The Hollow Wind is a memetic illness that spreads through knowledge of it. People infected by it first become extremely curious about it, then they begin exhibiting loyalty to a being they call the Empty King and summoning spectral horrors. In around 100 CE there was an apocalyptic war to eradicate it by the nascent Argyran Empire, Order of the Flame, and various Heralds of the Endless Beauty. Entire cultures simply ceased to exist in that time period, either because they got wiped out to establish a buffer zone or because the Empty King was common knowledge among them.

While no public knowledge remains for obvious reasons, all three factions who fought against it have a destroy on sight policy for archaeological sites in affected regions that even possibly date within fifty years of that period.