Throughout ancient Cloud Giant and Storm Giant texts and literature we see oblique and side-long, and obscure reference to an end of days event known only as the River of Fire. While most of our experts saw this as some kind of religious prophecy, our astronomers have a different hypothesis.
Throughout our own history humanity has always known that there was a 7th planet with a severely eccentric orbit. By the way it affected the other planetary bodies we knew it to be massive, at the very least it was Jeravien in size, but more likely a brown dwarf. But for the life of us we could not see it. Thus it was named for the God of Chaos and Trickery. It's also apt that the God of Chaos is also the God of Time, because one of its orbits measures exactly10,000 of Meridien's. We have been told by the Elves that the 7th world is vastly different than the other worlds. As it sweeps past Kokabien and Palladien we catch our first glimpse of the world. It is both far smaller and more terrifying than we thought.
The Scientists are calling it a Black CAVE or Black Collapsed Astral/Void Event. Black for the fact that it neither emits, nor reflects, nor refracts any light. And Collapsed Astral/Void Event to describe it's origin which is the total structural collapse of massive Astral or Void Bodies. We know that sometimes when a large astral object gets too large it begins to crush itself and the force with which it does so increases the temperature to such a degree that the material begins to give off light. That light adds to the structural integrity and acts as a force against compression. A star is a perfect example of such a balanced object but when a star burns out and cannot give more light it continues to collapse meeting little resistance. We thought such things would become pure neutronium but it seems that even that will burn for some time and then collapse further. Once it collapses far enough it falls below what we’re calling Embriel’s Limit, where the acceleration towards the mass at the center is faster than the speed of light, beyond that threshold all things are invisible to us. This is why it appears black…that is until it gets close enough to a source of matter such that its gravity can tear some of that matter into itself. As the matter gets closer to Embriel's Limit it accelerates faster and faster, shedding energy until it goes behind the limit and vanishes from this existence. Our scientists believe that the River of Fire comes from the interaction between the Black CAVE of Azazalien and our parent star, Embri. Azazalien’s trajectory puts it on a near intercept with the star, passing within the star’s corona. It moves through the Corona dragging a stream of matter with it and accelerating it to nearly the speed of light. But as Azazalien is also moving it moves out of range of part of it’s own matter stream leaving a stream of Coronal Plasma to weave its way through half of the stellar system until Azazalien begins its trek back to Apastron nearly ¾ of a lightyear away. That plasma stream turns white hot as it flies through the system and can vaporize nearly anything it runs into. We see on Umharien, for example, cris-crossing canyons more than a mile deep that look like they were burned into the bedrock…past crossings with the River of Fire. If we know what to look for we see it here as well. We need only look up into the sky and see the beautiful rings of our world and know that they were once the 2nd and 3rd moons of Meridien. Moons that were destroyed eons ago by the River of Fire. But the rings are now the last line of defense against future River events.
As the Plasma of the river gets close to Meridien (within range of the Cosmopolities Canons). It should begin to veer away as our magnetic field repulses the ionized gas that is Coronal Plasma. But in so doing igniting it into a spectrum of auroral light. Even then some of the plasma leaks by and collides with the tiny reflective particles of the outer ring and burning those particles away as twinkling flares. The real catastrophe would be if the moon, Briella, happens to be hit before the river is deflected. The river has the ability to explode Briella into a third ring but the fallout would likely be catastrophic to the equatorial regions of Meridien. We do know however that the moons have inherent raw magical Æther within their cores and the amount of Æther that would fall to Meridien would likely cause a shift of the lay lines as those that passed through the moon are severed and reform on Meridien. It would also likely cause a Primal Magic Bloom similar to those seen in the Fey Wilds, and I would expect fey crossings to open at random. It would likely also cause the total destruction of those cosmopolities in inter-ring orbit of the world.
While we don't actually expect the river to hit Briella, we do suspect that the rings will take a heavy blasting and potential to break through and shower Meridien. The Elves will likely shield the Cosmopolities just to be safe. Errant debris from the rings will likely fall within the tropics and we should tell the peoiples that that effects. Chances of debris hitting someone is low but forest fires are a serious concern. I recommend opening sending spells with the Priory, Lastria, and Arkoria and pre-deploying the Griffin and Pegasus Calvaries for peace-keeping and humanitarian need should it arise. I would also recommend opening the emergency Teleportation stations within the Commonwealth and at the University in Iperialston and the Embassies in Alliance.
Madam Ambassador, You know you would never forgive yourself if you didn't at least check with the Cosmopolities. I don't think they've accounted for the temporal celerity this thing acquires at higher speeds. It'll hit the outer ring on it's dive, but when Azazalien comes around for the Ascent its going to be a lot closer to us and the stream will be moving faster.
-Excerpt of conversation with Alliance Scientists warning about the River of Fire Cosmic Event of 7999 ME
