Also known as simply 'The Event, 'The Whiteout, or, 'The Fall', amongst other names, the White Event of 2012 was the cataclysmic result of an attempted co-ordinated global summoning of Satan himself in to Eth by the Hellfire Club.
Failing to do that, being thwarted by the supernatual focused investigation team The Defenders, the rituals nonetheless unleashed enormous magical energies, saturating the globe for a period of three days and severly weakening the Nexus Bar, allowing the long term rise of background magical radiation.
In 2012 the Helfire Club attempted to open portals across the globe in an effort to allow Hel itself to invade Eth. This resulted in the catastrophic misfire known as the White Event, which will lasted for a full 3 days and had the effect of a 3 days global E.M.P, affecting all unhardened electronic equipment and infrastructure, as well as rendering all life forms comatose.
This resulted in the death of millions, and caused disaster on a biblical scale, from planes tumbling from the sky to entire cities being raized by fire, reducing mainstream civilisation back to Victorian levels (at best).
The Whiteout will also weaken the Nexus Bar, allowing magic to once more soak the dimension of Eth in much heightened quantities, meaning the rebirth of Practical Spell Casting, as well as the reawakening of mystically forged artefacts. It will also, starting in 11 years or so on, result in the rise of the 'witchbred' (children born with variant talents that were being carried in the womb during The Fall).
As a side effect the arcane ‘flash’ will be seen clear across galaxies and dimensions to those attuned to it’s existence, bringing attention to an ignored planet from a wider existence…
For a solid 11 years after the Event the only beings directly affected by The Whiteout on the planet were the members of the Hellfire Club who had performed the rites (13 groups of 13 globally- In theory 169, though many died in the Event and in the aftermath, mostly at the hands of other Hellfires) spread out globally. Around 2023 the first generation of witchbred start to manifest amazing powers in a world shaped mostly in fire against the will of a humanity not ready to give up their control of their own future, utilising technology and magic as they are able.