The Great End-of-Year Cleanse for Aether Skies
When Survival Demands Fire, Forgetting, and Sacrifice
There is no celebration at the end of the year in Aether Skies.
No fireworks. No feasts. No shared countdown beneath a hopeful sky.
Instead, there is smoke.
As the final weeks of the year drag on and the storms below grow restless, the floating cities prepare for a ritual older than most of their governments: The Great Cleanse. It is not optional. It is not symbolic. It is a necessary violence enacted against the things that have lingered too long.
Because contamination accumulates.
And if it isn’t burned away, it spreads.
🕯️ What Is the Great Cleanse?
The Great End-of-Year Cleanse is a coordinated purge carried out across the floating cities to ensure survival into the next cycle. Its stated purpose is simple:
Remove corrupted matter, unstable Aether, and lingering anomalies before the skies turn again.
In practice, it is far more complicated — and far more brutal.
During the Cleanse, cities:
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incinerate contaminated debris and broken machinery
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dismantle experimental tech deemed “too unstable”
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destroy relics tied to Haven, the Curtain, or unknown origins
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purge data archives and memory vaults
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forcibly evacuate or quarantine infected districts
What cannot be purified is burned.
What cannot be burned is cast into the storms below.
⚙️ Why the Cleanse Exists
No city likes to admit this publicly, but everyone knows the truth:
Aether leaves residue.
Magic leaves scars.
Dreams leave footprints.
Throughout the year, the cities accumulate:
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malfunctioning engines that hum at night
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artifacts that whisper to no one in particular
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people who no longer dream the same way
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ideas that cannot be unlearned
The Cleanse is not about renewal.
It is about containment.
🏙️ How Different Cities Perform the Cleanse
🟦 Orashul — The Sanitized Burn
The elite districts conduct immaculate purges. Objects are cataloged, audited, and incinerated in ceremonial furnaces. The poor are relocated “temporarily.” Some never return.
🔥 Granglehold — The Furnace Year
The forges roar without pause. Broken machines and tainted tools are fed into the fire. Workers are told the heat keeps them safe. Those who collapse are quietly removed.
🕯️ Theopholis — The Rite of Purity
The Cleanse becomes religious ceremony. Items are judged sinful or sacred. Confession is mandatory. Repentance is encouraged. Survival is proof of righteousness.
🥣 Kerfluffle — Selective Forgetting
The kobolds don’t burn everything. They hide things instead. They label them, bury them, or pass them down with warnings. Their Cleanse is quieter—and sometimes more dangerous.
🌫️ Haven — The Dream Pyre
Haven’s Cleanse is the most unsettling. People burn objects they don’t remember owning. Fires cast shadows of places that never existed. Some say the city screams when the flames are lit.
🧭 What the Cleanse Means for Characters
For players, the Great Cleanse is a pressure point.
It asks uncomfortable questions:
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What would your character burn to survive another year?
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What secret can’t be allowed to carry over?
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What item has become too important to destroy?
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Who decides what is “contaminated”?
Characters may be ordered to:
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escort purge crews
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sabotage a rival city’s Cleanse
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smuggle an artifact through the fire
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falsify contamination reports
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retrieve something already marked for destruction
And sometimes, a character themselves is on the list.
🎲 GM Tools: Running the Cleanse at the Table
🔥 1. Countdown Pressure
Set a visible timer. The Cleanse is coming. If the party doesn’t act before the pyres are lit, certain choices vanish forever.
📜 2. Purge Lists
Give players access to partial lists of items, locations, or people scheduled for cleansing. Let them decide what to save — knowing they can’t save everything.
🕯️ 3. Public vs Private Burnings
Some purges are spectacles. Others happen quietly at night. Both tell stories. Decide which your players witness.
⚠️ 4. False Safety
The Cleanse works — mostly. Let players feel temporary relief afterward… then show what slipped through.
🧩 Adventure Hooks
The Thing Marked for Fire
An artifact essential to stopping a future catastrophe is scheduled for destruction at dawn.
The Last Archive
A memory vault containing forbidden knowledge must be erased. The party must decide whether ignorance is mercy.
The Living Contamination
A person is labeled “unstable.” They’re not evil. They’re just different.
The Fire That Spoke
During the Cleanse, something answers back from within the flames.
✨ Final Thought:
The New Year Begins with Ash.
In Aether Skies, survival isn’t about hope — it’s about control. The Great Cleanse is how the cities convince themselves they can still manage the forces they’ve unleashed.
But fire does not judge.
It only consumes.
And sometimes, what survives the flames is far worse than what was burned away.
Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!
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