Decian Cataclysm

Disaster / Destruction

The first, and only, combat firing of a full-scale magical superweapon. If there was ever any doubt that the sun had set on the Third Age, the Cataclysm was an indelible scar on Sera that could not be denied.

The Decian ritual in question invoked an atomic reaction to generate an explosion which, as the Cataclysm would demonstrate, had a yield far greater than that of the heaviest siegebreaker weapons. Tentatively named the atom bomb, despite being neither self-contained or remotely similar to any other bomb, chemical or magical, intelligence leaks suggested the effects of the ritual would be limited by the capabilities of naval vessels and striker airships like any other explosive device.   Unfortunately, this was deemed an unacceptable restriction by its developers. Decia's unique deployment system for its fission bomb is, unsurprisingly, less documented than the already ill-understood science of the bomb itself, given that any records were lost with the Cataclysm. Reports disseminated by Decia's neighbors post-Cataclysm suggest that the Kingdom's scientists built upon the research into portal magics that the Eclipse's alchemists to enable the simultaneous destruction of several targets with a single detonation. Clearly, something went wrong, as not only did the border towns belonging to Decia's enemies burn in atomic fire, so too did every major Kingdom population center.   The few survivors recovered reported that, like a scene straight out of a fantasy novel, the skies lit up with a single blinding flash of fire, killing millions instantly and corrupting millions more with the combination of uncontrolled radiation and mana. In defiance of every attempt at suppression, it took two years for the fires to die out, and forays into the wasteland are fraught with danger due to the combination of unnatural spatial phenomena, twisted humanoid abominations, and omnicidal combat automata that refuse to die a quiet death.