Valtias Forlǫg

The Storjarla Ástríðr of Ettlingar Freyu after learning that Valtia is going to be destroyed.

A Valtian couple during the cataclysm that destroyed Valtia.

A humongous tornado-maelstrom pulling the Isle of Valtia to the bottom of the sea.

Valtia having been swallowed by the sea.

Valtias Forlǫg means Valtia's Fate in the Froyalanish and Wintergleamish languages. It is the name of the cataclysm that caused the destruction of the Isle of Valtia and the subsequent collapse of the Valtian Free State which had, prior to the Forlǫg, been prospering for thousands of years.

About

Valtia was destroyed when it sank into the sea on a winter night nearly a thousand years ago in the mysterious, cataclysmic event which is known among the the Froyalanish and Wintergleamish as Valtias Forlǫg. Among others it is often simply referred to as "The Sinking" for due to its massive destruction and historical impact, most people across the world understand that this specifically refers to the disaster which struck Valtia.

None of the inhabitants Isle of Valtia survived their island's destruction, save for a few families who left Valtia just before its destruction.

To this very day it is a mystery why Valtia was destroyed. It is a question that virtually no mortal dares to ask to those who know.

Forewarning

Several events warned of the impending catastrophe: two days before the disaster some immense columns of flame appeared, five days previously to that the animals on Valtia became unruly and all birds fled the island, and in the forthnight prior to the cataclysm fishermen complained that all fish seemed to have disappeared.

The Cataclysm

The cataclysm that destroyed Valtia was something the world had never seen before.

In the middle of the night when most people were sleeping tight, very shortly after the ships of the forewarned escapees had departed from the Isle of Valtia, all over the island innumerable volcanoes popped up like mushrooms and started erupting violently, fiery fountains spewing their leathal load of hot ash, molten rock, volcanic bombs, and toxic fumes a thousand feet into the air. Great rents opened in the earth, swallowing palaces, temples, halls, and entire towns. Lakes boiled or turned to acid, innumerable lava streams destroyed everything in their blazingly hot paths, and a rain of countless meteors and fireballs hailed down on the isle, all causing death and destruction beyond mortal imagination.

Subsequently, and virtually out of the blue, an angry and hungry tornado appeared which gripped the island and shattered it, while a monstrous maelstrom sucked the island's tatters down and scattered those pitiful shreds all over the bottom of the raging sea. All ships in around the Isle of Valtia's ports suffered the same fate.

The whole of the cataclysm took place within a couple of minutes. In that short time span the proud island of Valtia - home to mighty warriors and to sorcerers of unrivaled skill - was utterly destroyed and gone forever. The ancient, powerful Free State was gone in an instant, the fabled Viking empire vanished within the blink of an eye. The island's inhabitants didn't stand the slightest bit of a chance.

The Escapees

The House of Ettlingar Freyu escaped the disaster because the Lady Freyja had forewarned them and told them to flee to the Mysterious Isles.

The Impact

What followed in the sudden vacuum caused by the destruction of the Valtian Free State was chaos. Its globe-spanning empire quickly broke up into innumerable tribedoms, territories and petty kingdoms many of them constantly warred with each other as well as with other rulers and statelets who wanted a slice of the Valtian pie. The Centuries of Blood, the first part of the Age of Darkness, had commenced.

Another consequence of the destruction of Valtia was that many of its spells, knowledge and recorded history were lost.

Harald's Query

One day during their common-law relationship on the Mysterious Isles during the Days of the Old Tale when they were lying in each others arms basking in the afterglow of their love-making, young chieftain Harald had marshalled all his courage and asked the Lady Freyja the why and wherefore of the destruction of Valtia. That was the only time in all their years that Vanadís had ever frightened him.

The Lady of the Vanir became angry beyond belief. Only in few instances in her millenia-spanning life had Freyja been angrier. Harald's attempt to escape Her wrath led to a wild chase in which She hurled countless objects and insults at him and the complete interior of his retreat on the Mysterious Isles was trashed. When Freyja had cornered him, she nearly killed him with a potent death spell. Harald, who had been trained by Freyja herself in Seiðr, which is Viking magic, noticed that She was reciting a death spell and narrowly escaped death by ringing a magic bell, ironically a gift of Freyja to him, bringing the Lady Divine to her senses.

Harald went on his knees and with sparkling eyes begged Freyja to forgive him for he had meant no insolence, but was simply curious. Her heart melted and She forgave her mortal lover. She also quickly undid the death spell, while sternly counseling him not query into the whyfor for Valtias Forlǫg ever again. She told him that as mortal all he needed to know that Valtia aimed too high, and that She would warn him would he ever do that. With a single spell Freyja also undid the damage to Harald's retreat and happily the mortal-Divine couple then returned to bed and that was the end of it.