>>279681565
the hellfire serpent killed everyone, and it was summoned/created by the god of the earth (depicted here in this sky island statue).
What's funny to note is most fan interpretations of the mural assume the sun god nika and the unnamed earth god were in conflict. but all nika explicitly does in that era is appear. It doesn't actually say he liberated anyone. Nor does it say the era ended as a direct result of his actions. It could just as easily be that the earth god just happened to, intentionally or accidentally, unleash the hellfire serpent. The main focus of the mural for that era is on the mining operation and the serpent. To me it seems more likely that it was the mining operation itself that angered the god of earth (and 'the earth god raging' could easily be a dramatic way of saying "there was a bunch of horrible earthquakes', which would make sense as a consequence of excessively mining this "forbidden sun" substance, whatever it is)