"Centuries of sparking wildness have passed in this forsaken place. Old hatred and bitter vengeance leave their mark as clear as any lightning blast.""
—Varve
The Effulgency was the nation of the candlemen in Might and Magic: The Dreamwright and Might and Magic: The Shadowsmith. It was once a prosperous nation in the Siccative, but everything changed at the Battle of the Stolen Air, where Amonwelle killed two thousand candlemen after her lover El was incinerated. This sparked off a long and costly war.
After the war, the rough land looked like it had been "scoured repeatedly with wind and fire". The Effulgency, as well as the surrounding lands, was renamed the Blasted Lands, home to wandering tribes of candlemen.
One of the most important places in the old Effulgency was the hearthstone, a giant stone disk about three feet high and a more thousand feet in diameter. The candlemen believed that it marked the birthplace of their race, and that ritualistically sacrificing prisoners to the sky could eventually restore the Effulgency.