Dei Exsilium
From Loranon
The Dei Exsilium refers to the events surrounding Marco the Enslaver's attempts to "pull the wool over the eyes of the gods". Little is known of the actual events that made it so, but Marco was successful in denying the gods' access to Mezra. No beings or magic, including granted spells, were allowed ingress to the material plane.
The chaos that resulted from the devout losing access to their deities and spells allowed Marco to conquer many lands very easily, as well as keeping the gods from intervening. Eventually, unbent clerics were able to regain access to divine magic by deeply devoting themselves to philosophies, the most common being a dedication to the philosophy of liberty.
Interestingly, since Fharlanghn dwells on the material plane, his priests were unaffected by the Dei Exsilium. While Fharlanghn or his Church never confronted Marco directly, they were pivotal in helping people travel out of Marco-occupied lands. With Fharlanghn's knowledge of the beginnings and endings of all journeys, priests were able to commune with him to determine the destinations of Marco's armies and keep freedom fighters out of harm's way.
Fearing what the gods might do after being denied access to the world for over a millennium (as it was assumed that the gods were "starving to death" over lack of worshippers), Mygrandin Antaloose did not initially shatter the Godskey after the defeat of Marco. After seeing the chaos that swept the world after Marco's downfall, Mygrandin's lover Lanae Tence took it upon herself to travel to the outer planes to broker a structured reintegration of the gods in hope that the reintroduction of worship would calm the world. She did so without Mygrandin's permission, leaving a note instructing him to destroy the Godskey in five years. After much reluctance, his desire to be with Lanae again won out, and he successfully shattered the Godskey on the rocks of Mount Centifus.
Lanae had been successful, and the end of the Dei Exsilium was met with the arrival of many celestial and infernal agents of the gods. Relatively peacefully compared to the post-Marco chaos, the gods were able to reestablish their Churches on Mezra.
