Wall of Darkness

The Wall of Darkness was a powerful essence barrier separating Shadow World, rendering the eastern hemisphere almost impossible to reach. It was formed as a consequence of the Eyes of Utha, which were powerful artifacts designed to suppress the interdimensional rift following the First Era cataclysm. The Lords of Essaence were masters of gate magic, discovering many other realities they felt paled to their own. In the war to overthrow their wicked Empress Kadaena, there were vast hordes of demonic monsters, which came from other planes of existence. These portals were called the Gates of the Void. The war ended when Kadaena was decapitated and sucked into the abyss.

The instability of excessive gate magic was worsened as the forces of Utha, cousin of Kadaena and father of Andraax, unleashed powerful channels of Essaence to wrack the world in destroying her servants. The fabric of reality was badly warped by the titanic scale of power unleashed in the war, with many violent and unhealed tears which continued to allow access by extra-planar horrors. The Eyes were constructed to suppress the formation of random portals, as well as shield the world from the powerful flow storms of space which would tear them open. It kept the world on the edge of the rift, which was the source of magic, but held it from falling into the chaotic realms of pure essence.

The Wall of Darkness was formed as a result of sealing the wound in reality. There were servants of Kadaena who survived but were trapped on the other side of the barrier, as well as the hideous otherworldly beings let loose from the portals which still existed beyond the wall. Most people assumed the eastern hemisphere was a place of horrible evil, possibly some negative universe of Unlife, even though no one was able to travel there to witness it. There were only a few exceptions, such as the most powerful dragon lord, and the avatars of the moon gods. The Lords of Orhan (Liabo) spent thousands of years closing these portals and slaughtering the demonic in order to repopulate the world.

Behind The Scenes

These correspond to the Eye of the Drake and The Rift in the modern history. The Elemental Confluence was essentially the same concept, with Alusius stating it was the ultimate source of elemental magic in this universe. In theory it would have been the kind of thing the Eye was designed to deflect. The Eye of the Drake was destroyed in 5098 Modern Era, with the northern Eye of Utha under siege in the present of the Third Era. The Wall of Darkness itself has no analog in Elanthia. The world is known to be round and navigable by ship, with the Shattered Continent reached by sailing both east and west from Elanith.