Storm Era
The Storm Era is used by historiographers of the Imperial tradition to represent the lengthy period of internal troubles that put an end to the peace of the Sky Era and were dominated by the civil wars known as the Overturns. It is followed by the Steel Era.
A series of uprisings and disturbances erupt throughout the Empire, triggered more immediately by famine but driven by a combination of discontent with corrupt and ineffective government, disconnect from the concerns of the furthest reaches of the Empire, and high taxes levied to refill a strained treasury.
The Chosen first appear amidst the chaos of the Mad Overturn, and spread throughout the Empire.
The First House embarks on the Eastern Campaigns in an effort to bring the territories abutting the Intaals back under Imperial rule. This marks the first time that the abilities of the Chosen are employed by a military force. The campaigns end successfully, and the First House turns its eyes northward.
After the Council of Six requires the First House to postpone their planned invasion of the Abethine peninsula, the First House turns on the Empire itself. Particularly with Chosen on both sides, the devastation is immense; the First House is ultimately defeated and exterminated with the assistance of a powerful Abethine family, which replaces them as the Seventh House. Because role of the Chosen in the war, popular opinion turns against them; the government opportunistically blames them for the war and makes them subject to extermination.
The Fifth House, having lost considerable influence during the previous Overturns due to disruption of their work on the Imperial frontiers, are abruptly overthrown by one of their vassal families with the support of the Imperial priesthood; the other five Houses fail to intervene, and accept the usurpers as the Eighth House. The Fifth House is exiled to the brightness, where they and their followers joined forces with previous Imperial colonists to found the Queendom of Light Unobstructed.
The last of the Overturns occurs when the Eighth House, with the connivance of the Seventh House, overthrows the Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixth Houses and imprisons their major members and partisans. The Eighth House assumes control of the Empire as sole Empresses, with the heads of the former Seventh House acting as their primary ministers.