The first epoch of Windplex did not end with the ring of steel or the roar of a dragon, but with the heavy, prophetic silence of the Great Thinkers. As the massive powers of Imperalis and Crucify vied for dominance, the very fabric of the realm began to fray. The world had grown weary; the rapid, unnatural progression of the populace and the deep scarring of the earth had left the foundations of reality brittle. Sensing an impending shift in the cosmic balance, the Great Thinkers realized that the world was preparing to heal itself through a violent, total purging.
Faced with the erasure of everything they had built, the people abandoned the surface. Deep in the shadows, the keepers of the archives gathered their scrolls and retreated into subterranean vaults, carrying nothing but their memories and the weight of the stories they had sworn to protect. Above them, the Great Calamity unfolded a primal, natural reset of the globe. Mountains shifted, forests reclaimed the stone, and a great cleansing wind reduced every fortress to dust. Every hoarded Doubloon was reclaimed by the soil, and every mine was filled as if it had never been touched by a pickaxe. The surface was scrubbed clean, and the scars of the first wars were smoothed over by a world returning to its original, wild state.
Now, the vaults have begun to open. The survivors emerge into a pristine, untouched world a "Second Beginning" where the land is as it was before the first footfall of man. The monuments of the past are gone, but the legends of the first era endure in the hearts of those who survived the darkness. The sun rises on a new horizon, beckoning the pioneers to once again begin the grind and forge new alliances. In this newborn world, the kingdom of Maritima has been established to serve as the Lore Capital, a sanctuary where the history of the old world can be etched into the foundation of the new.