The Long Night

Remarkably unsettling incidents began the first year Humans settled Atalan when a Valkshir warrior stood in broad daylight, writing with his dung a profane notion upon the Concordant House's front door: The Cycles are imagined, The Cycles are poison. He remained after scribing the proclamation, sobbing and eagerly ripping out his beard as he told passersby to avoid the number thirty seven at all costs, lest The Varpathian be born. The assembled colonists were shocked by this abrupt, aberrant behavior. An Auxili Garritor happened upon the situation and determined that a flogging was in order. The Valkshir defied him, brandished a knife, and was slain.

The passing years begot many more tales of bizarre extremes and fleeting mention of The Varpathian. A skilled trapper began shaving and releasing his prey rather than selling their hides. An Auxili Detective hunted and slew third born sons as if Atalan's continued existence depended on it. Members of a cult anointed themselves in mud and performed self-flagellation each dawn for a year and a day; they voluntarily imbibed poison after the final ritual. Seemingly normal people have suddenly become lost in hallucinations and mania, uttering inanities and heresies, frantically invoking The Varpathian. Those who spoke out against it the loudest proved most likely to succumb to insanity and hysteria.

Tension rose with each incident, giving rise to paranoia and terror. A vigilante group allegedly sponsored by the House of Concordant Cycles began to operate in secret, slaying suspected and known Varpathian cultists. The heretics struck back four years into the colony's life, a gibbering and screeching horde of truly shocking size. The crowd grew as it rioted, assimilating those who were not slain. They were nobles and peasants, clergy and soldiers. It was The Long Night - Atalan burned and cultists feverishly claimed the blood-slick streets as theirs; violence, depravity, and delirium.

Cultists gathered at the city square to set themselves on fire and to perform ritual sacrifices. An elaborate, profane sigil was dug into the ground and filled with the blood of the fallen. It cracked open and a luminescent, billowing green mist spilled out into all of Atalan's districts. Creatures called Manifestations came forth as well, each alien, cruel, and unique; disgusting things with numerous tentacles, limbs, eyes, and sharp protrusions. They feasted on the cultists who summoned them; writhed, slithered, and flew through Atalan's districts in search of prey, the most unfortunate of which were those who survived.

Though most are inclined to remember only The Long Night's violence and terror, humanity also proved its tenacity to Eramere and to unknown worlds beyond. Prominent nobles and wealthy members of the Silver Pieces Mercantile provided shelter and safety to their fellow man. The Legion and the Auxili defended their barracks, the Obsidian Academy and House of Concordant Cycles successfully protected their institutions. Brave messengers ran through dangerous streets, allowing the temporally powerful organizations to band together, to push the threat back with blade and spell. The old grudges were put aside in the face of a common enemy, and though hundreds died during The Long Night, the sun would rise again on a relatively peaceful Atalan once more.

The anarchy has not been forgotten. To this day, the mainland safeguards itself from the madness with an Imperial edict that limits travel from the colony to the mainland as an exclusive Silver Pieces Mercantile operation. Those in Atalan who could afford to fortify their homes did so, those who could not have memorized routes to shelter. Even now, security is seen as an elusive and valuable commodity. Strange behavior and mention of The Varpathian persist in Atalan. The House of Concordant Cycles and the Auxili are diligent in investigating and resolving these matters efficiently, lest The Long Night repeat itself. Those who exhibit symptoms of the madness are imprisoned, often executed. Rumors circulate of a secretive Inquisition that operates with impunity under the Council. Colonists disappear monthly and it is sometimes assumed to be for the best.