The peoples of the galaxy before the Annihilating Light did not know what was occurring until it was too late. They felt the descent of the Steward more as a directionless unease than something tangible. There were various prophets foretelling doom, a handful truly and the rest pretending, but such are always present and generally ignored. By the time the heavens began to flash and burn, it was far too late. Many solar systems perished in brilliant coronas of Fire without having time to look skyward.
Some humans of our world were warned by the last remaining dwarf, Ruhaddad, to seek shelter and prepare for the worst. Most hid in the deepest holes they could find. Very few survived, for even though only a spark from the battle reached them, such was the heat from the burning tralaticon that the climate was affected and the surface scorched for many years. There was one group, however, that took more desperate measures. A small number of humans, led by a true Seer and numbering only a few dozen, used the art of Soul Infusion, interred themselves, their families, and chosen friends into the body of the Water Element Guardian, not knowing what it was. They are there still, encased in the inner chambers of its body.
The single planet that remained after the Annihilating Light was not unscathed. Cutting through the center of the last remaining continent like a sword wound is a geographical and dimensional phenomenon known as the Scar. This gash is a curved canyon hundreds of miles long that tapers and loses depth along its entire length until it is nothing but a narrow ditch at its terminus. It is a strange and deadly place that changes at apparently random intervals. Some days there is bare rock, others sections of grand cities. It is populated by strange creatures seen nowhere else on the continent and with no obvious animal or plant relatives on the planet. Very few who venture in beyond a few hundred meters come out and those that do speak little of what they saw. There is a river that flows into the Scar from the north. The water is clean above, but causes visions and madness to those who drink it after it passes through the mysterious canyon. The river flows through the mountains and splits in two, sweeping wide away from each other until meeting again at the sea. The jungle between these rivers is strange indeed, a different place entirely from the rest of the rainforest.
Unknown to all save the elves and dwarves is that the Scar is a wound made from a single spark that found its way here during the Steward and Pilgrims' battle. Tiny flecks of tralaticon burning with Fire caused the physical damage and eventually burned out. The cause of the phasing in and out of locations, flora, and fauna is the Steward remembering what was lost. What can be seen are the myriad civilizations that were destroyed during the battle.
There was one other effect of this catastrophe: the Moon disappeared from the material world. It exists still in the spririt world, but that is a closely guarded secret known only to shamans. The reasons for this are complex, but in effect, when the Steward partioned itself the vault on the last remaining planet, the Moon was no longer visible in the night sky of the material world and the Seers disappeared.