After the Rain of Fire came a dark time for the Coastal people: The Anguish Unforgotten. Once Kalea stilled her quaking and the sky cleared of clouds and flame, those who survived stepped out to see the Coast for what it had become, and we lamented.
In our despair we came to believe Kalea had forsaken the Coastal people for our prosperity, and cast us from her light to perish. We came to curse ourselves endlessly, some believing that we invited Kalea’s retribution for our insufficient praise and worship, while others came to think we must have adopted petty ways that angered her. Still others deemed that the Coastal people were never meant for happiness nor prosperity, and simply by achieving these qualities we had defied our destiny and invoked Kalea’s swift and bitter judgement.
As our people plunged into madness and dejection, so it seemed the world around us crumbled as well. The Coastal people broke into clans, forgetting all we knew of virtue and dignity, protecting only our own blood and those we had adopted into our divided territories. But resources were limited, for it seemed Kalea no longer cared to provide for us. With the scorched earth came famine and bloodshed. We had lost everything, but still Kalea deemed we had not lost enough.
Amidst all this, while we spilled each other’s blood that we might drink water for an extra day, a single boy stepped up and challenged our cursed fate. His name was Vikas Tan, and he pointed his hand out toward the beach, to a land across the Muted Sea. He was pointing at the forsaken jungle continent of Kul’dri Vas, looming just over the horizon. Shouting to his weary clan, he said,
“Cast aside or not, I will not sit and die on this scorched shore while our salvation lies within our sight!”