Valadania

Approximately 9,000 years ago, a mysterious race - not of Earth - opened various portals across the Earth, via arcane technologies which few humans could hope to comprehend. These gateways led to a totally different planet altogether, one occupied by only the necessities for habitability to higher life forms - microbes, soil fauna and the like. Before long, creatures of the land, sea and air investigated the portals, and - life being so intrepid - colonized this new world, furnishing it with a rich array of flora and fauna. Humankind was among the species that made the crossing, and now, millenia after the last portals sealed shut, their culture has evolved along totally different lines.