Cataclysm

The Cataclysm is the event that led to the fall of the Ezentar empire, as well as the loss of most of its technology. The true nature of the Cataclysm is still a mystery, though a multitude of theories attempting to explain it have been debated. What is known, however, is that the event ended the lives of a huge proportion of the population, to the extent that even hundreds of years later there are still fewer people alive than before the Cataclysm.

While there are immortals and long-lived races, of which a considerable number survived through the Cataclysm, they tend to be elusive about the actual event.

Cataclysm as a Time Scale
The Cataclysm is universally accepted to have ushered in a new age in history; as such, time is recorded in years since the Cataclysm (After Fall or Before Fall, abbreviated to AF and BF).