The Grand migration

Do you think our ancestors were strong to survive the Cataclysm?
Wrong. Our ancestors were close to nothing before the Cataclysm and were treated like they were even less after it.
Faced with the choice of death, being exploited, or getting changed by the Corruption, they were getting more desperate with each day.
It was this desperation that drove them to the risky plan. To the last stands and the Grand migration.

Silence before the storm

After The Cataclysm  , the Kings and various lords in seats of power quickly started listening to the whispers of the Corruption.
This whisper underlined their evil nature and caused them to exploit those who were weaker or less fortunate than them. Those who did not join in with the corrupted lords faced slavery and death at best.
This sudden change in behavior of practically anyone with power or authority caused many to look up for help from the gods, who were nowhere to be found.
Instead of gods, the suffering people saw the Atocites, flying above them as save havens.
While the Kings fought between themselves, their lords were turning on them. And all the while the common folks suffered in the war, which started just a few years after the Cataclysm. During all the suffering, a plot for escape quickly sprouted in the heads of the chivalrous few who decided they had enough of witnessing their friends and families suffer.
And so several settlements decided to they will climb on the Atocites during what is now called the The grand migration.  . To allow the grand migration, watchtowers were built on the premise that they are fortified watchtowers, while in fact they were cleverly designed to allow the strongest to board the bypassing Atocites.

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Preparation before the rebellion

The Paranoid Kings and lords liked the ideas of fortified watchtowers, so they supported the people who built them. It came as a surprise that their slaves did not need extra motivation to work.
This paranoia however caused many people to be garrisoned at the nearly finished watchtowers. An obstacle the settlers had to overcame to seize the watchtowers and even have a chance to climb.
Due to the construction taking several Cycles, the movement of the Atocites was mapped and calculated by the enslaved people.
When they decided the time was right, they would rebel against the garrisoned men and seize control over the towers. Though not all were successful.
Only then the people could proceed to start with the real preparation for the climb.
After the tower was secured, the slaves would start their move. Engineers who were enslaved because they refused to create weapons instead joined the rebels and created the first [Looting wheels. Long ropes needed to be prepared so the wheels could be of use during the migration. Many more fortifications needed to be prepared for inevitable retaliation, and many more.

The time is now. We seize the tower, get ready, and leave this corruption soaked land. If we dont, I recomend finding a way to die. As the repercursion for our treachery will be worse than death.

Summary of motivation speech during the Grand migration

The last stands
These preparations needed to be done in few weeks. The luckiest watchtowers boarded their Atocite before the Kings and lords could Retaliate. Some were massacred before they could finish their preparation.
Those who got attacked while their migration was in various degrees of progress had to perform their last stand, a desperate fight of desperate people.
The untrained, weak, enslaved people stood no chance against well-equipped, well-fed, and trained armies that were coming for them. And they knew that. The fortifications of watchtowers were designed with these attacks in mind, and as such were very effective at what they were meant to achieve: To buy time.
The fortifications were buying time while being operated by some of the elderly or too weak to have any hopes to make it up to the Atocites. In all the time they had, the strongest had to climb the bypassing Atocite all the way up, set up the wheel, and throw down extended ropes while hoping the ropes will be long enough. With these ropes and wheels in place, the first most basic elevators were built. Some watchtowers had to do with just one such elevator, while others were lucky to establish second.
These elevators were priceless, as they were allowed to bring up all the resources, rations, and equipment that were stationed at the watchtowers.
The Kings and Lords who witnessed their slaves escaping on the Atocites quickly tried to make their men follow up. But it was futile. The Atocites proved to be too good of a strategic point, and the overequipped men were too heavy to climb fast enough.
As such, the slaves escaped onto the Atocites and could start anew, leaving most of the old, corrupted, and dying world behind them.

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"If these preposterous self-proclaimed Kings would not mess up with MY authority and just listened, you would not be distracted by taking care of them and this child plan would not work!"

And such said the king, who in his rage towards their runaway slaves forgot that it was them who started the wars that caused the needed distraction.

Chronicles of a forgotten kingdom

Futile repercussions

The Kings and lords were of course furious that their slaves dared to humiliate them with such daring escape. With the source of their rage out of reach, they quickly started shifting blame towards others.
However, it did not take long before the Kings and lords attempted to repeat the feat the slaves performed. But without the same desperation, the corrupted men did not possess the willpower to climb onto the Atocites fast enough to build the elevators.
It was also not of help that whenever someone commanded their men to attempt such feat, their rivals would storm the location and make it impossible.
Without the slaves to run the backbone infrastructure, the armies soon started losing the luxury they were given before the Grand migration.
Dissertation happened en masse and after the men realized that no lord nor King is deserving of their service, they started working on their own. Some turned up on the corrupted authorities, only to become what they destroyed. As such any attempt at a recreation of the social system failed. And soon only the people who fled onto the Atocites were safe.

Conflict Type

Siege

Started:
13.5.10
Ended:
13.6.10
Location:
Fortified watchtowers
Victor:
Mixed.
Some watchtowers were slaughtered, some migrated.