Jules 3455 - The Shattering

The Shattering, as popular culture of the time named the event, occurred roughly 4 hours after mid-day. The exact circumstances surrounding the event are still clouded.

What has been pieced together over time, and more specifically from the earth Avatar’s of Mericha, Merkel and Markal, a young Avatar experienced some sort of traumatic event causing ripples across the world’s essence. What they never revealed, at least to scholars of the time, is how it rippled across all essences. Some scholars have theorized that there were multiple Avatars. Each was part of some dark project run by the Seat Kingdom.

While there is some evidence that the Seat Kingdom was running projects to create more and more powerful essence users, the recorded data only indicates minor success in increasing a child’s attunement based on parentage. So, from a factual standpoint, we only know the event started in the Seat Kingdom. This can be supported from the timeline of shattering moving across various kingdoms. Kingdoms farther away didn’t see the effects until closer to sunset, while those closer were only an hour or so delayed.

We also have some support from the transport logs of Duke Qual of the Seat Kingdom, and later of Free Cities, on the day of the event. Something of significance was occurring on this day, and the Duke was using every means necessary to ensure Whispering village’s survival. Several other Dukedoms fell entirely in the weeks following, and records from them were lost to time. It should also be noted that Duke Qual, and the fallen Seat Kingdom Princess, never identified specifics in their memoirs.

The actual event was characterized by a complete loss of control of the essence in the area. Those closer to point of the Shattering(hereby assumed to be Whispering Village), the stronger the loss of control was, and how long that loss of control lasted. Again, it should be noted, that the Kingdom of Mericha, through the efforts of Avatars, was able to stablize earth essence 3 hours after the event. They were also able to minimizing the effect the other rampaging non-earth Strongs had on villages within the Kingdom of Mericha.

However, it was still a beast wave, and many lives were lost over the following weeks/months. For the rest of the world, this day marked a 2-3 week period where essence utilization was minimal at best.

While this was the general impact of the Shattering, for those areas where Strongs(either beast or human) were located, the impact was far more bloody. While those of lesser connections to the their essences(Influence, Weak, Parity) were unable to manipulate essence, Strongs were given increased access. At least this is what was conjectured from the damage caused and some of the reports out of Mericha. This is conjecture though, as the Strongs at the time were not in a mindset to calculate percentage increases. They were using more power than was typically seen, hence the perception. This could have been their normal output of power, but we don’t have metrics for this.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

The perceived increase in essence use seemed to be accompanied by rage, fear, and general insanity. Parity minders could not control the Strongs in their charge without access to the essence…and, as such, they were usually the first victims in a long list of death. This is now attributed to near enslavement of the Strongs of that period.

The Seat itself fell 3 days after the Shattering, only the Crown Princess escaping, while the entirety of the city fell. Several Dukedoms around the Seat Kingdom fell after, either do to human Strongs, or beasts. Much was the same across the world, as Strongs rampaged through cities and towns. Weeks after the event, many human Strongs committed suicide for the acts they had perpetrated.

As time has created a distance from these atrocities, we can only pity those who were at the mercy of the rampaging essence. Their actions, however, caused Strongs to be exterminated for years after. This even pushed through to children. Strong children were executed at tuning day. This finally stopped as the number of Strong children executed kept increasing every year, until certain fringe villages were killing off all kids of a certain age.

This barbaric behavior was prevalent across the world, except in the Kingdom of Mericha, where the Avatars were preaching a balancing. It still took decades for the prejudice to die down, and a century until Strongs were no longer seen as rampaging murderers. In that time, general principals of instruction for Strongs spread. The most common practice was to bond the Strong with an animal of suitable temperament. Generally, killing a bond of Strong was seen as sheer stupidity because of the recoil from the bond’s death. The one defining trait of Humanity is an abundance of hubris, however, and many groups and individuals have tried, even to this day, to blackmail, etc. a Strong via his bond. Whether it is the will of the Gods, or simple science, those that try rarely survive.

As we move through the history of the last thousand years, this was the first time where essence use was cut off, it was not the last such time however. Over the following 300 years after the Shattering, isolated events have been recorded where essence use was cut off for hours or days. Details of those events has been reviewed by several essence theorists, and no single event has been traced to their cause. There was also a lack of a Strong rampage, which indicates that the sources of the two events are mostly likely not related. What we can also state, is that since the Shattering, no new Avatars have been identified. This could be because they are in hiding, or are under a Kingdoms control, but definitive evidence of their existence can not be pulled from the historical records. A thousand years of absence is and of itself, a point to mark in history.

For further reference on this topic please review:

“The Lives of the Avatars of Mericha”, by Sara, Daughter of Merkel and Markal.

“The Fall of the Seat”, by Duncan Qual, Historian of the Free Cities.

“The Balance of Essence”, author unknown.

“A History of the Strong”, by Wendy Woodsmouth, Chief Theorist of Mericha, Reconstruction Age

“The Emergence of New Essence, Post-Shattering”, author unknown.