The Violet Catastrophe

The Violet Catastrophe was massively significant event that occurred on 13th Ekalo 1490. At 8:24pm, Datria's UDEE chemical energy generation facility went critical and exploded, showering the city and its surroundings in lethal volatile purple fallout. The exposure to this chemical, as well as widespread fires in the wooden, crammed slums, riots, and city-wide stampedes led to the death of a quarter of Datria's population - 100,000 people within the ensuing days. It was the largest loss of life in one day on Indratera, and the essence of death created the Shroud of Heinrich. 
== Background ==
=== On Datria ===
Datria was the largest port on the Indrateran east coast. It was a shipbuilding capital, and a historic city with flourishing industry and great trade connections to Rakkimar. It lay on the roiling and wild sea, known for its high waves. Once a native village named Dákow, then a colonial fort named Dakov-ka-terya that expeditions were staged from, it flourished into a metropolitan bastion in the first millennium. It was surrounded by thick stone walls, which were legendarily almost impenetrable for invaders to breach. From the mid-1100s until the Violet Catastrophe, it was the most populous city in the world, with 400,000 inhabitants in the late 1400s. (Only after the catastrophe did Felonil (future Halcyon) become the largest city in the world and have its population boom). It produced most of the Lusken Empire's ships, which was incredibly intensive - as well as a flourishing stonemasonry and metallurgy industry. 
=== On the energy facility ===
It's hard to overstate how important Datria's role was in shipbuilding. The Lusken Empire was the largest, furthest-reaching, most successful empire in the world, and an empire needs ships for transporting cargo, troops, and poeple. Shipbuilding is quite intensive energy- and resource-wise. Therefore, the Datrians turned to science! Four eminent scientists joined forces in the mid-late 1400s to work on a means of extracting energy from Datria's seas. They were Arnu Waldenstromm (who later invented electricity!), Patritsiya Krekil, Grand Duke Quintus Pessimus, and Archibald R Tovey. This team eventually made a breakthrough as a means of providing clean and reliable energy. Essentially, they discovered (and the Duke ordered built) a hydroelectric facility on the waterfront in Datria's University district (the quarter dedicated to science and academia). The hydroelectric plant, known as the University Datrian Energy Equifact or UDEE, generated energy from the tides of the sea. This energy then provided heating for homes, fuel for machinery used in shipbuilding via steam turbines, etc. 
=== On the WRWL ===
However, the plant suffered several breakdowns in its first few months during supertides. (Indratera has two moons - Nala is the big normal moon, but Tekanawita is tiny and a very dim copper colour, so it's really hard to see. However, when they both align, you get supertides). They needed something to regulate and cool the plant. The scientific team, this time led by Waldenstromm, invented and perfected a chemical known as WRWL. It was a deep violet heavier-than-air flammable volatile gas at room temperature, which became denser and more solid as it absorbed excess heat from the hydroelectric plant. WRWL was highly poisonous and toxic - it was a mixture of phosphor, lunarium, and a huge component of dimethylmercury. Dimethylmercury in as little as 0.1mg can cause death by mercury poisoning in minutes. Exposure can cause Minamata disease - causing loss of peripheral vision, ataxia, insanity, paralysis, coma, and death. With proper standards of storage, it was fine, because it controlled the heat levels well. However, in the late 1480s, the Duke began secretly siphoning it into a storage unit in the plant with the intention of selling it to arms brokers for chemical warfare. 
== The Event ==
=== Thieves Guild Assault on the Power Plant ===
In Ekalo (October) 1490, the Datrian Thieves Guild were approached by the son of the scientist Archibald Tovey, Jeremiah. Archibald had found out that the aforementioned Duke Pessimus was siphoning the coolant off the plant with the intention of selling it for use in chemical warfare, so the Duke had him killed and disappeared. The Thieves investigated and learnt about this. What's more, they learnt that the Duke had considered pumping the heavier-than-air gas into the old Datrian catacombs to flush out and kill the Thieves' Guild. They decided they had to act. A strike team of Datrian Thieves stormed the energy facility via the sewers, killing the nightwatch guards and fighting their way to the plant control room. This strike team included the bounty hunters Kessar Truespear, Dain Axehelm, and Balgolor; as well the Datrian Thieves Takuro, Laellon, Heinrich, and Crow Dezephyn. They killed or captured the power plant guards, then equipped hazmat suits and ventured into the plant reactor. Bathed in the eerie blue glow of the reactor, the group investigated the large and complicated floorplan, breath fogging on their visors. Now, came the lie.
=== The Lie ===
What actually happened was simple. Heinrich, Takuro, and the blue dragonborn Laellon were together, close to the reactor, away from everyone else. Merely a few feet from the crackling, intense blue glow. Heinrich stared into the reactor. He was struck with visions. Visions of his future, of death, of power. Or perhaps that was just the story he told people. Maybe he felt l'appel du vide in that moment, staring into pure creation energy. Whatever his thought process, he turned, and at 8:24pm threw Takuro into the reactor, instantly vaporising the poor man and destabilising it. He then stunned Laellon with his knife, and shoved her so she was tangled in the wires. Then, he took a firebomb and dropped it into the reactor, sending it critically ready to blow. He stumbled out, feigning injury, and told the others that Takuro had tried to betray everyone, and that they all needed to run. Since the strike team had been apprehensive of Takuro for some time, they believed Heinrich. The group fled the plant and into the sewers. At 8:26pm, the plant exploded in a chain reaction.
=== The Devastation ===
The power plant exploding, just after sunset, levelled several square miles and killed countless people who were just settling down for dinner that fine day. The explosion sent the WRWL coolant into the air over Datria, bathing the city in an eerie violet mist which the sunlight caught. Since Datria still used open-flame streetlights, the flammable gas led to widespread fires in the densely packed wooden slums. This was a major source of the death toll and the loss of the city's integrity. As well, the purple gas was heavier-than-air, so it sank over the industrial and mercantile districts and led to the poisonings of many tens of thousands of people. The devastation was rapid and widespread - for every three people who survived or fled Datria, a fourth died from fire or mercury poisoning. By midnight, tens of thousands had perished, and that total rose to the final established count of about 100,000 within a few weeks due to poisonings. It was the largest loss of life in Indrateran history.
=== The Aftermath ===
Datria's land and city were poisonous for a decade afterwards. No crops could grow, and lots of people suffered from long term exposure to dimethylmercury who resettled. Several factions and groups attempted to resettle it as Pelia - see the Datria page for the details. Either way, Datria never really went back to its full power or prestige, but it continued to exist as a small city with a dark history.
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