Terah

Earth, the year 2027.   Mankind has driven the Earth to the brink; obsessed with furthering their nations and declaring their superiority over one another. The scientific community has pleaded with them for years to reduce their harm to the environment, but the pursuit of wealth, influence, and resource control was deemed far more important than the well-being of their home. That was...until the Elves returned.   From seemingly out of nowhere, a lone man with pointed ears and elegant features appeared before the United Nations, declaring that their time in the seat of power was over. Before the entire world, the man recanted the true history of the planet: the Earth had never truly belonged to humanity; they had simply been allowed to believe so. The man referred to this as "The Kindness of The Elves".   Long before man learned to walk upright, magic flowed through the planet, giving life to sentient beings of wonder and wisdom: the Elves, the Orcs, the Gnomes, the Dwarves, and the Halflings. Each race lived in harmony, understanding that sharing and nurturing their world was their ultimate purpose. That didn't mean they were without their differences. The Orcs sought to prove themselves in battle, sometimes warring with the noble Elves and the proud Dwarves. These clashes would shake the Earth and tear the sky, but there was always resolution. The Elves cared for their world, the Dwarves shaped it, the Orcs traveled it, and the Gnomes and Halflings chronicled it. Soon, their world produced another great miracle: the evolution of man. When primate first began to evolve to resemble the upright intelligent life already present on Earth, the ancestor races saw their potential and made the most difficult choice in their history: to step aside and allow nature to chart its own path to the future. And so, the Elves would pull the magic from the very ground beneath their feet and use it to shape a world of their own in which they (along with the others) could live apart from their home-world: The Feywild. Taking their cities and their magic with them, the Earth's ancient races bid farewell to humanity's ancestors and locked themselves away beyond time and space, where they would stand watch for nearly 20 million years.   But, alas, humanity carved a path of blood and greed through their own history, forcing the Elves to step out from their isolation in a last-ditch effort to save their home.   The Elven man offered the world a look into two distinct possibilities for their future. They could continue to bleed the planet dry and inevitably burn in the vengeful light of their sun, or they could throw away their tools of greed and war in exchange for the only help the Elves could offer them: magic. It took time, nearly a week, but eventually the world's leaders agreed to the seemingly impossible act of disarming and de-militarizing their countries in favor of saving the Earth. That is, except for one country in particular. Only one nation refused to cooperate, spouting unfounded rhetoric that the Elves were planning an invasion of their country and that the only way to ensure mankind's safety was to make an example of them and unite the world against these magical beings. The Elven representative responded in a statement that would be recorded in the annals of history for generations to come:   "You are correct. You should be united. After all, the rest of the world has agreed to be so. Mister President, I feel it important for you to know and to understand the depth of our proposal. We weren't asking you for your permission to save this world. We were simply hoping for your cooperation. You never had a choice, only the opportunity for kindness. This was our world. And we will protect it with or without you."   In the moments that followed, the man raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Across the world, every firearm, explosive, missile, nuclear power plant, and any associated object vanished at once from the face of the Earth forever. Millions panicked, but the commotion was silenced almost as quickly as it had begun. All over the world, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and the small races stepped through from The Feywild and began their work. They helped and protected the humans from one another and helped them adapt to their new circumstances. On that day, great sages poured the magic back into the sleeping leylines of the planet and granted their power to everyone, restoring power lost to large communities and teaching those who would listen about the arcane and their plan to prolong the Earth's life.   After 3 years, it was time. The day came to be called "The Day of Heroes". Led by many powerful Elven and Orcish mages, those humans who had been taught and discovered magic by now turned their attention to the sky. As one, they unleashed wave after wave of carefully crafted spells into space, joining them together like a woven net, rebuilding and repairing the damaged atmospheric layers that protect the natural world. Along with this, large magical generators were brought online that provided power remotely to any electronic devices across the world. Communication and ease of life flourished and knowledge of the Earth's true history began to spread and be integrated into the historic records forever.   Life was good and the world had finally united, with those carrying out violent protest and seeding dissent silenced and pressed into obscurity by the desire and determination of the majority to defend the peace and the stability they had finally achieved. Humanity prospered and the Earth's ancestral races found joy in welcoming them into their expansive family. This peace lasted for 20 years. And then the world found itself the target of an unstoppable calamity.   A race from beyond Earth arrived to speak with the people. They called themselves the Vedalken, a people who had visited the Earth many times before and were the source of the myth of "the Grays", a result of mis-identification of their clothing and equipment. They brought with them a dire warning: that the "Elder Gods" were coming and there was nothing they could do about it. The Vedalken hailed from the Zeta Reticuli system and explained that their world had been destroyed only a few years ago. Utilizing faster-than-light travel, they came to Earth in an attempt to save them from a similar fate. The massive eldritch monsters calling themselves the Elder Gods had told them that they planned on clashing with one another on Earth, a world of great magic, in order to establish a hierarchy within their ranks. They cared not for the lives or the worlds that got in their way, and considered themselves the only beings worthy of life in the universe.   There was panic. But the Vedalken proposed a plan: the construction of massive ships that could hold the Earth's people and carry them away from the planet to the safety of the Vedalken's network of planetary relays where they could live temporarily until a permanent solution could be found. It would take another 12 years for the Elder Gods to reach the Earth and, in that time, the Colony Fleet was completed. 200 super-massive ships powered by magic generators and containing artificial biomes were sent across the world to be boarded. Only 60% of humanity and the other races volunteered to leave the Earth; that is, nearly 40% decided to stay. People who were terminally ill, elderly, or simply did not want to leave their homes discussed their choices to stay and bid farewell to the rest of the people. It took a few weeks to move all of the refugees onto the Ships, but at last...the time had come. And not a moment too soon.   The Ships lifted off and made their way toward Mars, where the Vedalken had a space-gate prepared to take them across the galaxy. Just as they left, they were greeted by the arrival of the Elder Gods. The horrifying pseudo-deities descended upon the Earth, destroying 28 of the Colony Ships and turning to destroy the rest of them. As the Earth's races prepared for the worst, another miracle occurred: the Earth's Gods, massive divine humanoids from all different faiths and creed wielding power over different facets of reality, tore through The Veil, a mysterious barrier between the Material Plane and the Divine Realms, to stand between the Elder Gods and the fleeing people who had called the Earth their home. Humans from all walks of life and all vocations witnessed "The Advent of the Prime Gods", affirming their lifelong beliefs and giving them hope that their world might survive. The remaining Ships rocketed off toward the Mars space-gate and with one final goodbye to their solar system, the Earthlings became refugees.   For the next 97 years, the Earthlings traveled between different relays. Some found new homes among the stars, while others were content to wait on-board the Fleet until word of Earth's fate reached them. Over the years, many rumors came to them, speaking of the great "Elder War" and "The Devastation of Venus and Mars". Those monitoring the system recorded massive fluctuations in energy and gravity wells that warped time and space around the planet. It wasn't until the 97th year that a different report made its rounds between the relays: the Earth had fallen silent. Readings of the planet's surface returned data indicating that the surface had expanded to over 1.5 times its original area and there was a single super-massive landmass present among the lone, expansive ocean. Sentient life and various flora and fauna were detected, indicating that life on the planet, as sparse as it was, had reached a point roughly equivalent to that of The Bronze Age. At last: there was hope.   It took 4 months for the Colony Fleet to reconvene and gather all those who wished to return to Earth. In the end, only 30 Ships made the return trip, with a few new additions to the races in-tow: the Warforged, mechanical laborers created as a collaboration between the Vedalken and the Earthlings, and the mysterious Changelings, a nomadic race with no home and no identity of their own. Once they were ready, the Fleet made the space-jump back toward Earth. Upon arriving near Mars, they were shocked to see the planet nearly destroyed, the remnants barely held together by gravity. As they approached Earth, the Fleet noticed something strange. Their instruments struggled to produce accurate readings, forcing them to reboot and re-calibrate them. Once everything as back online, they were stunned to find that violent shifts in gravity and space-time had altered the region of space around the planet to a far greater degree than they had previously thought. Where 97 years had passed for them, 2000 had passed for the Earth itself. Unsure of how to proceed, another force contacted the Earthlings to bring them home: the Gods.   The Fleet landed near the center of the super-continent and were greeted by the 3 of the remaining Gods: Heimdall, Athena, and Ioun. The deities assured them that the war against the Elder Gods was over and that only echoes of their influence remained. The Earth had begun anew in the wake of conflict and the Prime Gods (as they called themselves), had prepared it for humanity's return. The trio of Gods helped to form a plan of action for their returned children. They would split the Colony Fleet into 8 groups and set out to establish 8 cities from which to live, grow, and explore their new world; a world of which the Gods themselves knew very little of. They learned that The Veil between worlds was gone now, having been used to seal away the Elder Gods instead, and the Prime Gods now lacked the omnipotence and limitless power they once held because of The Veil's ability to turn worship into energy. As they left to return to the Divine Realm, the Gods assured the Earthlings that they would still impart their powers should they ask for it.   And so, the 8 Cities were established. Once it had been confirmed that each group had reached their destination, the operation to create the "United Cities of Nova Terah", named as an anagram of and in honor of the Earth as it originally was, began....but it began with tragedy. The 8th group, sent to the northernmost part of the continent, a portion of landmass that was nearly separated from the mainland by a large sea, was lost. As the other Cities began construction through the salvage and cannibalization of the Colony Ships, contact with the 8th was lost and a sudden reading of wild magic energy was recorded from the north. The event caused a perpetual storm of lightning and ice to form on the northern edge of the sea and completely obscure the region. No survivors were ever recovered or heard from and the 8th City was declared forever lost, with the northern region becoming an uninhabitable zone.   Over the next 15 years, the Cities underwent several major stages. The first was the establishment of the Barrier Cores, massive magical force-fields created from the generators of the Colony Ships. These shields protected the entirety of the initial Cities and allowed the people within to live without worry of invasion by any creature or force that wished to harm them, while allowing the natural world to still be experienced. The next was the creation of a central governing party that would ensure the continued stability and open communication between the citizens of Terah. This group was named "The Nova Council" and existed, in parts, in all of the 7. Their job was to always ensure a balance of power and a fair distribution of resources and services for all people in the Cities. After the Council came "The Guild", an inter-City network that trained and hired capable explorers to travel throughout the unexplored areas of the continent referred to as "The Wilds" in order to learn about the last 2000 years of history and map the world for future generations. As they worked to make themselves a part of this new-old world, many of its current inhabitants traveled to the Cities seeking to meet the once-Earthlings and learn of them as well. As many countries had in the past, the Cities of Nova Terah became a melting pot of cultures and ideas that would hopefully inspire and move the planet toward a grand new destiny.