KingdomFall(Event)

> *"The sky just....shattered. None of us knew what to say really, a few people cried out for God but...heh, well you don't exactly call on the arson when your home is ablaze."*
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> -- **Dr.Whitechapel** recounting the evening of the explosion in **"Men and Mice"**
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KingdomFall, the event for which the campaign takes it's **name**, encompasses the fateful evening that thrust the Deciders down their path towards fate. Unfolding over the course of a single night, the **Heroes** unwittingly set the delicate shift of the timeline into motion. This would be their last interaction in **Tempus Derelicta**, with much of the story that would follow being played out from the perspective of the **Hegemon**. As of the current events, the Heroes have yet to return to their timeline of origin. Attempting to rally their forces in alternative realities.

## Synopsis

The Heroes journeyed to a cropping of settlements in the East, finding them abandoned due to a strange infection that washed over the populace. Investigating the town revealed the same **mutagenic substance** that had infected the bandits they recently defeated. The fate of the townsfolk became clear however, upon the Heroes encountering **an unknown figure** cannibalizing several badly infected corpses. The strange figure initially presented himself as standoffish before things bubbled into a brief conflict, which the Heroes narrowly avoided before encountering him again in the company of a mysterious **Keyblade Wielder**.

Setting out for the mountains bordering the region, the Heroes learned the identity of their unlikely allies, a temperamental man by the name of Isaac Sterling and a young woman named Aqua. The two revealed, through somewhat evasive responses that they were journeying to the mountains to eradicate the source of the plague, prompting the Heroes to accompany them for the sake of resolving things as quickly as possible. Their journey would lead them through another desolate village, purged by an **unknown antagonist** who seemingly perished, having attacked several members of the group during their investigation.

The Heroes eventually delve into the depths of the mountains, searching for the source of the plague in an expansive system known as **The Catacombs**. After a prolonged trek into the bowels of the caves they are confronted by their would-be attacker from the previous village, now in the company of **several individuals** all easily recognizable to Isaac. The attackers were eluded after a brief engagement, allowing the injured members of the group to reconvene in time for Briar to unintentionally overload the source of this terrible sickness, revealed to be a **monstrous entity** lying dormant beneath the earth.

Despite eradicating the source of the plague, the Heroes found themselves still under threat of imminent danger. The Catacombs became unstable from the subsequent damage the creature endured, and with their attackers from the prior scuffle reappearing, the group found itself backed into a corner. Faced with multiple threats bearing down on them from all sides, Isaac elected the best option at hand. Revealing a rather **peculiar Keyblade** and using the weapon to carve a tear in the fabric of the dimension, the short tempered warrior forcibly ejected the rest of the party, including his partner Aqua, through the **dimensional tear**.

With the threat of imminent demise eluded, the rather dumbfounded Heroes found themselves ejected into an unknown city. In short order the group learned that it had escaped not to a place, but a time, approximately 300 years prior to the period from whence they came. As a result they also failed to witness the catastrophic damage they had unintentionally wrought in the present.

## Results

The explosion would trigger the primary events of the campaign, widely regarded as the central catalyst to the fall of the era. It has hence forth been referenced with many different titles by many different organizations, having gained such titles as Judgement, Armageddon and Aurel's Knell. It's occurrence was noted by every living being in the realm at the time of inception, with many far off places in the world even being able to feel the tremendous destructive power. The explosion marked the end of stability for **Aurelis** and all it's provincial regions, kick staring many conflicts as well as sowing seeds of future strife.

Unintentionally triggered by Briar Rose prior to the group escaping through time, the phazon came into direct contact with her unique energy signature. This resulted in the immense stores of it's energy undergoing a sudden reaction, with release of energy and pressure in excess of 100 megatons of energy. The subsequent explosion swallowed a third of the mainland in radioactive hell-fire, destroying anything and everything in it's frightful radius, with the exception of the resilient Isaac and his antagonistic rivals. The explosive display was witnessed by every living soul in the country, including the approximate 8 million souls it digested. The Hegemon was able to deduce it's incredible destructive force as well, albeit from a relatively safe distance further to **The South**.

The implications of the explosions destructive force were largely left unclear until Isaac allied with the Hegemon for a second time to mitigate the damage inflicted, his knowledge on it's mutagenic nature allowed him to deduce the underlying threat at **Ground Zero** well enough to act accordingly. The two of them confirmed his fears that the site of destruction boasted a lethal amount of residual radiation, with trace amounts dispersed into the upper atmosphere during the detonation. Despite the duo acting quickly in purging the lingering threat, irrevocable damage would still be incurred to the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem.

An additional caveat is that the explosion resulted in the **Fall of the Aurels**, through fairly deliberate involvement with the circumstances leading to the detonation, no longer standing behind it's absentee monarch, the realm soon plunged into warfare. Ultimately this act of determination resulted in obscene consequences, drastically conflicting with the original objective. Without the Heroes to pursue the aims of peace towards the realm, warfare continued to erupt in the timeline. By the event of the **Hegemon's Rebirth**, the great houses of Aurelis have engaged in full scale conflict, vying for power with the vacuum left by the late Aurels. At this stage in the campaign the realm continues to slide into oblivion.

## Trivia

* The detonation retains the record for *Most Destructive Byproduct* of the Heroes adventures, unintentional nature aside.
* The explosive force produced as a result exceeded the yield of the most powerful man made detonation, namely the **Tsar Bomba**. It's first and only trial occurred on October 30th, 1961, resulting in a total yield of roughly 50 megatons, only half of the devastating explosion which takes place in Aurelis.
* Isaac's apparent survival of the explosion is never fully touched upon, however the implication is made that he was able to avoid sustaining damage to his immunity to Phazon.
* The resultant **EMP** burst, characteristic of any thermonuclear explosion, produced little negative effect on the populace of Aurelis. This is ironic considering the contrast to modern nations, in which EMP damage is largely considered to be the most disastrous form incurred from a nuclear detonation.