The Fall of Omelas and Beginning of the Ageless Turmoil

Era beginning/end

"The common folk often say that the Ageless Turmoil has raged for a thousand thousand years, as do most of Noveska’s religious texts. Historians, however, date the beginning of the Ageless Turmoil around 2,000 years ago, when Elves and Men first came to Noveska."

The Ageless Turmoil is a fierce and raging storm in the South, miles from the southern shores of the Outcasts’ Pilgrimage. It is an impenetrable monstrosity, fueled by strange divine magic, into which no traveler has ever ventured and returned to tell of it.   The common folk often say that the Ageless Turmoil has raged for a thousand thousand years, as do most of Noveska’s religious texts. Historians, however, date the beginning of the Ageless Turmoil around 2,000 years ago, when Elves and Men first came to Noveska.   Far to the south, invisible and inaccessible beyond the Ageless Turmoil, lies a ruinous wasteland named Omelas - the original home of the Men and Elves of Noveska. As histories and legend tell it, Omelas was once a rich and verdant land of plenty, a paradise where Men and Elves lived together in peace since time immemorial.   Varying religious and historical accounts are inconsistent on how the Ageless Turmoil started. Some say it was a curse put upon the land by evil gods, some say it began as a plague, and still others say nature could simply no longer sustain the growing population of Omelas. Regardless of the cause, a great evil fell on Omelas. The land became fallow, plagues spread among the people and livestock, plants withered and died, the earth shook and fire poured out from the depths. The paradise that had been the only home of the people of Omelas was transformed into a ruined and desolate waste, by most accounts in less than a year.   Many thousands died before the great savior Adriel came. She appeared to the people of Omelas, a goddess incarnate, and led all who survived to the northern shores, fleeing the rapidly spreading destruction. She helped the survivors build vessels to cross the sea to a new land, where she promised they would be safe. They arrived on the peninsula known now as the Outcasts’ Pilgrimage, watching behind as the Ageless Turmoil swallowed their homeland.   But the Ageless Turmoil was not daunted by the sea. A great storm formed, and began to billow across the waters towards the new country. As legend tells it, Adriel instructed the people of Omelas to be fruitful and multiply, and gave them this new land as their dominion. Then Adriel, at the great tower now known as Adriel’s Last Stand, consumed all of her power and her life force itself in order to hold the Ageless Turmoil at bay, sacrificing herself to save her people.   The ceaseless advance of the Ageless Turmoil halted. The storm continues to this day, some two thousand years later, to seethe and rage, destroying anyone foolish enough to go near it. But it spreads no further, always looming in the south as a reminder of Adriel’s sacrifice for the refugees of Omelas.