The Great Storm

Chaos Incarnate

To be honest, what scares me the most about it is that we still don't really know the cause. There could be another Great Storm on the horizon, and I don't think we'd ever see it coming.

— Berside Crite, Free World Academic

The most devastating natural disaster to ever occur, the Great Storm has nonetheless almost completely faded from memory. On a few rare occasions, freak storms similar in style, if not size, have sprung up, usually caused by engine accidents spewing sorcery into the open sky. However, as nearly six generations came and went, and nothing like it ever returned, people have mostly forgotten it.

Timeline of Events

The Storm raged for nearly a whole year, from 61st Nadir, 784 to 12th Nadir, 785 IA. It was incredibly slow-moving, giving many people chances to relocate. Unfortunately, few did.

Vahger

61st - 137th Nadir, 784 IA
The storm was first spotted off of the island now know as Vahger. As it was seen on the horizon towards Nimbifer, where the Tempest is located, many assumed that it was the storm that had lingered in the area for hundreds of years. Several days later, with the storm still encroaching on the island, several merchants left early, heading to the nearby Sayles. When a ship returned to Vahger, attempting to give aid to the town, they found it completely engulfed in the storm.

Trympe

138th Nadir, 784 IA - 27th Zenith, 785 IA
Next on the storm's path was the island of Trympe, which was a major stop on the trade route between Sayles and Ilysium. At this point, the storm had grown even larger than before. The winds that surrounded blew all the way across Sayles, and trapped every ship that tried to flee Trympe. A good majority of the scattered airships are thought to have come from this port, and news of its destruction could not escape the maelstrom.

Querk

28th - 142nd Zenith, 785 IA
The last island to be hit by the storm was Querk, a major breadbasket for the western colonies that would eventually become the Trade Union. Querk had much more warning than the previous two colonies, with the winds steadily increasing each day as the storm grew closer. The sole firsthand account of a survivor of the storm's effect on Querk reported that by the time the storm hit, the island was practically scrubbed clean by the winds.

Disappearance

143rd Zenith - 12th Nadir, 785 IA
After Querk, the storm looked like it was, as slowly as ever, headed towards Ilsyium. However, halfway there, just as the winds were starting to roar through the streets of the capital, it died. One morning everyone woke up and it was simply gone. Several attempts have been made to recreate the storm, and its disappearance, but none have managed it fully.

Effects

The total damage of the Great Storm is hard to calculate, as many losses are not direct. The loss of Querk's topsoil, for example, caused a food shortage all across the Blue. Similarly, while the loss of ships to the storm is easy to count, the damage this did to trade between Sayles and Ilysium is much harder to say.

Settlement Damages

All three islands hit by the storm were very badly damaged, and the latter two needed to be almost entirely rebuilt. Querk and Trympe needed extreme reconstruction of not just the towns atop them, but the islands themselves. It took 14 years for the soil on Querk to be capable of farming again, which was mostly relocated from other farms around the Blue. On Vahger, 22 years after the storm had hit, it was discovered that the whole island had nearly cracked in two, and major earthblood work was required to keep it from shattering.

Stranded Airships

Every couple of years, a new airship resurfaces from the Depths, the metal having corroded enough to make it bouyant once again. Some of these lost ships return after other accidents, but the vast majority of them were scattered trying to escape the Great Storm. We know these ships were from this storm not only because of the designs and make of the bits that survived, but also because a handful of ships were found adrift in the weeks after encountering the storm, lost in the open sky. One even reported being thrown all the way past the Shattered Worlds, and only making it back to the Blue by chance.

Secrets

This article contains secrets, which are unknown by most or all of the people of the Wilde Blue.
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Storms in the Blue

Rainstorms

The storm most people are referring to when speaking about weather, these fairly harmless storms bring water to the greener islands. Most rainstorms are fairly small, with only enough water to barely whet the plants thirst. Very rarely, rainstorms can cause a sole lightning strike.

Windstorms

Out in the open sky, these are the only type of natural storm. The winds swirl around chaotically, and they can toss even the heavier airships off course at the worst of times. Skybloods can sometimes cause windstorms, but the amount of sorcery required is immense.

The Tempest

The closest thing to the Great Storm, the Tempest is the storm that cloaks the northern side of Nimbifer. The storm is constant, only ebbing and flowing over the weeks. It also contains lightning, and in much greater quantity than the rainstorms.

By the second week, all the trees had been stripped bare of leaves by the wind. The last of the ships had tried to leave days ago, and a few of them had even made it, but there was no way any of us were escaping the wrath of the skies that had descended. I can still remember the screams, heard through the rock my basement was carved into, of the house next to mine being torn free and scattered to the Depths.

— Vatinia Calvus, survivor

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