The Year of Darkness and its Consequences

That's a quote of my Ráhaz-Dáth entry, so let it be cold !

The moon is not yet incorporated!

1649 b.S. The Vardýnnian Atonement
„It is said that the Burning God, Foiros, finally heard the biddings of the human priests begging for the help of the gods to finish the torment of the dragons: At the end of the Caelereth year the burning orb of the sun descended below the world and returned not before one year had passed, so that a deadly coldness afflicted dragons and humans alike. Many dragons and humans failed to survive the so-called Vardýnnian Atonement in the Year of Darkness.“ - Ethelim Herengwar

The most dramatic event for the Ráhaz-Dáth indeed takes places in the year of the atonement in 1649 b.S. Though all Caelereth is affected, the changes to the desert landscape itself are considerable and last for several years till normality is restored. The darkness is particularly devastating to the fauna; it causes the death of the majority of the grazers. The darkness falls, the first irritation is that many animals fall into their night patterns of activity, whether sleep, hunting or grazing. This changes after a while as they become used to the dim light of the remaining stars. But food gets scarce, especially fresh food. No grass is left, and the leaves and barks of the trees don't last much longer. However, the tér'tér don't harvest a great portion of the dried grass as usual but go into hibernation, so a lot more is left for the grazers. But nevertheless thousands and thousands die from starvation and due to the strong cold. The predators have a feast for a while, and do well initially, because their prey stays fresh, frozen in the immense cold which sets in soon.

The landscape itself changes dramatically. It doesn't get much wetter first, though no evaporation of the water happens anymore, but the rains coming in the first months of the year fall mostly as snow and build up into a huge icecap on the central mountain stock of the Nirmenith mountains. It snows till in the valleys and the plain and hills of Uderza are covered deeply with a white layer as are the Aj'nuvic Grounds. As it gets colder and colder, the open water starts to freeze. The Salt Pans have been waterless by this time, but fill now with water from the swamp which freezes immediately, the Swamp Oka'Seri freezes entirely, allowing some animals to feed of the cy'pra, a reed like water plant. Not much later, the Nirmenith Oasis freezes over as well, despite its deep water, and leaves a huge ice cover while the water underneath still empties in the waterfall. Finally the waterfall itself freezes as a cascading white wonder, reflecting the faint light of the stars, worthy of poetry or painting had anyone been there and able to admire it. The Norong'Sorno offers some relief of the cold; full of an inner heat, the volcano warms up the region around him and provids the water dependent animals a open water source - the hot springs at its base.

The return of the sun and light sees most grazers dead, the landscape barren of any vegetation and a devasted ecosystem. Now the starvation of the predators sets in. With not many prey left to hunt and their frozen stock now decaying in the returned sun, their numbers fall as drastically as do those of the grazing animals before.

A change of the landscape sets in which exceeds even that of the frozen winter lands before. When snow and ice start to melt nature itself becomes violent. The ice shield of the Nirmenith Oasis cracks down and blocks the outlet of the water, causing it to rise to an unpreceeded level, overflowing and finally emerging in one great splash. Then the ice of the waterfall falls down and it is said that the noise is heard over thousands of furlangs. All the waters stored and frozen in the last year, and the additional precipitation in this year cause an immense flooding of half of the desert.

The Nirmenith river sends its waters for the first time in the known history into the Burning Sea, filling up the salt pans and then overflowing and meeting the sea. The floodplains are twice as expansive as normal, nearly reaching to Firefeet's Rest. The water level of the Seven Jewels rose till three joined into one. The river which passes now Mehmetsh fills its old riverbed instead of flowing underground filling up the Jewels. The plain of Uderza is flooded and Occen's Lake has no defined borders anymore. The water of the wells south of the Yar'Dangs doesn't vanish in the sands but forms little rivulets searching their way down to the cape.

Finally, when the water retreats slowly, everywhere life springs up. Seeds lying in the ground for decades become shoots and flower not only for a few weeks as usual, the trees get new leaves, the few animals left mate to fill up the green plains again. The climate changes to wetter conditions for a few years till it finally returns to the old patterns. The Shendar say that the desert is blessed and due to the extraordinarily good conditions the plains fill soon with new life again.