468 Spring Floods

The winter of 468 was an exceptionally cold one, with heavy snowfall. All the rivers of Cymbar froze over, and the embankments became packed with snow. Though the heavy winter was manageable, and some flooding was expected in the case of rapid melting of the snow and ice upstream, nature would intervene to make the flood far greater than what any Cymbarite, or indeed, anyone in the neighboring kingdoms had become accustomed to.

In early march, a heavy stormfront descended upon the Khelish realms from the west, deluging the land with rainfall as the temperature rapidly rose, heralding the end of winter. The snowmelt and the additional rain overflowed all the rivers of Cymbar, and most of Darcia and Wordhan too. As many settlements in Cymbar were riverine, and accustomed only to light spring flooding, the deluge swept away entire villages in places. Fin-Allan managed to avoid becoming entirely inundated, thanks in large part to Exodite-made drainage systems within the city, though the flood still exacted a heavy toll, destroying buildings and livelihoods. Other cities, such as Balcree, were entirely flooded. Residing upon a lowland lake delta, and with little infrastructure to handle the river Anhell overflowing its banks, the flood swept away half the city by some accounts. Over 40 years later, Balcree has still not fully recovered.


The flood lasted 13 days, generally understood to have begun on the 11th of march, and ended on the 24th of march. High flow and small-scale flooding would continue to characterize the rest of the spring, but people were able to begin rebuilding, and praying to all the gods of Khely that such a deluge would never happen again. Ultimately, it is likely that the 468 floods accelerated the existing Khelish migration pattern towards the cities of the western coast, as the inhabitants of many of those villages that were destroyed simply never returned to their homes.

Type

Natural