"Twenty-one years ago, the Blight came. A rift opened far to the southwest,
and foul black corruption oozed from its yawning maw. The Blight devoured
everything it touched, corrupting the landscape into a shadowy simulacrum of its
former self and casting a pall of twilight over the places it consumed. Just
momentary contact with it was enough for the ooze to corrupt you. Creatures that
didn't die outright became twisted, horrid abominations, absentmindedly roaming
the Blightlands as if waiting for something. We fled, fast as we could.
Settlements were abandoned overnight as the Blight drew close."

"And then there were the Beasts. They arose from the rot itself, terrible Things
made of strands of jet black Blight with a restlessly fluctuating form. They
moved along the ground with horrifying speed, spewing and reshaping Blight
around them to make legs for running, arms for snatching, and maws for
devouring. You could hear them coming from miles away with a blood-curdling
caterwaul that seemed to echo through your bones, but few were fast enough to
escape. They spread the corruption even faster, wiping out even the most
fortified of cities with frightening ease. And who knows what other terrible
Things arose after we fled."

"The Blight cut off our access to the Farlands, hemming us in like a flood
slowly taking over our corner of this world. One by one, cities fell and
civilizations collapsed, with rotten ruins being the only things left behind.
The people scattered to the four winds to seek refuge from the ever-creeping
death. But there was no easy escape and refuge-seekers had to keep moving. It
was a harsh journey, and countless lives were lost along the way."

"Many held out hope that they would be taken in by the reclusive people of the
floating city of Vaelandris. It was an old place, lifted into the sky in ancient
times and anchored to the earth by great chains. But Vaelandris did not welcome
us in, we who had nowhere else to go. They did not have room for us, and their
army made it clear that none were permitted entry. As the Blight approached, the
base of the great chains became covered in Blight, cutting off routes to the
sky, though it seemed Vaelandris itself was unharmed."

"There was nowhere left for us to go save for one place: the ancient bastion of
Altheria on the edge of the Great Ocean. It was a massive city built by the
Ancients, lost to time and abandoned to ruins for centuries save for a few
outcasts and hermits that called it home. Even back then, I remember being
impressed with its enormous crenellated walls with ivy climbing up through the
cracks."

"Everything that we once knew was gone now, buried under a sea of rot and
corruption. All that was left were the people taking refuge in this long
abandoned place, and it seemed that time was running short as the Blight
approached. We knew the walls would not hold for long."

"But something miraculous happened in what everyone assumed were to be their
final days. As the Blight reared up into an enormous tidal wave of death
threatening to crash down upon the city, a radiant Light brighter than the sun
appeared in the sky. The Light flashed, colorful and warm, and I remember
feeling a tranquil calm, like Something was watching over us. The wave of Blight
burned up in the radiance and began to quickly retreat."

"We sent our best scouts over the crumbling walls to follow the Blight's retreat.
The Light had formed some kind of iridescent Barrier that the Blight could not
penetrate many leagues out in all directions around Altheria and out into the
ocean. Vaelandris was within the Barrier and the link to the sky was restored,
though there's been an uneasy tension with the sky-dwellers."

"Altheria became our new home, and we've been rebuilding it and creating a new
world for ourselves. For each person who made it however, there were dozens who
did not. Everyone in Altheria lost someone on the journey and had to give
something up to make it here. We strive to honor the memories of those who did
not make it, and build a better future for those who did."

-- Kellen, First Historian of the Historians' Guild

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