Arcanist Disasters

Arcanist disasters refer to the disruptive or destructive consequences of an oversaturation of arcanist magic in a concentrated area. Arcanist disasters are a broad and somewhat nebulous term referring to a number of poorly understood events in the continent's history, with the mass concentration of arcanist magic being an understood factor and constant. As a consequence of documented arcanist disasters, arcanist magic has largely fallen out of favour in Sunscald, in favour of channeling in a magical sense and mundane technology in a societal sense.
Unlike the now more common 'channeling', which operates in concordat with the fundamental laws of the universe, arcanist magic works by actively undermining or subverting these laws, allowing for more varied and extreme effects. For example, if a practised channeler and a practised arcanist were to be pushed off a cliff, the channeler could 'encourage' gravity to slow their acceleration, landing at the bottom at a survivable speed, while the arcanist could 'snub' gravity and rise back to the top of the cliff, presumably to the horror of whoever had pushed them off. Also, while channeling requires a human presence and constant concentration, arcanism could be imbued into artifacts and structures, allowing a magical effect with no need for years of study or any conscious effort. Consequently, arcanist magic was greatly preferred by the people of antiquity, giving rise to the so-called 'arcanist empires' such as Armaidas and Siolfwic.
However, subverting the basic laws of the universe can in fact have consequences. A common analogy is that while one arcanist spell or artifact may 'bend' the rules of the world, a concentration of arcanism may bend these rules to the point of breaking, causing massive wide-scale disasters. These disasters are hardly consistent in outcome. Arguably the two highest-profile cases are the destructions of Armaidas and Siolfwic. In Armaidas's case, the mass concentration of arcanist artifacts and enchantments in their population centres seems to have ultimately destroyed any concept of structural integrity, causing entire cities and the earth beneath them to implode on themselves, with this chain reaction ultimately creating the Great Fissure, where vast areas of 'unreality' persist. Conversely, this same concentration of arcanism in Siolfwic instead caused the earth beneath these population centres to rise kilometres into the air, swallowing most of the empire in the process and creating the Chacolian Mountains.
One theory regarding Siolfwic's destruction is that it was common practice in the empire to use wide-ranging arcanist spells to draw precious metals from the earth to the surface, essentially pulling them up from the rock and ground beneath them. The theory states that some form of interference, likely due to the sheer concentration of arcanist energies, ultimately corrupted these spells until they were attempting to draw every substance to the surface, pulling entire sheets of the earth into the air until the spells ultimately faded. Channelers and other animists have also theorised that the destruction of these states was a punishment for subverting the natural laws of the world, with the outraged world actively and consciously destroying these concentrated areas of 'illegality'. Regardless of the reasoning, the destruction of areas such as Armaidas and Siolfwic led the survivors to ultimately reject arcanism. In modern times, much more credence is paid to mundane technology, which may ultimately achieve similar effects to basic arcanism without risking another great disaster.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane