Summary
Late final-station revelations recast the end of the gate war as a sacrificial cleansing that sealed the Others away from the galaxy at catastrophic cost. *1
This was not a simple failed shutdown. Vinerel's account frames it as a desperate success: the corrupted gates were cleansed and the Others' advance was stopped, but the act demanded the lives of the Vanished who gathered around the gates to do it. A surge of dark energy still escaped into the surrounding systems, and that aftermath became the next great crisis for Berkav, Thespara, and Orbos. *1
SpoilerPhantom Epoch Extras 32 / 36
At the Final Station, Vinerel explains that Sarhanna and Lindor discovered the gates had become breaches between realities and that cleansing them required channeling Luminari energy into the network at the cost of Vanished lives. The gathered defenders succeeded in sealing the Others away, but dark energy still escaped into the surrounding systems and corrupted the rulers left behind to guide what remained. *1
Gate Cleansing is the hinge between the ancient Vanishing and the later surviving-ruler crisis. It explains both why the Others are no longer pouring through the network and why the worlds left behind fall under rulers warped by the dark aftermath of that salvation. *2