Rev. Ramisci Liciubello, in his final speech before his congregation in the Great Cathedral of the Fjennan, 37 AE.
The Equilibrium, also known as the
Black Curse, is a name that is used to both signify the historical "After Establishment" (AE) era as well as the umbrella term for all the changes to natural, biological, theological and arcane law that happened as a result of the cataclysmic event that occurred one year after the end of
the Great Argoan War .
Manifestation
The Equilibrium is a complex event with many different aspects that it altered, with many still rumored to be still undiscovered. However, we will look here at several of the larger ways in which the Equilibrium manifests itself, listed below.
The Death of the Arcane/Divine
With the coming of the Equilibrium, magic of both Arcane and Divine sources ceased to work. Fae, spirits and any creatures who exist in both Ethereal Plane and Material simultaneously, like the gods, disappeared instantly with nobody having proof to this day of successfully communicating with any of those creatures.
Additionally, Arcane powers disappeared, with all the magic that the Gods introduced to the world in the Age of Creation being made useless by the absence of the gods.
However, rare forms of pre-divine magic, such as the magics of the Ornal and some forms of Tabaanic Sorcery seemingly has kept some semblance of magical power, although even those forms of magic often are damaged, with spells completely scrambled with their workings and costs, making the whole affair nearly impossible to figure out for even the most intelligent of researchers.
Those Who Are Born of the Dark
A manifestation that only later was noticed, was the fact that when summer came, for half a year, no life would be created, as thousands were stillborn that summer and autumn. One of the effects of the Equilibrium would be that life would be on a timer. As the Equinox between Life and Death, all who are born during the "Dark Days" as they were soon called, would be stillborn, while those born during the "Light Days" would get to live as per usual.
This manifestation however did extent itself further than only humans, as all life was to obey this new way of things. As a result, over the first half century of the age, a
mass extinction destroyed a little under 60% of all lifeforms, those mostly being insects, birds and plants, but also smaller mammals. The massive change in glocal ecology led to several famines worldwide over the coarse of the century, with the situation stabilizing somewhat around the year 100 AE.
Finding a Reason for the Equilibrium
With a massive event as the Equilibrium, one of the first thoughts of nearly anyone was to find a source for the entire thing. How could something like this have happened? With the usual steps to discover things like these, it being asking the gods, out of the window, several other theories started to be created. Some of which are listed below:
The De Rivera Theory
The prominent explanation within the lands of
Vexan, the De Rivera theory was created by Dr. Velasco De Rivera, a physicist at the University of Albero Fiamme. It is also known as the Theory of the Starved Gods.
The theory proposes a large planar shift between the Sub-Etherial Plane and the Etherial Plane as the source of the problem. A world where the Sub-Etherial has disconnected fully from the Etherial Plane, leading to the immediate destruction of everything dependent on that connection.
The Karlovič Theory
The Karlovič Theory is a theory hailing from
Bočechnia, having been written by
the Holy Apostle Karlovič himself.
It covers the Equilibrium from a religious
Khoslim angle, explaining the Equilibrium as the prophesized coming of the Ezen into this world, although it was blocked by the mysterious forces of the Anti-Ezen, the Great Darkness, a force that previously had been hidden and did not exist as a part of the religion, it being still absent in the Ashari variant of the faith.
The Gortorian Theory
The state-sponsored explanation of the Equilibrium within the
Empire of Prabai. The Gortorian Theory has been published by the Imperial Scholarly Bureau of Science and Education.
It proposes that the Equilibrium is the last metamorphosis of the God-Emperor Gortor. While the
Temple of Gortor has always proclaimed that the Emperor and Gortor have been fused together ever since the founding of the Prabaiian Empire, the theory claims that Gortor has accended to an even more powerful status, while it's earthly body remains fused with the emperor.
In this theory, Gortor has vanguished all magic and gods exept himself, reigning as the One True God.
It is the only theory that has a positive spin on the Equilibrium, which is unsurprising seeing Prabai's history with the arcane historically.
The National Truth
The official doctrine of the Golden Flame Party, it has been written by Cathaír Ó Brolgaín, the first dictator of the
Thenosian State.
It explains the Equilibrium in a way that supports Thenos' political agenda, may it be a little more aggressively than the Gortorian Theory does for Prabai. It sees the Equilibrium as the result when the Imperial Ancestors (of
Melistern ) punished the people of Thenos for their wrongdoings, citing the loss of the war, democracy and the dilution of the "pure Imperial race" as primary motives for their wrath. They see both the Light Days and Dark Days as an effect of their influence, although with Thenos being a strictly atheist state, it is most keen on not stamping the Ancestors as a supernatural power of any sort, but as an ideal of the State.
Cultural and Sociological Impact
As due to the disconnect with the gods religion came into the decline right after the Equilibrium, many civilizations quickly started to shift away from a religious focus on life. With questions about the origins of the Equilibrium on everyone's mind, the mix between loss of religious interest and an increase of questions about the state of life, philosophy quickly made it's comeback. A movement, that nowadays is known as the
Great Philosophical Revival, was characterized by the rise of philosophical movements such as nihilism, existentialism, consequentialism and metaphilosophy, who in turn gave rise to various gentlemen's and ladies' societies to explore such philosophical thoughts. Besides philosophy, the movement had great impact on other fields as well, like music, theatre and the visual arts.
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