Great Exodus

The Great Exodus was the mass flight of Mankin and other refugees from the northern and western continents after the Fall of the @[Five Kings](entry:a8fe47f7-9c25-5e54-bdf2-85c161931ac5). It was not one organised evacuation but a chain of collapsing refuges, improvised administrations and southward caravans that eventually concentrated at the Throat of Men.

Northern flight

Refugees from @Umbroth, @Velstrum, @Mattrozhia and the @@[Imperial Core](entry:8f321e82-fc52-5e7a-9b8a-ce12f648ecf0) converged on Metrilburg during the first autumn and winter. The city appeared unconquerable, but its guards became dispersed among refugee relief, gate duty and crowd control. Elven forces stormed the swollen camps during the thaw and captured the city within days.

Southern corridor

Survivors moved through marshy deltas into the Dark Forest, where Drywid monasteries offered food and healing. They then sought the eleven halls of Valkrun, found the gates sealed and suffered ambushes along narrow cave roads. From @Sunmarch and @Callandor they crossed toward the mountain pass.

One representative Umbrothan caravan began with 107 carts and reached eastern Callandor five or six months later with twenty-three after travelling perhaps 2,000–3,000 kilometres by indirect roads.

The Throat

Around 2 AFK, the Throat was a refugee camp rather than a monumental fortress: tents, carts, kitchens, animal lines, counting tables and mismatched armed groups. Every arriving caravan supplied labour, skills, animals and defenders. The practical institutions formed there became the Allied Crowns.

Demographic legacy

Modern eastern nations later claim clean founding migrations, but the refugee population was deeply mixed. Metrilburgers influenced Duchia, Mattrozhians Krasnarus, Callandorians Maritimia, Fenmarks the Nordic states, Sunmarchers Solerae and Corelanders Larolar.