Caelester Earthquake

TW: Severe earthquake - those who have experienced a major quake might wish to skip this one
The Asurian peninsula is a region accustomed to a certain degree of geological instability. Buildings are made to last, typically using flexible timber frame construction rather than more rigid structures that will crack in any earthquake. Even in palaces and temples, it is traditional to build a timber frame at the core of the structure, with the impressive stoneworks built as a facade. Such buildings can withstand the typical earthquake, requiring only minor repairs and saving countless lives. But the Caelester Earthquake was no typical earthquake.
8 years ago, late in the evening of the Budding Festival, a tremendous earthquake shattered the city of Caelester. Timbers designed to flex and follow the movement of the earth shattered like brittle kindling, bringing homes and temples down upon their inhabitants. Fissures opened up across the city. The grand ducal palace, a modern extravagance built of brick and mortar and carved stone facades collapsed utterly. With many of the city's elites still enjoying the evening's festivities at the palace, a large proportion of the city's most influential lords and ladies, merchants and politicians died in one fell swoop, and what remains of the official archives lie somewhere deep within the pile of rubble.
The common people of the city fared a little better - most of their homes collapsed as well, but made of lighter materials with longer structural beams, these ruins had pockets of safety where posts and beams fell together and supported the weight of the debris above. Many residents survived with minor injuries, pulling themselves from the wreckage of their homes and looking upon their ruined city in disbelief. Many others were found in the days that followed, trapped in the debris but dug out by rescuers.

Cause

The unprecedented fury of this earthquake prompted many to wonder why. Why would an earthquake have such tremendous power. Why would its effects be so great in Caelester, while leaving most of the other cities in Asuria unscathed. Several conspiracy theories exist, mostly centred around the idea of the earthquake being caused by the magic of some unknown aggressor or even an expression of divine wrath, though scholars have since concluded that the most likely explanation is simply a matter of chance. In lesser earthquakes, reported strength consistently falls off with distance from a central point - usually somewhere in the seas near Asuria. In the Caelester earthquake, this point falls directly on the city itself. This suggests that the Caelester Earthquake was not particularly special, it was simply a powerful earthquake that unfortunately struck the ground directly beneath a major city. With no priests or cultists proclaiming it to be the wrath of their gods, no follow up invasion forthcoming, and no consensus as to how a hostile mage might even channel the kind of energies needed to produce a quake of this magnitude, this makes the scholarly claim of random chance the only reasonable belief.