Skelcsiun Fires

It is important to state that some scholars believe the Skelcsiun Fires are the stuff of pure legend and myth.  Perhaps there was a spectacular meteor shower one night and the story grew to this legend.  However, there are more scholars who believe this was a historic event and pursue it as their main field of study.  Amongst these scholars, there is some agreement, though the details often create strong debate.

About 1,400 years ago, when the elven empire controlled most of the continent of Earychyd, there was a night when fires rained from the sky.  While this is most often described as a “rain of fire”, it was perhaps better described as thousands of objects falling to the land that were on fire.  Not rain that was fire, but objects on fire falling.

The significance of this distinction is that many believe the objects that were falling were cocoons that contained some manner of evil spawn.  Had these cocoons not been on fire and thus the inhabitants killed, these creatures would have landed, hidden themselves away and later destroyed the world.  It is believed that these creatures were the spawn of a god-like creature, not unlike Gancassocaer.

The most common explanation is this:  Another celestial monster was attempting to enter Sylansse, but the shields around the world were too strong.  Because of this, the creature rammed the shields protecting the world in order to weaken them.  Though it held, the monster was able to send thousands of its offspring through the weakened shield.  These offspring were contained within the cocoons in order to keep them safe as they fell.

But the gods of Sylansse (the elven gods of Sylansse) were powerful and they prevented the cocoons from landing in their healthy state.  It is believed that the sun stayed in the sky for an extra four hours that day, so that as the cocoons fell, the light of the sun burned them, causing them to burst into flames.  Such a show of power did take something from the elven sun god, but his power was restored later when a day received less sun than it normally would have.

This was not a single event that simply happened. Seers and auguries had been receiving messages for at least a month that something horrific was going to happen to the world.  Despite the problems that the humans, giants, trolls and dwarves had with their elven overlords, all the races saw this as a world ending dread.  Even after the flaming objects fell, the elves established searches.  Every object needed to be discovered and if at all intact, destroyed.

The falling flames did ignite certain areas, but by and large the damage from the wildfires was contained.  Allowing even a single creature to live near the surface was considered the far greater risk.  Of course, there are still rumors that one or more of the creatures escaped the purge by the elves, but few believe this possible.  Had one of these made it to the surface, it should have turned into a creature as destructive as a nest of dragons, and therefore could never have been missed.

The name Skelcsiun Fires comes from the Skelcsiun Forest where the largest number of these fires landed.  This forest was burned down by the event and the subsequent searches for any living monsters.  It is now an agricultural region within the elven empire.