A historical turning point by many measures, and widely recognized as a catalyst for the fall of the Ogres from their dominant position in the affairs of Lorgaire. During an unprecedented alignment of
circumstances, multiple rifts between the outside realms and Lorgaire opened simultaneously and the world was wracked with a frenzy of destructive forces almost nine thousand years ago. Now simply known as the Cataclysm. As the main pillars of resistance to these outsiders, the great cities and societies of the ogres were targeted, destroying many of their great civil works and scattering their occupants.
One mystery that beguiles many of today's historical scholars about the Cataclysm, is how the great empires of the ogres were surprised by the arrival of multiple rift class circumstance events. These collisions or entanglements of the first realm, Lorgaire, with the outside realms has by all accounts been a natural and often predictable phenomenon for all of recorded history. The masters of
circumstance lore today can with some regularity predict most Gates and larger events, and the vast and powerful works of the fallen ogre civilizations surely required more sophisticated studies to manifest. How was it that such a collection of alignments was met unexpectedly?
Not an exhaustive list, below are the locations of some of these invasions of the powers and denizens of outside realms into Lorgaire during the Cataclysm:
Chaos in Mynosas
The richest source of ancient artifacts on many subjects, including the Cataclysm, is the city of Mynosas which fell to a Chaos rift. Preserved by a mighty spell of protection, the earthen wares of the entire city of Mynosas were guarded against most of the destructive forces that ravaged its occupants. Famed among them are the
Tablets of Mynosas which preserve many unexpected written works of average citizenry. While very few Tablets tell of the Cataclysm, it is clear that the arrival of the Chaos rift which poured suffering and destruction onto the city arrived without warning.
The stony ruins of Mynosas stand today, partially sunk along the western shore of
King's Bay. Once a grand edifice to the power of the ogres, it now serves as a skeleton to be picked by the curious and adventurous, while reminding the inheritors of the looming danger of the outside realms.
Hell in Kesskolin
Few physical remains of Kesskolin exist, but knowledge of its destruction and the enslavement of many of its citizens can be had, for a price. The fiendish invaders who arrived though the Hell rift maintained a prolonged campaign and excursion against the rulers of Kesskolin. While the rifts were a natural phenomenon, clever bargainers have over the millenia extracted enough clues from eager devils to suggest that the event was somehow organised, and a bargain was struck with a power from the first world who could arrange to alter the circumstances that would trigger their opening.
Located among the shifting rivers of the fertile plain which empty into
The Bite bay, Kesskolin's ruins have mostly vanished. It was The Great Woven City not just for its flourishing aboundance of magic, but also for the predominance of buildings made from grass and wood. A few of its stone monuments and roads still mark where it once stood among todays fields and pastures lying along the last bends of the Geltin River.
Necrotizing Nergulan
Another great set of memories preserved during the destruciton of the Cataclysm occurred in Nergulan when the Undeath or Negative Necromantic rift opened there and the citizens on the outskits of the city who were not annihilated by or drawn into the rift were cast into the stasis of undeath. It is believed that many such victims of the event once existed, but the subsequent occupaiton of the area by the orcs, and
the war that cleansed them from the area and led to the rise of
Fehr Volgi also destroyed most of Nergulan's survivors. While the ravages of all the rifts of the Cataclysm were terrible, the casualties on the fringes of the Undeath rift went on to suffer its effects for thousands of years, as well as subsequent depradations. The few records of the interrogations conducted on these wretches by their new human necromancer masters suggest that many fragments of secret knowledge of their mystic arts and memories of the distaster were recovered.
It is believed that the sprawling city of Nergulan once stood among the verdant hills of central
Fehr Volgi, but its structures and citizens were either disintegrated by the wave of negative energy unleashed by the rift, or they were pulled into the outside realm by the mighty force of its nothingness. Rumors exist that below the quaint villages and plantations manicured by armies of the dead in Fehr Volgi there still exist vaults and tunnels with hidden reserves of Nergulan's survivors.
Tumbled Stones of Horyski
Fragments of the once exquisitely sculped structures of Horyski tell of an extremely violent end to the city visited by the Earth rift during the Cataclysm. Not only has the arid landscape of the
Hlynyanka Basin preserved the broken pieces of magically sculpted buildings, but in many cases the crushed bones of its citizens. Grand villas and academies were shattered and scattered like delicate teacups, with shards of stone with finely etched figures cast over a vast range of the basin.
A few surviving slabs of Prezobrazene or transmuted stone demonstrate that the typically placid visitors who arrived through the Earth rift were intent on vehemently targeting the citizens of Horyski, with pieces of ogre bones pulverized into their cracked glassy surfaces. Craters and troughs where Horyski and its supporting settlements were believed to have once stood show that no shelter or bunker would hide or protect its occupants from the wrath of the stony titans.
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Originally written for
2024 Summer Camp challenge to answer
Law AN ENVIRONMENTAL OR OTHER LARGE-SCALE NATURAL DISASTER
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