The Cataclysm

Except from ‘Geogrammatica’, by Archibald FitzGraye
How to describe the Cataclysm... Of course the term literally refers to a geographical area on the Mainland; The land that was once the First Human Empire. The land that is now contained within The Wall, harrowed and blighted. In another sense though it might be better to think of the Cataclysm as the end of one era, and the beginning of another. An event that changed the world forever.
Although we will come to discuss the mysteries surrounding the Cataclysm it would perhaps be wisest to start by discussing what we know for sure. Surviving historical records from the Empire, mostly held now at Camford University on the island of Alarvon, suggest that the Empire was experiencing a time of unprecedented turmoil and strife. The war between what would become known as the Bulwark States, and the Empire had sparked a civil war within the Empire itself. At the same time a plague was burning through the capital and five emperors had been assassinated in less than thirty years. Unrest in the streets was high, and in the corridors of power mighty nobles plotted against one-another. This dark period in human history lasted for decades, but ended in a moment. An explosion of magical energy the likes of which had never been recorded before and has never been seen since eviscerated the capital of the Empire, vaporising everyone inside and reportedly leaving a crater in the centre of the city over two miles wide. The skies darkened. The ground shook. Ash charged with powerful chaotic energy began to fall like snow all over the empire causing terrible mutations in living things wherever it landed. Dark thoughts began to invade the minds of the survivors causing many to turn against each other. Yes indeed, it seemed to observers in the surrounding kingdoms who witnessed the survivors as though the Empire, and all of its citizens, had been terribly cursed.
Few enough survived the event known as the Cataclysm, and to be sure those that did were only so fortunate because they were far from the initial event. For information on what was left in the wake of the explosion we must turn to the reports of survivors from the ill-fated efforts made by the Descendant Kingdoms to re-take the Capital. These ‘crusades’ were universally abysmal failures, despite what the songs and stories written about them might claim. Tens of thousands died in the horrific wasteland now known as the Cataclysm. Less than one in a hundred of the men sent in these expeditions returned alive, leaving the Descendant Kingdoms militarily crippled for generations afterward. What we learned from that foolishness was that the lands once known as the Empire had become a hellscape roamed by horribly mutated monsters and plagued by random and chaotic magical energies. All accounts report that dark clouds like smoke still blot out all light from the sky above, and that when those clouds reach all the way to the ground, as they often do, it is difficult for living things caught in them to breath. They also report that no natural plants can grow there, although several carnivorous mutations of ordinary plants and trees were noted. One account reported crossing deserts of bleached grey silt, hard to walk on and prone to blinding sandstorms. Another described crags of scorched black stone and razor sharp glass. Where living soil still exists it has turned to fetid bogs and swamps rank with decay and putrefaction. All in all, not an ideal holiday destination. Perhaps most disturbingly several accounts tell of almost invisible distortions that float along the ground like fog which could melt a battalion of armoured soldiers into bloody mist in an instant, or just as easily transmute them into a forest of bare, twisted trees, or alter them so that they could no-longer breath air. As if the shambling, mutated monstrosities altered by the chaotic energies of the region weren’t enough, studies of the foes as told by the survivors of King Emmerich’s Crusade suggest that the explosion may have rent open a portal to the demonic planes. It is theorised that many demons who choose to come to our plane to spread terror or war do so through a stable portal in the Cataclysm.
The Event called the Cataclysm, and the region of the same name, are known and recorded history and geography. More speculative is the issue of what, or who caused the explosion. For centuries two opposing accounts dominated discourse on the subject. Historians who made their home in the Descendant Kingdoms swore that the Cataclysm was the result of an attack made by agents infiltrating the Empire from the Opposing States, now known as the Bulwark States. Afterward the Elder Races looked upon the horrors created by the Cataclysm and forced the people of the Opposing States to assist them in the creation of The Wall, and then sentenced them to guard it forever more against the darkness they had brought into the world.
Of course, following the destruction of the Descendant Kingdoms by the Bulwark States the dominant narrative became that the Empire had destroyed themselves in an act of unmitigated hubris. What they were attempting to do changes with each telling of this story, but most agree that it was some kind of magical experiment gone wrong. In this version of events the blame for the creation of the Cataclysm rests solely with the Empire. The Opposing States heroically took the responsibility of defending The Wall upon themselves, rebranding themselves as the Bulwark States and vowing to defend the world from the encroaching evil unleashed by their ancient, defeated enemy.
Recently, academics have begun to consider a third option... It is well known that the rise of the Human Empire was both surprising and deeply disturbing to the Elder Races. Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and the other ancient peoples of our world have never been known for their co-operative spirit, and yet they all came together, alongside Humans, in the creation of The Wall. What motivated this? Was it fear of the darkness within the Cataclysm? Was it anger at the follies of Humankind? Perhaps.
In his radical, book; Protectors or Oppressors: A History of Early Human interactions with the Elder Races, Ivar Bjerning suggests that the motivation for such selflessness may have been guilt. It is well recorded that various factions within the Elder Races; The Elven followers of Syan’re, and the Dwarvern Clan Irongarden to name but a few, were supporting the Opposing States against the Empire in the hopes that the collapse of the Empire would return humankind to the barbaric Hunter-Gatherer state we existed in for tens of thousands of years before the Empire. When the wisest of the Elder Races looked upon the Cataclysm, did they perhaps recognise it? Did they see the hidden hands behind its creation? Did they feel compelled to seal the evil their kin had unleashed. Or perhaps the Cataclysm was simply beyond what they had expected and in their desperation and fear they were forced to work together. For many among the Elder Races the Cataclysm remains a touchy subject. To humans it is ancient history. To the Elves it occurred in the lifetime of their parents, or grandparents. Not so long ago at all...
We may never know how the Cataclysm occurred, but we do know that we all owe a debt of gratitude to the nations that guard The Wall; Altea, Lotherin, Ouverbus, Auland, and the other Bulwark States. Together they hold back the evil that threatens the wall daily... and if, dear reader, you perhaps picked up this book intending to research the Cataclysm in preparation for an expedition into it let me offer you some advice. Don't. The Cataclysm is inimical to all life. All you will find there is death.

Type

Wasteland

Location under

The Mainland