Room for History

**T**he world of Athria spans across about a thousand years. In the beginning, all of the races coexisted on land, with

each one having their own territories that suited them best. The Azphel built their cities in the mountains. The humans, as versatile as they were, spanned their civilizations across many different biomes. The Felvar kept to the wooded areas and had a system of tunnels and caves that they claimed as their own. As for the Gormuld, their territories spanned across arid deserts.

However, as the humans continued to thrive and come up with new systems that set them further apart from nature, they began to produce more waste and by-products from their innovations. In the end, it started to become too noticeable, and the other races began to complain. Something had to be done.

After many years of debating, finally it came to be decided that they would 'clean' away all the waste that couldn't naturally decompose by finding a designated place to put it all where it would be out of sight and out of mind. They decided on a dormant volcano known as the Veheren Volcano. It was large and would be easy enough for them to toss it all in there, and as a result it would solve the problem and be out of the way.

**E**ighty years of this continued, with all of the waste being taken habitually to the volcano to be dumped. However, one day something incredibly unexpected happened. After centuries of silence, the volcano began to rumble back to life and in one cataclysmic eruption, all of the waste was churned with lava, spewing back into the environment creating a thick, black miasma that slowly began to creep and spread throughout the lands surrounding the volcano, continuing further. Further it went, polluting the forests, seeping into the caves, and destroying even the oceans. With every eruption following, a little more of their world was eaten away. Thus, 'The Blight' began to spread.

It soon became evident that something drastic would need to be done. The Azphel were quick to point their fingers in blame at the humans, and soon the other races followed in this attitude as well. Before long however, rather than fight, their world had become a race to come up with a plan to survive The Blight.

The idea of making flying ships was proposed, and the Azphel, who had claim to the mountains which had still luckily been far out of reach of the Blight, were able to make a good deal of these ships. The Gormuld and Felvar, who had been pushed to migrate out of their natural territories were able to craft a few of them as well. The humans used what materials they already had to craft their own ships that would gather energy solar energy, setting them apart from the ones built by the Azphel.

Over the course of ten short years, these races managed to move what they could of their civilizations into the sky though sadly, there were still many things that were consumed by the Blight forever.

#### 300 Years Later...

The races have learned to master the skies. The world is different and humans, who were once respected as the innovators and inventors are now looked down upon and have to scrape to keep their living among the clouds. Here they have all learned how to live in these new and strange conditions, and many of the creatures that managed to survive the Blight have transformed in ways they never would have thought possible.

And this...is where our stories begin.