Midiri Cataclysm

Disaster / Destruction

In the summer of 568 the first rifts between the material plane and Manywhere opened in and around what was then the Midiri city of Astolth, causing damage and death on a massive scale. The rifts continued opening at a frightening rate, several per week, into the spring of 570, slowing over the course of decades to their current, more manageable rate. The structural damage caused by the rifts and the emergence of aether, combined with the incursion of hordes of proteans into Midiri cities and countryside alike, led to the total collapse of the kingdom and abandonment of the region within four years.

In the summer of 568 the first rifts between the material plane and Manywhere opened in and around what was then the Midiri city of Astolth, causing damage and death on a massive scale. The rifts continued opening at a frightening rate, several per week, into the spring of 570, slowing over the course of decades to their current, more manageable rate. The structural damage caused by the rifts and the emergence of aether, combined with the incursion of hordes of proteans into Midiri cities and countryside alike, led to the total collapse of the kingdom and abandonment of the region within four years.   Despite the casualties, humans found a way to profit from the calamity, using the crystalline aether which was now widely available to power incredible machines. This very technology, harnessed in the proper way, enabled the people of Naedara to rebuild and defend their autonomy as an independent city-state, the only one in Midir to survive the cataclysm.   Conspiracy theories about the cause behind the cataclysm are in no short supply. Some claim the contemporary king of Midir, named Ayastabesh by his parents but called the Broken King by historians, destabilized the boundary between the planes with his experiments in an attempt to develop a mechanism for time travel. This is the hypothesis favored by most historians and held over the heads of young mages and thaumechanists as cautionary tale. Others blame the Broken King's advisor, an odd traveler from the north who was said to have sharp teeth and fey blood, and who later turned up in An Tevya Taran with what might have been the king's infant daughter. Still others believe the disaster was caused by a rare cosmological event - a collision between two planes, like the hulls of two ships scraping alongside each other - and could not have been avoided.