The Age of Survival

When the storms at last began to fade and the fury of the seas grew quiet, those who remained alive emerged into a world they no longer recognized. The lands that had once sustained mighty empires had vanished beneath the waves, and the survivors found themselves scattered among lonely islands and fragments of mountains that now stood like broken monuments to a forgotten age. The world had not ended, but it had become something entirely new.

For those who lived through those terrible years, survival became more important than memory. Kings and crowns no longer mattered. Titles carried little value when food was scarce and every storm threatened to finish what the Great Drowning had begun. The old laws disappeared along with the old kingdoms, and people who had once lived comfortable lives were forced to learn the harsh lessons of the sea.

Entire families took to ships, converting vessels meant for trade and war into floating homes. Fleets of refugees wandered the oceans searching for safe harbors and fresh water. Small communities formed upon isolated islands, where strangers became neighbors and enemies learned to depend upon one another. No man could survive alone, and those who tried often disappeared without a trace.

The knowledge of the Old World began to fade. Great libraries had been lost beneath the depths, and much of mankind's wisdom vanished with them. Histories became stories. Stories became songs. Songs became legends. Children born after the Great Drowning grew up hearing tales of kingdoms they had never seen and cities they could scarcely imagine. To many, the Old World became something halfway between history and myth.

Though the sea had become mankind's prison, it also became its salvation. Men learned to fish the endless waters. New ports were established upon rocky islands and surviving coastlines. Shipwrights became more valuable than kings had once been, and captains earned respect not through noble blood, but through their ability to guide others safely across dangerous seas. Fleets became villages, and villages became the first foundations of a new civilization.

Yet survival remained uncertain. Storms still claimed lives. Disease spread easily among isolated settlements. Pirates and raiders preyed upon the weak, while hunger and desperation drove good men to terrible deeds. Some islands descended into violence and chaos, while others disappeared entirely. There were years when many feared mankind itself would vanish from the world.

Still, humanity endured.

Among the survivors arose men and women whose courage became legendary. Great captains guided fleets to safety. Skilled navigators rediscovered ancient sea routes. Builders constructed harbors from the ruins of drowned civilizations. Communities slowly grew larger, and trade returned to the seas. Though the scars of the Great Drowning remained fresh, hope returned alongside them.

It was during these years that sailors first began to speak of strange things beneath the waves. Divers searching the ruins of the Old World returned with impossible relics and tales of cities untouched by time. Fishermen spoke of creatures larger than ships lurking below the surface. Some claimed to hear songs carried through the fog, while others swore they had glimpsed lights moving far beneath the abyss. Whether these tales were truth or madness, no one could say.

As generations passed, the memories of the old kingdoms faded, and a new people emerged. They no longer called themselves citizens of empires that no longer existed. They became people of the sea. Their lives were shaped by tides and storms, by ships and harbors, by survival and freedom.

And though they did not yet know it, from these scattered survivors would one day rise captains, fleets, and powers greater than any that had existed before.

For the Age of Kings had ended.

And in the endless waters of the Abyssal Seas, the seeds of a new age had begun to take root.

“The sea took our kingdoms, but it could not take our will. So long as one ship still sails and one lantern still burns, mankind endures.”

— From the Writings of Harbormaster Ellian Voss, Year 103 After Drowning