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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 populace 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, which 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 particularly severe summer drought, it suddenly expanded to consume three full blocks. It erupted into a massive conflagration when the flames reached several hundred barrels of brandy waiting to be shipped upriver 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 the expected effect.

The explosion was heard across the city and a vast fireball rose into the sky above Nexus. The warehouse in question and 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 propelled the fire ever-faster and ever-farther, spreading into Sentinel's Hill and 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 sorcerer-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 Yeskaneros 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

Done - Moxiane

I'm always impressed whenever anyone can successfully create a good entry after somthing has been refered to that many times. Nice Job!
--BrilliantRain

Well done! I'd say it was a successful co-author, it's absolutely seamless. -Okensha