Eilo - Year 105. A momentous, though emotional, milestone is about to be reached: the first great departure of Founder Seedlings is about to sweep across the Eilo Archipelago. The maximum lifespan of a Seedling is 120 years and as we hurtle toward that year since the great beginning in Earth’s July, there is going to be a wave of death. It’s horrendous but it’s inevitable.  

The Department of Rebulation has confirmed that the most Seedlings will be dying off in a great wave in the next 10 Avestan years. 

The Founders were the first to land on Avesta after the Great Wipe of the siro storms. They created the first fields, raised the first roofs, went looking for ores that came and went and argued over the first laws.  

Nothing can be done to stop it - entropy exists. What we can do is be ready for it.

What Survives a Seedling, and What Doesn’t

When a Seedling dies, any orders they were carrying out die with them. Nothing they were in the middle of gets finished, and nobody else picks it up. Only a few things can be passed on:

• Businesses go to an heir automatically.

• Properties can be passed on, but only through a will.

• Wallet contents can also be passed on, but only through a will.

Everything else is lost. A Founder without a will takes their homes and savings with them, so if your Founders haven’t written one yet, now is the time.

Putting Your Affairs in Order

Now is the time to plan for what comes after. Look at your society and ask some hard questions: Who takes over the soon-to-be-dead’s work? Who inherits their homes, their jobs, and their stores? Who has been trained to do what they do?

A note on inheritance: If you have only one Seedling and they die, their portrait remains in grayscale in your Seedling switcher. You can then spawn a new Seedling and transfer all the deceased Seedling’s belongings to them. In that sense, on Avesta, wills are retroactive.

When your Seedling dies, you will get a message that lets you set up the will.

Death Wave: Impact on the Global Market

The Death Wave won’t stay within the borders of the societies it strikes. It will reach the Global Market too. The arithmetic is grim. Dead Seedlings mean dead couriers, and dead couriers mean nobody is left to deliver your Market purchases.

Sell Orders posted by societies hit by the Death Wave will stay listed on the Market after the people who were meant to fulfill them are gone. You will be able to buy these orders, but nobody will be around to deliver them. So think twice before either listing items for sale or buying items!

As always, an undelivered purchase fails automatically seven real hours after its export delivery is created. That isn’t new; it’s how the Market already works, but what is new is the scale. During the Death Wave the Market will fill with orders that can’t be fulfilled, and you’re likely to run into failed purchases again and again.

So - How to Protect Yourself

• Know who you’re buying from. Favor sellers from societies with healthy, young populations, and be wary of societies with large Founder populations.

• Don’t depend on a single order. If a delivery matters to your survival, spread your purchases across several sell

This is all part of being a pioneering part of the on-going history of Avesta. It’s also a part of being alive. Dying is the one great certainty.