of thousands of people. Perhaps this is my own ignorance, but I cannot fathom the death of millions by the order of one.
* * *
There are few fixed markers of time during the Calamities, especially with long-lasting events such as climate change, which is still largely in play with our own world.
The scientists of Montfort have been attempting ice digs that I don’t entirely understand, but their work in the north is reportedly invaluable to the time line before the Reformation and even during the Calamities themselves. I will record what I can of their findings when they become available, but so far, early reports seem to indicate that radiated ashfall landed in the far north sometime around two thousand years ago. This places at least one act of nuclear warfare (ANW) at approximately 2000 OE, five hundred years before the Reformation. We can then ascertain that true collapse, at least on our continent, lasted half a millennium before civilizations began re-forming.
Connecting the Reformation and the ANW to a pre-Silverian, pre-Calamities time line proves tricky, and again we must look for points of crossover. There are several mentions of catastrophic drought in the preserved texts utilizing the date 2015 CE (sometimes recorded as AD; could be an error in translation—must verify) onward. Other Calamitous events, such as earthquakes, sea-level rise, hurricanes, and the like are mentioned throughout fifty to sixty years’ worth of the preserved texts, but rapidly grow in size and scope toward the end of the collection. They are, however, small in comparison to the earthquake that split the western coast and the flood that re-formed the Great River Delta.
Again, translation can be unreliable. Some texts vary in quality of preservation, and to my surprise and chagrin, many seem to disagree on the severity or magnitude of events, particularly those regarding climate. While one record might consider a warm winter to be the harbinger of a catastrophic climate shift, another downplays the same period of time or highlights a colder winter elsewhere. This pattern is very troubling, though I assume most consumers of these documents were able to identify the bias, as well as the lies or manipulations being presented.
I have managed to find mention of a small nuclear attack dated to the year 2022 CE. I could not discern the combatants involved, only that the attack occurred on a different continent, far from large population centers, in a cold climate. This leads me to think it was a show of strength rather than an act of war, if something so foolish can be believed. However, it does mean, when taken in conjunction with the radiated-ashfall dating, that at the very least the year 2000 OE in our calendar may have been the equivalent of the year 2022 CE in the pre-Calamities calendar. But, if pressed, I would assume that some time separates the two, perhaps a decade or even a century. The research is slow going, but I very much feel that these steps are in the right direction, and the information I’m able to find will be vital to our future.
If anything were to happen to the vaults of Horn Mountain, our own civilization would lose any link to the past and what warnings it left us. Therefore, I will be spearheading an effort to translate, to the best of our ability, as much of the later volumes of the preserved texts as possible. If nothing else, world leaders should know what befell our ancestors, so they can avoid such disaster in the future. I am particularly concerned by man-made climate change, an easy trap to fall into, especially for advancing societies. I speculate that it has already begun in pieces, but I’m hopeful that our nations can avoid what our ancestors did not.
I have included a translation on the next page, albeit incomplete. It paints a stark picture of the sword hanging over all of us.
New studies current drought in the Middle East (?) is the worst in the region last 900 years Exacerbated by global warming Rainfall down 40% Deep wells draining aquifers crop failure millions flee into already strained cities political instability civil war refugee crisis across region into bordering nations political fallout worldwide
This is an integral piece of the puzzle we must finish if we can hope to understand the world that came before ours, and how we came to exist in the world now.