The beginning of the new world of Gods and the end of the old world of humanity.

On a day unnumbered but distinctly remembered by all who still live and witnessed it; the New World Dawned. There had been whispers. Visions and signs and warnings had been received by those touched by the unnamable things that stalked the liminal spaces humanity and themselves. Those that could prepared for it in their own way. They were few in number. As the say approached there was not one living human who could not feel it. No matter their bargained strength or stolen power; Its awakening scratched at he back of every mind. It sought to crack through, to used the collective psychic might of the human race to break free from Its eons of sleep and rise again to claim dominion over the world.

As the sun swept across the sweeping rose, Man woke with a piercing scream. Billions of minds were split and consumed. Some did not wake to feel this but many more did and were damned for it. They stumbled out into the streets; stripped of though and reason and speech. They tore into each other in an idiot rage, distraught at what they had lost but without the capacity to remember what that had been. Those millions that were not eaten as It rose up from the shifting seas; and were not felled by the hands of the mad; found even worse fates awaited them. The largest cities turned in on themselves, folding and twisting and reshaping their concrete and asphalt into something singular and enigmatic. Those that lived in forgotten corners found the black and gnarled roots of primordial woods consuming their towns and themselves. The remote tribes and natives on holy and sacred sites would share the unfortunate fate of becoming the bodies of Gods, the portals of beings drawn by Its rise, the food of creatures that no longer needed to hide -- nor could they in the face of that great psychic reverberation.

As midday came, humanity was all but gone. A scattered billion or so dotted the planet. Fled from the cities and the Screamers and the new Gods. They were changed in Its shadow. Their minds opened and unhinged from their part in Its birth.
What was left of Man was given the only tool it might use to survive. Psionics.