The Bleeding Sky

The Bleeding Sky is a rare and foreboding phenomenon observed above the Abyssal Chasm during certain celestial alignments, when stars, moons, or unknown astral bodies fall into an uncanny synchronization. During this event, the eternal mists that coil above the chasm's vast depths begin to glow a faint crimson, and the sunlight—normally filtered pale through the fog—emerges as bleeding shafts of deep red, as though the very sky has been wounded.

The Bleeding Sky is not merely a weather event or light trick—it is a cosmic event, an unraveling whisper of something greater and more terrible than the world can contain. It is the sky remembering its wound, and the deepest dark remembering us.

Manifestation

• Crimson Mist: The normally grey-white fog above the Abyssal Chasm shifts hue, thickening and glowing with a blood-like luminescence. The phenomenon is visible only within a certain radius around the chasm and fades the farther one moves from its edge.
• Sunlight Distortion: Light becomes unnaturally tinted, with shadows lengthening and bending at strange angles. Reflections in water appear wrong—too sharp, too deep, and sometimes showing things that aren’t present.
• Temperature Shift: The air grows unnaturally cold, and the moisture in the mist becomes dense and heavy, said to carry whispers and breathless murmurs that cannot be explained.
• Animal Behavior: Fauna near the chasm grow restless or vanish altogether. Mist Hounds and Chasm Crawlers become more active and aggressive, as though driven by a primal force.

Metaphysical Qualities

• Thinning of Realms: Many believe the Bleeding Sky marks a convergence between the Material Plane and the deeper echoes of the Shadowfell or the Sunless Depths, weakening the veil that separates mortal reality from older, forgotten realms.
• Echoes of the First Wound: Some ancient texts refer to the Abyssal Chasm as a "scar left by the gods," and the Bleeding Sky as the recurrence of that wound opening—a pulse of forgotten power, echoing through time.
• Resonant Energy: Spellcasters report anomalous surges of magic, especially necromancy and divination. Some rituals conducted during the Bleeding Sky never complete, while others yield impossible or horrifying results.

Notable Effects and Myths

• Dreamers’ Awakening: Those who sleep beneath the bleeding sky are said to dream of submerged cities, eyeless gods, or drowning in crimson oceans. Some awaken changed—others never awaken at all.
• The Unseen Choir: During its peak, a faint chorus can be heard by some, singing in a language older than time. Those who understand it are said to vanish, laugh uncontrollably, or speak prophecy.
• Sky-Bleeders: A rare affliction, where individuals exposed to the phenomenon begin to bleed from the eyes, ears, or pores, especially if magically attuned or bearing arcane artifacts.

Localization

Cultural Interpretations

• Omen of Catastrophe: In local folklore, the Bleeding Sky is an ill portent—a harbinger of cataclysm, war, or the rise of ancient evils. Cults, particularly the Deep Whisperers, revere it as a sacred time of awakening or communion.
• The Crimson Vigil: Some abyss-folk gather in silence along the chasm’s rim during the event, lighting red lanterns and offering whispered prayers, unsure whether they are seeking protection or forgiveness.
• Mark of Return: Scholars and doomsayers alike have tied the phenomenon to ancient entities long lost or buried beneath the chasm, claiming it signals their stirring or return.

The Bleeding Sky occurs with no fixed interval, sometimes separated by decades, sometimes appearing twice in a single year—always unpredictably, as if defying logic and the heavens themselves. Attempts to track its cause via astronomy, magic, or planar mapping have resulted in conflicting theories, lost expeditions, or complete madness.

Type

Natural