The Starfall and the Great Silence

The Shattering of Mirios

Summary

Families celebrated the summer solstice on a warm night, when stars began to fall from heaven - smashing into cities. With them, a great maelstrom overtook the world, with winds blowing down ancient cities and seas churning into deadly pools. Just as it was thought things could get no worse, witherance struck in much of the world all at once and spirits passed into the mortal world - becoming a boon to some and an existential threat to others. During the clash of spirits and man, the earth shook, and great calamities unfolded throughout the world - from hurricanes, to tsunamis, to twisters, to rifts. Millions perished worldwide in one of the greatest calamities since the first mortals walked the world. In the years since the shattering, the voices of the gods and spirits have seemingly quieted over the generations in the Great Silence - leading to an era of theological uncertainty and the questioning of the world in a great cultural shift.

Names

The Starfall is the primary name for the event in Niranni Imperial, where it is called Saroden or Sarocir; This name is due to the fact that during that night, thousands and thousands of stars fell for a week straight. It also is known by the name Ekori Arsung - "Great Shattering"; the name shattering is found in more academic circles, with it being a shortening of "The Great Shattering of the Heavenly Realms"

Events in Mirios

As a result of the disasters, spirits, and chaos almost every empire fell as people retreated to their local communities for aid. Due to the corruption of Sanri seeping in, a series of great witherances began as well, causing further destruction that raged for a century. Many parts of the world remained troubled for centuries, with populations finally recovering in some areas by the late 1100s, although most places took until the 1300s.

Nirann

In Nirann, the lands were struck hard and didnt recover for decades as people feared the emergence of spirits once more, leading to places like Anosfae and Soranna becoming focused on the city-state; In lands like Gentarien and Ischurrai, tribes began to battle for control over lands best for farming. Perhaps the worst event in all of Nirann though, besides the witherance and spirits, was that of the natural disasters: a great tsunami rocked the coasts of the Soramari-Majar sea, causing Soranna to be destroyed as it sunk halfway under the waves and was occupied by dark spirits for centuries; Tornadoes rode across the plains of Thadia and Ischurrai as wind spirits battled in the skies; Earthquakes struck across the Gendur and Dazhin as the great dragon Hesstara battled his way through the underground and arose in Khaehindo to save the region from the blighted titan Gessaen. In the coming years, large tracts of land were abandoned, and people began to fortify their settlements - leading to a great reforesting and many wilds being settled by the vagrant spirits both friendly and hostile.
The Gentari were among the few people to survive the shattering with any real sense of normalcy, although their vast empire was now reduced to small collections of tribes that refused to pay homage to the Khan of Tahan Moghai. In Soranna some local warlords claimed to be rulers still but lacked the strength to enforce any claims beyond their immediate cities - leading to the fracturing that began the city states period. The first major conflict to arise from the event was the War of Shattered Blades between the clans Arozan and Ilarren. Both clans warred each other for the title of regent but ended up only weakening each other to the point that no force in the country could claim control. This led to a period of distrust in the clans and kingdoms, along with religious heresies and the decline of Anevia. The trauma from the events and subsequent mistrust led to the events that allowed Selkai Genturin to begin his revolution - the War of Dethronement. This war of dethronement saw great devastation and chaos as the rebels tried to upend the social order through freeing slaves and overthrowing local lords in the name of a united Niranni front under heaven, led by the republic of Ornemere. This in turn, allowed for the rise of new powers like the opportunist and zealot Atshara who gained fame as the great unifier of Ischurrai, and the man who sounded the death knell for the rebellion.
A sense of normalcy had returned by the 1200s, when spirits were much less a threat and the population had risen to a level comparable to before the Starfall. While many areas were still haunted per se, the city centers were again bustling and new kingdoms were fighting it out as it were in the era prior to the shattering.

Talasa

In Talasa, the north was hit with the same series of disasters that struck the Niranni. A great series of dust storms would rock the deserts, and the snakefolk of the south would take this as an opportunity to invade and enslave many before retreating to their homeland - perhaps for human sacrifices to appease their gods and stop the calamity. The storms lasted for a hundred years as much of the eastern part of the continent was struck by severe famine, leading to clans competing for control and relying off of fishing on the coast while the snakemen took over the interior. In the west, spirits deep in the jungle pushed outwards and attacked cities. Those along waterways were able to best weather the storm due to their ability to receive help from other cities. Eventually, rulers of prosperous cities like the governors Ra'ulmur and Nochezi took power and created their own kingdoms. In the north, the states faced frequent typhoons and the same tsunami that rocked Soranni. As the North became unstable, many fled to Nirann where they strengthened the Essukad kingdom.
The continent would be back on the recovery by the late 1200s as the spirits were largely pushed back, and demons halted with its population recovering by the 1400s.

Enzhial

In Enzhial, the Sitiric peoples divided into many groups to fend off the invasions, with the adventurers guilds of Orazhnavel pushing back the demons from their capital and the main river valley. The Sitirics suffered greatly as they experienced their most severe witherance, seeing the plains largely pillaged. The old Orazhnavelic empire would fall by this point as the guilds took over and salvaged what they could, leading to a recovery beginning in the late 1000s although the region remained less powerful and prosperous as it was in the 900s. The Marin of Lhuvelan'de saw their god queen create a storm around the city with her magic, causing it to be safe from spirits for some time; she gave four disciples power to head in each direction and help defeat the spirits while she protected the capital. These disciples, known as the Wekai did their job in a few years, but were unable to prevent the sacking of the fringe territories. Since this event the Empire has largely been in decline, unable to battle the slow population birth rate as well as increase in threats from nomads and rogue spirits. The regions outside of Lhuvelan'de took until the 1200-1300s to recover to any extent, with some areas still very rural.

Interpretations

Kirrentai Narrative

In the middle of the year 966 since the founding of Soranna'cii, the god of corruption Sanri waged a war against all of the heavenly realms. During his war, Sanri's pinnacle was when he besieged the seat of the Emperor of Heaven - Anetos. The dark god led his armies to the eternal city of the Niranni Gods, resulting in a great battle commencing. In this battle, Sanri and Anetos engaged in a drawn-out struggle that saw the witherance spread to the form of Anetos as he was about to defeat Sanri. In order to prevent himself from falling to the withering and becoming a greater threat than even Sanri, the lord of the heavens shattered his own form into many beings - allowing for his own survival in the future. While Sanri himself had to retreat and lick his wounds, his forces were able to wreak havoc across the realms and were even able to overrun the defenses between the spirit and mortal realms through overwhelming the titan Yirs. This caused many spirits to enter into all the worlds, both ones of well and ill intention. In a last-ditch effort to stop the blight from overrunning the world, Yirs cloaked the realms in a veil before sundering all of the chains binding the spirit realm to the mortal realm except for one that he could guard personally, leaving the world to be largely isolated from the spirit realm in a way.
It is said that as the shattering completed its cycle, the connection to the spirit world was reduced heavily to the point that the Great Silence began. The Great Silence in simple terms, means that the voices of the gods has been drowned out and only a select few are able to penetrate the veil in any meaningful way. Since those days, with few exceptions, the world has largely been in silence in regards to the spirit world. New spirits entering Mirios have been fewer and fewer as the years progress, with the War in Heaven raging on. Efforts to reach into the spirit world have met with a few breakthroughs, but largely the common scenes are those relating to the past and future of the world, desolate landscapes, corrupted lands, or places of stasis.