An era often leaves its own unique brand upon a generation.
Whenever the people of Water-Drawing City recalled Midwinter Festival of the Year 1260 in the Dalereckoning calendar, they would often wear a nostalgic smile that was equal parts laughter and tears, then sigh in the tone of those who had lived through it:
"Oh, by the Lady of Luck, that year really started out like something from a fantasy. You simply couldn't imagine what happened that Christmas Eve."
When compiling their books, many historians liked to assign era names to years in which events of major historical consequence had taken place.
Take the Year of Thunder, for instance—a year of great historical significance to the shield dwarves of Mithril Hall. From then on, dwarves with magical talent began appearing among their people.
But so many turning-point events with far-reaching consequences had taken place during that absurd night in Water-Drawing City that later scholars argued endlessly over what era name should be given to 1260.
The Harpers Decapitation Operation, the Weaving Moonstar Ten Knights, the Dark Calamity, the fish-man disaster, the rat-man tide, the Children of Murder, Baal's miracle, demonic corruption, vampiric spawn.
That night, overflowing with absurd fantasy, had been packed with extraordinarily extreme events that many people might never encounter even once in their entire lives.
That night, many were destined to go sleepless.
For instance, the Thieves' Guild and the Church of the Goddess of Torture, the worst-stricken victims. Most of their few surviving members crashed headlong into the checkpoints Kaierben had sealed off with his troops that night, wailing for their fathers and mothers, becoming part of the crowd that stuffed Water-Drawing City's prisons like cans of sardines.
It was worth mentioning that, in a desperate effort to reduce the punishment awaiting them, all the damaged