In the year A.D. 1189, Pope Gregory VIII called for a Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the infidel. King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France agreed to stop waging war upon each other and take up the cross. As Henry and Philip gathered their armies, the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, marched from Europe with an army numbering some hundred thousand men. But Barbarossa met his fate at the river of Salef where he drowned. Broken by the loss of their leader, the German army disintegrated. And so the Crusade's fateful beginning foretold the horror to come.

Henry II, king of England, died before he could begin his march to the Holy Land. His son, Richard Coeur de Lion, or "the Lionheart," assumed the throne and answered the Pope's call to arms. He joined with Philip of France, and their armies set sail in the summer of 1190. On the way, Richard conquered Sicily and Cyprus. Then, along with the French army, he laid siege to the city of Acre in the summer of 1191. After horrific battles, the Saracen army in Acre was forced to negotiate a truce with Richard and Philip. The terms of the truce were harsh indeed–the Saracens were to pay the crusading armies 200,000 gold coins and return plunder and prisoners.

But the siege had been hard, and the crusaders suffered from plague and a severe shortage of food. The kings themselves could hardly agree on a proper division the spoils. So even in victory the crusading armies were broken. It was not long before the German and French forces sailed for home, leaving Richard and the English army alone at Acre. When Saladin, the Muslim leader, failed to pay the tribute demanded by the crusaders, it is said that Richard's trusted advisor called for the Muslims to be punished. He advised Richard to gather together several holy artifacts for a sacred ritual to bless Richard's forces and curse their foes. Acting on his counsel, Richard brought these artifacts together–relics whose combined power began to weaken reality. As Saladin's forces camped near Acre to again negotiate terms, Richard put to death 3,000 Muslim prisoners in a show of force and ferocity. It is said that this acted as a blood sacrifice for the catastrophic ritual the advisor had begun.

Within a day the fabric of the earth began to tear, and spiritkind and magic were un-leashed. Hordes of demons and strange, powerful beings sprang up in the streets of Acre, surrounding Richard's army. After heavy losses, Richard and Saladin joined forces to wade trough the hordes. With incredible valor, the two heroes wounded the advisor, now revealed as a demon of considerable power. The advisor fled, along with a host of the evil creatures, ending the ritual before its completion. Although the battle lasted but a few hours, the Disjunction, as it would come to be called, unleashed vast forces across the entire planet.

During this time the new magics unleashed upon the world were first used by the devastated English. Used in the repair, communication, and defense of the nation, magic also begat the formation of a power group gone for centuries–the Druids. During these early years following the Disjunction, hordes of magical creatures scattered across the earth. The most powerful of these creatures were the Storm Dragons, immense reptilian beasts capable of unleashing terrible destruction with their magical abilities to control weather and summon natural disasters. Territorial and vicious, the Storm Dragons swiftly spread across the planet and began to carve up the landmasses. Blizzard Wyrms flew to the icy reaches of northern Europe, Inferno Drakes plagued the hot deserts of Africa and the Middle East, Lightning Dragons soared to the Americas, and Tidal Dragons controlled the waters of the Pacific.