister as his abode. During some ritual to summon the gods and demand power, he accidently summoned the mountain instead and the Cataclysm was the result. I'd guess most if not all of us would agree this is the best cause you could use to not create any controversy. Why did the gods disappear after it? Perhaps they blamed themselves for not doing more and were ashamed I guess. I forget if the book went into further depth theorizing why.</li> </ul>For the DL1-14 campaign I'm about to run with a table that doesn't know anything about DL, all I've laid out in the campaign pitch is a fiery mountain fell from the sky and destroyed the religious center of the world with the gods withdrawing from the world in the aftermath. To me, it doesn't make sense to explain anything further because my player's character would not know the details. Depending on how they interact with Fizban or if they attempt to visit the Great Library in Palanthus, I may reveal bits that explain things later.For whatever it's worth, this is the text from SotDQ:[SPOILER="SotDQ Cataclysm explanation"]As a last effort to avoid mass destruction, the gods sent the Thirteen Warnings, a series of signs meant to deter the kingpriest. Trees wept blood, fires raged unnaturally, and cyclones struck the gleaming Temple of the Kingpriest. The gods also warned a few chosen mortals, reasoning that if any of them reached Istar and prevented the ritual, the world might not be beyond redemption. But the messengers failed—the kingpriest and his followers dismissed the warnings as the work of evil and continued on their path. As the hour of the kingpriest’s ritual to attain godhood arrived, the gods whisked away their most devout followers and unleashed punishment on all who remained.A mountain of fire fell from the sky, destroying Istar. The Blood Sea—a new ocean that split eastern Ansalon—consumed the empire. Coastlines shifted all over the world, sundering nations, drowning whole regions, and stranding ports miles from the sea. Though some lands escaped the worst of the destruction, none were spared divine wrath.The gods and their blessings then faded from the world, and in time, even their names were all but forgotten.[/SPOILER]While it does use the term "divine wrath", it's also a little looser with who the gods saved. "Their most devout followers" instead of simply saying true clerics. You could read that as "people who didn't worship the Kingpriest" easily imo.</blockquote>

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