Ctenophore Crisis
| Impacted parties | Enorian, Spinesreach, Mournhold, Stormcaller Crag, the Ascendril, the Cabalists |
| Began | 396 MA |
| Ended | 403 MA |
| Main Help File | (HELP {{{HELPFILE}}}) |
The wounding of the Prime Material
Following the establishment of Mournhold by the Pact, a Kelki woman named Katia began experimenting with Delve technology, building on the work of the Naldareth and attempting to devise a method for constructing reliable, stable elemental channels. Her machinery, provided by a pair of mysterious benefactors, proved to be somewhat more powerful than anticipated, and activating the device blew a gaping hole in the fabric of the planes themselves. Upon finding the woman hiding under her workbench, the Ascendril were informed of 'horrifying monsters' invading through the rift; these ctenophores were discovered to be small, floating jellyfish-like creatures that appeared harmless. Harmless, that is, until fed with blood or magic; with sustenance, the creatures rapidly grew in size, becoming monstrous and aggressive. Only freezing halted them and allowed them to starve, vanishing with a 'pop'.
Assistance from an elder mage, Belgarion, closed the main rift, but numerous others began to fissure space and time around the city. A raid on Katia's workshop furnished Cabal responders with the means to close the rifts now appearing in Stormcaller Crag and across Mournhold, and although the Ascendril were satisfied with an apology and a promise to avoid more damage, the Spireans and the Stormlord were not; Katia was quickly and permanently silenced by Atabahi claws.
The discovery of nests
Later in the following year, a new form of ctenophore was observed, descending perhaps from wild and unrecovered specimens, or those few kept alive by the Ascendril for observation. This new strain exhibited rapid colour change and the ability to feed on energies previously inimical to them; even worse, they appeared to be construct reality-warping 'nest' structures within the Ascendril guildhall, Mournhold and Stormcaller Crag. These nests proved dangerous, for the strange pearls growing within them attracted the attention of entities from beyond both the Prime Material and the elemental planes surrounding it; vicious, alien and dangerously telepathic, these insectoid bipeds took offense to the nests on Sapience soil, leaping from empty air and violently attacking those who sought to keep the pearls in perfect and eerie unison. Communication with the creatures proved fruitless, and only when almost all of the pearls were recovered and their attendant ctenophores slain did the bipeds leave.
The study of the pearl
Not too long after this occurrence, an agent of the Cabal came across one of the pearls buried in the ice of the Crag. Extended (and spectacularly lethal) studies of the pearl revealed that it was matter not native to the plane, and that it reacted very poorly to exposure to Shadow; these energies caused the strange coating to retreat, exposing a core of or rift into incredibly violent and destructive elemental Air that rapidly tore apart anything nearby. Soon enough, possession of this pearl drew the attention of the entities once again, this time drawing them onto the roof of the Spirean council chambers; only retrieval of the pearl from Xavin of the Ascendril was enough to placate them, but several Spireans managed to explore a portion of the alien realm, the Terminus, before retreating through the rapidly closing gate and leaving Sapience inviolate once again.