Schism

This article is in support of Avalanche, a future science-fantasy novel about atonement, revenge, and the meaning of death. All articles for this project are told from the perspective of the protagonist, Ro Iki.

Shards of a God

A priest would do a better job explaining this. Schisms are... complicated, but I'll do my best.
The Shards that exist set the boundaries of what the world is capable of. As the world grows, it pushes against those boundaries. Like weather getting hotter, oceans getting deeper, mountains growing taller, trains getting faster... eventually we hit the limit of what the Shards can support, and the world stops growing.
A Schism is when one Shard can no longer contain the growing extremes of a concept and rends Itself in two. The original Shard stops existing, and the two new Shards represent the new extremes. Now the world can grow toward those new boundaries.
Stories say all Shards were once part of the One True God of our planet, but the first Shards were made long before any life existed so I'm not sure how they know that.

Frequency

Roughly every century

Last occurrence

112 years ago (yeah...)

Cause

One Shard rending Itself into two

Effect

Environental disasters
Global upheaval
New avenues of change

---

Mutual Destruction

A Schism is the release of built-up pressure, of tension between opposing ideals tearing a god apart. When it finally happens, it's incredibly violent. The planet trembles with the force of it. Tidal waves destroy coastal cities. Mountains crumble as new ones rise and canyons carve through countryside.
Nothing is the same after. Not just the landscape, but new ways to live become possible and we don't know which. For decades, the Shards learn how to exist and the world learns to cope, whether with more powerful storms, more varied creatures, new technology... sometimes even more intense emotions.
We're overdue for one. Scam artists keep on doomsaying, and apostles keep proving them wrong. Except when the scam artist is an apostle, then it's messy.

Changing World

According to history books, the immediate aftermath of a Schism is death and refugees. Entire cities can be destroyed in the disaster, forcing survivors elsewhere until the world stabilizes and we can build new.
Shardmarks on apostles of the former Shard fade, telling us which Shard is no longer. We don't know who the new Shards are until they select their own apostles, which can sometimes take years. Churches crumble in this time, aimless without a Shard to follow.
Other events might give hints - new creatures, deadlier storms, even more forceful emotions. Sometimes all of them or more. It's not always clear what links them, though, or what the former Shard could split into. The Shards are forces of nature themselves, and they don't like explaining themselves. Not even to their apostles.