The Day of Darkness is the name given by the Minmatar to the day of first contact with the Amarr Empire, a day which also saw the worst storm in the recorded history of Matar.
Historical Overview
The Amarr first discovered the Minmatar early in 22355 AD. They were the largest civilization the Amarr Empire had thus far encountered, and the first that had settlements outside of their own system. Determining them a potential threat, the Empire spent a long time covertly assessing the Minmatar's capabilities and defenses, and, finding them sorely lacking, waited only for the proper opportunity to strike.
In 22480, when a large storm hit the continent of Coricia on Matar, the Amarr launched a swift first strike, destroying space installations and shipyards all throughout Pator, and throwing the Minmatar chain of command into chaos.
With the storm and military attacks over, the Amarr deployed six massive slave vessels to different planets in Pator, and scooped up the survivors. The colonies on Belogor, Varkal, and Kulheim were completely depopulated during this raid. On Huggar and Syld, the colonies lost over half their populations, while on Matar, the Minmatar put up a fierce resistance on the surface. However, having known no large-scale warfare for centuries, and with their infrastructure in shambles as a result of both the storm and the precision of the Amarr military strikes, they were unable to prevent the Amarr from enslaving hundreds of millions on Matar alone. This was the largest of the slave raids that would continue for the next millennium that would see the enslavement of hundreds of millions more.
While the Amarr clearly took advantage of the storm, they did not have a hand in causing it. There is some evidence to suggest the massive storm on this day was the result of worsening weather in general caused by climate change and tidal disruptions. While the climate change is normally attributed to the effects of industrialization, a highly unpopular theory put forth in recent years suggests the Minmatar legend of the harvested moon may have been real, and that the harvesting of this moon was the cause of both the tidal disruptions and the climate change.