The Great Flight
The Great Flight was the Iru People Iru The progenitors, and the only naturally evolved people of Elshore. civilisation's deliberate collective retreat into hibernation, initiated in the ninety-eighth year of the Chaos Event The Chaos The Chaos was a continent-wide civilisation-collapse spanning approximately ninety-eight years, beginning around year 1700 of the Inarin Calendar when the Iru Parliament of the... by Ilissir, the last Serton of Inarin. Facing an unwinnable war and a world they could no longer rule, the Iru chose to seal their bodies in stasis capsules with the intention of being transported to the moon Liir Cosmology The Two Moons Two moons attend Elshore: Liir, the near and swift one, and Ressor, the far and slow one.; transit capacity fell short, however, and many capsules remained in crumbling cities on Elshore. Rebel forces stormed the ISEMH Technology ISEMH System The Infrastructure for Synthetic Emergence and Matter Hosting, the planet-scale Inarin-era system that underlies the fallen world: an identity, logistics, fabrication, and senso... control centre in Udhafa Place Udhafa The old capital of the Maan empire and one of the great inhabited ruins of the world, an ancient Iru-founded city in eastern Tarkdaara, carved into the bedrock below the Claw Pe... and massacred the Annil People Annil Small, scaled, and easy to overlook, the Annil were the earliest of the engineered lines, made as household aides and keepers of the systems that kept the world running. defenders; a handful of loyal Annils hid the capsule of Ilissir and his beloved Elina beneath the ruins. In year 6 After the Chaos, Maan People Maan The most numerous people of Elshore and the baseline cultural reference of the age. empire forces hunted down and shattered the remaining hibernation capsules across Elshore, leaving only the one hidden pod intact beneath the ruins.
Key traits
- The decision to retreat was taken in the ninety-fourth year of the Chaos, after the last united Iru army was defeated and three-quarters of Elshore already lay under servant-race governance.
- Ilissir, last Serton of Inarin, initiated the Great Flight in the ninety-eighth year of the Chaos as Inarin's final institutional act.
- Many Iru capsules destined for the moon Liir remained stranded on Elshore because transit capacity was insufficient, leaving the sleepers in crumbling cities across the continent.
- Rebel forces stormed and sacked the ISEMH control centre in Udhafa during the Flight's initiation, killing most of the Annil defenders who had protected its operations.
- The Maan empire's year-6 After the Chaos purge hunted down and shattered all known hibernation capsules, ending the Great Flight's broader survivor population.
- Only the hidden capsule of Ilissir and Elina, concealed by surviving Annil loyalists beneath the ruins of Udhafa, escaped destruction and remained sealed decades later.