The Sundering (Bale Times)

Steel Realms
Steel Realms Timeline Event; recorded knowledge > The Sundering/Bale Times

CY 5000 (4919-5000) Bale Times marked by Bale Fire and The Bale Wall

Bale Times

These dark times dubbed “Bale Times” by sages and scribes, which nearly brought about the end of the burgeoning post dominion empires in the west culminated in a cataclysmic event called The Sundering – a recorded event from in CY 5000 in the Steel Realms. It is the culmination of events starting in 4919, when Sun Stealer brought forth the Bale Fire and began a war in the south which would devastate the whole southland empire and coastlands of Ustermaya. All told it is estimated that a million perished in the sacrifice to stop the gods of darkness from consuming the lands of light.

The World-Wound

The Sundering is the event recorded to have stopped the fiery wave of Bale Fire – a manifestation of Sun Stealer’s blood and directed Primaeth energy. It was the calamity that stopped the Bale Times which cast down the ancient Empires of Synedcian Empire and the Yvaldeysean (Sea-King) Empire, and forced the creation of the Cosheus Abyssal to stop the armies of the Unholy Trio. The effects of this are felt thousands of years into the future, and efforts to cleanse the south persist in the cleansing project of the Reclamation of the Wyld.

Key Events and Outcomes

The horde of demons and many tens of thousands of other creatures (mostly loyal citizens of House Horunz – The Green Watchers of Synedcia) defending against them were engulfed in an instant.

  • CY 5000; Magi, Priests, Shamans from all races and stations band with House Horunz of Synedcia. The House’s cities do not retreat. They hold a line against the tide of darkness, wrapping up the armies advancing northwards. Mystic might brings forth the Cosheus Abyssal, swallowing the demons driven on by Bale Wall/Fire. Many Creatures of Chaos were created (for hundreds of years they crawled out of the wound in the earth) when the nature of the fell creatures mingled with the Bale power and magics to drain its power.
    • The coast of the west heaved and buckled – Waerl bay became larger and the island homes in the Sea Bourne isles of the Sea King Empire were lost beneath the waves except for the Island of Gwinn. All the settlements of the Sea Kings along the western coast were brought to ruin. The cities either crumbled, were rendered defenseless, or their battle barges smashed to pieces – it took a few hundred years before their angry and jealous neighbors brought about the final demise of the empire. Out of this would rise the small Kingdom of Gwinn – declared from the ashes of the empire.
    • Smoke from the Bale Wall was blown south by a God Storm – polluting the Nakrian lands and ruining their health for a thousand years.
  • CY 4992-4999; The demons, those which survive the the Bale Wall, turn north. They are flogged by the enigmatic clergy of Gloom Bringer (Sun Stealer’s is nearly wiped out by this time) into a single line by the and systematically attack settlement after settlement north of the Hobnail Plateau, host after host which confronts them. They leave a blasted land and wasted crops behind them. As one, they advance on the north, against the cities of House Horunz – The Green Watchers – that stand between them and Ynth.
  • CY 4991; The Bale Wall kills indiscriminately, all living things and turning the southlands of Synedcia and beyond into a desert and scoured rocklands, driving everything west, past the Raj Sea where the wall is extinguished.
  • CY 4990; The followers are unable to control of the army of hateful, evil creatures conjured forth – they slay the high priests and lay waste to lands of allies of the dark and light alike in the south. The remaining priests let loose the Bale Fire to consume the creatures conjured by its essence and let loose the Bale Wall.
  • CY 4933; Unable to contain the Bale Fire power, Sun Stealer’s followers begin to use the power to conjure forth a myriad of demons and maleficent entities of all sorts once the horde of their minions is atop the Hobnail Plateau.
  • CY 4919; Sun Stealer brings forth the Bale Fire; his servants are given control of the power of the gods soul while he lapses into an unexpected deathless sleep. The minions of the Unholy Trio are infused with this power to withstand the Sun Bane. Great plans are laid for the invasion of the west as the army marches out of The Dark Lands to the south and invades Synedcia.

The Decimation of the Synedcian and Yvaldeysean (Sea-King) Empire: In order to stop the horde of rampaging demons, the Cosheus Abyssal was opened, along the lines of the great southern cities of House Horunz of Synedcia – The Green Watchers. All the settlements of the Sea Kings along the western coast were brought to ruin – cities either crumbled, were rendered defenseless. It would take hundreds of years before the small Kingdom of Gwinn was even declared from the ashes of the empire.

Dragons in Bale Times: The dragons of the Dragon Caves are roused from their dream of ages and for a hundred years they take to the skies, raining fire and destroying settlements in their anger. They focus on the capital cities of the kingdoms and fiefs of men, elves, and Ducateon, wreaking havoc in culture, communication, commerce, and generally exacting a high toll on the lands of light AND darkness (though little is know what happened in the Fallen East at this time). Alliances fell, borders shifted and wars were all to common as the High King was unable to bring any semblance of order. Revolt and uprisings were common.

The Merchant City Ideal: What was to become The Merchant Cities managed to make many gains, establishing new settlements and making new territorial claims and expanding through alliances. The weakness of their neighbors was the genesis for their power, and to the present some incorporate a dragon as a symbol of their house or clan as an acknowledgement to the havoc wrought by them against their former masters of the Sea-Kings.

Unknown in Many Places: In many places across The West, the anniversary is marked with ceremony of some sort – festivals in some places, a dirge in others. Only in the far south, beyond the Nakrian Empire, is the event virtually unnoticed and unrecorded. The Impli peninsula suffered a massive tsunami, but little else is remembered by dwellers there.

Importance

The Sundering was the end of 2 empires, and the start of the circumstances which saw the rise of many new powers. It also broke the power of the Dark Lords, and bore witness to the extent that their enemies would go in order to stop them. It gave rise to a more cautious Orrish presence, and even allowed for schisms within the Dark Church. Eventually, the smaller powers which arose from the remnants were easier for the High King to rebuild the idea of The West with – there was far less challenge to the office in the long term.

It is thought the magics that fueled the stopping of the Bale Times (The Sundering) drew upon the power of a God Storm to rival that which was present in The Crossing (The Coming of The Blood of Saemon).

Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic