[center][h1]The Rebirth: Into the Wide, Wounded World.[/h1][/center]

[center][b]I[/b][/center]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAJBDZe21w]On the tenth anniversary of the Day of Ashes, the Vault doors opened.[/url]

It had been a month since that day, when every last organic living in Astalon was kicked out of the Vault and told to settle the lands like they’d done before. 

Groups of hundreds of Astalonians, mostly children, were escorted to their lineages’ hometowns. The ones who traveled to the south towards the coastal city of Roi had to brave the ancient, broken, melted asphalt highways and had to navigate around massive blockages where dozens of carriages had crashed a decade ago. Items, clothing, mementos, framed drawings… All those things still remained, strewn all over the roads near the mountains of scrap. Yet there was no blood, and there were no bodies.

Those who traveled west to the secluded village of Sol had to weave their way through overgrown swamp and forest alike. At times, they would stumble upon caverns. The first two they explored had old furniture inside, filled with the tattered and dirty clothes and diaries of the people who had thought it a good idea to hide out in the wilderness. There were craters in the walls and stained bedrolls in the back of the caves. Yet there were no bodies. They didn’t walk into any other cave after that.

Those who traveled north to the sky city of Nube had to climb and climb until they were breathing more cloud than air. Their journey was, relatively speaking, the smoothest. There were no ruins anywhere before Nube City, but upon climbing a rather steep drop the Vaulters saw the near hundred pairs of shoes that had been lined up neatly against the ledge, some big like a champion’s and some tiny like a child’s.

Those who traveled east towards the great boreal city of Vie had to brave treacherous weather and the last remnants of wildlife. They found nothing. Absolutely nothing of what had once been the greatest city in Astalon. Nothing, but the tip of the cracked Monolith that had once stood at the center of Vie. The city had been buried under hundreds of meters of snow alongside the rest of the region.

Something that had been thought of as a happy event by the Vaulters, that of finally going back home and leaving the confined spaces of the Underground Vault, was faced with the reality of what had happened to the majority who couldn’t make it to the Vault all those years ago.

There were no cheers.

There were no laughs.

There were no hugs and no wide, wonder-filled eyes.

The adults then realized that the world they knew, and the people they knew, were gone and would never return.

Thus, the Day of Ashes became the Day of Ashes and Tears, and would come to be mourned on a yearly basis ever since as a way to pay respect to those who were lost.

[hider=Summary]
Astus finally kicks the Astalonians out of the Vault and gives them detachments of Primes to escort them to their ancestral homelands. They all quickly realize that going back out into the world isn’t a cause for celebration, as they see the remains of their old home and realize that nothing will ever be the same as it used to be.
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[hider= Vigour]
Astus’ Starting=11 + 1 from Chailiss week

Prior to kicking the Astalonians out into the world, Astus made sure the Primes taught them a bunch of basics to ensure their survival and the proper re-settlement of Astalon and gave them a blessing on top of that.

Spent 1 Vigour to teach the Astalonians how to craft and maintain complex clothing for all kinds of temperatures.

Spent 1 vigour to teach the Astalonians how to build complex structures (wood, stone, lil bit of metal).

Spent 1 Vigour to teach the Astalonians the basics of metallurgy (copper and the like).

Spent 1 Vigour to teach the Astalonians about bronze.

Spent 1 Vigour to teach the Astalonians about complex tool-making such as pickaxes, doctor’s scalpels, pliers, nail files, etc.

Spent 1 Vigour (discounted to 0) to teach the Astalonians about ways to make their resource collection and refining more efficient.

Spent 1 Vigour (discounted to 0) to teach the Astalonians about the Labyrinth and the basics on how to brave it without immediately combusting.

Spent 1 vigour (discounted to 0) to bless the Astalonians with unnatural industriousness (they all have a tendency towards working hard and being happy to do so. Astalonian refers to any sapient born on Astalon, so a Childan immigrant from da norf being born in Astalon with this unnatural industriousness is as likely as a native Homuran being born with it.)

Spent 1 vigour (discounted to 0) to bless Astalon with an aura of industriousness (meaning any creature who spends a long enough time in Astalon will eventually start to become more of a hard worker.)

Ending=7[/hider]