The eight year old Erin Lopez tugged at her father's sleeve as he was reading a book in front of the fire in their manor house. "Daddy, what were the Atlantics?"
Aaron Lopez, Lord of Calway, put a bookmark in his book and placed it off to the side. "Where did you hear about them, darling?"
"Mister Fulbright was complaining about how hard he had to work on his farm. He said, "I wish I had metal horses and magic seeds like the Atlantics did."
Aaron considered this for a second, and then said, "The Atlantics were a race of really powerful people who lived a really long time ago. They had many fantastic things, and they could do things that we can only dream of."
"Like what?"
"We don't rightly know. It is hard to know what is real and what is just a story. But most people agree on some things. The Atlantics could create lots and lots of food and clothing and tools, with hardly any work. They built great cities with enormous buildings of glass and steel, taller than the tallest castle tower, and millions and millions of people lived in these cities. They could travel all over the world, living wherever they wanted to."
"The Atlantics were masters of all kinds of magic and crafts. Their knowledge and power were greater than any mage today. Some people say that they even created magic and the Etherweb."
"Wow. Were they gods?"
"Again, we do not know. Some people say that they were the gods that created the world and gave birth to all its people. But others say that they were humans like us, and that they created the gods the same way they created magic."
Erin looked worried. "People created the gods?"
Aaron said nothing for a time, then looked at his daughter seriously. "I do believe that the Atlantics created the gods we know today. I have seen too much to believe that the gods are all-powerful, or that they have existed forever. Friar Kantz would disagree, of course. Please, don't tell him I said that."
Erin nodded, understanding. "I promise I won't tell him." Then, she asked, "What else did the Atlantics create?"
"We know that they created many great things. I have seen the remains of some of them, in my travels. I have seen ruined cities with strange and wondrous buildings. I have seen skeletons of huge birds the size of this house, made of a strange metal. I have seen tall towers, stretching into the sky, made of a single stone.
The Atlantics also created many smaller things, things that people can use. Some are great items of power, while others are simple, clever little things, like the parabolic solar grill in our yard. Some of them are too strange for us to understand, while others can be rebuilt by wizards and used by anybody. Many things that wizards make are based on an Atlantic device that someone found. That is why many adventurers seek things from the lost cities of the Atlantics.
"But that is not all. The Atlantics created all of the magical beings: trolls, vampires, were-beasts, living trees, dragons, even the demons and angels. Some people also say that they also created the non-human races: the Elit, Blukes, Litlings, Antfolk, Brutes, and all the varieties of merfolk, lizardfolk, insect people, and beast-people that live all over the world."
"That may be true, but it may be a lie. I do not believe that the demi-humans were created. I think that they started as Atlantics, just like us, but that they changed their forms so they could live in wild places. You should never believe anyone who says that the non-humans are 'fake' or 'made to be slaves'. All non-humans are just as real as us, with intelligence and souls. It does not matter where they may have come from. Do you understand that?"
"Of course, daddy," replied Erin without hesitation. Then she thought for a little and asked, "Why did the Atlantics go away?"
"People say different things. The Elit and druids say that the Atlantics lost respect for the world that gave them life, and that their civilization sank beneath the seas because their magic brought ruin to the land and sky and water. The priests say that the Atlantics became corrupt and decadent, and that the gods abandoned them because of their bad behavior."
But I believe the Jaad story. He looked down at his daughter and smiled. "Do you want to hear it, or am I boring you?"
"Don't tease me! You know I like hearing your stories."
"All right then, the story goes like this. The Atlantics were in a period of peace and prosperity when the Jaad attacked them without warning. The Jaad were a group of people like the Atlantics, but they hated the Atlantics and wanted to destroy them all. In a single day, the Jaad destroyed three of the greatest buildings of the Atlantics."
"After that, there was a series of horrible wars that lasted over a hundred years, getting worse and worse as time wore on. The conflict raged over the whole world, and nobody was safe. The war involved powerful and horrible weapons. Entire cities were erased from existence with blasts of fire. The air and water were poisoned. Monstrous plagues were released, killing millions of people."
"The Atlantics finally won the war, but the whole world was devastated. The land and air and sea were all poisoned, and there were earthquakes and storms and floods. The Atlantics had to use all of their power just keep their cities and people alive."
"This was when they created the gods. At first, they just wanted to clean the world. The Atlantics created three kinds of God's Blood, one for each part of nature."
Aaron stopped talking and looked at his daughter. "Is this starting to sound familiar? Do you know your scripture?"
Erin nodded, and recited,
"In the beginning, there were three:
The great gods of land, air, and sea."
"That is correct. The Atlantics spread the three kinds of God's Blood all over the world, and they began their work of destroying the poisons. But soon, the Atlantics wanted more. They wanted to stop the earthquakes and storms and floods. And so they gave the god's blood the power to move and control the land and air and sea. But the gods still had no will of their own, and they were under the control of the Atlantics.
For a hundred years, the civilization of the Atlantics survived in this way. But in the end, the power of the gods was not enough to stop the natural disasters. The earth grew hotter, and the sea levels rose. There was a great flood, and all of the great Atlantic cities were buried under the waves."
"When the cities of the Atlantics fell, they lost control of the gods and they lost their ability to change the world. But they still had enough knowledge and power to change themselves. So that is what they did. They changed into all of the different races we know today, in order to survive in a changed and shattered world."
"But even as they adapted to their new forms, a new threat emerged. For when the Atlantics lost control of the gods, the gods began to grow, and change, and have children. One of these children turned evil. Do you know of him?"
"Gregu," replied Erin. "God of Death. The Gray Devourer. He Who Would Eat The World."
"Yes. Gregu raged across the world. Nothing could stop him. He ate whole landscapes, turning them into gray wastelands. The Atlantics knew that they could only stop him with divine power. But their gods had abandoned them."
"So, in desperation, the Atlantics made a new kind of God's Blood. This version was meant to live in a person, not in the world. The Atlantics gave this new God's Blood to their bravest warriors, and they drank it. Many of them died, unable to cope with the divine power. But some survived, and they became the first wizards. This was how magic was created."
"After the Atlantics gained the power of the gods, some of the gods started working with them again. The God's Blood inside a person let them communicate with the gods of the world. Some of the gods were willing to help fight Gregu.
"The wizards and the friendly gods fought Gregu for a hundred years, and finally banished him from the surface of the world. But when the battle was over, the wizards found that there was little left to save. Atlantic civilization had fallen apart because of all the fighting and disasters. The different people could no longer talk to each other. They spent all of their time trying to survive, and lost interest in knowledge and communication."
"The wizards could not stop this. They, too, had many different shapes. With their common enemy defeated, there was nothing to hold them together either. So they went back to join their people."
"Then there was a long time of chaos as the different races fought to survive. They soon started fighting each other. After about a thousand years, the Elit finally emerged victorious, forming the great Nemean Empire."
Aaron stopped telling the story. "Do you know the history after that?"
Erin nodded. "The Nemean Elit ruled the world for a thousand years. But then their Human slaves revolted and destroyed them and made many, many little kingdoms. Those kingdoms fought for hundreds of years until one tribe of humans formed the Selurian Empire. The Selurians ruled the land for hundreds of years until they were destroyed by monsters. Then the Dark Ages started."
Erin stopped and looked up at her father. "Are we still in the Dark Ages?"
Aaron considered this. "Only history can decide that. It has been a thousand years since Seluria fell, and no strong leader has emerged to take its place. Still, things are better than they used to be. We are ruled by a stable government, not bandits, and the dark things are not as bold as they once were. This may be a temporary peace, or it may be the start of a better age."
The Lord of Calway smiled down at his daughter. "It is up to you and your generation to determine the shape of the future."
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