Year: 9064 B.C.
Ten thousand years ago, the Antarctic continent was located much further north than it's present location. This vast continent was home to various flora and fauna, climate zones and a number of diverse peoples and cultures. These people had flourished for tens of thousands of years.
At this same time in Earth's history, a large celestial body impacted with what is now known as the North Atlantic Ocean. This impact caused catastrophic climate change and upset the orientation of the tectonic plate that covered the Earth's molten core. Antarctica now found itself over the south pole and, over the course of only a few decades, was engulfed in glacial ice. In that global deep-freeze, caused by millions of tons of ash and debris spreading out into the atmosphere, blocking the sun's light, sea levels dropped drasically. Only a small number of the continents inhabitants were able to escape the chilling deep-freeze.
The human survivors found their way to what would be known as Australia, while the even fewer elven survivors found refuge on an Island east of the southern tip of Africa. When sea level eventually rose to near normal, that island off the coast of Africa was inundated, killing off the last of the elven race.
Over the next few thousand years, the humans migrated into south-east Asia, the Orient, the Middle East and eventually Europe. In this time, the humans had forgotten all the knowledge they had aquired before the Cataclysm. Here they met the Neandertals. They were only moderately more advanced than those pre-humans, with whom they shared Europe for five thousand years. Then, inexplicably, the Neandertals vanished leaving the humans alone.
Year 1900 A.D.
Both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries saw much wars between the human nation that formed the global community, two World Wars, several major conflicts and a near-Apocolyptic War(2082-2103 A.D.). This period, the New Dark Ages, saw the global population of nearly six billion in the year 2000, to only a little more than three billion in 2103. But also in that time, the humans made great leaps in science, tachnology and space exploration, as well as warfare.
Mankind had finally intoduced themselves to the solar syatem on a permanent basis, colonizing the Earth's moon, Mars and sending long-term mining vessels into the asteroid bel, just beyond the orbit of Mars. As well as exploring and exploiting othe solar system, the scientific community, also explored the history of mankind, delving deep beloe the oceans and, most importantly, beneath the layers of glacial ice covering the Antarctic.
Here they discovered evidence of great, ancient civilizations, buried for ten thousand years. Among the discoveries was the scientific, technological and cultural acheivements of these long-dead people.
However, the most astounding discoveries, was the evidence that many of these were magical peoples who shared a continent with mythical creatures. This revelation was initially kept secret by the political powers of the time. But in the late twenty-first century, the secret got out.
In Mankinds thirst for power and wealth, war broke out. Battle for dominance in space and control over the artifacts of Antarctica, thrust the world into war and chaos.Although the testing and construction of nuclear, chemical and biological devices for war was banned early in the century, many off these devices still existed. Many counties across the glode, struggling with faltering economies and civil war, found it neccassary to use these weapons to gain control. This became what is known as the Apocolyptic War. The global economy was in ruins, hundreds of nations fell into anarchy and utterly collapsed, and millions upon millions of people were dead, deing, or wished they were dead.
Year: 2252 A.D.
A century has passed since the Apocolyptic War, and little has changed. Though there is a governing body that rules over most of the world, the World Union, many countries are still fighting amongst and within themselves. Terrorist activities are rampant; renegade factions still vie for 'hereditarylands'; there is little-to-no control over the artifacts of the Antarctic; the Mech's are seeking revenge against their human creators/enslavers; the Genod's are hiding themselves among their human counterparts, always fearful; and the Silicons are, as always, planning the downfall of all sentient, organic life in our solar system.
The World Union has formed two major government bodies to deal with weapons of mass destruction and the Antarcitc Artifacts; The Nuclear Regulatory Board, and The Dragon Tome's Authority. The mandate of the NRB is to seek out and destroy all wepaons of mass destruction. With a strict law that prohibits the use and possession of Antarctic Artifacts, it is the mandate of the DTA to seek out and recover those magical artifacts.
Dissention has not only spread across the globe but into the outlying communities as well. Authority of the World Union is especially weak in the off-world colonies, and the threat of violence is constant, and imminent.