The Great Wave
The decimation of the Rhéanon coast
'I thought the wave was bad..... what came next worse was far, far worse. How could those who are supposed to govern us be so callous and cruel?...'It has been 105 years since a catastrophic event called the Great Wave, a disaster caused by an unfortunate combination of one of the Great Alignments at it's height over the Skirrit Isles and coast of Rhéanon and a massive eruption of the neighbouring volcano. This was a particularly large eruption even for Mount Maun-Naga, this resulted in a huge tidal wave that smashed in to the coast of Rhéanon causing utter devastation for hundreds of miles. Recovering from this took a very long time and an extremely large amount of coin. The destruction ripped through many coastal towns and villages and a large number of them further inland as well. This even reached so far inland that it reached well in to the forest of Rhéanon.
Effect on Flora and Fauna
This massive tidal wave caused widespread death and destruction for hundreds of miles. Smashing through anything in it's path the wave wiped out 90% of all plant life and nearly all fauna that couldn't either fly or run out of the way. The only chance of survival was to be lucky enough to get beyond it's reach. The majority of the towns and villages in it's path were decimated, almost all of the farms were swept away by the sheer body of water. The beasts of burden used to work the land were largely lost making recovering these farms a very tough task indeed.The Unlucky Survivors
Those unlucky few that did survive the onslaught of water found themselves in another struggle as they were largely left to fend for themselves. Some gracious few did strive to help those in need but were without the resources to do so properly. Many of those died purely due to being too poor to afford the proper resources.The Marine Life
Not only were the life of people and animals lives put at stake but so there were many casualties from beneath the waves. Those not deep enough to avoid getting dragged alone with the wave suffered severely as they were smashed in to everything in the path of the wave of destruction. Then they were either dragged back through the carnage or left where they lay to suffocate and die. Due to this, not only was farming affected but so fishing was poor for many years after this while the stocks of fish recovered.The Build-up
Nobody knew the signs, I mean why would they? It was over 500 miles away. No-one knew of the growing bulge in the caldera, until that is the mountain didn't just merely erupt, it exploded. The amassing of lava couldn't force it's way out through the rock that blocked it's path and the resulting pressure increasing more and more only sought to add to the violence of the eruption. This caused an enormous pyroclastic flow that, together with the blast wave, pushed out the surrounding sea with so much force the sea rose up in a large tsunami. This massive wave of death and destruction smashed into the coast of Rhéanon.The Divide
As is the way in Rhéanon, the ruling aristocracy, largely living in the hills or far out of reach of the affected area, were so far removed from reality that no real care was shown. In the aftermath of the disaster, the poor of the land who were the main ones to have lost everything found they had nowhere to turn. Those above them still expected their food, on time with no allowance given to such a loss of the productivity that had been caused. This only made the already huge class divide even more pronounced. The poor peasants were just expected to get back to work and grow crops to feed those in power. As you can imagine, the feeling of unrest was widespread yet nobody cared for them, what were they but mere pawns? Not only that but taxes were increased to pay for the clean up and repair because well, why should the rich pay, they didn't cause it and none of them were affected so surely it wasn't their problem?Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
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