The Calamity

Disaster / Destruction

This was the day that changed everything. It was only on this day that the citizens of Amaryllis realized how far it's nation had fallen how much things had changed. This was the day that made the people of Ardhaina realize that things were wrong very wrong. This was the day when everyone saw that things would never be the same.

It was late morning on the 27th day of the 4th month, the sailors and fishermen were gone for the day, the boats had all departed if they were departing at all. The rains were expected to start over the plains of Amaryllis, the sun expected to gently shine over the land of Losanthanos and beat down on Erdellia, each nation was expecting a certain type of weather but none of their predictions were fulfilled. Instead, a giant dust storm swept through the nations and covered the whole world. It came seemingly out of nowhere roiling in the distance and then suddenly upon them. Dust and Sand and Ash filled the sky as destruction reigned. The high winds of the dust storm toppled things over, people blinded by the dust collided into all sorts of things, blacksmiths fell into their fires and caught other things on fire as they stumbled about their shops, all sorts of animals broke free. Everyone who experienced it told of different effects and the various struggles of their hometowns as they were suddenly seized upon by dust. They told of death and destruction of ruin and pain. Sailors told of a sky turned red and burning throats and eyes as the impossible happened. For 24 hours the sun was blotted out by the red sand and when the dust cleared and the deaths were tallied and the destruction viewed they found three things even more startling than all the death and all the destruction. First, Angaloan a once lush island full of life and rich in resources had turned barren and empty. It had not simply been covered in dust, no the people they dug and dug searching for their green grass and found limestone, gravel, sand, and nothing more. The very state of the land had changed as if the dust had burned away all life other than the people. Second, an entire Kingdom that had spanned nearly an entire continent was gone, vanished almost all traces of its existence gone the only thing that spoke of the once great Kingdom was the area of land known as the Whispering Plains where the only ruins of the Kingdom still stand. Third, the Northern tip of this continent was rendered barren just as Angaloan was, the area known as Lotus Marine and owned by Amaryllis was turned to a land of burning sand and tragedy, unlike Angaloan though almost all of the people of Lotus Marine had been taken by the dust storm as well. Those who survived told of family members simply vanishing, becoming one with the dust as it swirled around all of them. None of the other nations suffered consequences such as these and that was perhaps the most startling truth of all.