The Upheaval
Era beginning/end
The world-shaking Upheaval which saw the destroying of the old world, and the establishment of a new environment of a floating archipelago suspended over the Storm, in which the world lives now.
History or Myth
The Early Post-Upheaval world, particularly pertaining the Upheaval itself, is generally viewed as more mythical than historical. A more comprehensive understanding can be drawn from the rich body of myth and legend than from limited historical evidence from the time, or as compiled shortly after resuming of travel. Most of what is accepted to be true about the Upheaval was first preserved in innumerable oral traditions, almost all without a central literary canon. Additionally, because the Upheaval was a destructive event, all
Ante Calamitatem structures, relics and ruins are at least preserved, and at worst, partially destroyed.
PC Archaeological Impermanence
Properly preserved tools, structures and remains, particularly during the Upheaval and in the early period following the Upheaval are very rare. Because
Gravitational Scarcity facilitates greater loss of physical objects, it is more common for tools to be exhausted of all use, often being repurposed over time, and often shared throughout the community. Once the object is considered to be unusable, the object is only then likely to be discarded.
Cross-Narrative Differences and Commonality
Cross-Cultural Dialogue
As soon as travel resumed in the
Post Itinerantur (PI) era, myths and legends spread throughout the dispersed archipelago, and as a result, it should be noted that a significant body of oral and written traditions were not preserved, and were instead disregarded, either by belief in a new myth or by ordered destruction by a conquerer. As a result of this filtering out of traditions, a smaller body of stories began to be believed by more and more people.
Literary Canonization
Though most literary canonization occurred in the PI Era, a small body of works, both complete and incomplete, survived from the
Ante Itinerantur (AI) Era. With exception to some prevailing folklore, each of these AI & PI Era works comprise most of the settled world's beliefs on what happened within the Upheaval. Most of every work discovered, however, has been deemed to be accounts written down some time after the history has been spread orally for some time, or were written down by the students or disciples of the ascribed authors. Therefore, concerning any particular details attributed to the Upheaval, historians have concluded that events of the Upheaval, or circumstances surrounding its cause, is therefore more mythical than historical.
Accepted Origins
What is known about the Upheaval is that the world broke into fragments varying in size and began to ascend, as it is believed that ateric matter began to appear during this time. Although the knowledge of the Storm exists throughout myths and legends almost ubiquitously, there is little agreement on when it began to occur. Based on knowledge preserved from
Ante Tumultus sources, the world was all anchored solidly, with great expanses of water between much of the land, called seas and oceans. The land that stood firm was dotted with mountains, some of which smoked and spat fire that came deep from within the Earth. It is believed that when the lands were rent upwards, that the oceans and the fires met and produced a great cloud of steam, and that this great tumultuous force underneath the Storm sustains it. To this day, however, no human has ever seen even into the depths of the Storm, nor has any account lasted from the Upheaval describing these events.
