50 ASF

Thankfully for me, humanity didn’t die out with Starfall.

Of course, many humans did die when the Broken Star struck the earth. Their cities burned, drowned, and slid into great chasms in the earth. Their lands buckled and broke. To say nothing of the Star’s strange magic and how it bathed the surrounding region, turning it into what we now know as the Star-Scarred Lands.

Some humans, however, were far enough away to escape the initial impact. Possessing good luck and even better wits, they decided to forsake that which had already been forsook by the gods. Turning their backs on the smoldering graveyard of countless human civilizations, they fled northwest.

But the Star’s impact was far-reaching, and in its wake spread the Thousand Fires. They raged across the land, chasing the humans. Not all the infernos behaved like fire normally should. Some glowed blue, green, and purple. Others only burned on metal surfaces, or could spread underwater. A few seemed to have a mind of their own, seeking out specific targets.

Then came the Thousand Rains, which were just as strange and varied as the Fires. Burning rain. Glowing rain. Rain that melted stone and steel. Rain that gave nightmares to those it fell upon, or triggered the growth of never before seen flora. Each one was different than the last.

At last was the Thousand Starry Nights. Beyond smoke, ash, and rain, there was an ever-present blanket of stardust coating the heavens. During the day, it obscured the sun. But at night, it scintillated with countless pinpricks of color. Occasionally it would flare with great ribbons and wreaths of colored light, often in tune with Starfall’s aftershocks.

Speaking of the aftershocks—these were not simply earthquakes. These were the strange, delayed effects of Starfall, and were felt in all corners of the known world. They manifested as bizarre environmental phenomena, such as blizzards in summer, rivers suddenly flowing backwards, and a plague of carnivorous mushrooms.

All of this and more drove humanity further and further away from the Star-Scarred Lands. Over many years and thousands of miles, they migrated northwest, unable to put down roots. But at long last, after pressing through the worst of Starfall’s aftermath and losing countless kin along the way, they finally found what they were seeking.

They crossed the Seastone Bridge and stepped onto a new continent, one that remained unscathed and offered something they had lost. A landmass dominated by an impossibly vast lake. A realm of many realms, from stormswept plains to monster-infested mountains, from haunted riverlands to labyrinthine forests, from fertile lakelands to snowy geyser fields.

It was the continent of Avelliron, and it would become their home.