God's Eye

You can see it coming. The dark wall. The man of air walking inside it. And once you see the dead man walking, it is far too late.

— Kalani, Haragutai Admiral

In many ways the Great Divide is the heart of the world. Transport, food, connection, in many ways it provides for humanity. But it is a heart with a dark core that can give birth to monsters. And every few decades it will bring forth the greatest of them all: the Eye of God.

Birth of a Titan

Excerpt from a lecture on meteorology by Senior Archivar Aleon Justinian
A God's Eye is in many ways the result of both the natural and unnatural processes of the world. Natural in that it emerges from the relationship of Frigian and Hydian. These two vast systems of air currents, whose fluctuations are at the core of almost all weather phenomena on the Divide, mix roughly in the centre of the ocean and create the perfect conditions for storms to emerge.
However, every few decades there will be a moment when both streams meet on fully equal conditions. In the south, where both air currents contain warm to hot air, we usually observe Storm Swarming. In the north, on the waters between Mykonia and Vardania, the situation looks very different. This is where the unnatural processes I mentioned come in.
For reasons we don't yet understand, the water in this mixing zone will start to rapidly heat up. Our colleagues from the Archive in Ainach were able to take measurements prior to the last God's Eye about a decade ago. Based on the what was found we can estimate that the ocean reached nearly 100 degrees just before the storm emerged. Normally, this would cause the air above to heat up and rise, but the slow moving cold air from the north acts as a block. Energy builds up until a breaking point is reached.
The balance swings in the other direction and causes an explosive release of hot air. This is the moment that a God's Eye is born. And you will know when it happens. Its creation causes such massive atmospheric disturbances that any weather system within a radius of 2,000 miles ceases. A belt of warm, dry and windless weather forms. Quite literally the calm before the storm.

Maw of Darkness

It derives its name from the massive eye-like structure at its centre. There is now one of three choices the God's Eye can make. To move directly south and eventually dissipate harmlessly out on the open water. Or to move either east or west to make life hell for everyone on those shores.

Warning Signs

If there is one good thing about a God's Eye is that it announces its coming loudly. Following the atmospheric disturbance it will usually take between 20 and 30 days to reach either coast. The first sign, an ever increasing and unchanging wind, of which direction it has taken will manifest itself about a week after creation, giving authorities two weeks to react. By the end of week two, swarms of small round clouds, known as sheepclouds will appear. Finally, about a week before landfall, the horizon will simply disappear in a wall of black as the cloudwall of the God's Eye comes into view.

State of Emergency

A God's Eye is one of the biggest natural disasters this planet can throw at us. As such it has received an Emergency State Rating of 5. For comparison, the only other events rated that high are volcanic eruptions considered colossal and above, as well as diseases in the vein of the Faustian Plague. Meaning any realm in the path of the monster will immediately declare a state of emergency and devote all available resources towards evacuation of citizens and resources. Any armed conflicts will cease, travel towards affected areas will be prohibited, and large-scale recovery aid prepared.

Apocalypse

One might consider such preparations overblown, especially if they belong to a generation that has never faced a God's Eye. But let me assure you, they might as well be not enough. The upper end in terms of wind speed that we find in regular storms sits at about 175 miles per hour. A God's Eye, with a regular deviation in accuracy of about five percent, begins at over 250 miles per hour.
Such winds turn even paper into lethal projectiles. Entire cities are torn to shreds. Forests are torn apart. The ground is scoured up to a foot deep in places with even roads being ripped out of the ground. And that is only the wind. Hail, up to the size of a human head, rains down en masse. Lightning strikes and downpour causing flooding inland add their own dangers. But the worst weapon a God's Eye produces is the storm surge it brings. Waves up to thirty meters high will come crashing into the coast.
Combined with the fact that a God's Eye usually lasts about ten days before dissipating, this ensures that vast areas of the eastern Scetia and western Vardania will feel the effects. Entire realms have been wiped off the face of the earth in the past and it takes a region at least a generation to recover. Thankfully, nine out of ten of these storms move south and stay on the open sea.

See that hole up there in the wall? Last God's Eye did that with a piece of wood. Four feet of solid stone and it just punched right through.

— Unknown resident of Ainach

by Alex Rommel

Emergency State Rating
Developed in the 2900s DA as part of an increasing international exchange in the scientific community, the ESR determines the severity of a crisis and appropriate reaction to be taken by governments and people alike. The main factors concerning it are danger to lives and property with actual severity being determined on separate, specialized scales.

• ESR0 = Minor Accidents

• ESR1 = Accidents concerning Cities

• ESR2 = Accidents concerning Provinces

• ESR3 = Accidents concerning a single Country

• ESR4 = Accidents concerning multiple Countries

• ESR5 = Accidents concerning Continents

Some wonder why an ES Rating of 6 does not exist despite there being disasters of such a magnitude: the Great Calamities. However, since these events occur so rarely and are utterly unpredictable they defy the purpose of the ESR and are thus not counted.

by Bastien Grivet

Terror of the Seas
The God's Eye is an ancient phenomenon, at least in modern times. What few records older than 3,400 years remain indicate that these storms simply did not exist before the Oblivion Hour. The first recorded one occurred in 910 DA, when it struck the eastern coast of Scetia and ended the Rhandana Empire. Since then, over 79 have been recorded, of which 20 caused damage and 13 made landfall.
Few have been given names, the designation of "God's Eye" alone seen as descriptive enough. But a few storms reached a place of infamy even beyond that: the Abomination, the Dead Man Walking, the Green Wall. In total, between 4-6 million people are estimated to have been killed by a God's Eye. A number that will continue to rise.

by Pavel Zayats