The Fall of the Centrum

The Fall of the Centrum is best read as a 2097–2098 M.B. chain of VQU disasters rather than one clean battle. Albert's hidden void economy and M.A.I. ambitions made the old order brittle; Orlandus's death turned private tower conflict into campus trauma; Maine's tsunami saved lives and killed hidden students; Magala created the opening against Albert; Nora stopped him by turning him into a rat, but failed to capture him before he escaped into the Void. When the Centrum disbanded, the Lawful did not wait for a complete successor government: its divisions kept working, managed the chaos, and intervened where services or safety failed.