The Long Winter

The Long Winter was a period of time between the First Age and the Second that lasted around 300 years, from about 2200 BC to 1900 BC, and constitutes a period of great hardship for humanity, as the effects of the Long Winter caused most advanced civilisations to collapse.

By using all available evidence and historical records found from that period, scholars were able to construct a rough timeline of events, starting by the first sightings of the Meteor as it approched the planet.

Timeline of events

The sightings of a "Shooting Star"
On the 12th of April, 2206 BC, multiple sighting of a red shooting star flying from the east to the west are recorded by many cultures, including the Kingdom of Nan-Tao, the old Kharthian Empire and the Kingdom of Asderaan. The Taonese specificaly say that this "Shooting star" illuminated the night as if it was day as it flew west, past the Anhedanyh Mountains, before it landed in the lands beyond.
Asteroid impact west of Osian:
One chronicler from the city of Urkum, the closest settlement from the mountains and the impacts, wrote on a clay tablet his what he saw. He describes a large light rising from behind the mountains, blinding him, before they began to shake violently as the ground seemed to ripple under him. He then describes winds that kept getting hotter while the ground continued to shake. His testimony ends abruptly, presumably because he died from the heat.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis:
In the days that followed, the world was rocked by inscessent earthquakes while large tsunamis that spread throughout the world's oceans. Khartian chorniclers, writing from both Samaria and Enaskia describe large ocean waves coming from the west, and ravaging the rich and prosperous ports cities of Is'Qhaloa island's west coast, as they did along Enask's west coast. The Kingdom of Asderaan describes tsunami waves coming from the east and, interestinly enough, the north as well some months later.
Collapse of Nan-Tao
Nan-Tao was the first known country to feel the effects of the impact, and presumably the hardest hit. Many taonese source describe days-long earthquakes that brought down the most sturdy forts, castles, and temples, and everything else. By the end of 2206, the kingdom of Nan-Tao, possibly the most powerful and richest empire in the world at the time, was brought to its knees and, by next year, collapsed into a dozen warlord states as the region enters a dark age.
Presumed time for Old Naurcia to sink
While the precise time for when it happened is unknown, many scholars believe that the myth of the sinking of Old Naurcia into the ocean following a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is at the very least plausible, given the fact that large scale destruction of this type at that time was common. Large tsunami waves coming from the north towards Asderaan months after the impact also seem to lend truth to this myth.
A series of Volcanic Eruptions:
A few days after the impact in Osian, Mount Kimali, near the sea of storms off the western coast of Mahador, violently erupted, shattering the large volcano and left a immense crater that is now filled wth the Caldarus sea. The Asderaani colony of Doderan, to its south, was completly wiped out by the resulting tsunami and has yet to be resettled, 2 thousand years later. Mount Kimali wasn't the only massive eruption of the time. Dozens of large volcanoes erupted between the years 2206 BC and 2212 Bc. Most of them were recorded in southern Osian, and in Mahador, both in the south and east. Many other eruptions are assumed to have taken place, yet the lack of historical records only gives a limited scope to the disaster.
The Black Summer
By july 2206 Bc, the smoke from the impact and the subsequent eruptions traveled across the world, blanketing the sky over every continent, particulary in the northern hemisphere, where some day, the sun's rays never managed to reach the ground. Toxic black rain started falling over much of the northern Hemisphere during the summer of 2206bc, which gave it its name.
Snow in the tropics
Because the sun's light and warmth was now blocked by the grey smoke chocking the sky, temperatures world-wide began to drop rapidaly. By August 2206 bc, snow was already falling in central Enask, 4 months in advance. The following winter, it fell on southern Darnia while it fell on City of Khadyrah in the following summer.
Collapse of Khartian Empire
By the year 2210 Bc, the Long Winter was now well underway and the Khartian Empire had become the last large country still standing at this point. However, most of their overseas colonies in Arros, Viuzhul and mainland Samaria were left to fend for themselves. The Empire finaly fell on february 23rd, 2210, after a mob of peasant, acompagnied by many soldiers stormed the emperor's palace and killed him, after rumours spread that he was secretly staching food supply for himself and his family. Central autority collapsed immediatly, leaving many imperial provinces independant, but most collapsed within the year. Record keeping mostly stopped by this point, so what happend next is nebulous and mostly speculative.
First Reports of Soulbound Magic
Around the year 2000Bc, scatered reports of Soulbound mages began to be written. Most of them mention them casualy, indicating that they had been around for some time aready. However, they seem to have been present in very small numbers compared to the present day, especialy in regards to the Shapeshifters, who had yet to form independant Clans for themselves.

Type

Natural

The Origin of the Long Winter

While discussions and debate revolving around what actualy caused the Long winter has been raging for centuries, a consensus was reached after compilling a many records of the different tragedies of the time as possible. Earthquakes, tsunamis, climate change, crop failiure and more happening in quick succession all over the world in the span of 2-5 years. This made most believe that a single event likely triggered a domino effect throughout the world. What that event could be remained a mystery for a long time until new evidence from the western provinces of the Kingdom of Nan-Tao changed all of that. A series of 4 tablets, 3 of which are readable, found in the city of Urkum, describes what most scholars agree to be an meteor impact, which seems to have landed somewere beyond the known world, west of the Anhedanyh Mountains. This appears to be the origin point of what would later be known as the Long Winter.

Cultural Impacts

Though modern unneducated inhabitants of Hysal may not know much of anything about the Long Winter, that period of time still had a number of monumentous impacts on the culture of many if not most civilisation. Many scholars say that the Long Winter pushed some beliefs away while reenforcing others, which are the one that made it to the present. A very notable example is how Solianism used to be a proper polythiestic religion, who's faithful used to pray to a dozen or so different gods, but after the Long Winter and the reunification of Darnia in 1912 Bc, most temples remained abandoned as the god their were dedicated to stopped being worshiped in favor of only one, the Sun God, Saol.

Societal Impacts

While the destruction and death brought on by the earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are likely to have been substaintial, the most potent killer of the time seems to have been starvation. Indeed, the sudden climate change brought on by the ash covering the sun and the infractucture destroyed by earthquakes and tsunamis made production and distribution of food very difficult. Some scholars believe that as many as 80% of the human and mage population died as a result of all these things. Some cultures, like the jasuans, who used to live in modern day Kinvalia went extinct as most of their pre-long winter population was killed and the rest was absorbed into other tribes moving through the area.

Myths and Legends

Countless tales of heroes and monsters have spawned from the hardship suffered by humanity during those time, and with the lack of surviving historical records of the time, most of them cannot be proven false, nor true, which has contributed to their immense popularity.