Night of the Bleeding Moon (concept)
One of the most infamous episodes of the entire Chaos of the Seventh Century, the Night of the Bleeding Moon refers to the cataclysm that engulfed the entirety of the Kartharaddi Imperium in the dark hours of the 23rd of Velde, 748. The name itself comes from the fact that Aervalr, as well as the entire night sky across the world shone a brilliant, deep crimson for the duration of the catastrophe. Any that were sleeping were immediately awoken, and as the event reached its fever pitch, the low screams of an entire empire in its death throes could be heard on the horizon regardless of location.
The disaster left around 80% of the Imperium's population dead, virtually all of its major population centers reduced to rubble, and the Kartharaddi capital was consumed in a vortex of hellfire that still hangs over the area to this day. Greater Aversaria, once sprawling, cosmopolitan and urban, was effectively reset to a wild wasteland, but the effects reached as far as Malcois, which was left heavily hit and depopulated.
The causes and responsible parties remain an unresolved question to this day. Though the aautokrata was quick to deny involvement due to the bad optics involved in claiming responsibility for an event that so devastated Malcois (a fact often forgotten nowadays), successive aautokratirs have constantly switched the official imperial stance on Oraispol's level of involvement, mostly depending on what option is currently the most politically expedient.
Aliases: 23rd of Velde 748, Destruction of the Kartharaddi