During this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness . . . and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.
Procupius of Caesarea, 536 AD, the Year after the Consulship of Belisarius
A failure of bread in the year 536 AD.
The Annals of Ulster
[It was] a winter without storms, a spring without mildness, and a summer without heat.Cassiodorus, Praetorian Prefect of Italy
First of all that a winter will come called Fimbulwinter (“Mighty Winter”). Then snow will drift from all directions. There will then be great frosts and keen winds. The sun will do no good. There will be three of these winters together and no summer between.
The Younger Edda
The above quotes are taken from actual historical sources. Something happened in 535-36 of the Common Era that triggered extreme weather events resulting in the most severe episodes of cooling in the northern hemisphere in the last 2,000 years. One of the most likely explanations for the extreme weather is a volcanic eruption, or multiple volcanic eruptions, that would have resulted in an atmospheric dust veil. Such a dust veil would have caused a drop in temperature and other unseasonable weather events which, in turn, would have brought about crop failures and famines. Additionally, widespread disruption in food production would have also increased violence in the land as people fought to survive during a time of dwindling resources. All of this has led the medieval historian Michael McCormick to claim that the year 536 was the worst year to be alive.
Beginning this October, our group’s next campaign will take place in the turbulent and unstable lands of what will one day be called England. The year is 536. The campaign will be called The Long Night.
Campaign Premise
The Long Night campaign will begin in the wake of the extreme weather events of 535-36 and will be set in the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon lands after the disintegration of Roman control in Britannia. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, the economic system in Britannia completely broke down and town life, along with trade, dwindled to virtually nothing. The severing of economic and political links to the empire sent Britannia spiraling out of control. Abandoned Roman towns and forts littered the landscape, and Anglo-Saxon warbands switched from simply raiding the land to settling the abandoned land and fought one another just as fiercely for control and power as they fought neighboring Britons in the west. Amid the economic collapse, power void, and warmongering, extreme weather heralded the onslaught on famine and plague.
Beginning around 535-36, the Long Night campaign will represent an alternative timeline by adding a fantastical element to the historical and natural events. For the game, the cataclysmic volcanic events occurring between 535 and 537 have also unleased demons that were imprisoned behind a powerful arcane ward known as the Veil. While the Veil protected the land from the demons, it also created a barrier between humankind and the magical lands of disease-causing elves and twisted dwarves known to bring nightmares to good folk. With the barrier weakened, and possibly destroyed, travel between the worlds is once again open and the creatures spoken about by scops once again walk the lands of Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The Veil also affected communion between the gods and human devotees of earth’s various religious traditions. With that communication restored, devout persons are discovering that they can once again serve as conduits for the gods.
Campaign Teaser
And there will come a time of darkness cloaking even the light of Sol, a time of mist and fog, a time of winter snow falling on summer days. Know these omens, for this is when the Wards of Power that bind demons to the volcanic pits of Hell have failed and the Veil between the worlds will once again be open.
Latin Fragment of Morbus, Author Unknown
Be not so eager to hear the voice of God, for the Veil that muffles His voice also muffles the demonic call of Satan and his legions.
Brother Cyngar of Caer Gybi
In the land formerly known as Britannia, the sun is now hidden behind a thick veil of ash and dust. The air grows cold as the temperature drops and crops begin to fail. The land is caught in the grips of a premature and ongoing winter night. The harbinger demons of death, famine, and pestilence walk the land slaying and laughing. Turmoil and chaos spread as more and more people turn to violence in order to escape starvation. Many speak of a coming plaque. In desperation, some explore haunted ruins said to have been built by giants in hopes of finding something that will help them survive, perhaps some gold to pay a galdre for a charm or a local hlaford for a place in his mead hall. Many that explore such haunted places, however, never return for it is said that demons and spirits have taken up residence.
The Saxons, Angles and Jutes call this time of ash and dust, of strive and warfare, the Long Night. Tribal warbands fight for territorial control against rival warbands, as well as other strange creatures that now roam the land under the cover of perpetual darkness. The blue-painted men north of the Great Wall tell tales of terrible goblin-like war parties emerging from the crags and crannies of the Highlands, and the Northmen across the sea speak of an unnatural fog covering the waves. Holy men from the west speak about a strange god nailed to a tree and the end of time as they call upon miraculous power with prayers in an unknown tongue. Desperate men and women seek out the protective charms of the galdre, for a charmed amulet or a empowered rune are often more valuable than gold during the Long Night. It is a time of survival. For most, however, it is a time of death.