The Long Winter
It began slowly, subtly, over many decades. For a century the Nolyur could pretend the world was the same as it had been before the tremors. They could close their eyes at the poor harvests, the way berries failed to grow and roots rotted during cold summers. Despite the longer winters and the colder summers, raiding the southern lands still brought in enough food, fur and other resources.
But the Nightlands weren't the only place where the climate shifted. The entire continent of Tenwä cooled beneath the breath of Erinär all throughout the Second Age. Glaciers grew over fields and mountains and vast taigas in the north retreated southward all the way to the coast. Eventually people were forced to follow.
Temperatures reached their lowest point around halfway through the Second Age. Life on Tenwä had dwindled to a fraction of what it had been during the First Age. Even on a clear day sun's gaze seemed dim and far away.
It wasn't until the end of the Second Age when Erinär's influence over Tenwä began to wane once more. Summers returned to the land, short and poor at first but quickly growing stronger. The retreating glaciers left deep wounds upon the earth.
In the end it took nearly another millennium before the climate and seasons returned to what they were before, and even longer until forests reached the edge of Nightlands again. The memory of the Long Winter lasted perhaps the longest, surviving in songs and tales of tenwän peoples.
Era: Second Age