Empty dreams were the first sign. All around the Basin, sleepers woke to
remember familiar dreams ending too soon or beset by a confused
blankness. In Serenwilde, Bea Starleaf and Nejii Talnara set about
urgently cataloging these phenomena; elsewhere there were varying
degrees of disquietude.

Then explorers returning from the Astral Plane reported attacks by
Manifestations, not of the dreaming but of Nightmares; elemental essence
seemed to lose its power; and in Faethorn, water spouts and mud flows
appeared, devastating the landscape and slaughtering hapless fae.
Meanwhile, the Elemental Lords of Earth and Water told of devastating
attacks made against them by some creature of the dreamrealms and
pleaded for help.

Following the instructions of the Lords of Earth, Revan n'Kylbar slew
Gravynia, Lady of the Cracked Stone, believing her to be infected by the
unknown assailant. Similarly, Celest's massed forces laid low the frozen
bodies of Loch and Skerriagh on the orders of Kintyre and Murlough.

The Elemental Lords demanded objects of power so that they might beat
back their assailant. Celestians and Magnagorans scoured the planes to
secure sands of the dreaming to empower their Lords, but this was not
enough. The Lords of Tide demanded no less an object than the Hand of
Tzaraziko. Meanwhile, a furious Queen Maeve demanded that the Lords of
Earth and Tide be made accountable for their realms. Battles ensued
between the Forests and the Cities, but though the Lords of Earth were
repeatedly put down by the combined forests, they always rose again. The
Tide Lords were better protected, and Celest drove the forest forces
back.

Seeking to consolidate their hold, the false Tide Lords demanded the
deaths of the Basin's foremost dreamweavers. The corpse of Ladantine was
brought to them, though the Celestians balked at killing Dain or
Brennan. Suspicions were growing among the Aquamancers that their Lords
were not what they claimed to be, but by this point it was too late.
Throwing away all pretence, the false Tide and Earth Lords transformed
into nightmarish entities of swirling shadow, impervious to mortal
weapons.

After consulting the Supernals, Celest's scholars held a conference with
Manchal, and he summoned a block of purified ice into which he adduced
the consciousness of Loch of the Low Tide. He revealed that the entities
were once dreamweaving aeromancers, dispatched by the Hallifax Board of
Governors to report on the Taint Cloud after their other scouts had not
returned. Though their bodies were remained intact, the minds of the
Aeromancers were warped beyond belief as they were sucked into Kethuru's
dreams. When Hallifax and Gaudiguch loosed Project Paradox and Operation
Crucible on one another, the dreamweavers' connections to their bodies
were snapped, and caught in Kethuru's wake, they were dragged into the
deepest depths into the dreamrealm where they gnawed on its very fabric,
plotting their return to the Material World. Growing in power over the
centuries, they found the Elemental Lords bridging the gap between dream
and reality and possessed them.

However, Loch continued, they could be dislodged from their hosts if the
Aquamancers could reassert their age old connection to the Lords of
Tide. Led by Prince Forren Shervalien, the Aquamancers began a complex
ritual upon the Plane of Water, and ultimately the entities possessing
Kintyre and Murlough were banished to the dreamrealms.

Soon after, the Geomancers followed suit, summoning Gravynia for her
advice and then performing rituals in the Citadel of Stone. As the final
entities were banished, Queen Maeve began to reassert her power over
Faethorn once more, though the final consequences of the elemental
disruption were still being felt days later.


Penned by My hand on the 5th of Juliary, in the year 189 CE.