Prelude
The War of the Majors, a large scale conflict between
The Major Gods, was the inciting incident for
The War of Black Ash, a massive eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano caused by
Fire God Vega. Intending to use the volcano as a weapon against
Lapi, The God of Earth, Vega was unable to stop the eruption once it began, directly leading the events of the Hundred Years of Flame.
Progression
Immediately following the eruption, wildfires began in the western United States, now Laramidia, caused by the basalt flood eruption. Swaths of forest that initially caught alight are thought to have been allowed to burn in favor of evacuation procedures, allowing wildfires to spread uncontrolled. As larger and larger areas of the region began to get consumed by lava, more embers and sparks were carried on the wind, further creating more fires and allowing them to grow to uncontrollable sizes. It is believed, due to human era writings recorded during the event, that many areas were abandoned due to people falsely believing wildfires to be due to the lava itself, even far from the initial eruption, preventing firefighting measures from being taken in favor of evacuation.
Some groups, particularly of those with intense spiritual or superstitious belief, were noted by those to have survived as to believe the eruption and following wildfires to be the sign of the end of the world, sparking many doomsday cults. Many of these doomsday cults believed in human era superstition such as Armageddon or Rapture, attributing the event to a figure known as Satan or Lucifer- thought today to be a sort of chaos deity widely feared in this region of the world. Some of these doomsday cults were reported as leaving their homes and belongings and committing suicide by way of the wildfires and lava, under belief of another deity would rescue them from their torment, with those 'unworthy' left to fend for themselves amongst the ash. Some groups also joined the
Cult of Fire or
Cult of Lapi as a result, blaming the disaster on one god or the other, seeking revenge for the destruction depending on which god they placed the blame upon for causing the War of the Majors.
The Hundred Years of Flame is believed to have ended due to a lack of fuel due to the fires burning for so long- as the regions affected had been destroyed so thoroughly especially by the end of the period, they were lacking in the nutrients needed for new forest growth to take place. Nearest to the eruption itself, many areas were covered in cooled magma, only recovering once mosses and lichens had eroded the rock back into soil thousands of years after the fact. As burned regions were oftentimes taken over by grassland first, rather than trees, continued fires were oftentimes much quicker to burn through their fuel, more commonly being put out by the rain or wind alone and more easily contained.
Aftermath
Often overlooked in favor of the much broader effects of the eruption, the Hundred Years of Flame caused numerous localized extinctions, environmental damage across hundreds of miles, and contributed heavily to the beginnings of the current ice age gripping the planet. Fires burned uncontrolled for decades at a time, with many too fearful of them to even attempt putting them out, spreading a belief that to do so would anger the fire god himself. Attempts at reclaiming burned areas were often in vain, as other nearby fires would ignite newly planted forests and fields.
The fires are believed to be the cause of the continent spanning famine that occurred during this time period, as the fires are believed to have spread as far north as Canada, and perhaps into parts of Mexico as well. As much of the United States relied on this region for crop production, paired with a lack of imports from other countries due to their militarization, repeated dragon attacks, and the degradation of alliances, people starved across the country by the thousands. Areas not directly affected by the fires themselves were often not able to keep up with the demand for crops, and sacrificed their local resources in attempts to produce more food, which is known to have directly angered local minor gods. Soils of the time period are oftentimes lacking in many crucial nutrients and minerals for crop production due to overfarming, and also frequently contaminated with ash that likely swept across the country due to the gulf stream and seasonal cycles. Some records written at the time also suggest that some farmers may also have set their competitors' fields on fire deliberately in order to cause a panic and force them to evacuate, confiscating their neighbors' properties and farmland for their own needs.
Even in the centuries following the event, mistrust of others, resource hoarding, and deep hatred and fear of the fire god were rampant in the region. This led to repeated witch hunts of those who worshiped the fire god, even those who did so out of fear of him. Many of these attacks were justified by locals, according to recorded historical text, that Vega's followers sought to burn the whole world and were a dangerous doomsday cult in of themselves. A strong fear of fire was also cemented in survivors of the event, leading to extensive fire fighting programs across many communities that incidentally, made local fires significantly worse by not allowing natural fires to remove material from forest floors, creating significantly larger wildfires when they did occur. Some regions took to paranoid pruning or removing trees entirely to prevent fires as well, furthering local extinctions.
A curious side effect of the fires is that in many areas now dominated by grasslands, farming communities found that sunflowers were one of few crops to be able to reclaim and fix soil polluted by the ashfall and heavy metals left behind by human settlements. In these regions, many use the sunflower as a symbol of prosperity against hardship, hope, and continue growing them today, with a much higher proportion of the plant being used in local traditional foods.
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