Overshadowing the petty political bickerings that were already beginning, and scant days after the celebration of the first Festival of All Stars, a region of "Dead Air" was discovered drifting above Helicon Valley. While it was accepted in most learned circles at the time that the Terrestrial Aether could thrive only below certain altitudes, thus limiting the scope of conventional modes of transport, this was the first occurance of a significant navigational hazard at such low altitudes.

Most of the populace assumed the Aberration, as it became known, was a natural phenomenon, encountered for the first time only now because of the recent increases in travel and commerce. Some few, though, most notably the stalwart Dwight Lansford and his followers, blamed excessive use of the new Convection Engine, a device they believed was harmful to the Aether itself. The appearance of further unnavigable pockets strengthened their numbers, and they were joined in their outcry by those among the people who simply feared the growing power of the Al'Shaine Stratocracy, seen as the most reckless abusers of the new technology. Though these Naturalists, as they styled themselves, occasionally made efforts at armed resistance, they never achieved significant military power, primarily because of their reliance (by necessity) on now outmoded Cloudstone craft.

—Thaddeus Rhagfarnllyd