The Storm

The Storm of Magic was a stationary, constant magical storm, shaped roughly into a hexagon, with each of its six sectors being dominated by a different element. It was approximately 100 miles across, and did not rotate or move. It was considered to be the most intensely magical place in the world, pulling in all ambient magic in its borders and redirecting it outwards. This process created an area so concentrated with elemental energy that even a non-mage would reach deadly levels of elemental corruption within hours of exposure. It was dissipated by Erin Ruunaser.

## Origins and Discovery

Much was unknown about the Storm before its dissipation. The extreme levels of raw elemental energy prevented any expeditions more than twenty miles in, where explorers would be forced to turn back to avoid permanent damage. Only the edges of the Storm had ever been mapped, with the Water and Life sections being barely traversed at all. No mage could venture very far in, because even if they could purge themselves of some elemental energy to avoid elemental corruption, they would still be overcome by the elements they could not control. These two enigmas were constantly puzzled over: How and why did the Storm come to exist? And what lay at its center?

The Storm's connection to the Ancients also intrigued researchers. The Storm was raging well before the element winds calmed enough to allow elves and humans to survive exposure to the surface, but at this point the Ancients were already roaming the surface. It was unknown whether the Storm predated the Ancient civilization, what role it may have had in their civil war, or if they were perhaps even responsible for its creation. The presence of two separate Ancient ruin sites in the surrounding mountains, roughly equidistant from the Storm, further strengthened this connection and led some researchers to theorize that the ruins of the Second Great City lay beneath it.

Many of these theories were proven correct when Erin Ruunaser traveled into the center of the Storm, confirming the existence and location of the Second Great City. At the center of the Storm, in the Ancient ruins, was a pedestal inscribed with the six Great Runes – likely the very first experiment the Ancients did after they discovered them, since the Great Runes rarely appear in the myriad of Ancient carvings and friezes. This pedestal was the source of the Storm, pulling in and ejecting elemental energy at high speeds. This experiment was sabotaged by the Void Dragon in order to create a trap that only a creature with power over all six elements could get through, and when Erin stopped the Storm, he became possessed by the Void Dragon. The Storm itself is now functionally gone, the energies dissipated, although its influence on the areas it encompassed will most likely remain for much longer.

It is still unknown where the Ancients discovered the Great Runes, although there are several theories (by fans and in-universe researchers alike), or whether the Storm played a role in the Ancient civil war.

### Names

The Storm is often given different names by different groups of peoples. These names often highlight a particular part of the Storm, such as it's destructive power or corrupting influence. These names include:

* Dalan-Rakhan, or "The Hand of Chaos" by the mountain folk
* Kryn-Marre, or "Unblinking Eye" by the people of Faegrian
* "The Maw" by those of the Phlegian Swamps
* "The Starving Caldera" by the Ignans

## Sectors

Every Sector of the Storm is affected by a different element, relatively cleanly divided into six parts, although at the edges of the sectors, the elements blend into a mix of the two in question. At the borders of the Storm, the elemental effects just become unusually strong, rather than deadly: for example, Windscrest sits outside the Storm and took advantage of the the stiff breezes produced by the Wind sector without being in danger of elemental corruption.

##### Fire

A wind-blasted desert of embers and ash. Closer to the center, the ground becomes increasingly volcanic and volatile.

##### Life

An overgrown mass of plant and animal life, trapped in a cycle of endless transformation

##### Water

Battered by endless torrential rainfall, along with an "immensely deep and treacherous lake".

##### Stone

Deceptively calm, with constantly shifting and flowing terrain, constantly roiling in on itself.

##### Wind

Blasted by continuous harsh winds, eroding the ground into a blinding mass of dust and stone.

##### Lightning

Constantly illuminated by hundreds of strikes, the ground is scorched and scarred.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Storm (comicaurora.com)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Page 1.4.2 (comicaurora.com)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Page 1.6.3 (comicaurora.com)
4. ↑ Page 1.4.4 (comicaurora.com)
5. ↑ Page 1.4.3 (comicaurora.com)
6. ↑ So rereading stuff, again, and I found odd that the ancients had elemental runes... (tumblr.com)
7. ↑ Page 1.7.23 (comicaurora.com)
8. ↑ After the storm got poofed did all the elemental energy just... disappear?... (tumblr.com)
9. ↑ Page 1.4.1 (comicaurora.com)
10. ↑ *"ooooh, you get fun elemental blendy effects basically. Again depends on the sector."*: message in #aurora-discussion in the OSP discord server (discord.com)