The Doom of Anthronax-1182

The Doom of Anthronax-1182 was a catastrophic event that spanned the final hundred years of the Golden Millennium.

Anthronax-1162 was a relatively habitable planet, but due to its distance from Earth it was some time before colony ships were sent to it. Eventually a ship was sent by the Altitudinarian Fragment, for whom distance was a positive trait. Initial scans of the planet detected nothing unusual, nor did colonists experience considerable difficulties in the first few months after landing.

Several years passed without incident, and the colony began to extract raw resources (primarily tin and zinc, as well as bauxite under Cartel supervision) for trade with other worlds. After around a decade however, colonial administrators noticed an abnormality. Workplace fatalities were at three times the galactic standard. This caused concern, which was promoted to alarm the next month when the rate became quadruple the galactic standard. To make matters worse the governor died shortly after, reportedly by tripping and falling off his mansion's balcony. The colony's population as a whole then entered rapid decline, as people began dying in seemingly improbable ways, regardless of their efforts to remain alive. Bunkers collapsed, food stores caught on fire, and important machinery malfunctioned. Similar fates befell would-be relief efforts.

Convinced that the planet and everything on it was cursed, a Calanthite preacher gave a fiery sermon to a small mob in the town square. Incensed, the preacher and the mob abandoned all they possessed containing materials from Anthronax-1182 and hijacked one of the relief vessels. This was the only successful attempt by the locals to leave the planet. The sermon, incidentally, is the first time the event was referred to as the "Doom",

Within the year, nothing remained breathing on Anthronax-1182. A number of organizations attempted to understand and/or harness the phenomenon, including some notable Darwinists. This proved difficult due to the tendency of teams sent to the surface to die, and so after a period of no breakthroughs the general public largely forgot about the planet.

Not long after, however, the disastrous New Ulthkas Shipyard Implosion shook the galaxy. Once the dust was settled, it was uncovered that the ship which triggered the system-annihilating reaction was made primarily using Anthronaxian metal. Further digging revealed that ships using Anthonaxian components had failure rates over 50 times the galactic standard. Numerous investigations immediately began in order to track down extant Anthonaxian material. However due to both widespread proliferation and poor record-keeping on the part of the Bauxite Cartels, the vast majority of metal remained unfound.

Even after the passage of decades, the Doom remained. While it's believed that most high concentrations of metal have been destroyed by the catastrophe they seem to bring, there are effects even in particulate form. Experts estimate that unfortunate events become 10 times more likely to happen per mole of Anthonaxian metal atoms in a 1000 kilometer radius. These particles, now dispersed through both planetary atmospheres and empty space, have made large swaths of the galaxy unluckier than normal. Some argue that the Doom, by placing its fingers on the scale of fate, was the decisive factor in the ending of the Golden Millennium.

-Manifold Cloth