Grand Stream
The Grand Stream is a fictional air current in the 2002 anime Last Exile. The Grand Stream is a continually rushing storm that circles the center of the hour-glass shaped planet of Prester.The torrential storm always rages in the high altitudes of the skies of both Anatoray and Disith and is almost impossible to cross with a vanship or any vessel without following a safe passage of air currents in which the wind is calm and flight is possible. Though if a skilled pilot attempts to go into the torrents he has a great risk of getting lost, crashing, or being destroyed by the large hulking form of EXILE.
History of the Grand Stream
The Grand Stream was created when EXILE arrived on Prester. When the passengers dissembarked to begin their new lives, EXILE traveled to the bottleneck and sealed iself in a cocoon and thus created the Grand Stream. The Guild had the power to control the weather on Prester and kept the peace for hundreds of years. 10 years before the anime takes place, Delphine Eraclea went power hungry and purged all members of the other noble Guild Houses, but what she didn't understand was that without a 'key' to Exile, the weather controller would fail but she didn't care about that since she was now the new Maestro. The weather started fail and Disith started to freeze and Anatoray stared to heat up.The Disith build a giant airship to cross the Stream to Anatoray, the Anatoray did not understand the Disith plight and declared war on Disith. When a sect of the Anatoray goverment reconsidered, they sent Hamilcar Valka, George Head, Alex Row and Euirs to send a peace proposal to the Disith. Delphine did not like the idea of a Anatoray-Disith Alliance since it could threaten her power. She personally went after the small vanships. The banner on Delphine's ship knocked the flow of air, killing Valka, Head, and Euris and Alex as the sole survior and spotting the Maestro. Since the message never arrived on Disith the war started and the Guild supervised the war.