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The Great Nexus Fire

by Moxiane and EJGRgunner

"The scars of fire sting the soul most deeply. Every time the eyes rest on the non-skin left behind by a fire, the soul laments, the heart weeps. Forever and ever after, you see, there will be a void in the soul- an emptiness, a sense of loss. This cannot be replaced... And so it is with a city, you see. This city has been scarred by fire. Things have been lost forever. The very soul of this city, you see, has been damaged. No new buildings, no new people can replace what was lost. There are faces gone forever. This, you see, is the true tragedy of The Fire."

-Budi, the street sage, from his recitation of "The Epic Blaze 'Twixt the River Harlot's Legs."

"These boards were scorched during the Great Fire, all those years ago! But they survived! Place one of these in your house and it will never burn, keeping you and your loved ones safe from harm."

- Jacint Endri, street-seller and con-artist (current location unknown)

Fire is an ever-present problem for the city of Nexus. The combination of poor climate, tinderbox architecture and the lawlessness of its population mean that, according to the workers at the Bureau of Numbers, there are on average 2.7 fires raging on any given day. For the most part the local inhabitants are able to contain these fires; with the multitude of rivers and streams that wind through the city, there is almost always water available for dousing any blaze. In some districts fighting a fire is seen as a "fun day out", with young men striving to impress the young ladies with their diligence and thoroughness. The "average" fire is actually eagerly welcomed in such neighborhoods.

The fire that started on the 28th day of Descending Fire in RY 721 and that would later become known as the Great Nexus Fire, was not an "average" fire.

Why it began, as with many fires in Nexus, is a mystery and likely to remain so. Most people agree that the Great Nexus Fire started with an almost benign warehouse fire in the Nexus district. The warehouse blaze was by and large contained, but, because of a particlularly severe summer drought, suddenly expanded to consume three full blocks and then erupted into a massive conflagration when the flames reached several hundred barrels of brandy waiting to be shipped up-river to the Hundred Kingdoms. This liquor, Sarrian's Very Special Brandy, is jokingly referred to as "Sarrian's Screaming Hangover" and has an extremely high proof; the addition of roaring fire had an expected effect.

The explosion was heard across the city and a vast fireball rose into the sky above Nexus. The warehouse in question, as well as two entire blocks surrounding it, were instantly vaporized, sending burning debris out in all directions and setting hundreds of blazes throughout the Aston (now called Ashtown), Nexus and Cinnabar districts. The people fighting the original fires were cremated by the explosion, becoming the first of what would eventually be tallied at almost 20,000 casualties.

The fire spread through the Nexus district faster than a man could run. The sheer scale of the blaze created massive windstorms that propeled the fire ever faster and farther, spreading into Cinnabar and Sentinel's Hill, totally consuming everything in its path. The ancient buildings of Nexus, constructed of First Age materials, survived the fire with little more than some minor scorching, but more modern buildings were quite often burned down to their foundations. The sorcerous population (both mortal and Exalted) rallied to try and stem the damage, but the incredible size and speed of the fire overwhelmed even their combined might (which might have been greater had it not been for citizens of Bastion creating logjams by practically throwing Jade at any sorcerer and thaumaturge they could get to protect their valuable homes). But there were local victories that saved many lives, and the sorcerers responsible all became heroes to the city. Below the city, for instance, several crafty citizens quickly broke open a number of sewer tunnels and flood gates, sparing a good portion of the Underground from total catastrophe.

The sheer diversity of businesses and the number of toxic and flammable chemicals used, stored, and produced within Nexus contributed to the fire's lasting through Calibration before it was largely extinguished (although the ruins of Tallarn's Alchemica are still burning). The worst hit, by far, were Aston, Nexus, and Cinnabar. Perhaps ironically, the only district of the city that was largely untouched by the fire was Firewander. Even there, as with the rest of Nexus, business effectively ground to a halt for a period of three days. In fact, in economic terms, the fire was felt across the whole Scavenger Lands, as it had tremendous repercussions for trade that were still being felt a decade later. The total cost of the fire has never been fully calculated, but is believed to run into the thousands of talents for destroyed property and lost stock, and many times this for the rebuilding.

The Great Nexus Fire has been listed by many cultural commentators as the single most important thing to happen to Nexus in the past century.

Rumours

• The patterns of burned areas, when superimposed on a map of Nexus will, if viewed correctly, spell out the true name of the Emissary in an ancient dialect of Old Realm. Every person who has ever deciphered this information has very rapidly ended up dead thereafter.
• A particularly popular theory holds that Dragon-Blooded Sorceror-Engineers from Lookshy, jealous of Nexus' rise to power in the River Province, are responsible for setting and maintaining the blaze.

Secret

• While the original fire that is blamed for causing the conflagration did start accidentally, as so many of these things do, the fire that created the massive explosion was not – it was set by an opportunistic commercial saboteur, hired by the Yeskanero Merchanting Family to stop Sarrian's brandy from reaching its destination. The saboteur, one Urian Oppenal, was never seen again, and the Yeskanero's have been desperately searching for him or any proof that they hired him ever since.

Comments & Controversy

Now that the entry's up, can we delete or archive the old comments? -EJGRgunner

I never dibbsed this because it's taken so long to write... but I have been working on it... perhaps an arrangement can be reached?-EJGRgunner

There is a cold heartless part of me that is saying "So what?" but I am gonna ignore him. Having read your (partial) entry I can say that it and mind are essentially irreconcilable, beyond the understood facts thus far. So, I suggest the great Nexus Project vote-off! Put both entries up on some sub-page and let the wikizens vote on which they prefer (both authors would be barred from voting, of course). After some set time, say about a week, the entry with the most votes gets to be the one, true Great Nexus Fire! The other gets to be an almost-ran. Sound fair? - democratic Moxiane

Sounds reasonably fair, although I think I'd have to see your version (assuming its ready... if you haven't written it yet that's a whole other can of worms... but I difress) before declaring the two irreconcilable. Additionally, something about the losing entry being an almost ran just seems... cold. I can tell you put a lot of work into each of your entries, and honestly, I've spent weeks fighting perfectionism/writer's block while attempting to work on mine (and I still don't feel like it's good enough...). Neither effort should come to be for naught. Why don't you shoot me an email at ejgrgunner at hotmail dot com, or AIM at EJGRgunner? - EJGRgunner

Well, I called dibs this morning and now (lunchtime) it's essentially done bar the secret - which I expect will be ready inside another 30 minutes. I try to avoid dibbing things if I'm not going to actually write them or don't have an idea that I can expand into text. *shrug* This one is actually one of the longer entries I've written, which is why it's taken so long... >_< When it's done I'll zap it over to you, and we can talk some more that way. -feeding the bookworms Moxiane

Why not have two Great Nexus Fires? It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. One could have been a lot earlier than the other or something. You could also have both accounts be simultaneously true -- with an event as huge and semi-mythical/urbanly legendary as "The Great Nexus Fire" sounds, it seems like that could easily happen.
~ Shataina

While I can see why, for the linky-continuity of the project, we need one entry, I think that the vote idea is a good one, because then everyone can see both, and if someone wants to use the one that gets less votes in their campaign, well, they've seen it. It would be nice if, as an also-ran, it still got to kick around on the wiki somewhere, perhaps on the writer's page, for example.

This is why dibsing is so important! -Okensha

Well, EJGRgunner's entry in potentia is viewable through the "it" link just below my dibs. My entry currently exists in text-only form within my mailbox. We are discussing the possibility of a collaborative entry, although there are issues to work out, as one would expect. I am still fine with the idea of a vote, TBH, since I am far more invested in TheNexusProject as a whole rather than any given entry - although I do like my original, the first draft synthesis did improve a few things. But, until this is resolved one way or the other, I'll be keeping my entry off-wiki, since otherwise I'd effectively be opening up the vote, something I agreed to postpone, at least for a while. - the lightning writer Moxiane

EJGRgunner, you need to get back to me soon, otherwise I post before my dib runs out. Just sayin'. - impatient Moxiane

I've sent a couple of messages to your gmail account but have been waiting for a response. Just sent another one. EJGRgunner