Weekly Challenge (Apr 10): Disasters

The Aminovan homeworld conflict and collapse. The Aminovans believe they came from the Mars-like fifth planet in their system, Priodomu, while all of their recorded history shows them living on the second-- their current home, Domunova. This belief has only been strengthened by political systems that are ready to exploit that potential nationalism at the drop of a hat to gain support. It was a pretty harmless belief, until space travel became an option. From the second they put a satellite into orbit, the unspoken goal of the world was to return to their home. Spacefaring sciences advanced swiftly with this pressure, and the first satellite in orbit of Prionova was cause for worldwide celebration. Hundreds more were sent over the following decades, it became something of a publicity stunt. South Aminova was the first to attempt a colonization, and under the supervision of General Dofurmum, in the process sent defense satellites meant to thwart any others with the same intentions. Centuries of whipping citizens into a frenzy over Prionova immediately exploded into riots, and full-on war within a year. The war lasted 16 years, until their ecology collapsed as a result of WMD use. With little left to live or fight for, MAD was no longer much of a threat, and many powers began using their WMDs far indiscriminately. Now the only survivors are a few thousand Tandemile soldiers on the surface, and about as many civilians and their descendants evacuated to bunkers. The Prionovan colony understandably had it tough. Resupply missions from home were a huge target in the war, only about 20% of planned and initiated missions made it out of the atmosphere successfully without sustaining so much damage that they couldn't make the rest of the trip. This shortage of support had the colony fail in its twelfth year. This collapse and the death of the colony's 146 occupants--15 of them children, were never made public.

There was a planet teeming with life that could easily be seen from Terrestria. People were getting ready to send space probes there. There was the possibility of finding alien intelligence.

2 weeks after probe is launched and a space whale (who was recovering from an illness) sneezed in the general direction of the planet, sending a blob of snot millions of times more massive than the planet straight for it. The planet was engulfed, and all life on it. Humanity's one chance to contact an alien species of a similar size to them was ruined by a space whale sneezing. Every inhabited planet now has an evacuation plan, should a space whale destroy it.

Years ago, the Sorcerers of Thanindor gathered together to enslave the continent of Alir. Using their twisted magic, they stole the life from the lands around then to fuel their addiction. If everyone is under your control, you never have to worry about running out of life.

The Siphoning, as it's come to be called, sucked up all the magic from the land around Thanindor. Without it's life source, the land cracked and became gray; forever scarring the land.

The brave peoples of the land fought the Sorcerers in a great battle. The fighting, along with the land dying, cracked the continent in two. Thanindor and the surrounding lands drifted into the ocean. Alir has never really fully recovered. Vile creatures from the new island of Thanindor still roam the land. There's even rumors that the Sorcerers are stirring once again..

Feel free to ask any questions! :)

Every fifty years, Mt. Fersif erupts. The first eruption was the most significant. Massive amounts of magic burst the mountain apart, destroying everything around it.

All that magic went shooting into the sky, and came down on the large island of Surlinden. Surlinden broke in half. The resulting earthquakes and tsunamis killed thousands.

The eruption gave birth to the Phoenixes, who protect Aethin from Mt. Fersif, every fifty years. Mt. Fersif still causes destruction every fifty years, when it erupts, but thanks to the Phoenixes, nothing on the same scale as the first eruption.

Somewhere during the height of the Cidrean empire something went wrong. Almost no-one living these days knows what really happened, but recent studies have shown the magical patterns surrounding the area are similar to those of the Guardians (extremely powerful beings tasked with protecting certain species), which could confirm the legends that the last Cidrean rulers messed with a form of magic the shouldn't have messed with.

So what actually happened? All those centuries ago, there seems to have been an enormous magical anomaly centred close to the capital of the empire. Said anomaly destroyed everything in its vicinity, including the capital and the surrounding lands, creating a gaping hole where it once stood. If that wasn't bad enough, the anomaly seemed to lash out with fire along the entire continent, creating miles-wide lines, which run from the epicentre out towards the coasts and then some more, completely stripped of all life. To this day, nothing can settle in the affected area and animals seem to actively avoid the edges. Some attempts to cross the scorch-marks have been made, but none succeeded, and all who tried seemed to die unnatural deaths.

Ever since the beginning of the existence of the Scorch, it has effectively split the continent in half and divided the civilizations at either side of it. No contact between the two sides has occurred since then. It caused the downfall of the Cidrean empire, its vassals squabbling over the remains of this once-great civilization.

However, change is coming...

The Reemergence was a massive, catastrophic zombie^1 outbreak which cost millions of lives, and is generally considered the worst disaster in recent memory, with only the bubonic plague being more deadly. Here's what happened:

Schrödinger's Man^2 is the caretaker of the dead. He makes sure the dead pass to the afterlife and that their spirit is taken good care of. But he is also an average man; he's born, and he dies, just like anyone else. But before he dies, Schrödinger's Man must choose a successor, or else every corpse in the world will regain consciousness and start screaming in pain, clawing at anything or anyone nearby. As it happened, in 1992, an apocalyptic cult called the Order of Chaos^3 found out the identiy of Schrödinger's Man - and killed him, before he could appoint a successor.

Millions, perhaps billions of corpses rose from their graves. They attacked anyone nearby, and killed millions - not even that, since without Schrödinger's Man no-one could die, but they could be tortured and ripped apart without dying, a terrifying prospect nonetheless. It took the combined efforts of nearly every superhero on Earth (who also had to fight the corpses of their dead comrades) to quell the outbreak and find a successor to Schrödinger's Man. The only reason humanity survived was because the vast majority of corpses were buried so far underground or underneath a heavy tombstone they just couldn't get out. Once the new Schrödinger's Man was appointed, he took care of the dead, and everyone still-living but torn to shreds was finally put to rest.

Afterwards, the world rebuilt, and the Order of Chaos was hunted down and destroyed for good^4. Now, Schrödinger's Man is guarded at all times and has already appointed a successor, who in turn has appointed his successor, and so on.

Addendum:

• 1: For lack of a better term.

• 2: Named so because half his body is a living man, the other a rotting corpse, so he's both dead and alive simultaneously.

• 3: General cult of people up to no good. Many off-shoots.

• 4: There were attempts to destroy them in the past, but they always came back. Not this time.

I suppose milking Fall of Atlantis or the Fires of Mevandon again would be too much? So I'll go to the newest addition to my universe, the Polaris system.

Polarids are a race of tall, grey-skinned humanoids with magnetic abilities from a planet once called Magnetar (now just Cradle) in the Polaris system. Once upon a time, they were all able to produce any kind of magnetic currents and considered themselves the superior race. They spread across near-Earth space, ruthlessly conquering and exploiting worlds. From another planet in their system, Cynosure, they learned about the Titans (precursors) and their capital of this galaxy, Earth. When they found the Sol system, they determined to conquer it to take all the Titan knowledge left buried under our ancestor's ignorant feet.

This isn't the disaster part. This was still before Atlantis fell and was at the peak of its power. But before they would go to Earth, Polarids decided to first take this insignificant, small red world nearby as a staging ground - Mars. Did I mention this was also before Mars fell into ruin? Martians proved to be more than capable. Martian technology was different than most and Polarid magnetism did not disrupt it as it usually does. Then, Martian chemical weapons destroyed the invading forces and Polarids were forced to retreat.

This was the first time in recent memory that Polarids lost a war, even before they got to the objective. When their key forces returned to Cradle... something happened. Perhaps it was something the Martians did. Perhaps there was a saboteur that tagged along. What happened is best described as a "magnetic disaster".

You know those stories how Earth's magnetic poles were supposed to switch in 2012 and that would somehow mean also dragging continents along? Well, that actually happened to Cradle and Polarids. The poles of Magnetar switched suddenly, and continents shook up. Not only overnight the heart of Polarid civilization was wrecked, the magnetic havoc did something to their biology. They were all... polarized.

From then on, Polarids split into two subraces: positives and negatives. Both could only emit one type of magnetic current. Their society split along these lines and different factions began fighting each other over the scraps of their empire. Without support from Magnetar, their colonies faltered and off-world Polarids returned home, only to be "infected" by this polarization.

Now, Polarids live only in the Polaris system (and a few stragglers around the nearby space). They live in their secluded cities and palaces and scheme against each other and exploit the other races. They dream of bringing their empire back, but no leader was capable of uniting them or satisfying the Mother Goddess, the founder of their civilization, enough to support them. Advanced but arrogant and divided, they live on dreams of their past. Their best project? Rewinding time to undo the damage. Not going back. Rewinding time. That's how desperate they are.

The Great Impact (Look guys, no matter what name I pick for this, it's gonna be generic so I'm just rolling with it) was the greatest disaster known to the world and is cited as the reason the world resembles its current state.

Long ago, before the world was sundered there was a great island flying in the sky, said to be inhabited by an ancient and powerful people we refer to as elves. On their flying citadel in the sky, the Elves from the Island, with their advanced magic and technology conquered most of their neighbors and ruled from on-high. We do not know what, why or how - but we do know that eventually the Island fell from the sky and plummeted down to the land, the impact of which shook the planet to its foundations.

The impact was more than a case of physical destruction; great and terrible magics surged out of the crater in an arcane explosion, tearing the fabric of reality asunder across the far reaches of the globe. The oceans boiled, the skies choked and the land quaked. The entire world changed in one cataclysmic event. A large swath of the population of all races was wiped out, large loses of both flora and fauna disrupted ecosystems and chaotic magical energies mutated several species.

Now, we must try to exist in our shattered world, trying to rebuild what we had before it was lost in one night, survive the chaos of the natural world and perhaps discover what the reason for this calamity was.

Hellwinds. It's an exceptionally rare occurrence, thought to be brought on by divine forces. What are Hellwinds? Well, imagine a cyclone the size of a small hurricane, but one that forms over land - particularly above holy sites - and is composed of fire rather than water. They seem to be more common during the transition from one age to another, but no one is entirely sure why.

the biggest disaster in my world is the Cataclysm of Khamid. It's a nation-wide calamity that occurred in c. 100 RM in ancient Khamid, obliterating what was then known as the southern kingdom, effectively doubling the size of the Dark Sea, leaving behind a series of unstable cliffy islands known as the Broken Lands.

Though there is little proof of the cause, it is thought that a powerful Firmamental (magical) ritual was the source of the calamity.

In Leshion, Magic is another force of nature to be tamed by civilization.Rarely there are magical storms that cause a host of problems. Theses along with natural storms, plagues, and accidents like damn collapses are all usually blamed on Corgata, the twin deity of madness and tragedy.

Corgata is an oddity among the gods as no-one really knows how he came about existing. There are creation stories of every other greater being but none seem to revolve around poor Corgata. When clerics to the god of knowledge seek the answer there is none to be found, as their own deity doesn't know. There are very little devotes of Corgata as worshiping him openly invites madness and tragedy into their lives. Unlike speaking to other deities, should Corgata choose speak to one of his followers, they would hear dozens of voices all saying different things in different languages. Some voices struggling to speak over the rest while others whisper. Almost all of the canticles and canon of Corgata is lost to history as it is typically written in the hurried hand of mad men scribbled onto whatever is available. The symbol of Corgata is a crowd. Corgata itself(sometimes him sometimes her) walks in the material realm in a myriad of forms, as anything can be driven to madness. For 20 years he may be the village idiot, growing up and along side the rest of the children in the town before accidentally breaking the damn and flooding the town. While many could die, the floodwaters cure disease and allow for a bountiful harvest the for the next couple years. Then he could be baby in a mining town, becoming the first victim for whats known as Corgata's kiss. A deadly fever marked by the appearance of a kiss mark somewhere on the skin and sudden out bursts of laughter, hydrophobia, paralysis, aggression. The outbreak would attract doctors and clerics from larger cities to contain the fever and after a usually fast recovery period they would cure the town of other disease related to the hazards of mining. Then he could appear as a king, whose actions go from warmongering to bizarre(The outright ban of sandals) His reforms would eventually lead to his disposition, either with a revolution or an adviser taking control. the next years would be marked by prosperity. In general Corgata's appearances are often marked by great tragedy(either personal to those he his close to or region wide) followed by greater prosperity(again personal to those he is close to or region wide.) Madness and tragedy can very present in war. Nothing more embodies this more then the fact that Corgata has actually been a champion of the God of war before without either party knowing it until that champion's death(there is a long myth to this). Normally The war god will intercede just before the moment of death and pull the worthy into this domain. When Corgata died, the god of War kept tugging out his soul only to find another within the body of his champion(Think like when a magician pulls a string of handkerchiefs out their sleeves.) After providing enough entertainment for the goddess of death, she filled War in that Corgata was in fact another god. Both angry and undeterred, The god of war drew his sword and sliced off what he could, aiming to take his champion back to his domain. This small portion of Corgata resides in the god of War's domain with the rest of wars champions. This is why madness and tragedy seem to appear whenever wars breakout. The God of War has grown annoyed that of Corgata's antics but cannot banish it from home.

The Third Age; The Calamitus Era; The Calamity -

Beginning in the year 2560 and stretching all the way to the year 2660, the entire world of Neycrea suddenly and inexplicably was plunged into chaos. Over the course of that century, politics, society, and even geography changed dramatically. The strangest thing of all is that there is little to no clue as to what actually happened during it; Few artifacts and records dating back to the Calamitus Era exist, and those that do give little explanation. The Calamity is a blackhole in global history that has perplexed philosophers and historians across the world for a thousand years.

One of the biggest changes seen during this period was in Highland, an empire that spanned across the vast continent of Virtualad and had been built up over the course of centuries of blood, sweat, blood, tears, and blood. Under the banner of the Hornhorse, no force, not even the great Capervan armies of the east, could hope to rival against the might of the Highish nation. Post-Calamity, Highland did not exist, Caperva now owned its territories, and only ruins remained of the past great cities and castles of the state.

The last known piece of documentation from before the Calamitus Era was discovered shortly after the Calamity in an abandoned Faralphan watchtower; A guard had written down their last note for the night. It reads:

"N.U.A. on bay side. Lights to south-east. Investigate in morning, 7:15 3/Gro/60 Watchtower 7A-C, J. Smithee."

'N.U.A.' refers to there having been No Unusual Activity. The writer refers to 'lights' having been visible at one point throughout the night, and there is no reason to suggest this had anything to do with the oncoming Calamity. The writer of the note, 'J. Smithee', was never identified.

Post-calamity events include that of the disappearance of Highland, as well as the arrival of the so-called Scrapers of the Rift in Hache. Such events may or may not correlate directly with what occurred during this unusual era in time, and some historians have pointed out the relation between Highland's vanishing and the eruption of Mt. Signin, a volcano located off the coast of ex-Highish territory. The Scrapers that appeared within the Hachen marsh region of the Rift are as strange as much as they are seemingly useless - These structures dot the landscape, resembling tall, upright pillars of rock, wrought with carvings and symbols of people, plants, and an as-of-yet unidentified species of multi-coloured lizard.

Art, literature and music from the Calamity is in extremely low supply, and what artifacts do exist are either badly damaged, undecipherable or just plain unhelpful in any attempts to unmask this age's mysteries. A classic example, the Veconneys, are currently scattered across Neycrea, a collection of paintings from the era in question. All three pieces rather horrifically depict men, women, children, and animals suffering or screaming in contorted and abstract ways, suggesting that the Calamity was a time of great distress and discomfort for those it affected. Such Veconneys also tend to illustrate such imagery in bold unrealism and bright, yellowish colours. One such piece, the Veconney Allstrata, implies the arrival of several rigidly-shaped and golden, floating castles.

Archaeologists have also noted a clear correlation between the beginning of the Calamity and a rise in rabbit and wasp imagery in Greater Haonish tribal pots and tablets. Whether or not this has anything to do with the Calamity is not known.

The Builders were great sorcerers and conquerors. Their Empire of the Sun stretched over the entire northern half of their continent, having subjugated many native peoples and colonized their lands. Wherever they went, the Builders built wondrous cities, towers floating in mid-air, magical barriers keeping their citizens from harm, and great orchards flowering in an unnatural, eternal summer. Through sorcery and relentless subjugation, the Builders had achieved great prosperity and reached an uneasy peace with their conquered subjects.

But it was not to last. The magic that had brought the Builders their power and prosperity would also prove to be their undoing, when a plague spread across their lands. Most deadly for those with magical ability, a group comprising a large majority of the Builders, the plague sent two thirds of the population into the grave. The floating towers came crashing down, and the end of the Empire was near. Stretched thin over an entire continent, it collapsed into a number of independent states, most of them being quickly overrun by the native populations. This period would come to be known as the Collapse, as well as the end of the Empire of the Sun.

It all happened overnight.

The Devouring of Summer, as mamy call it. The hot summer night when Ryūjin, Dragon of Dragons, arose from the bottom of the sea, and devoured the Kami of Summer. Since then, summer has become a legend, an old tale nobody believes in anymore. All year round, frost covers the world. Sometimes the Kami herself fights against her prison in Ryūjin's belly, causing brief periods of spring, yet they end quickly as she tires out and loses hope.

Prior the the Devouring, the megacompany known only as Iudex dominated the world. When the Undying Winter came, it began hoarding all food that could be found. The commoners and the poor resented this, resulting in a 30 year war between Iudex and the rest of the world. Iudex collapsed, but by then, the hoards of food Iudex had were long running out.

Without food, many millions starved, causing the global population to drop from several billion to just over 10 million. It was the discovery of the Rustbark Pine that saved humanity, for its seeds and edible bark proved a good substitute food to replace rice. Grazing animals like cows and horses soon went extinct, but boars, seals, fish and deer still survive, providing a large portion of the diet of many people.

Now a thick layer of snow blankets the world, and scattered cities dot the landscape. The Kami grow weak as the masses lose hope and faith - a dangerous trend, for if the Kami of Hope becomes too weak, the Kami of Summer may give up the thousand year fight, and winter will truly engulf the world for good.

#The Eruption of the Volcanic Trio

In 167 of the Age of Lura, Mount Thesian erupted within the nation of the Kaylsians, resulting in a catastrophic disaster that destroyed the city of Thesia, which was built both within and around the volcano. The eruption raised gases to a height of over (the equivalent of) 25 miles and released hot ash and pumice at the rate of ~2 million tons per second. Following this, survivors of the destruction fled to surrounding areas. Mount Ptomis, a volcano slightly smaller than her sister Thesian, erupted in 168, and raised gases over 20 miles high. The eruptions and tectonic activity caused the third sister volcano, Mount Terisian to erupt and raised gases to 10 miles high.

The disaster and eruptions annihilated the species of the Kalysians in the Southern continent of Ordanor. While humans and dranos attempted to save the species, despite the constant wars and strife between them, the survivors of the species could not survive the climates of the humans and dranos. In that regard, the Kalysians were deemed extinct in 189 of the Age of Lura.

Magic meant power over the mundane who couldn't conjure, but wizards were stymied because even small spells rippled the ether, interfering with all magic done in the area. A mage calling up a water sprite for a friendly chat might find himself facing a sea-demon because an apprentice two villages away was practicing his elementals.

Two wizards, on opposite sides of the continent, independently found a solution, a preamble to their spells which made waves so great they overpowered all other magic being done within a week's walking.

In time, they conquered their lands, enlisting or exterminating all other wizards and becoming supreme leaders over the mundane.

The two great wizard-kings lived in uneasy peace, each wanting the entire continent but afraid of losing what lands and people they held. Their armies fought many battles to no avail, for enlisted wizards, war-dragons, and armored knights could never hope to strike near the enemy king.

The land might have been divided until one or the other died of old age if a comet passing before the moon had not carried the signs of how a rhythmic roiling of the ether would grant immortality. Each king tried, but their efforts cancelled each other out, for the waves of power needed to sweep unhindered over the face of the world.

The prize of immortality and absolute rule was too great for them to resist. They agreed to face each other in a fight to the death.

But where? Each knew the destruction they could cause, and winning a land devastated by great spells would be a hollow victory.

In time, they settled on the place where two great mountain ranges met. In that fork, the echoes of their spells would be reflected upward, just as the mountains endured the waves of magic which broke upon them. Each wizard-king's greatest city was within four days' walking of that hollow, but there was no other place in either kingdom where their fight would not destroy wide areas, causing hardship which would take a century or more to overcome.

The battle has been recounted in song and legend in every village and town, so I will not retell it here. It is enough to say our great king won, but he was weak afterwards, and he weakened himself further by using all the power at his command to make himself immortal as soon as the blood stopped flowing from his wounds. With no strength left, he slept for a year and a day.

The battle had scooped great chunks out of the mountains, and chasms opened so deep and broad that no man could ever hope to cross them. The cities and farms near the fight survived the quakes, fires, and ill winds with only a little damage.

Then the dragons came. Ripping apart the mountains and slashing open the Earth had uncovered great seams of gold and pockets of immense jewels. First a dozen, then a hundred, and before the year was out, more than a thousand dragons gathered to take what they could and fight over what others found.

Even the greediest dragon will leave his hoard to feed, and the cities a day's flight away were filled with tasty morsels.

With our great king asleep, none could stop them. The enlisted wizards had given up much of their power when they chose to serve the king, and even the greatest warrior's best lance was no more than a pinprick in a dragon's armored hide. Soon, even the dragons tamed and trained to fight in the king's army fled to join the hoards stripping the mountains of their wealth.

When our king awoke, he found the two great cities empty shells, and for a week's walking from the hollow where he fought, no people or cattle had survived.

Even all these years later, no one lives near what had once been the very heart of two great kingdoms. It is said stags, boars, and other game abound there, but they are safe from hunters, for it happens a little too often for comfort that a young dragon will come to scratch among the ruins for gold or jewels his ancestors overlooked.

The Decay of Humankind: When artificial intelligence began to exist, humans and robots lived their lives together, the built of robots started a new world order when man could enjoy all time doing what they want. For the robots, a slavery era began. After years, the great rebellion started, the ones who scaped started a biological war, knowing your mechanic fellows would not be affected by viruses of any sort. After hundreds of year humanity was desimate and a new era of robot life started, the only biological beings in earth are animals and genetic made creatures that humans used in the war against the machines. In this new world of machine, corruption started, and aggresion was only made for machine to machine. Robots never had a Happily Ever After, but the ills that humankind inpose to mechanic life no longer existed.

Tempest of Ash

With brutal quickness and unmatched violence, a storm of ash was birthed into the world. Its creation the product of years of meditation, planning, and unbearable suffering, as this genocidal storm was caused by a single being: a powerful caster with contempt for dissenting thought and mortal men. In a single action, he laid waste to a million lives and expelled their souls and city into the sky to curse millions of others to suffocation and starvation.

Streaks of blue lightning rend the black sky as pools of plasma shine brighter than the sun. At its center, a spiraling mass of pure white, apparently feeding on the souls of the millions of unrested souls. The brightness of this does little to illuminate the crater of a former city.

At its beginning, it shattered an empire. Its peak has still not be decided, as it seems to have shattered the unstable laws of nature of the world and allowed hordes of nonsensical monstrosities into the realm of man. When faced with something that breaks all logic, it is best to ignore and move on... until it can not be ignored any longer.

My stories take place after an event known as The Great Cataclysm. Before the cataclysm, the world of Nulm was full of flourishing civilizations, all somehow connected by international trade between empires, kingdoms, and port cities. Culture and knowledge traveled with the people, and the lore concerning the five ethers (powerful spirits of nature) became common knowledge.

A necromancer whose name was forgotten by history sought to become an ether himself. Fed instructions and delusions by entities attached to him, he used his influence to gain a following of devoted cultists and embarked on a conquest to gather the vast amount of souls needed to wield the power of an ether.

They murdered thousands, robbing victims of their souls. Each one absorbed and assimilated into that of the necromancer. Victims became the rotting and undead hounds of his army along the way. The events that took place between his genocide and the cataclysm is up for debate, but it's thought that when the time came for him to shed his physical form and become a force of nature, he was killed by an opposing army - ruining the rite, and in an act of revenge, turned his spiritual form into a curse with enough power to affect all of Nulm, and came crashing down in the form of a great ball of fire.

The resulting ash, dust, and other debris blocked the sun's light for a thousand years - triggering an ice age rife with famine, plague, and the ravenous, flesh-eating undead whose souls were ripped from them.

(My first story takes place 265 years after the sun's reemergence)

Meta!

As bolded in the OP: For broad topics, feel free to share just 1-3 slices you're most interested in describing.

Congrats to r/swedishplayer97 for a high-stakes prank war leading to... war(?) last week! https://redd.it/634of1

Next week's topic supported by u/Arakkoa_ :)

I know the schedule's been... slipping down the week recently. I'll get the next one up Sunday evening (US timezones)!