Fallendahl was once a beautiful world filled with dozens of humanoid races that, for the most part, got along as well as anyone could hope. Wars, famine, and misfortune still occurred. However, many kingdoms sought to overcome the hardships they faced by working together. It was far from a perfect world but the last ten generations had all grown up better off than their parents had and the cycle was expected to continue.
Many believed there would come a day when poverty, hunger, and needless bloodshed would become things of the past. They dreamed of an age when future generations would only learn of these misfortunes from their history books. Fallendahl permeated with optimism, hope for the future, and the early beginnings of world wide peace. And then the sun went out and everything changed.
Darkness blanketed the lands and brought with it fear, like flies swarming over a corpse. The greatest Scholars and Mages from around the globe pooled their knowledge and resources together. Ultimately they couldn't find an answer as to why their world had been cursed with endless night.
Before long the various kingdoms ended their alliances with their neighbors fearing that they were somehow involved in banishing the sun from its perch upon the sky. Small scale conflicts dubbed "The Resource Wars", became commonplace as crops withered and died without the sun's nourishing rays, plunging entire countrysides into famine.
During this time the Dwarves cut all ties with the other races. They abandoned the surface world altogether and closed off their subterranean cities to outsiders. The Elves fled Fallendahl, using an ancient magic that only they were privy to in order to teleport entire Elven Kingdoms to another world.
It would later be revealed that they had returned to their ancestral homeland, the Feywild. This was a world from which all elves can trace their lineage back to. The other races did whatever they needed to in order to survive but in time their nations fell and their peoples were scattered like ashes in the wind.
Entire generations were born into a world as cold and cruel as the perpetual night that graced their presence. Magic had once filled the lands from coast to coast, spanning every sea, but it too faded away along with the sun's light. Survivors formed roving bands that preyed upon anyone and anything that they considered to be weaker than themselves. It was a desolate life yet it was all that they had known and all that any of them could expect. And then the Columns were uncovered, and everything changed once more.
It is unknown how much time passed between the sun's disappearance and the discovery of the Columns that saved humanity from a slow and certain death. These stone buildings towered a hundred stories into the air with no identifying marks to explain what they were, who created them, or why their interiors were filled with sunlight.
Trees, flowers and all manner of other plant and animal life greeted the nomadic tribes who stumbled upon these heavenly structures. They were surely gifts from the gods as no other explanation could suit such a miraculous discovery.
Before long small villages were created from the abundance of food, water, and other resources that the Columns provided. Much of the world's collective knowledge had been lost and Fallendahl itself was still a land best described as oppressively absent of light. But humanity had found a means of survival and it was soon discovered that the Columns had even more to offer.
When the first generation of Column Dwellers reached the tenth anniversary of their birth they found themselves gifted with fantastic powers. These powers brought with them not only supernatural abilities but knowledge that had been long since forgotten.
Fate was the name given to these abilities and the information that each generation born within the Columns inherited. Some Fates were more desirable than others as most children preferred the ability to fly or cast fireballs from their hands over the ability to make crops grow faster or purify tainted water.
However, it was impossible to predict what Fate you were born with until the powers revealed themselves and there was no way to influence or change the outcome. It was a roll of the dice what Fate you would inherit but growing up in a Column at least offered the reassurance that you would be granted some sort of natural gift.
After the third generation of Column Dwellers were born a massive spiral staircase appeared in the center of each structure. Not all who were brave enough to ascend the stairs returned, but those who did brought back stories that captivated all who would listen. Dungeons filled with deadly traps, terrifying monsters, and treasures beyond anyone's wildest imagination inhabited the floors above them.
The sunlit sky within the Column seemed to exist on a separate plane of existence from the world outside. Folks began to realize that the same was true of the dozens upon dozens of levels between the base of the column and the top. It was believed there were at least one hundred levels in total judging by the size of the columns exterior though no one could say if that were true or not. Magic could distort time and space and a structure capable of harnessing the sunlight of another world was impossible to judge by appearances alone.
Those who believed that the Columns were created by the gods viewed the upper floors as a trial. A challenge meant to appease the deities above. Only when someone proved themselves capable of reaching the top would the gods return the sun to this world.
Others believed that an ancient race of highly advanced beings had predicted that the sun would burn out on its own. That they had built the columns to act as shelters against the chaos that came with the endless night but had been killed off by some other threat beforehand. They were convinced that the floors above were created to safeguard ancient secrets that could be used to return the sun to its former glory.
Regardless of their motivation, those who sought to reach the upper levels became known as Ascenders while those that had never ventured beyond the first floor were labeled Descenders. In many cases Ascenders were looked upon as potential saviors of humanity and given preferential treatment over their peers.
The less courageous Descenders would perform important but less glorious duties within their column. For this reason, and many others, thousands of ambitious adventurers tried over the years to reach the top of their columns and bring the sun's light back into the world.
Though many would perish in their attempts to achieve what those before them had failed to do. In time an organization known as the Academy of Ascension was founded by veteran Ascenders to pass their knowledge onto the next generations to improve their odds of one day reaching the final level of their column. Though so far none have managed to reach "True Ascension."