The Great Drowning

No man alive remembers the day the world drowned, and perhaps that is fitting. For even among the oldest records that survived, there exists no agreement upon when the catastrophe truly began. Some writings speak of years of rising waters and worsening storms. Others tell of a single terrible age when the wrath of the heavens seemed to descend upon the world all at once. Whatever the truth may be, certainty drowned alongside the kingdoms of old.

At first, the signs seemed little more than strange misfortunes. Storms became fiercer than any remembered by sailors. Rivers overflowed their banks, and coastlines that had remained unchanged for centuries began to disappear beneath the sea. Entire villages were abandoned as the waters claimed farmland and homes. Strange tides came and went without reason, and even the moon seemed unable to command the oceans as it once had. Yet despite these warnings, life continued much as it always had. Kings fought their wars, merchants pursued their fortunes, and the people carried on, believing that tomorrow would be much the same as yesterday.

But tomorrow never came.

The seas continued to rise.

Year after year, the waters climbed higher. Great harbors flooded, and mighty ports were swallowed by the tides. Cities that had once stood proudly upon the coast found themselves besieged not by armies, but by the sea itself. Refugees fled inland, believing the mountains would protect them from the advancing waters. Dams were raised, walls were built, and prayers were offered to gods both old and new. Yet nothing halted the advance. The oceans cared little for kings or prayers.

Then came the storms.

Not storms as sailors know them today, but monstrous tempests whose fury seemed capable of tearing apart the heavens themselves. Waves taller than castle walls smashed against the shores. Lightning split the skies for days without end. Entire fleets vanished without leaving behind so much as a single broken mast. Sailors spoke of impossible whirlpools and strange lights beneath the sea. Some claimed they heard voices carried by the wind. Others swore they saw shapes moving beneath the waves larger than mountains. Whether such tales were born from terror or truth, no man can say.

Fear spread across the world.

The mighty capitals of kings became islands. Those islands became reefs. And even the reefs disappeared beneath the depths. Roads that had connected empires for thousands of years vanished beneath the sea. Libraries holding the wisdom of ages were lost forever. Temples, palaces, monuments, and entire civilizations disappeared without mercy. Countless millions perished, while those fortunate enough to survive fled aboard ships, desperate to escape a world that seemed intent upon destroying itself.

No kingdom was spared.

No empire endured.

No crown survived.

The banners of kings vanished from history, and the old ways died alongside them. Those who remained alive became wanderers upon an endless ocean, clinging to whatever fragments of civilization had escaped the flood. Families that had once known comfort now fought simply to survive. Fleets became homes. Harbors became sanctuaries. And for the first time in history, mankind belonged not to the land, but to the sea.

Even now, centuries later, no one knows why the Great Drowning came. Some believe nature itself had become unbalanced. Others blame the melting ice beyond the ends of the world. Ancient scrolls recovered from drowned ruins speak of stars falling from the heavens. Sailors whisper of terrible powers awakening beneath the abyss, while treasure hunters tell tales of impossible structures resting upon the ocean floor, untouched by time. Yet no answer has ever been proven, and perhaps no answer ever will.

The sea keeps its secrets.

When at last the storms subsided and the waters grew calm once more, the Old World had vanished. The Age of Kings had ended. In its place remained only scattered islands, broken memories, and survivors clinging to life upon an endless sea.

And thus, from the ruins of mankind's greatest age, began the Age of Survival.

“Many curse the sea for taking the world from us. But old sailors know the truth. The sea took nothing. It merely reclaimed what had always been its own.”

— From the Journal of Captain Aldren Marr, Year 41 After Drowning