Climate change weakened the northern provinces first. Then came three centuries of slave raids from east and west that devastated the population. The hub-and-spoke economy that had distributed Dioptara's wealth began to collapse as trade routes were severed. By 1250, Fofanna was abandoned. The great libraries were scattered. The imperial administration fragmented into competing successor states. Sanniquellie vanished from maps — but the griots kept the stories alive. In hidden villages, oral historians preserved the memory of what had been. The Manticore passed from bearer to bearer, waiting.