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Anthropia Setting:

The exact date of when it happened has long since been lost to history. It was a time where humanity was on the cusp of godhood, their technology and science reaching levels far beyond what mortals should have acquired. The sun was about to burn out, having neared the end of its life, and humans were preparing to migrate to other star systems and force their dominance upon uninhabited worlds. But such would not happen.

The spirits of nature, long since forgotten as humans emerged into a culture ruled by science and technology, rather than spiritual guidance and mysticism, realized the true danger this species could pose to the natural order if they were permitted to flourish any further. The Solar Spirit, with its dying breath declared war upon the mortal humans, and for the first time in known history, nature unleashed its total, combined wrath. A new solar spirit was crowned, its young and healthy life force rejuvenating the earth's sun back to its younger and healthier prime. Natural disasters were sent to destroy the human technology and population, but much to the spirit's horror, their technology had reached such a level where even the wrath of nature was only a minor annoyance to them. Waves receded back to calming waters, quakes and fissures ceased and closed almost as soon as they had begun, 400 mph winds didn't even cause their buildings to so much as creak.

Nature realized that there was only one choice left to stop these creatures. If they could not eradicate them through natural means, they would have to change them through unnatural ones. For the first time in all of history, the immortal embodyments of nature would have to behave as mortals, and defy the natural order. A prospect that shocked and terrified their kind, that to defeat mortals, they would need to act like them. The council of high spirits, those of celestial power, decided to restore magic to the mortal world that had long forgotten its existence. Combining their power, they unleashed a massive explosion that encompassed the entire planet.

The cities and culture of humanity was completely obliterated down to its atomic structure, there was nothing left of the once great human cities or technology, no rubble, no charred data copies, it was as if it had never existed. Living beings who were exposed to the magical explosion underwent a transformation both mentally and physically. About 78% of the human population was obliterated in the blast, yet those who survived mutated into a species known merely as the Ancient Ones to this day. They were stripped of their memories, intelligence, and even their very identities. Becoming mindless and feral savages, their bodies transformed into monstrous creatures that neither man nor beast could fathom, Driven to madness, these creatures fled underground to escape the devestation that had befallen them.

The animals of the land became self aware, gaining intelligence that began to rival humans of the dark ages, it seemed they were destined to become the new rulers of the mortal world. Their bodies changed, becoming larger, more humanoid in form, and even their life spans were altered, allowing the beasts to live almost as long as humans themselves.

The spirits realized too late, however, that they had just comitted one of the very crimes they had punished humanity for. In attempting to take control of another species, they had caused a massive outbreak of unnatural disasters. The beasts, who were once inseparable from nature's influence, began to drift away to repeat the same mistakes. They would erect their own villages and began to use tools. Some members of their kind were even blessed with the power to wield magic, and began using their powers to take control of nature much like science had attempted to do. When the spirits tried to correct their mistakes, they realize they had been unable to do so.

While humanity may have been vast in power, indeed, there were still those who adhered to at least some form of religion. But that changed with their new transformation. With their minds and identities shattered, their belief in an afterlife was completely forgotten, along with any faith in gods. Cut off from the faith that supplied their life force, the old gods of humanity were obliterated within the heavens, and as the beast folk began to gain their own intelligence, a new pantheon of gods arose from their newly established beliefs.

As punishment for defying the laws of the immortals, by directly interfering with mortal affairs and accidentally destroying their predecessors, the new gods banned the spirits of nature from making direct contact with the mortal world ever again. Their powers were vastly diminished now to only the basics. A rain spirit could generate rain for the purpose of growing crops, but not so much as to generate a disasterous flood, for example. With such weakened power, the spirits were unable to generate any serious disasters that made humanity fear and respect nature in the old days. What had been a sin by choice for humanity had now become a sin forced upon the beast folk, without nature to guide or control them, they broke from their natural heritage in an effort to gain supremacy over the world. It seemed that the world had become a relative paradise free of direct interruption from both nature and the gods. But like always, appearances can be decieving. While the new gods may not directly interfere with mortal affairs, their power was still nourished by the newly educated mortals. It was not long before the beast folk discovered these new gods, and began to form religious cults in dedication to them.

The predatory species still needed to feed on meat to survive, and now that animals had become sentient and humanoid, ferals were no longer available for farming. They had no choice, in order to prevent themselves from starving, they would have to eat their fellow citizens to survive! This was the start of the Food Chain system, a social hierarchy divided up into the Carnivore, Omnivore, and Herbivore tiers. Prey species tended to be oppressed by the predators, who in turn, were oppressed by superior predators. Society at large became a struggle for survival, only the strongest, cleverest, and most influential survived. The weak became tools or food for their superiors to exploit. Along with the Food Chain system, came the legalized slave trade, where hunters would attack and capture those too weak to defend themselves and sell them off to the highest bidder. In most cases, it was prey who ended up on the market, being sold to more worthy predators, but such was not always the case, and it was considered a sign of unrivaled prestige for a prey to own a predator slave.

Of course, there were also the Mages, who's ability to control nature earned them both respect and fear among the common people. Mages amassed enough influence to be exempted from the laws and regulations of the Food Chain, anyone who was discovered to possess magical affinity was taken for training by the mage academy to master their gift. Even prey species earned special treatment from predators if they were mages, either out of fear of their abilities, or because the predator hoped to somehow exploit them for their own benefit.

Lastly, there were the remnants of humanity to contend with. They would only remain in hiding for so long before hunger, or desire for territory would force them to emerge again. It was 10,000 years before they returned to the surface, and when they did, it became both a necessity, and highly profitable for hired adventurers to seek out and destroy these monsters, who's origins are long since forgotten to the beast folk.

It has been 54,296 years since all this began. Humanity is completely forgotten, and now the Ancient Ones are believed to be some kind of demonic race from another dimension. Nature is even more submissive to mortal kind than it ever was for humans, the leaders rule through might and intimidation, rather than charisma or honor, the power of magic has replaced study in the ways of science, and the spirits are forced to watch as penance for their crime. They sought to restore the balance of nature, and only resulted in throwing it further into chaos.