======The Breach======


//First thing I knew of it was when my aunt started screaming. Then the herd started it too, moaning and bleating like they do when wolves come.//\\
 ---Renato, of the Clades

//It opened up right over my head. It was just... a hole. There's no other way to describe it. On the other side, there were these bright blue lights, and then, a moment later, they came through. I've never seen anything move through the air like that. They went right over me, over to the Peak.//\\
 ---Giovanni Morelli, Overseer of Ivory Peak
  
//We were running, all of us, when one of them swooped over our heads. It moved like a fish, swimming in the air. Fins and tendrils and great glowing lights at the back. It roared at us, and I swear when I looked up something looked back at me. Then it swung back towards the peak. We didn't stop running for two hours.//\\
 ---Valentina Greco

//They haven't moved much. There are always three of them blasting at the mountains with those beams, sometimes more. Sometimes they're static, sometimes they sort of drift around with each other. It's almost hypnotic.//\\
 ---Sofia, of the Clades


At approximately midday on the 12th of Shan, 187EA, people in the Heights complained of an unearthly noise, variously described as "like the fabric of reality tearing itself asunder" and "like that time my cousin stepped on the cat, but, like, louder". At this time, all magicians - regardless of their location - reported an intense pain in the head, which appears to have been proportional to the level of magical talent of affected individuals.

The noise continued, varying in pitch, for about five minutes, after which it - and the pain - ceased. At this point, there appeared in the sky to the west of Ivory Peak what can only be described as a hole in the sky. It glows with a bluish tint and is currently visible from quite a distance away, though it appears to be gradually diminishing in size. Those few who were nearby when it opened reported that looking at it felt somehow disturbing, though seemed unable to describe it in any more detail.

As soon as the hole appeared, several objects passed through it into the Heights. Current estimates have confirmed at least fifteen distinct vessels - and vessels are what they appear to be, though they are obviously conveyances vastly removed from anything in Esharia. How exactly they fly is currently unknown. Interestingly, eyewitness accounts of the vessels conflict wildly. Some even claim that they are not vessels at all, but colossal flying creatures.

Soon after their appearance, several of these vessels directed 'great beams of light' (according to eyewitnesses) at parts of the mountain range that includes Ivory Peak. These were accompanied by an excessively loud noise, and may be causing some sort of damage to the mountain. Further data is impossible to come by, however, since the majority of those in the area rapidly vacated. Those who did not - such as the elderly Father Canis of the church of Skanaster, who rushed directly towards the vessels shouting something about the end of the world - have not been heard from since. Not much hope is held for their return.  

This is all that is currently known about these events, though news has spread wide and many are calling for answers. The latest of the Queen's [[politics#the_gatherings|Gatherings]] is upcoming, and it is here that some sort of response will - hopefully - be co-ordinated.