The sinking of Old Naurcia

In present day Naurcia, there is a legendary tale that every naurcian old enough to read knows. It concerns their ancestral land, which is not the gentle hills and rainy skies of North-eastern Arros, but instead, the story is about the tale of a large island that sunk beneath the sea.

Before the catastrophe

As the story goes, this all happened before The Long Winter, during the first age. There was a large island, maybe as big as the island of Island of Haiska that was situated around a thousand km east of the mainland of the Arrosian continent. The island was mountainious, with numerous fertile valleys in between the high peaks, allowing for all sorts of foods to be grown and feed a large population. The climate was very pleasant all year round and the waters were full of all kinds of fish.
In the cities, large pallaces to house nobles, royals and and Mages were contructed, as well as grand monuments and statues to honour them. The capital, Evalon, is said to have been the most beautiful city to ever exist and to be the most beautiful city that will have ever existed. Its layout was composed of large boulevards, paved with white marble and lined with large fruit trees. An citrus aroma floated in the air of the city.
The Old Naurcian were excellent sea fairers and had a large fleet of highly capable ships that were able to make the trip to the mainland regularly. The City of Arlevent, in South-west Naurcia, is believed to have been founded on top of an already existing colony built some time before, while they were still on Old Naurcia. Their ships are believed to have gone as far away as the eastern side of Velcaan island. This is further supported by the discovery of a partially preserved ship on the south of the island that doesn't match any known design, but fits the description given by the tale near perfectly. If this is true, then an encounter between then and the Old Karthian Empire may have been possible, yet neither side mention anything like that.

The sinking of Old Naurcia

Sometime during the first years of The Long Winter, the island was hit by a series of very violent earthquakes that shook the entire land, causing extensive damage. Each earthquake was bigger than the previous one until, at long last, the 6th earthquake hit during one morning, flattened half the mountains on the island, while the other half erupted into molten rocks. The island was slipt into two halfs, which had both sank into the ocean by the end of the day.

Aftermath

The Naurcian that could flee did it abord their large ships. Most made it to Arros, though some were lost in transit, never to be seen again. Once they arrived on the shores of Arros, they found the land had been decimated by larges tsunami waves, no doubt caused by the sinking of their homeland. The large colony on the coast, near today's City of Arlevent had been completely wiped out. Nonetheless, they settled here, having nowhere else to go and started forming small villages along the eastern coast of Arros. However, it wasn't until multiple centuries after the Long winter had ended that modern day Naurcia would take shape.