Post by Benzo on Sept 27, 2016 3:59:38 GMT -4
Foreword
When I originally decided to record this account of the catastrophic 'Crimson Year' of 3A 789, I elected to travel across the nation of Blistrakk and sought out first hand accounts from the Drakkin peoples. I felt that simply researching the event would not tell the tale that needed to be told.
And I was correct. What would otherwise be recorded as an account of a horrific chapter in history instead became the celebration of a people whom can never be defeated.
- Artemis Morval
Dravik Tis-Rivra
Siverdran
Along my travels I had met a Drakkin living near the southern bogs of Blistrakk in Siverdran during the Crimson Year, and I asked him what he could remember.
"I had owned a small crovin farm outside the city when the ground began to give. I was feeding the animals when the Silent Mountain erupted. Massive cracks began forming everywhere, and almost instantly, the swampland began seeping through and swallowing everything.
Before I knew it, I was running through knee-high water towards... Well, I don't know where. Everyone was running for their lives, some struggling with their farm animals as we began running for the highlands. We didn't get far before the boom of Siverdran's walls coming down caused us to stop in our tracks. I stood there staring, we all were, and we all heard the screams as guardsmen and people in the city were trapped by rubble.
We all had the same thought at that moment, I'm sure of it; This wasn't a struggle of survival... It was a struggle of existence. It didn't matter who you were at that instant; We turned around and ran as fast as we could towards the ruins. There must have been hundreds of us poorer folks living outside the walls digging through that rubble to save the richer ones trapped inside. I've never seen anything like it. I imagine we must have saved hundreds that day."
Fanik Vis-Thran
Hivik
The citizens of Hivik were fortunate enough to be far from the flames, though the ashes spewed forth that fateful day covered the city like the snows of Velinis for months to come.
"I was going about my day when we all felt the rumbling. Some pots and decor fell, but otherwise, we were free from danger. Then, in the distance, we could see the fire pouring from the Silent Mountain. Within minutes, our sky became blackened with smoke as many feared fire had reached us. Instead, it was the ash.
The first week was the most fatal; To go outside your house meant lung damage as the air was thick with the stuff. Thankfully, it slowed, but it would forever change our lives. For about a year we watched the grey snow fall, our fields and roadways doomed to disappear beneath it.
The Crimson Year was a hungry year for many in Hivik, but our struggle brought forth our salvation; Farmers all across Blistrakk who lost their fields to ash found a silver lining through ash-grown food. Ash-crops are an acquired taste, but it proves the pheonix truly does rise from the ashes of death."
I had my fair share of ash-grown foods while traveling Blistrakk, and it was definitely unique. In truth, I was mostly amazed at the scaled people's ability to create life from death.
Livark Nis-Farin
Sivik
Often called the sister city of Hivik, Sivik was a city once nestled near the base of the Silent Mountain. While not many survivors made it out of the city, I was able to talk to a Drakkin named Livark Nis-Farin, a survivor who had lost her left leg and hand to the flames.
"It was such a terrible thing... the fire, and the death. It came rushing down the mountainside as if pouring straight from the Burning Void, completely incinerating everything in its path. It all happened in an instant... The rumbling, and then a massive wall of flame, so high it nearly blocked out the sun.
That is all I can remember. I had been standing near the riverbed, which is how I'm told I survived. I guess the blast threw me into the water and kept the flames off of me.
I woke up days later under the care of an Imperial healer with most of my left side missing. From the camp, I could see it... Or rather, not see it; Sivik was gone, with little evidence left that the city had ever existed at all. Gone. Completely wiped from the face of Travina."
When I originally decided to record this account of the catastrophic 'Crimson Year' of 3A 789, I elected to travel across the nation of Blistrakk and sought out first hand accounts from the Drakkin peoples. I felt that simply researching the event would not tell the tale that needed to be told.
And I was correct. What would otherwise be recorded as an account of a horrific chapter in history instead became the celebration of a people whom can never be defeated.
- Artemis Morval
Dravik Tis-Rivra
Siverdran
Along my travels I had met a Drakkin living near the southern bogs of Blistrakk in Siverdran during the Crimson Year, and I asked him what he could remember.
"I had owned a small crovin farm outside the city when the ground began to give. I was feeding the animals when the Silent Mountain erupted. Massive cracks began forming everywhere, and almost instantly, the swampland began seeping through and swallowing everything.
Before I knew it, I was running through knee-high water towards... Well, I don't know where. Everyone was running for their lives, some struggling with their farm animals as we began running for the highlands. We didn't get far before the boom of Siverdran's walls coming down caused us to stop in our tracks. I stood there staring, we all were, and we all heard the screams as guardsmen and people in the city were trapped by rubble.
We all had the same thought at that moment, I'm sure of it; This wasn't a struggle of survival... It was a struggle of existence. It didn't matter who you were at that instant; We turned around and ran as fast as we could towards the ruins. There must have been hundreds of us poorer folks living outside the walls digging through that rubble to save the richer ones trapped inside. I've never seen anything like it. I imagine we must have saved hundreds that day."
Fanik Vis-Thran
Hivik
The citizens of Hivik were fortunate enough to be far from the flames, though the ashes spewed forth that fateful day covered the city like the snows of Velinis for months to come.
"I was going about my day when we all felt the rumbling. Some pots and decor fell, but otherwise, we were free from danger. Then, in the distance, we could see the fire pouring from the Silent Mountain. Within minutes, our sky became blackened with smoke as many feared fire had reached us. Instead, it was the ash.
The first week was the most fatal; To go outside your house meant lung damage as the air was thick with the stuff. Thankfully, it slowed, but it would forever change our lives. For about a year we watched the grey snow fall, our fields and roadways doomed to disappear beneath it.
The Crimson Year was a hungry year for many in Hivik, but our struggle brought forth our salvation; Farmers all across Blistrakk who lost their fields to ash found a silver lining through ash-grown food. Ash-crops are an acquired taste, but it proves the pheonix truly does rise from the ashes of death."
I had my fair share of ash-grown foods while traveling Blistrakk, and it was definitely unique. In truth, I was mostly amazed at the scaled people's ability to create life from death.
Livark Nis-Farin
Sivik
Often called the sister city of Hivik, Sivik was a city once nestled near the base of the Silent Mountain. While not many survivors made it out of the city, I was able to talk to a Drakkin named Livark Nis-Farin, a survivor who had lost her left leg and hand to the flames.
"It was such a terrible thing... the fire, and the death. It came rushing down the mountainside as if pouring straight from the Burning Void, completely incinerating everything in its path. It all happened in an instant... The rumbling, and then a massive wall of flame, so high it nearly blocked out the sun.
That is all I can remember. I had been standing near the riverbed, which is how I'm told I survived. I guess the blast threw me into the water and kept the flames off of me.
I woke up days later under the care of an Imperial healer with most of my left side missing. From the camp, I could see it... Or rather, not see it; Sivik was gone, with little evidence left that the city had ever existed at all. Gone. Completely wiped from the face of Travina."