Cadfan's Tempest

On Cadfan Ledewig

Cadfan's Tempest is named for the 5th Century Monk of the Faith who first chronicled the powerful Wyldstorm that struck the Armorican Peninsula and the Isle of Albia around 249 SI. Although the storm had been remembered in oral tradition and archaeological evidence, it was Cadfan's descriptions of the great storm that first entered the public consciousness outside the Kontelezh Kernev. Cadfan, a monk in the Landevenneg Abbey, had taken it upon himself to collect the writings surrounding the Abbey's founder, Saint Guenole, taking the rare step of incorporating details from non-Chuch sanctioned accounts to compile the collection and complete gaps in the narrative.
In the 8th century, following the Odet Raids by the Marie-Morgane of Ys-Beneath-the-Waves, a renewed interest in the lost cities of Great Kernev sprung up, and Cadfan's work resurfaced, was copied and distributed. While Cadfan did not name the storm, the association with his writings forever associated his name with the event, known by dozens of other names in local tradition up to that point. Cadfan's account of the Fall of Ys is the most complete known record in Alvez.

On the Origins of the Storm

Like most Wyldstorms, the exact origins of Cadfan's Tempest is unknown, but there are plenty of theories. Most center on the breaking of a powerful Ere-Hud placed on the city of Ker-Ys, with disastrous consequences, with the blame typically laid on the doomed princess Ahes Dahut or King Gradlon Mwar to a lesser extent. Still others blame a lack of faith and morals, either to the Old Gods or to the Faith, resulting in a punishment by the speaker's favoured pantheon. Still others place the blame on a powerful curse called forth by Ahes, Guenole or Queen Malgven of The Royal Magocracy of Fjallkonan (V), Ahes's mother. Most recently, modern scholars have posited that a tear in the inter-reality metaphyscial fabric of space known as The Veil, combined with a powerful, but mundane storm, contributed to the formation of the Storm. Great seismic events, either connected magically to the storm or exceptionally poorly timed, amplified the damage greatly as earthquakes and tsunamis carved up the Armorican Coastline.

The Sinking of Ker-Ys.

What is agreed upon is that the storm first manifested far out in the Mor Bras, making landfall in the Plains of Douarnenez, in what is now Douarnenez Bay. The city of Ker-Ys, Capital of Great Kernev, stood on the edge of the shallow Mor Bitik, a somewhat sheltered waterbody off the Mor Bras. Possessing great seawalls reinforced with the magic of the Kriores and Bediz combined, the Beacon City had survived countless storms, both mundane and magical in the past. But Cadfan's storm was especially powerful, an unprecedented magical force that slammed directly into Ker-Ys. The raw power of the event, combined with a failure of the city's seawall through mechanical failure or treachery, doomed the city. The walls were breached and the sea rushed in, swamping the lower wards immediately and quickly subsuming the three hills that Ys sat upon. The fear and emotion of the sinking and the malleable reality of the Bleed proved disastrous, as the small hills warped into monumental obstacles for the panicked crowds, while the water continued to rush in. The city was entirely engulfed by the sea, and the surrounding plains became the Bay of Doaurnenez.
Even without the Bleed warping the region or the failure of the Seawalls, it is likely that Cadfan's Tempest would have been disastrous to the surrounding area, as tons of landfill and sand in the low-lying former wetlands were carved out by the massive waves.

Subsequent Disasters

The most well known result of the storm was the sinking of Ker-Ys, but it was hardly the only one. A tsunami swept along the Southern Coastline of the Armorican Peninsula, The Glenan Peninsula, an important region of Kernev's maritime empire, was sunk, lost beneath the waves like the capital. The great wave continued further East, wrecking acute destruction upon the Kingdom of Werran, now the Barony of Gwenrann. The Kingdom was devastated, its natural barriers swept away to form the Ar Briwer wetlands.
Cadfan's Tempest turned North, destroying the city of Tolente before crossing the Mor Breizh and slamming into the sparsely populated region of Lyonesse on Albia's Southern Coast. Brimming with magic, it flooded and warped the Lyonesse coastline into the strange region it is today. The storm seemed to disappate over the Mor Marv.

Kab Sizun

The Lordship of Kab Sizun, on the Southern side of Douarnenez Bay, sits beneath a nearly ever present Wyldstorm that rings the Citadel of Barrad-Faout that has been attested to being present in records dating back to the reign of King Aldroenus (~300 SI). Many argue that the storm present over Barrad-Faout is the same one as struck Ker-Ys, but its effects are localized in a self-contained Bleed in the area.

Manifestation

Writing 200 years after the passage of the Storm, Cadfan's account does not tell of the specific details of the storm itself, beyond the destruction it wrought. However, the storm is considered to have a similar appearance and effect of a typical Wyldstorm, described in generic terms below:
Wyldstorms appear as massive, dark, spinning stormclouds, forming a solid and visible front several kilometers in height. While the stormfront appears similar to a mundane hurricane, the rotation of the storm is not uniform. A Clockwise spinning storm is typically less powerful and carries largely beneficial effects, such as the purification of water. Counterclockwise rotation signifies a cursed storm, full of chaotic, malevolent magik. Either storm contains powerful magik capable of warping reality itself where it passes. The stormfront is often rippled with lightning of many colours across its face and within its form.
The clouds roll over the sky like a tide, riling up waters with a deluge of stormsurges, rain and high winds. The interior of the storm again resembles that of a hurricane, but brilliant lightning of many colours arcs through the clouds above, the timing of accompanying peels of thunder not following a logical pattern, occurring before, during or after the strike. The clouds glow with greens, blues and reds and aurora of brilliant Gaoithe Sidhe cut through the dark skies.
The weather patterns in the storm are often impossible for the region, including rogue tidal waves, waterspouts and whirlwinds and earthquakes as reality itself is ripped apart and reformed. The Magikal effects of the storms are even more unpredicatable. Massive geological shifts occurs as lands are ripped from the earth and left hanging as islands in the air, forests and cities are plunged beneath the sea or overtaken by sandstorms. The passage of Chronos stands still or speeds up. The transformation of mundane creatures into magikal ones, including striking physical transformations, is often a side effect to direct exposure to the full brunt of a Wyldstorm, with animals gaining the power of speech or growing in size, humans becoming animals, Milliget or monsters.
Often, the most striking of the magikal effects of the Wyldstorm reverse upon the storm's passing, but many remain permanently afterwards, leaving an area as a Bleed.

Localization

Affected Areas

The main force of Cadfan's Tempest struck Douarnenez Bay and Ker-Ys before moving Northeast to Lyonesse. The storm was wide and slow, and its effects devastated the Armorican Peninsula.

Kab Sizun

The Lordship of Kab Sizun, on the Southern side of Douarnenez Bay, sits beneath a nearly ever present Wyldstorm that rings the Citadel of Barrad-Faout that has been attested to being present in records dating back to the reign of King Aldroenus (~300 SI). Many argue that the storm present over Barrad-Faout is the same one as struck Ker-Ys, but its effects are localized in a self-contained Bleed in the area. The storm over Barrad Faout is considerably weaker than that described in Cadfan's account in both power and magic. While it wanes and waxes, it is rarely ever gone completely, leaving the area calm and sunny as if passing through an unseen eye, or overcast as if the storm is passing or nearing, with the worst of it between these two stages. After the storm calms, it appears again in the East.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane