After discussing legendary spells and spells above the Ninth Circle with Barrel, Aaron realized that he was probably not the only one troubled by this issue. Many ancient legendary spellcasters throughout the Realms likely faced the same problem. Ever since spells above the ninth tier had become impossible to cast, spellcasters' abilities had been restricted overall. The most powerful magic had gone from casually reshaping the world and traveling through time to Wish.
The Ninth Circle Wish was indeed an extremely powerful spell, but it still fell far short of epic magic.
For instance, when the fabulously wealthy merchant Reinsdorf used Wish to extend his life, the result was that his lifespan reached its upper limit of one hundred years.
With each casting of Ioulaum's Longevity, however, the number of creatures killed within its area of effect could add years to an Archmage's current age category-childhood, adolescence, youth, maturity, or old age-at a rate of one year per creature. As long as they cast the spell regularly, Archmages could theoretically live for a very, very long time, avoiding the fate of turning themselves into Liches.
Before leaving, Barrel told Aaron something very interesting.
The Sun Elf Arcane High Priest explained that the Great Sundering was not an event that had ended, but one that remained perpetually "in progress." The elves' Great Sundering had nearly destroyed all of Faerûn. Realizing their mistake, the elven high mages of that time had been forced to use secret arts to release only part of its effects, sending another portion through time to be unleashed at some uncertain point in the future, thus preventing the Great Sundering from completely destroying the Realms.
Even with only a portion of its effects released, the Great Sundering had still split Faerûn's original single supercontinent into numerous continents. Some