340s Drought

The long drought of Imbria

Our fields turned to dust, and the last of the sheep died. I'll have to find something around this old house to barter for food. My dear John can't even find work in town. The children are hungry, and the emporer has forgotten us.

— Excerpt from a preserved letter of an Imbrian civilian dated 349 DE

The 340s drought of Imbria was a devastating period of widespread drought with long-lasting ramifications.
Eventually, the drought became so severe that crops failed and a lot of livestock died. People fled the farmlands to find life in the towns and cities no better. The entire empire faced food shortages, and trade crashed, particularly as related to cash crops. Thousands are thought to have died of starvation, though no accurate census can be found.

Mitigation Attempts

Even mages cannot always best nature.

Witches and mages with the ability to control water, plant life, earth, and other related specialties did what they could to grow vegetables and tend to greenhouses. When food shortages were felt in the cities, Emperor Imbrianus even sent mages with relevant skills to travel to various farmlands to do what they could to restore the crops.
However, there were simply too few magic-workers with the right skills, and they could not compete with the length and severity of the drought. Even a water mage can only wield so much power and can only manipulate available water.
Some areas fared better than others. Where rivers were large enough to not dry out, nomas dug out trenches to impro ve irrigation. Witches even aided these attempts where possible. But this could not save every farm, and eventually, resources had to be pooled to save at least a few farms.

Historic Importance

While not the deadliest natural disaster, the 340s Drought contributed to the fall of an empire.
The resulting starvation and economic downturn contributed to civil unrest, protests, and even robbery, particularly of food transports and grain silos. Churches and other charitable people simply could not feed everyone. Prices of food and goods soared, and everyone suffered.

With no food and a failing economy, duchies were unable to collect adequate taxes, which though resented by citizens, were vital to the military and other government services. In an effort to correct this, in many cases, Emperor Imbrianus stripped lands from witches and granted them to mages, assuming the higher-level magic-users would better be able to manage the people.
This stripping of lands included the former duke and duchess of the Emerson duchy, parents of Reginald Augustus Emerson, despite their proud and noble bloodlines. Reginald would later go on to found the Witches' Might Group group and lead a revolution, the Great Uprising, which would result in the death of the emperor and the elimination of all mages.

Type

Natural

Long-term
Duration
342 DE to 351 DE (9 years)
Deaths
Estimated to be 1000s
Location
Imbria
Wennovi

Positive Note

This drought demonstrated the limitations of witches and mages. After the drought, irrigation of farmland improved drastically, as people realized they could not rely on magic alone in times of need. Imbrian military units aided in digging trenches for farms.

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Mages & Witches

Mages were considered to posess more raw power than witches, able to perform magic simply by willing things to happen rather than having to rely on spells, rituals, or items. Mages often had one type of magic they used, while witches have more flexibility in the types of magic they can learn and use.
Mages were defeated in the Great Uprising and eradicated in the following years.

For more on the differences between mages and witches: