Fall of Roads

The Fall of Roads is the collapse of the Empire of Roads, also known as the Eladamri Civilization. Throughout all of recorded history, the fall was known to be an instantainious event, and not a slow decline. It was often described by early scholars as happening "within a single night and a day of misfortune". Discoveries made during the Sixth Age would seem to indicate that this was an understatment.

There is no exact date given for the Fall of Roads, however according to the Bur'Ian Count it should have been sometime before 4694 B.G.A., assuming an accurate date can be fixed for the establishment of High Tower(the Bur'Ian Chronology does not include such a date). According to Bur'Ian tradition, the first king was crowned perhaps as little as a generation after the fall, meaning it must have occured sometime between 4694 and 4740 B.G.A.

The generally accepted chronology, as established by the Accepted Histories, places the Fall of Roads at exactly 4700 B.G.A, with the establishment of High Tower and the begining of the Mage Wars exactly 1000 years later in 3700 B.G.A. Herbet Patric Galactis openly stated that there was no archeological evidence to support these dates, however it presented some nice, round figures that would be easy for school children to remember on tests.

Cause

The exact events of the fall were not discovered until late in the Sixth Age when a highly classified mission of the G.S.S. Saratoga discovered and performed excavations on the Planet Eladamri, where the best surviving examples of ancient technology were found, still working.

The fall was caused by a failure in the Eladamrian's power system. Because they used Zero-Point Generators for power, the system was more efficient by centralizing the entire array. Even after 35 or 45,000 years of advancment, ZPG modules were still relatively difficult for the Eladamrians to construct. The more modules combined, the more power generated. Apparently, with every single module they had combined, the Eladamrian's were still barely able to fulfill the energy requirments of their civilization.

The problem seemed to be more about regulating the flow of energy than actually producing it, as the generator was fully capable of producing nearly infinite power. The exact cause of the failure can be found in Forbidden, from The Concourse to Victory, but the short version is that the power grid was interupted. The ancient civilization was, unfortunately, constructed in such a way that even a momentary disruption of the system was enough to cause a complete, ireperable collapse.

Effect

The term "Fall of Roads" derives primarily from the collapse of the Road network. Though early Roads were designed and programmed to contact other Roads, the ones built during Classic Antiquity acted as a sort of prism that allowed a single Road to act as a gateway to many destinations. This system obviously required a great deal of power, and had to be kept "always on". The fall destroyed centuries of careful programing, and though it could have been restored eventually, it also completely severed transportation all over the empire. Because the Roads were also used to transport electricity from the capital to every part of the empire, their collapse meant getting the power grid back online would be nearly impossible.

The other reason for the term stems from the way so many ancient structures literally collapsed when the Roads fell. The majority of buildings made during Classic Antiquity were active structures; which, as a byproduct, required a constant supply of energy to maintain shape. When the power-loss occured, these structures simply collapssed, usually killing all of their occupants. This is believed to have killed at least 60% of the population instantly.

The second problem was food supply. The Eladamrians used matter-replication technology to turn energy into matter(also contributing to their enormous power requirments). All of their food was produced by this technology. By the end of Classic Antiquity, the very notion of getting food out of something other than a machine was simply foreign. The same was true of water, most Eladamrians didn't even realize that the stuff flowing through their decorative fountains could be drunk.

It is estimated that as much as 95% of survivors of the initial "fall" simply starved to death or died of dehydration, leaving only 2% of Eladamrians alive. Many of those who survived the intial fall were simply to far away from resouces to survive, trapped in the centers of massive cities that essentially became deserts, with no food or water for hundreds of miles. Only a small fraction of the population, those who lived in new colonies or on the edges of cities even had the opportunity to escape into wilderness areas and attempt to survive. They were utterly unequiped for the task.

Of the 2%, 99% would die in the coming months. Eating poisonous food, drinking tainted water, wild animals, and many other dangers surrounded them. Most Eladamrians had never been outside of their cities, survival was a matter of trial and error, and most of it an error.

By the begining of the Age of Darkness, only one tenth of one percent of the initial population was still alive.

Root Causes

The Gudersnipe Foundation has studied the Empire of Roads, and specifically the Fall very extensively, in an effort to understand why it happened, and what can be done to prevent it. Even when understanding of the Eladamri was extremly limited, they made many discoveries. Knowledge of the Fall of Roads was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Technological Evolution. But above all else, it was the social aspects of the civilization that were the most important to avoid.

Over Centralization

The Eladamrians had centralized all of their power generation and administration at a single point. While this point was supposedly safe and completely proofed against failure, it was still a very poor decision. It is understood that at the time of the fall, they were in crisis, and had thus centralized their system because it was the only way to generate enough power. While a mistake, it was the social system of the Eladamrians that created the need for so much energy, and the refusal to use less that eventually caused their end.

Hedonism

Though the modern picture of the ancients during the Ages of the Alliance was one of philosophers and scientists, the Eladamrians during Classic Andtiquity were, for the most part, extremly selfish and hedonistic. The theory is that this trend evolved from the end of the Roads War. For 25 or 35,000 years, the citizens of the empire were denied everything. Countless generations lived and died, utterly devoted to the cause of fighting the Iname

When the battle was finally won, the celebration lasted for over a century. Many people were born, grew up, grew old, and died celebrating the end of war they had never seen. The lasting impact of this period was a sense of entitlment. The technology that had once been focused on war was no brought to bear against every human whim.

Though there were a select few who still devoted themselves to scientific and social advancment, the vast majority of Eladamrians devoted themselves entirely to personal pleasure. With most of the work being done by machines, there was little need for anyone to do anything. The technology available to the common individual allowed anyone to fulfill any dream, so long as there was enough power.

Simulators

Based on information gathered from secondary--and sometimes teriary--sources, it is believed that the use of something similar to the Simulator technology was used recreationally all throughout the empire. Simulators could be used to create an artificial world in which the controller possesses god-like power. They could also be used very

Power

The rampant hedonism brought about an insatiable demand for power, which the leadership of the empire only felt it was their duty to supply. This was the ultimate mistake; rather than force social and policy changes to reduce power requirments, they simply attempted to supply more power, until this became impossible.