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Hello everyone, this is Asclepius, with another wonderful story from Elgarion De’Kahli. It is entitled

The First Era: The Age of Survival

Background music is by Smartsound

On Moonandai, the 2nd of Janus, the Month of Daedalus, the Chilling Season of Wentru, in the Waking Dawn
A New Era Began

As the tearing winds of the great storm lessened, a decade had passed before the choking ash had finally settled into a smothering blanket upon the once bountiful lands of New Britannia. The world was torn asunder. The fall of the moon shards forced the desperate survivors of the great Cataclysm to seek shelter, oft into the treacherous underworld beneath their former homes. In rushed refuge, most took nothing save their families and what meager belongings were gathered in frantic haste and which could be carried easily into these darkened mazes below. The fortunate brought sources of light, but even as those eventually expired, the torchbearers were left as helpless as the many who took no light into the blackness; ultimately, all were unprepared for what would become of them. Befuddled wizards, once powerful and adept in the ancient incantations of their forefathers, now spoke in stutters as they attempted to recite even a most novice of spells… light. When the spell singers took to the depths, they burdened themselves with tomes and spell books, most of which, in the coming years were simply cast away into the campfires for mere warmth as their runic inscribed pages became valueless with the waning magic in the world.

As the years slipped by, the survivors hid from the death above, yet countless refugees met the dealer’s scythe in other ways. Whether it be illness from the damp, despair of the darkness, or the horrors of the deep, many looked upon death’s embrace as a release from that detestable existence. So many societies formed from these times. Former enemies became companions as they worked together to survive, and hatred often ensued from former friends which now had reason to compete for resources. In some caverns, inspiring leaders emerged who rallied their underworlds to greatness and prosperity. Other communities languished, only surviving in the most meager sense, barely reaching what some have called The First Dawn or The Day of Life–when the ash clouds first parted and the nourishing light of the sun once again cast its warmth upon the dying lands.

In the following decades, some more hesitant than others, these underworld communities emerged to take in the light. They found their former world in ruin. The greatest of cities had crumbled under the Shard Fall, and most of the lands were unrecognizable. Handfuls of these under-dwellers remained beneath in the sheltering dark, finding the life in the caverns preferable to the ones of their surface dwelling forefathers. Most began to rebuild in the realms above. Settlements became villages which became towns… and towns, cities. Although nothing shone in comparison to the heavenly spires of stone from before The Fall, grand cities did come to evolve, and with them, would-be kings or warlords arose to power. For as the lands above healed, resources were still scarce. As the peoples spread their ambitious wings, their borders grew then eventually overlapped. It wasn’t long before these warlords took to arms to defend their claims.

Also of note during this age, it was commonly believed the Titans fled to New Britannia, taking shelter from a calamity which beset their home in another world. Albeit there are many rumors and beliefs as to the true origin of the Titans, this one dominant theory heralds an overwhelming realization: The Fall was not just of this world, but of many. As the moon shards fell upon the lands of New Britannia, other worlds also endured the horrors of their own apocalypse. Could this be true of the Titans? That they were mere survivors of another world’s end? Countless texts and authors have penned many stories of the worlds from beyond the Rift. What transpired upon each… only the Outlanders know of this. With the return of the Avatars, knowledge of the Falls of many worlds is now only just becoming known.

Within this age, as the last dab of ink was inscribed upon the text, Lamentation of the Fall, by Sariah the Blind, a history of these trying times was forever recorded for the generations to come. Many a scholar has attempted the interpretation, but almost all came to the same realization. She wrote of a bright truth. This truth could be seen as the survivors looked upon their past in reflection, and as they recounted their years beneath in the maddening darkness below. Whatever might have caused The Fall was behind them. What they had endured had changed them. And now, what lay ahead was their time of redemption.