The Thousand Year Summer

Was the millennia long period of intense heat, plagues, famines, and destruction which occurred after the ancients tore a great hole in the sky, allowing the suns rays to beat down relentlessly on the surface of the world. Often simply known as the "Summer" it began with the destruction of the advanced civilization of the Ancients and the eventually led to the destruction or alteration of all of the worlds ecosystems and life.

The Ancients had built advanced civilizations that had unimaginable power, however this power came at the expense of their worlds health. They polluted the worlds waters, lands, and skies and caused Mother nature to become sickened by their presence upon her world. The Ancients great machines, workshops, and foundries spewed poisonous gasses into the skies above, slowly causing them to thin away. Finally, a great hole was torn in the sky by the deadly smog, and the suns rays were free to beam down upon the Earth like never before.

In the years following the tearing of the sky humanity was subjected to the intense radiation and heat of the unhindered sun. Crops around the world quickly began to wither causing massive famines which caused billions to die of starvation. A disease known as the Sun Plague infected hundreds of millions and slowly sent them to their graves from exposure to the suns poisonous rays. The increasing temperatures melted away all of the worlds great ice caps causing the seas to quickly and dramatically rise, submerging most of the worlds lowlands and swallowing entire nations and cities beneath the waves.

Anarchy had broken loose and the once advanced old civilizations gave way to bands of marauders and pillagers desperate to survive in the wastelands. By the peak of the Thousand Year summer all traces of the ancients technologies were gone, and humanity reverted to an almost stone age level of living. The famines and Sun Plague had caused the world population to fall from the billions to just a few million. Tribes wandered among the ruins of great cities scavenging for whatever materials necessary for survival, whilst fighting each other in the process. Local strong-men were the only order in this world and they often led their tribes based on their own ambitions. The Great Dumbing had eliminated almost all traces of learning and advancement among the survivors.

However, groups like the Archivists worked to preserve the knowledge of their ancient ancestors. The first Archivists, known as the Wise Ones, constructed a great sanctuary of learning known as Ark mount, high in the rocky mountains in the months before the summers destruction. Here they hoarded as many books, manuals, and memorabilia of their time within the safety of their stronghold, which would later become the faiths holiest site.

in the last centuries following the peak of the Summer, mother nature began to give birth to her world once again. The temperatures began to stabilize and rains fell for the first time in centuries. Gradually forests began to grow again and encroach upon the ruins of the ancients monuments and highways. The wildlife that had survived the millennia had evolved to survive the harsh conditions, and now new almost unrecognizable and strange species wandered the crumbled remains of grand avenues which were long ago frequented by the humans.

However, slowly mankind began to rise from its primitive state and slowly relearned how to farm and raise animals in this new world. They then established communities which would evolve into the first city-states and civilizations seen since the onset of the terrible summer. A new world was born upon the ashes of the one that had preceded it. Although this world was an entirely different one and civilization was far from the state it had been in a thousand years earlier.