Phoenix

For as long as allkind was capable of harboring indifference and brutality in their hearts and minds, allkind had fought with one another in a never ending waxing and waning power struggle. In fact, allkind has become so battle hardened, experienced, and proficient in waging war, that they dramatically changed how fast the drums of war drilled.   War, and it’s costly and devastating consumption of life has changed by the time of the Seven Years War. Allkind’s cold and calculated marriage of magic and the sciences have birth a new technology known as magitek, and the weaponization of magitek gave allkind the ability to slaughter one another with such proficiency, ease, and simplicity.   Desperate to end the Seven Years War, Emperor Friedrich Von Hohenzollern, the profound sage that he was, at the peak of his might, and technological advancements at the time, was able attain the insight and power to cast an almighty spell that would end the Seven Years War once and for all. The almighty spell was a new, foreign, and cosmic spell that was considered alien to this planet's magic. It summoned forth a comet to descend from the skies to crush the lands of the Emperor’s enemies.   But the Emperor underestimated this new power...

The comet ended the Seven Years War, but started the Forty Days of Fire, an event that cremated the world of Eden, and reduced everything to ash.   It would take the world over a century before sunlight could once again shine through the fallout of this ashen world. It was only then that Earth could begin to heal and, and the remnants of Allkind could begin anew.   The people from the new world rose from the ashes of the old. Tempered, and baptized in fire, Allkind has been reborn, and yearns to rebuild civilization back to it's former glory, but a few things have changed since a new era has dawned.

Among countless other things, the Church is responsible for the culture of literacy. In ancient times in the Old World, the Church emphasized the importance of written language, and documented text and procedures. To them, literature was the way of preserving the very word of God through the hearts and minds of the people. The literate culture, or the idea of learning through written text, was a relatively unpopular concept in the Old World. Sure, some laymen in the Old World wrote before the Church made writing popular, but only a handful of people could read. Even fewer actually wanted to read. Even among the nobles who could read, very few wanted to learn how. For thousands and thousands of years almost everything was taught from master to apprentice. Everything, from swordplay, to outdoor survival, to musical skill and fine arts, smithing, medical practice, carpentry, etc etc etc was all taught from master to apprentice, and literacy among nobles often reached the extent of a few letters, not really books.   By the time of the Seven Years War, the Old World was only in the process of adopting the literate culture. They were still in the process of documenting everything they did, and I do mean everything. The documents that did survive the Forty Days of Fire have become priceless relics which advances the civilizations of the New World tenfold. Again, thanks to the Church for transcribing, preserving and hoarding these priceless bits of knowledge, the people of the New World can enjoy just a fragment of the luxuries and frivolities of the Old World. Once they experienced that, they were hooked. Most civilizations today emphasize a great deal in the acquisition of these ancient relics, and the reproduction of ancient technologies. This led to the Magitek Renaissance, in which the people are trying their hardest to relive the former glory of the Old World, and eventually surpass their technological, and magiteknological advancements.

Although the fallout caused by Friedrich's comet has mostly settled and dissipated, for mysterious and unknown reasons it still lingers about heavily in some places, causing madness in the minds, and corruption in the body. They call this phenomenon the Cloud of Darkness. The cloud moves as if it has a mind of it's own, and emanates strong magical properties.

Like many forest fires have proven time and time again, the ashes of the old, provide excellent breeding grounds for the new. When the forests, vegetation, and all manner of green and color started to grow back in the land, it came back with a vengeance. Life flourished anew, enabling allkind to form large civilizations yet again, wilder, stronger, quicker, and more cunning and resilient than ever. Like Allkind, the beats and creatures of the forests were also baptized and tempered in fire, and are even more dangerous now than they were in the Old World.

However, as life began to reclaim the far corners of the ashen earth, a mysterious disease of unknown origin spread among the plants. An alien fungal infection began to slowly consume the plants and vegetation of the new world. The rich oxygen, abundant food source, and natural wind barrier of the grand forest of the new world provided excellent breeding grounds for these fungi to grow. This fungal infection threatens to consume the new and young civilizations that rely on the grand forest of the new world to thrive. These Fungal Jungles are extremely hostile environments. There are home to potent poisons and toxins, and these poisons and toxins affects all manner of life within the fungal jungle. In some areas, without proper respirators and specialized suits, being left exposed to the environment can kill you within seconds of exposure. In addition, the ever decaying forest provide excellent breeding grounds for all manner of scavengers and insects, and has even spawned new species of monsters. These Fungal Jungles aren't all that bad. Some fungus is actually very useful to civilization, and these jungles even provide artisans and smiths chitin, which is a very valuable resource.

The Great Desert of the Old World, which was home to the Arkoshian Empire, both pagan and holy, turned to glass during the Forty Days of Fire. Now known as the Crystallized Waste, this wasteland is an extremely hostile environment, and almost completely void of organic life. Skyward creatures have learned not to fly over this area, as the skies above the wasteland are riddled with invisible pillars of intense heat. Some areas in the Crystallized Waste get so hot due to the concentrated reflection of sunlight, that it makes lakes of molten glass. The scholars have learned to traverse the waste during the night when the temperatures are the coolest. The discovery of the Crystallized Waste birthed the Ceramic Revolution.

The sudden influx and availability of ceramics lead to ceramic engineering - the science and technology of creating objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials. The field of ceramics have lead to discoveries of a new kind of material that is easy to work with, extremely resistant, and is as hard and tough as the rarest alloys.   It has been 1583 years since the the 40th day of fire...