#Lore24 – Entry #342 – Sci-Fi Month IV #7 – Rebuilding the World

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “What were the greatest challenges you and the world faced following the Great Cataclysm?  Did you participate in the rebuilding process or focus more upon your own development during the Reforging?”

RV:  “For the first few years, it was simply survival.  Thanks to the preparations I had made, House Volcari and our allies were mostly intact, but we found ourselves upon an entirely new continent, our arcane abilities severely hindered, and nature itself in an uproar as the world changed around us.  Though we remained relatively close to Arcavarlon and the Isle of Fang, the city itself was mostly a rubble-filled ruin, and the geography had changed significantly; in fact, we were on the other side of the world, what had once been a massive central continent was now hidden beneath a vast ocean. 

Even with all the changes we faced, the Elvish Dominion, perhaps not as great as it had once been, would remain the driving force behind rebuilding civilization upon our side of the world.  The majority of elf communities would find their way to us in time, though a not insignificant number would remain on the other side of the world, forming their own societies that I would have little to do with.  For many years, we and the other surviving races would work to tame this new land we found ourselves part of, learning its layout and ways, learning to trust each other again.  Oh, the shorter lived races were just as susceptible to our influence as they always had been, and soon enough we were guiding them from the shadows as we had always done, to our benefit, but one could simply call that the natural order, from a certain point of view.”

AG:  “An elvish point of view?”

RV:  “Indeed.”

AG:  “How would you say you shaped the world as it was rebuilding?”

RV:  “I didn’t involve myself more than I had to.  As I said, I was busy trying to relearn magic during the first few centuries.  Once we had stabilized our own people and started guiding the other races to something that resembled proper societies, I remained focused upon regaining my previous power and studying exactly what had changed not only upon Andyllion, but in the realms it was linked to and those that I had previously traveled to.  Planar travel remained very dangerous for many centuries, and it was rather a lost art until the Age of Legends came about.  Magic overall had grown weaker, I would discover, making the traversal to other realms either impossible or much more intensive than they previously were.  What once could be achieved in a single planar jump could take a half dozen smaller jumps, for example. 

I would avoid the realm of demons, of course, for it was quite thoroughly blocked by Marcon’s plan.  You could say that what separated our realms then, and to a similar extent now, is akin to the barrier that separates us from the Demon Sector; anything that tried to pass through was utterly destroyed, or, if you were fortunate, only nearly so.  Hence why the surviving demons had to adapt and change their ways upon Andyllion; they would fight to survive just as hard as anyone else.

To summarize, I would mainly serve to reestablish the arcane disciplines during this period, disseminating what I would to the lesser arcanists under me, who would then teach the other races what we would allow them to know.  The interdimensional and interplanar communication and traversal had provided their own challenges for those who served the gods, so their power was likewise diminished for a time.  Those of a more primal, druidic slant would also find their power had waned, if only due to the immense chaos within the world as the massive upheavals slowly settled down and a new normalcy prevailed.”