How did anyone survive?

[The Chocolatier]

I don't think Bastion ever covered this, but how did the main cast survive The Calamity? Zia and the Ura I get, because they were far away. But The Kid, Zulf, and (presumably) Rucks were in the thick of it. I thought at first it was because they were maybe sent back at the moment after the Calamity in a time loop, but that wouldn't hold for the first iteration, so... I dunno.

[Valefar]

Well, I think Rucks was just knowledgeable enough to get through and reach the Bastion on his own, considering that he designed it, he knew about Calamity pretty much everything and he collaborated with the Mancers on it himself... heck, he could have been Mancer himself for all we know. As for Zulf, he was just lucky I guess, so was the Kid. In their case there is no different explanation. By the way, center of the Calamity was in the Tazal Terminals, not in Caelondia.

[The Chocolatier]

Originally posted by Kajeve:

Well, I think Rucks was just knowledgeable enough to get through and reach the Bastion on his own, considering that he designed it, he knew about Calamity pretty much everything and he collaborated with the Mancers on it himself... heck, he could have been Mancer himself for all we know. As for Zulf, he was just lucky I guess, so was the Kid. In their case there is no different explanation. By the way, center of the Calamity was in the Tazal Terminals, not in Caelondia.

It was supposed to be, but Venn sabotaged it to target Caelondia instead, which is why the Terminals were in relatively good shape with many survivors.
Still, no explanation for the Kid and Zulf. Luck it is. Your point on Rucks makes sense though.

[Valefar]

Yes, Venn sabotaged the whole thing, but still - game screen says that Tazal Terminals were hit hardest, strictly speaking – ripped from deep underground and thrown to the stars. Ura was main target of the Calamity, I understood that Venn only changed it so that it would also hit Caelondia. But I may be wrong, of course.
As for the Kid, I'm not very sure, but wasn't he on the Rippling Walls when Calamity happened? Walls were supposed to be, like, greatest fortification in known world.

EDIT: I wouldn't take number of Ura survivors too seriously, it's IMHO gameplay>lore - we need Ura as enemies, so we got Ura, no Caels around doesn't mean all dead expect Ruck and the Kid.

[letir]

Kid was in far raid when Calamity happens.
Zulf and Zia was undeground (Zia in basement, Zulf in Mausoleum). Venn send Zia in basement, so, i guess, it was safe.

Rucks will say that in the Who-Knows-Where trip

[Valefar]

Well now, thing is, technically Zia and Zulf being underground shouldn't matter. Calamity was able to rip off whole Tazal Terminals from the ground. It's like, it couldn't handle simble basement? I still call their survival blind luck.

[letir]

Calamity was aimed on undeground tunnels of Ura in the first place. Caelondia just take aftershock.

[Valefar]

Please, put spoilers in your posts, it's done by typing [spoiler-] (without the - ) in the beginning and [/spoiler-] in the end.

[Harichi]

Originally posted by Kajeve:

Please, put spoilers in your posts, it's done by typing [spoiler-] (without the - ) in the beginning and [/spoiler-] in the end.

Why? You can easily see that there are spoilers in the first post, it's just very messy if everyone puts spoilers in the post.