The Age of Turmoil (Lore)

It came to pass some years later that a small group of Erudites discovered the lost art of Necromancy.

They were branded heretics and great conflict arose. For the first time in several hundred years, the Erudites fought.

They engaged in a civil war not entirely dissimilar to that which they had loathed and fled from back on the mainland. But there was one very significant difference ? they did not use swords and bows, but rather magic, and the result was terrible.

Lives by the hundreds were lost, great buildings and structures destroyed, and eventually the heretics were forced to flee Erudin, to hide and regroup in the southern regions of Odus.

In one final battle, great mystic energies were released and an immense hole leading to unknown depths beneath the earth was created.

Into the sides of this chasm the heretics built their own city which they called Paineel. And while both sides still seethed with anger and hatred towards one another, their fear of what the last battle had wrought has kept any further conflict at bay.

Source: EverQuest 1 manual