The Sundering: Breaking the World to Save It

Introduction: The Impossible Math

Here’s the nightmare: You have a choice.

Option A: Let the Forgotten One erase reality. Everyone dies peacefully. No suffering. Clean ending.

Option B: Break the world into fragments. Most people die horribly. Survivors face the void. No guarantee it works.

Which do you choose?

The Six stood at the Eclipse Nexus with twenty-five thousand survivors and made that choice. They chose Option B—the impossible, irrational, mathematically insane option.

They chose to break the world to save a fragment of it.

This is the story of the Sundering. How it worked. What it cost. Why it was simultaneously the bravest and most horrifying decision in Eclipsia’s ten-thousand-year history.

What IS the Sundering?

Let’s get technical first, then emotional.

The Sundering: A deliberate reality-fragmentation event executed by The Six using the dying power of six broken moons to shatter the physical planet Eclipsia into seventeen disconnected fragments suspended in void.

That’s the dry definition.

Here’s what it actually means:

Imagine taking a sphere—a whole, unified world with continents and oceans and ecosystems—and shattering it like glass. Not breaking it apart gently. Not separating it into neat pieces. Shattering it. Violently. Catastrophically. Irreversibly.

Now imagine doing this with twenty-five thousand people still on the planet.

Now imagine doing it on purpose.

That’s the Sundering.

Why Break the World?

The logic is brutal but sound:

The Problem: The Forgotten One emerged when the Seventh Seal broke. It’s not attacking—it’s just being. Its presence erases reality through philosophical negation. As long as it exists in the same space as consciousness, consciousness will eventually surrender.

The Failed Solution: Fighting it directly doesn’t work. It’s not a physical enemy. It’s a philosophical truth you can’t disprove. You can’t kill an argument. You can’t punch logic.

The Desperate Insight: The Forgotten One exists where Solara and Vhaerith’s reality exists. Same space. Same rules. Same physical laws.

The Impossible Solution: What if there was no space? What if reality shattered into fragments too small and scattered for the Forgotten One’s presence to affect?

Not one world. Seventeen pieces. Separated by void. Isolated. Contained.

The Forgotten One would remain in one location—the Nexus fragment where it emerged. The other sixteen fragments would be free of its philosophical negation.

Not a victory. A quarantine.

Break the world. Trap the enemy. Save the survivors on scattered fragments.

Pray it works.

The Mechanism: How The Six Did It

Here’s the terrifying part: They used the moons.

Not the living moons—those were dead. The dying moons. The last fragmenting pulses of divine power as six celestial bodies broke apart.

Each of The Six stood at the Eclipse Nexus and channeled their moon’s death-energy:

Zephyrion (Lunara/Air): Pulled atmosphere into impossible density, creating pressure differential that would rip continents apart.

Tarak (Pyros/Fire): Directed volcanic energy into fault lines, superheating the planet’s core to fracture point.

Nerai (Thalassia/Water): Froze the ocean into solid ice, then flash-boiled it, creating thermal shock across the crust.

Ronan (Verdanis/Earth): Commanded all plant life to simultaneously expand roots, cracking bedrock from within.

Nyx (Umbra/Shadow): Dissolved the mathematical bonds holding matter together, creating reality-fractures.

Shahrzad (Noctis/Dream): Convinced reality it was possible to exist as fragments—made the impossible probable.

They synchronized these forces. All six at once. Each pulling a different fundamental force to breaking point.

And the world screamed.

What the Sundering Looked Like (Minute by Minute)

Minute 1-5: The Gathering

The Six stand in a circle at the Eclipse Nexus. Hands joined. Eyes closed. They begin channeling moon-death energy. Twenty-five thousand survivors feel the ground shake. The sky darkens. The Forgotten One watches with curiosity.

Minute 6-10: The Fracturing Begins

Cracks appear in the ground. Not small fissures—continental fractures. Miles wide. Miles deep. Magma glows beneath. Atmosphere screams as pressure differentials tear at reality. Ocean water boils at the edges.

People start running. Nowhere to go.

Minute 11-15: The Breaking

The cracks widen. Chunks of continent start to separate. Visible gaps between landmasses. Survivors on the edges fall into the void—screaming, tumbling, disappearing into darkness.

The Six hold the pattern. Don’t stop. Can’t stop. Have to keep channeling or it fails.

Minute 16-20: The Shattering

Reality fractures like glass. The planet breaks into seventeen pieces. Each piece surrounded by void. Atmosphere bleeding off into nothingness. Ocean water spilling into darkness. Forests uprooted and tumbling.

The sound is indescribable. The earth itself breaking.

Minute 21-25: The Scatter

The fragments move. Repelled by each other. Pushed apart by void physics. Each piece tumbling, spinning, finding its own orbit in the darkness.

The Six collapse. The channeling stops. The moons’ final power exhausted.

Silence.

The Casualties (Who Died and How)

Here’s the brutal math:

Starting Population at Nexus Camp: 25,000 survivors (from original 56,000 post-Eclipse)

Survivors After Sundering: 125 people

Casualty Rate: 99.5%

Where did 24,875 people go?

3,200: Fell into the void during fracturing (edges of fragments collapsed, ground gave way, tumbled into darkness).

8,400: Crushed in the breaking (caught between separating landmasses, pulverized by shifting continents).

6,100: Suffocated as atmosphere bled off (fragments too small to hold full atmosphere, oxygen escaped into void).

4,900: Killed by environmental collapse (lava flows, flash-freezing, tidal waves as ocean scattered).

2,275: Chose surrender (accepted the Forgotten One’s offer during chaos, became Surrendered, ceased to resist existence).

Final 125: Made it to stable fragments with atmosphere. Scattered across sixteen livable pieces of broken world.

The Seventeen Fragments (What Remained)

When the Sundering stabilized, seventeen pieces remained:

The Nexus Fragment (Fragment Zero): Where the Eclipse Nexus stood. Where the Forgotten One remains. Uninhabitable. Quarantine zone.

The Six God-Fragments (1-6): Each containing essence-trace of one moon:

Fragment 1 (Lunara-touched): Zephyrion’s fragment. Gravity unstable. Air problems.
Fragment 2 (Pyros-touched): Tarak’s fragment. Volcanic. Too hot.
Fragment 3 (Thalassia-touched): Nerai’s fragment. Flooded. Pressure issues.
Fragment 4 (Verdanis-touched): Ronan’s fragment. Forest. Life corruption spreading.
Fragment 5 (Umbra-touched): Nyx’s fragment. Shadow-saturated. Reality thin.
Fragment 6 (Noctis-touched): Shahrzad’s fragment. Dream-logic. Physics optional.

The Ten Survivor Fragments (7-16): Smaller pieces. Some habitable. Some deadly. Survivors scattered across these, isolated, trying not to die.

The Ancient Fragment (Fragment 17): Pre-existing infrastructure. Not part of Eclipsia originally. Discovered later. (This becomes important in Book 2.)

The Price The Six Paid

They survived the Sundering. Barely.

But survival doesn’t mean unscathed.

Zephyrion: Maintained atmosphere through the breaking. His lungs forgot how to stop. Breathes for the fragment now. Can’t stop. If he stops concentrating, everyone suffocates. (This eventually transforms him into pure Air.)

Tarak: Channeled volcanic fire. His body temperature won’t stabilize. Burns internally. Self-consuming. (This eventually transforms him into pure Fire.)

Nerai: Held the ocean. Felt every drowning death. Her consciousness scattered across water itself. Can’t distinguish self from sea anymore. (This eventually transforms her into pure Water.)

Ronan: Commanded plant growth. Can’t stop the growth now. His fragment becomes overgrown. Corrupted. He pours life into dead soil until there’s nothing left but Garden. (This eventually transforms him into pure Earth.)

Nyx: Dissolved mathematical bonds. Saw the pattern of everything. Can’t unsee it. Calculates constantly. Loses humanity to equations. (This eventually transforms her into pure Shadow/Mathematics.)

Shahrzad: Convinced reality to fragment. Now stuck between dream and waking. Can’t tell which is real. Both. Neither. (This eventually transforms them into pure Dream.)

They broke the world. It broke them back.

Did It Work?

Here’s the question that haunts The Six:

Yes. The Forgotten One is contained. Trapped on Fragment Zero. Can’t reach the other fragments. Survivors are free of its philosophical negation.

But.

24,875 people died in the breaking. Most horribly. Screaming. Terrified. Alone.

The world is gone. No continents. No oceans. No unified civilization. Just seventeen rocks floating in void.

The 125 survivors are scattered. Isolated. Dying slowly on fragments that can barely sustain life.

And The Six are transforming. Becoming less human. More elemental. Dying into foundations of reality.

So did it work?

Depends what you’re measuring.

Survival? Yes. Success? No. Worth it? Ask the dead.

The Moral Weight

Let’s address this directly:

Was the Sundering genocide?

The Six deliberately broke the world knowing 99% of survivors would die. They chose to kill 24,875 people to save 125.

That’s not collateral damage. That’s calculated sacrifice.

Zephyrion’s justification: “125 is more than zero.”

The Surrendered’s counter: “125 suffering souls is worse than 25,000 at peace.”

Who’s right?

The trilogy doesn’t answer that. Because there is no right answer.

All The Six can say is: “We chose life. Even broken life. Even suffering life. We chose it. And we’ll carry the weight of everyone who died for that choice.”

That’s not absolution. That’s acknowledgment.

The Aftermath (What Came Next)

The Sundering ended Book 1. Book 2 begins three days later:

Fragment 1: Zephyrion maintaining atmosphere, watching 8 survivors try not to suffocate.

Fragment 2: Tarak burning internally, keeping 12 survivors warm in volcanic wasteland.

Fragment 3: Nerai holding back pressure, drowning in her own consciousness, 7 survivors depending on her.

Fragment 4: Ronan pouring life into corrupted soil, 14 survivors eating void-touched crops.

Fragment 5: Nyx calculating survival odds, 9 survivors in shadow-saturated reality.

Fragment 6: Shahrzad flickering between dream and waking, 11 survivors losing grip on what’s real.

Fragments 7-16: 64 survivors scattered. Isolated. Dying slowly.

Total: 125 people. All that’s left of six civilizations.

And they’re changing.

The void doesn’t kill you. It transforms you. Adapts you. Makes you into something that can survive in absence.

The Void-Touched. The Transformed. The next stage of existence.

Whether that’s evolution or extinction depends on your perspective.

Conclusion: The Impossible Choice Revisited

The Sundering wasn’t heroic. It was desperate.

It wasn’t noble. It was pragmatic.

It wasn’t right. It was chosen.

The Six broke the world because the alternative was oblivion. They killed 24,875 people because the alternative was 25,000 dead plus no future.

Can you blame them?

Can you forgive them?

Can you understand why, even now, Zephyrion wakes up every day and wonders if the Surrendered were right—if peace would have been kinder than this broken survival?

That’s the question at the heart of Eclipsia:

Is existence worth its cost?

The Forgotten One says no.

The Six said yes.

The 24,875 dead can’t answer.

And the 125 survivors are still deciding.

Explore The Eclipsia Trilogy

This lore entry is just the beginning. The full story of The Eclipsia Trilogy—three books chronicling the fall of six civilizations, the impossible choice to break the world, and the transformation of heroes into legends—awaits.

The Gathering Eclipse (Book 1), The Shattered Veil (Book 2), and The Breaking of Fate (Book 3) will take you deeper into Eclipsia’s cosmic horror and profound sacrifice.

Stay tuned for release announcements.

The Eclipsia Codex | Building worlds, one entry at a time.