The Soul Chamber was shattered by fanatical elves that opposed the soul sacrifices the soul chamber needed to generate magic. The world was plunged into a dark age that lasted for many years until the god Aether willingly stepped into the machine to fix it, sacrificing himself.
Possibly the most important battle in all of this world, was the Siege of the Eternal Day. Around the beginning of the 3rd era, a powerful tiefling wizard by the name of Sepitus Crowe had plans to become immortal by becoming undead. He originally planned to enact this plan over a long period of time as to not draw attention to himself, because becoming a lich is illegal, however with the Soul Chamber broken, and limited time to become a lich, he twisted and manipulated kings and queens to slaughter their people during the dark age to provide more souls faster. He also required a large amount of souls to become a lich separate from the souls he needed to feed to the Soul Chamber to keep magic in the material plane. He caused mass murder, and it’s rumored that he is the reason the Shattered Isles are broken apart, and they used to be one continent before he destroyed it. When he eventually succeeded in becoming a lich, he rose armies of undead people and dragons to conquer all the remaining continents. While his armies were out conquering, he left little forces to defend his fortress, which is now the Drazden Castle, while he started a ritual to try and freeze time so that magic would be frozen in the material plane. The citizens of the Krafos Dominion, along with help from the other countries, developed the first warforged beings as soldiers to combat his undead armies. One of Septius's apprentices ratted out the location of his fortress, and the countries sent an army of warforged to destroy him. They were too late to stop Sepitus’s time freeze spell, so the siege of his castle that took 3 weeks was only technically one day, thus the name Siege of the Eternal Day was given. Upon Sepitus’s body and phylactory destroyed, the freeze time spell was dispelled, and the world was safe from his reign for good.
Shortly after the end of the dark era, in 24 4e, the Krafos Dominion was divided on whether or not they should keep the warforged around. The warforged were only originally constructed as soldiers, and when the Krafos Dominion entered the 4th era, they had no use for them anymore. Some thought that the warforged should be treated as people, and others thought they should be deactivated and stored until war time. After agreements could not be made, a civil war broke out that lasted for 36 years. Eventually the side that favored the warforged came out on top and warforged are formally recognized as people.
The second soul chamber crisis came about when Freyr, the champion of Aether reawoke. Manipulated by a powerful vampire lord named Godfrey, he was led to believe that it was his holy mission to break Aether free of the machine, believing that mortals had tricked Aether into the Soul Chamber and that he did not willingly sacrifice himself.
Godfrey was a vampire lord that had made a deal with the Lords of Shadow, the powerful rulers of the shadowfell, for his immense power. He was bound by them to carry out their will. Sepitus Crowe, a very powerful and feared lich, was amongst these shadow lords, he had somehow survived his defeat during the Siege of the Eternal Day. He commanded that Godfrey get Freyr to shatter the Soul Chamber once again, releasing the twisted soul of Aether upon the lands so Sepitus could absorb it and grow even stronger.
Three adventurers named Charlisle, Clyde, and Orion rose up to try and stop Freyr, but were unsuccessful, Freyr released Aether, but he was not how he remembered him. The thousand years Aether spent in the soul chamber had warped and twisted his soul into an evil being, and Aether killed Freyr on the spot before vanishing.
With the soul chamber being broken again, magic began to drain from the world once more. The magic seals that held the ancient primordials at bay weakened, and they escaped. The adventurers Charlisle, Clyde, and Orion sought out ancient artifacts, the same ones used by the champions of the gods to defeat the primordials in the first place. They found the artifacts and used them to defeat the primordials once and for all, dispelling the seal that kept the two sides of the globe separated. During this time, Sepitus Crowe absorbed Aether into his being, forever tying himself to the fabric of reality, becoming near unstoppable.
With the primordials out of the way, Charlisle, Clyde, and Orion took on Godfrey, killing him in his castle. They then turned their attention towards taking down Sepitus Crowe. With the help of one of the champions of the gods, Solaris, they were able to defeat Sepitus Crowe in battle, locking his soul in the Soul Chamber, where his soul will power the machine for the rest of time, providing magic to the world once again.