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11 The Surface Cataclysm is the named-but-not-titled geological event that sealed the Underdwellers below. After a faction of the ancient people descended to escape 
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33 the Tyrant, the earth betrayed them: mountains split, oceans shifted, and the path back to the surface was sealed.
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55 What it Did
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77 Closed the descent. The fleeing faction could no longer return to the surface even if they had wanted to.Reshaped the surface. Mountains split and oceans shifted, suggesting tectonic-scale or supernatural-scale changes.Forced cultural adaptation. Cut off from the surface, the Underdwellers had to invent a new society from scratch in the dark.
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99 What it Did Not
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1111 Pre-launch material is silent on whether the cataclysm was geological, divine, or magical in cause. It is also silent on whether the Tyrant survived it on the surface and whether the surface civilization the Tyrant ruled survived in any form.
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1313 Connection to Past Cataclysms
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1515 The Steam page tagline references ruins that whisper of past cataclysms, plural. The Surface Cataclysm may be one of several, and the others may be referenced as the Druid explores. See Past Cataclysms for the placeholder index of plural events.
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1717 Dev-Blog Phrasing
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1919 The 2026-03-04 Lore Part I dev material is unusually concrete about the cataclysm's effects: "Then the earth itself betrayed them. Mountains split. Oceans shifted. The path back was sealed." The trio of clauses captures the scale, the suddenness, and the finality of the event. Mountains splitting and oceans shifting are tectonic-scale phrasings; whether the cataclysm was geological, divine, or magical in cause is not stated.
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2121 What Began As Exile Became Existence
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2323 The same dev material adds a single line about what the cataclysm meant culturally: "What began as exile became existence." The fleeing faction could no longer return even if they had wanted to. The cataclysm transformed a temporary act (fleeing the Tyrant) into a permanent condition (life underground). That transformation is what forced the technocratic society to form. Without the cataclysm, the Underdwellers would have been an exile community waiting to return; with the cataclysm, they became a civilization on its own terms.
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2525 Surface Effects
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2727 "Mountains split. Oceans shifted." The cataclysm reshaped the surface as well as the descent path. Whether the present-day archipelago of Solace was shaped directly by this cataclysm or by later events is unclear. The geography of Solace is dramatic enough that some shaping at this scale would be consistent.
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2929 Connection To Plural Cataclysms
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3131 The Steam tagline references "ruins that whisper of past cataclysms" in the plural. The Surface Cataclysm may be one of several. The others may be referenced as the Druid explores the world. See Past Cataclysms for the placeholder index of plural events.
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3333 Open Questions
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3535 Pre-launch material is silent on whether the cataclysm was geological, divine, or magical in cause. It is also silent on whether the Tyrant survived it on the surface, whether the surface civilization the Tyrant ruled survived in any form, and whether artifacts or sites from the pre-cataclysm period can still be visited by the Druid.