Fractured [ EDIT ]

The world was once normal. Great cities were built. People were more or less peaceful. There were only 6 sentient races that existed: humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and orcs. Magic was available but limited by those who studied it or was granted it by their god.

Then the cataclysm known as the Cleansing occurred. Zagan was tricked by Malphas into creating a giant wave. It was big enough to engulf the majority of the world. Malphas turned this wave into a wave of disease and death. After the wave subsided, 90% of the population had been killed and all the cities destroyed. Resources were wiped away and the world was left shattered.

In the aftermath, new species arose, hybrids and mutants of the world that once existed. Now, the world was divided into groups searching for resources and hoping to survive. You have the Originals - members of the original 6 races, the Hybrids - humanoids with animalistic ancestry (dragonborn, aarakocra, bugbear, centaur, harengon, kenku, minotaur, lizardfolk, satyr, tabaxi, locathah, grung, tortle, yuan-ti, giff, thri-kreen, owlin, leonin, and Loxodon), the Mutants - sentient monsters and elementals (genasi, changeling, goblin, hobgoblin, firbolg, goliath, kobold, shifter, triton, kalashtar, and vedalken), and the Outsiders - sentient creatures that come from somewhere else (tiefling, aasimar, fairy, gith, shadar-kai, kender, and warforged).

Little known history of life before the Cleansing is readily available. Artifacts are of the time are being discovered, but most of the books and records have been destroyed.

One of the positives of life after the Cleansing is the fact that magic is more prevalent. Magic is now innate in some individuals, a result of latent magic used in the Cleansing.

It is now 1000 years after the Cleansing and the divisions are still seen. While there are some individual outliers, for the most part the 4 groups do not interact outside of tedious treaties and agreements.