Hour of the Voidscream

The very air seemed...wrong somehow. Not poisonous or putrid. Just wrong. As if the mere act of breathing could doom your soul.

— Rana Arasatra, Illigaran Poet

There are things which simply cannot be explained. Events so abnormal and against all that is logical and sane that the human mind simply cannot understand them. One night in the winter of 793 DA embodies this more than any other. For it saw the skies scream down upon the earth and all that is sane ceased to be.

Strange Lights

With the terror of the Infernal Hour beginning to fade from memory and the Dawn Age growing warmer day by day, it seemed that humanity was finally on the road to reach another time of plenty. Nations around the Divide prospered, settlements grew to near the splendour of the old world and mankind thrived in all aspects that could be named. Some even began to claim that another golden age was about to begin.
As the year 793 of the Dawn Age neared its end, something seemed to change. People claimed to hear strange sounds in the wind, animals grew restless, and some say that the stars seemed to move in erratic ways. Reports from western Illigara speak of unnerving colours in the light of dusk and dawn. It was a strange time and all manner of esoteric movements gained followings as the unease increased.

Night of Horror

One night in the midst of winter, no one can quite remember which one it truly was, all hell broke loose. All stars disappeared, swallowed up by an ocean of unspeakable colour. Acts which only signaled the beginning madness:

Manic Rage

It is nothing new that mankind is by nature unruly and prone to conflict. But the events of that night are unprecedented. Nearly every city saw some form of unrest, in many towns people were tearing each other apart. Rebellions spread like wild-fire and many a civil war was unleashed in this very night. Civilization as it was known seemed on the verge of breaking down entirely.

Lethal Despair

Others were overtaken by a heavy sense of despair. Many of those often considered among the reasonable were found wandering around screaming and howling about the most mundane. Many areas saw entire villages congregate and commit suicide as if of one mind. An especially gruelling display took place in Lanashtra where a dozen children flung themselves to their deaths from a high tower.

Dreams of the Unspeakable

Less horrific but equally strange were the dreams and visions that many seemed to experience during these hours. Especially those of a softer or more creative mind were taken by visions of the most captivating kind. For all the horror it brought there is no denying that the winter of 793 DA saw some of the most beautiful art in existence emerge, be it as painting, song, building or sculpture.

Without a Trace

By far the most unsettling of events too transpire on this strange night was the Desolation of the North. Seemingly overnight, the people living in northern Vardania ceased to be. The Sikirians vanished without a trace, down to the last child. All that was left was an empty land, silent cities and homes frozen in time. It seemed like nothing had been out of the ordinary, set dinner tables and unruly beds showing that the Sikirians had been going about their daily business up until the last moment. Whatever had taken them seemed to have done so without struggle. There were no traces of violence, of invasion or migration, of any sort of disaster that could help to explain what had transpired. Only silence remained, the wind howling through empty streets and fields.

Unseen Terror

The Calamity vanished as quickly as it had come. As the sun dawned on the next day and dispelled the strange colour in the sky, whatever power had taken hold of mankind in those hours vanished as well. Just how many victims the most mysterious of Calamities claimed cannot be said for certain. No matter how high, the number could never come close to describing the true damage caused by the event.
Those that survived often did not escape completely unharmed. All manner of mental scars remained once the rising sun finally ended the madness. Similar to how mankind responded to the Great Decline centuries later, the themes of death, suffering and despair become prevalent among almost every human culture.
In northern Vardania, former home of the Sikirians, the madness seemed to linger. Every attempt to resettle the now empty lands ended in disaster. Colonies tore themselves apart and all to many settler returned screaming about " a suffocating silence". In 937 DA, the city-state of Chaironea and the remnants of the Rhovarin joined forces and razed every last building in the north, finally putting a stop to whatever evil had lurked there.

A shadow has descended upon us. Something creeping and tearing and suffocating. I fear it will not leave us for a long age, maybe never.

— Rana Arasatra

Date of Setting

793/794 DA

Related Ethnicities

• Covarajan
• Sikirians

Related Locations

• Northern Vardania
• The Rodine Hills

Related Items

• Void Fragments

To Name the Unnameable
Unlike the other Calamities, there is no true characteristic to name the disaster after. For a long time, historians simply referred to it as the "Days of Madness". Only in the late 25th century, after the full extent of the events of 793 DA had become known, did Archivars even realize that something of this magnitude could only be described as a Great Calamity.
As the world entered another era of doom and gloom in the late 3rd millennium, the writings of Rana Arasatra would become popular again and serve to give the disaster its name. The Illigaran poet had written extensively on the event, but these works had fallen out of favour once that fatal night passed from memory.
Arasatra described the night as "filled with screams from beyond the veil of reality" and as a "world shuddering under the howling sky. His most famous poem, "The Voidscream", would serve as the name for the strangest of disasters.

Do not read Arasatra if you wish to remain in a good mood. Every word of his is dripping with despair.

— Archivar Nealis

On Sikirians
A confederation of tribes in northern Vardania that rose to prominence in the 8th century DA. On the backs of horse-like creatures known as "Chaliks" they dominated the continent for nearly a century from their fortress of Aschin.
The only things remaining of their culture are considered "tainted artefacts" and kept safely in vaults deep within the many archives of the Avitae.

by Марк Барвих