Ruining

The Ruining, also known as the Cataclysm or simply the eruption of Mount Hotenow,The proper names "the Ruining" and "the Cataclysm" appear only in the 2013 game Neverwinter. Other canon sources refer to this event as either a/the "cataclysm", "the eruption of Mount Hotenow", or "when Mount Hotenow erupted". was the destruction of the city of Neverwinter when Mount Hotenow erupted at the end of the summer of the . It was the defining event of the 15 century DR in the history of Neverwinter.
==Description==
The northern peak of the Mount Hotenow volcano exploded, sending a pyroclastic flow of superheated ash, fiery boulders, and lava directly into the city of Neverwinter. Buildings and people alike were consumed by flames, creating streams of ash and blood. Lava flowed into the city via the Neverwinter River, transforming the water into hissing steam as hot as a forge before becoming just lava. Falling boulders easily demolished homes, and the air was filled with hot ash and searing gas that could incinerate flesh. Much of the city was burned to the ground and half of the population died in an instant.
The eruption also triggered a massive shockwave and a tremendous earthquake that caused some of Neverwinter's districts to sink and others to rise, creating steep cliffs within the city. These tremors tore the city apart and caused buildings to fall in on themselves, leaving much of the architecture badly damaged if not reduced to rubble. Most surviving structures were those which were heavily or magically reinforced, such as military fortifications, public buildings, or the homes of powerful wizards or wealthy nobles. The many collapsed buildings broke and clogged the city's catacombs and sewers, turning them into a twisting underground maze that threatened to collapse further. When sewer tunnels did collapse, they created trenches running through the ruins which served as convenient highways for monsters.
==Locations==
===Neverwinter===
Some districts of Neverwinter were hit harder than others, with the western neighborhoods (located further from the quaking mountain) tending to fare better. 
====Alchemist Quarter====
The southeastern quadrant of the city was perhaps the hardest hit: this was where the earth shifted so violently as to open the Chasm, which swallowed the Arcanist Quarter and left the whole area as a broken maze of ruins. The cathedral of Mystra fell into the Chasm, alongside the nearby Apprentice Row. Two other nearby structures—an army post and the fortified home of Roderick the Wary—remained perched perilously on the Chasm's edge.
====Blacklake====
The noble mansions of the northwestern Blacklake District were largely left standing thanks in part to their sturdy (and sometimes magically reinforced) construction, however the lives of the district's residents were not spared in the fires. The Blacklake itself became so choked with ash that it was little more than a pond of sludge.
The House of a Thousand Faces survived, but was abandoned in the immediate aftermath.
====City Core====
The city's southwestern quarter remained comparatively intact. The Hall of Justice was largely undamaged while the House of Knowledge was nearly ruined. Of the three bridges spanning the Neverwinter River, only the Winged Wyvern Bridge survived while the Dolphin and Sleeping Dragon bridges were destroyed.
Castle Never was hit hard by the quakes and fires, leaving parts of it toppled and most of its inhabitants dead. However, the Castle's catacombs—known as the Neverneath—were left strangely intact.
Upheavals in the Neverdeath cemetery altered its elevation, causing mausoleums to collapse and graves to spill open.
====Docks District====
The docks were destroyed and the whole harbor was swamped with tidal waves, leaving submerged buildings and drowned corpses blocking any access by ship. As such, the city docks were left flooded, rotting, and abandoned. The earthmote upon which the Moonstone Mask was located became untethered from the ground and floated out to sea for several days.
====River District====
The northeastern districts were destroyed, although the area boasted many hidden underground cellars and chambers that remained sealed and untouched. The Merchant Guild Hall and Merchant Square survived mostly intact, but were utterly abandoned afterward. The merchants' homes on nearby Waukeen Way were not so lucky, with very few left standing.
===Other Settlements===
The destruction wrought by the eruption was mostly confined to Neverwinter, although it had far reaching consequences for other parts of the region. The eruption devastated the town of Thundertree—which was quickly abandoned before coming to be haunted by possessed plant creatures—and it erased the county of Corlinn Hill. Meanwhile, Helm's Hold was battered, but it endured and strove to continue serving as a place of healing for survivors. Its sturdy Cathedral of Helm was unharmed. 
===Mount Hotenow===
The northernmost of the volcano's two peaks was completely gone after the eruption, and the remaining mountain was a fuming, jagged crag filled with fire and lava. Both Mount Hotenow and the foothills north of Thundertree were sundered, and the shattering of the igneous rock around the volcano ended up revealing forgotten dwarven passages and ruins, such as Fireguard Fortress. Deeper underground, parts of the abandoned dwarven city of Gauntlgrym were flooded with lava and some areas, including its great forges, were damaged.
===Neverwinter Wood===
The shockwave from the eruption leveled parts of Neverwinter Wood while the lava burned a path toward the coast. The forest recovered with startling speed, however the scars of the eruption remained clear. The woods on the slopes of Mount Hotenow were completely incinerated—alongside nearly every dryad living there—leaving behind blackened husks that came to be called the Charred Wood. The Neverwinter River was overrun with lava and remained clogged with ash for months.
===Shadowfell===
Mount Hotenow's explosion also caused its counterpart in the Shadowfell to erupt. While this mirror eruption did not devastate the Shadowfell city of Evernight in the same way that Neverwinter had been, it also did not stop: decades later, a river of lava continued to stream through Evernight and the surrounding forest had become the ever-aflame Burning Woods. Some feared that the ongoing eruption in the Shadowfell might trigger another eruption on the Material Plane, which threatened to tear open the barrier between the two planes.
==Outcome==
What remained of Neverwinter initially descended into utter chaos and most survivors fled. The city would struggle for decades to rebuild and the ruins soon become bait for unscrupulous adventurers and necromancers. The volcano would continue to quake and belch smoke ominously, keeping the threat of an even more devastating cataclysm fresh in people's minds. Many viewed the events in Neverwinter as evil portents, and some came to believe that the cataclysm had been a punishment from the gods. 
Ash zombies roamed the region in the eruption's aftermath, apparently animated by the fell magics released by the eruption. These zombies attacked the survivors in Neverwinter—contributing to the danger of clearing the ruins where the eruption had created corpses—and overran the remains of Thundertree. It didn’t take long for Thayan necromancers to begin creating more ash zombies.
The Sword Coast North as a whole suffered for the loss of Neverwinter, becoming a more dangerous and dark place. Overland trade in the region mostly dried up and the High Road north of Waterdeep fell into disuse and disrepair. The cataclysm also served to dispel many orcish superstitions about Neverwinter Wood, leading to an increase in orc activity in the region, notably an incursion into the Neverwinter ruins by troops from Many-Arrows led by Vansi Bloodscar.
===Casualties===
Thousands of people died in the cataclysm, commoner and noble alike. Their bodies came to be buried either wherever space could be found or in mass graves in Neverdeath Graveyard, or else they became fodder for carrion birds and necromancers.
Notable casualties included:
* The Alagondar royal family, who perished at Castle Never alongside all of their servants. The ancestral Crown of Neverwinter was lost along with them.
* Hugo Babris, the lord in charge of running Neverwinter.
* The Hallix family, who were eventually interred in their family mausoleum in Neverdeath Graveyard.
===Survivors===
Among those who survived, some went mad from the pain and grief. Nearly all survivors fled the ruined city, heading south as refugees, but a few proud Neverwinterians stayed and began trying to rebuild. It was from among these stubborn survivors that the Sons of Alagondar would eventually rise to contest the rule of Dagult Neverember.
Notable survivors included: 
* Herzgo Alegni, who survived by escaping into the Shadowfell.
* Drizzt Do'Urden, who was not present in Neverwinter but witnessed the eruption from afar.
* Artemis Entreri, who survived by wedging himself beneath the Winged Wyvern Bridge before escaping the city via the sewers.
* Emmek Frewn, who fled the ruined city to Waterdeep with his parents and sisters.
* Jelvus Grinch, who would become the "First Citizen" among the survivors who resettled the ruins.
* Heartleaf, the only dryad to survive the obliteration of the woodlands on the slopes of Mount Hotenow.
*The Vannath family, who fled to Baldur's Gate and married into that city's patriar class.
==History==
===Causes===
Unbeknownst to all but a few, the eruption had not been a natural occurrence: it was caused by the intentional awakening of Maegera, a massive fiery primordial sleeping beneath the forges of Gauntlgrym under Mount Hotenow. This creature had been imprisoned there centuries prior in a concerted effort by the wizard Maerin of Illusk with the dwarves of Delzoun and the elves of Iliyanbruen, but was forgotten after Gauntlgrym was abandoned in the . Maegera remained comatose thanks to a magical network stemming from the Host Tower of the Arcane in Illusk, which used sea water and water elementals to keep its power in check. However, after both the destruction of the Host Tower in the , and the disruptions of magic caused during the Spellplague in the , the stage was set for the primordial to be awakened.
In late summer of the , the Red Wizards of Thay sought to take advantage of minor tremors that had rattled the region for months and create a mass casualty event in order to empower the necromancy at their Dread Ring in Neverwinter Wood. Their local leader, Sylora Salm, plotted alongside Dahlia Sin'felle and the Ashmadai to do this by releasing Maegera from beneath Mount Hotenow, which required manipulating a dwarf of Delzoun heritage into awakening it. To that end, a small adventuring party consisting of Dahlia, Korvin Dor'crae, Valindra Shadowmantle, Athrogate, and Jarlaxle rediscovered ancient Gauntlgrym and made their way way to the legendary forges. There, the latter two were betrayed by their Thayan allies, with Athrogate hypnotically forced to activate the forge, which began the process of awakening the primordial Maegera.
After the party fled the dungeon, a plume of smoke began to rise above Mount Hotenow as the primordial freed itself from the last of the water elementals that had kept it in check. In a fit of bloodlust and rage, it triggered the eruption of the volcano.
===Eruption===
One of Mount Hotenow's two peaks appeared to lift into the air before being hurtled with purposeful, malicious accuracy directly at nearby Neverwinter. From the ground, the initial explosion of the mountain was eerily silent as it was clearly visible from across the region well before the sound—and shockwave—arrived. Screams and cries for loved ones began to ring out in Neverwinter as people spotted the plume before all was drowned out by the roar of the explosion and the raining fire. The actual destruction of Neverwinter was short and sudden, and left the city as a silent, gray wasteland. Both the air and the ground were choked with hot ash, making it hard for survivors to escape.
Luckily for the region beyond Neverwinter, this proved to be only a partial awakening of the primordial, which soon returned to its slumber beneath the forges of Gauntlgrym. In its fitful sleep, earthquakes continued to wrack the region, and began getting particularly severe in the . That year, Maegera was finally put back to sleep by the likes of Jarlaxle, Dahlia, Drizzt Do'Urden, and Bruenor Battlehammer, ending a second plot by the Red Wizards to trigger a much larger catastrophe. However, the ancient mechanism and magics that had long held the primordial in stasis were permanently damaged, and would not be restored until the , when Bruenor Battlehammer and his allies reclaimed Gauntlgrym and the Host Tower was raised anew in Luskan. Even so, the mighty primordial had become much more active, and would once again nearly escape its bonds in the summer of the , causing a great quake around Mount Hotenow.
===Aftermath ===
The eruption disrupted the operations of several factions in the region. The Netherese had successfully infiltrated Neverwinter's government as they searched for the ruins of Xinlenal, but were forced to withdraw for nearly a decade. Most shadovar agents in the city survived the eruption by shadow walking to safety. Similarly, the destruction of Neverwinter prompted Bregan D'aerthe to withdraw its own growing interests in the city. The opening of the Chasm threatened to expose the presence of the Abolethic Sovereignty in the Cauldron of Blue Fire beneath Neverwinter, leading the aboleths to send waves of horrific plaguechanged monsters up through the Chasm in order to ward off any interference.
The potent magic released by Maegera's awakening continued to permeate the region for decades. Within the bowels of Mount Hotenow itself, fire creatures and volcano-worshiping cultists had experienced spiritual ecstasy when the primordial awoke, and worked for decades to bring about a second eruption under the leadership of the fire giant "king" Gommoth and a shadovar witch named Qalthus.
After decades of absence following the Spellplague, the Tower of Twilight began sporadically reappearing following the eruption.
===Recovery===
While most survivors fled the city immediately following its destruction, a few attempted to reclaim the ruins. These hardy and determined settlers who continued to eek out a life in Neverwinter did so amidst increasing attacks by undead as well as by the horrors from the Chasm. This soon led to the initial construction of a fortification known as The Wall out of the rubble and detritus to protect their Settlers' Enclave, as well as the formation of a militia known as the Neverwinter Guard. The first leader to emerge amidst these survivors was a man named Jelvus Grinch.
Neverwinter was a largely desperate and lawless place for several years. It was not until the , that Lord Dagult Neverember arrived in the city, declared himself its "Lord Protector", and brought in the mercenaries and resources needed to begin reclaiming and restoring Neverwinter in earnest.
As the city was slowly rebuilt, it became a patchwork of slums, new construction, and the broken remnants of the old city. The first district to be rebuilt was a southwestern portion that had been relatively lightly damaged by the eruption, and which came to be called the Protector's Enclave when it was completed in the . From there, Dagult Neverember's "New Neverwinter" movement was spearheaded. New buildings were erected atop the foundations of what had stood before, and by the , people had begun returning to the city to help rebuild and to open new businesses. The docks were also largely restored (at the cost of cutting down every tree on the nearby Upland Rise for lumber), allowing trade to resume. While progress was made, the city was still largely considered a ruin as of the , despite massive ongoing reconstruction efforts that resulted in a forest of scaffolding throughout the city.
It was not until the , that the Chasm was closed, trade along the High Road had resumed, and Neverwinter began to thrive once more. Even so, parts of Neverwinter remained abandoned, monster-infested, or in ruins through the 1490s DR, even in the western parts of the city. Castle Never was still undergoing repairs as late as the .
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Disasters
Category:Events in Neverwinter
Category:Events in Thundertree
Category:Events in Helm's Hold
Category:Events in Neverwinter Wood
Category:Events on the Sword Coast North
Category:Events on the Sword Coast
Category:Events in Northwest Faerûn
Category:Events in Faerûn
Category:Events on Toril