The Sun’s Tears struck Janspar in the last days of Spring in 1332AR. They chiefly impacted on the land of Selmya, though smaller fragments of solar material landed all over the planet.

The intensity of the Sun’s Tears utterly destroyed Selmya – for hundreds of miles the land was ravaged and burned, leaving no trace of the nations that inhabited that wide country. All land north of the Resava range, from the Kelmar Ocean to the southern base of the Unnis Peninsula was utterly annihilated. Many of the Resava mountains themselves erupted, casting smoke and ash into the sky.

As well as the destruction wrought on land, the sea boiled. Great waves struck all along the eastern side of the Unnis Peninsula, destroying maritime settlements there. Waves were reported as far away as Pyrcho and Aeskhona, sufficient to wreck harbours and smash smaller boats.

The strength of the impact rocked the planet itself, causing earthquakes that were particularly destructive in Gla’are and around the coasts of Cuathona.

It is impossible to determine how many people perished in this event. As the land of Selmya and the nations residing there were utterly destroyed, no census records exist to allow us to accurately estimate the number of souls that died under the Sun’s Tears. Piecing together those records that remain extant in other nations however, scholars suggest that a lower estimate of two hundred thousand Mortals may have died in Selmya alone. Thousands more doubtless died at sea, in the earthquakes and destructive waves that occurred after the impact, and in the smaller impacts around Janspar.

To this day, nearly two centuries later, Selmya remains a scorched and barren land, uninhabited by Mortality. What few explorers have dared to venture on the shore there report a country scarred beyond repair, where nothing but the most meagre forms of life can be found. The impact of the Sun’s Tears seems to have altered the landscape considerably – though no complete survey of the shore or the interior has been taken, navigational charts from before the impact no longer appear to be accurate. Much of old Selmya may now lie below the waves, and there may be new land now found there raised from the sea.

The effect of the impact on the planet cannot be overestimated. The ash and smoke cast into the air blocked the heat of the sun and for several years afterwards Janspar experienced weak summer seasons. This period, lasting until 1337AR, is known to scholars as the Long Winter, or the Years of Rust. In this time, unseasonal frosts and chaotic weather blighted the entire planet. Crop failures were widespread and many nations suffered severe famines. Global trade diminished, and distant nations became almost entirely isolated from each other. The great Aeskhonan fleets continued to circle the globe and provide trade and assistance where they could, but the unpredictable weather disrupted even these constant travellers. Even after the end of the Years of Rust, it took many more decades for global trade to reach the levels it had known before the Sins of Amuhlin.

Theologians and scholars cannot agree on what the cause of the Sun’s Tears was, though nearly all acknowledge that it is somehow connected to the sins and tyranny of Amuhlin. Most authorities maintain that the Tears were sent to destroy Amuhlin and to punish Mortality for its failure to prevent his atrocities. Some believe [and here a portion of the text appears to have been erased by water damage]. A minority of scholars, particularly those concerned with studying demons and antesermal religion, believe it to be connected to the demonic solar entity named Hqin-Alet.