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Once, in a time far removed from current memory, there was a blue age. When Athas was covered by vast oceans, and neither magic nor psionics existed. Halflings were the undisputed masters of the work and the only intelligent beings. They lived beneath an azure sun in cities that floated atop the waves. The halflings had the knowledge and skills necessary to manipulate nature itself, growing everything they required in submerged farms and on small portions of dry land that jutted from the endless sea. Ironically, their own skills betrayed them. The halflings attempted to double the seas output, but instead created a brown tide that started to destroy it.
To find a way to save the planet, some of the nature masters gathered in the pristine tower. The discovered a solution, but it required a vast amount of energy. The only source for such raw power was the sun, but the sapphire brilliance wouldn't give up its energy easily. So the nature masters worked fervidly to change the sun so that it's energy could be focused through the tower. With the altered suns energy, the killed the brown tide that was poisoning the sea. In changing the sun to a brilliant yellow sphere, however, they changed its effects upon the world. The seas began to evaporate, revealing large expanses of dry land. The world became a different place, but the sea survived.
The period that followed became known as the rebirth. It was a time of spontaneous creation, when the emerging land continuously changed, the sea shrank back, and new animals came into being. Some of these creature flourished, others died out. During this period, most of the halflings had abandoned civilization and were reverting to more primitive times. The still-civilized halflings of the pristine tower were few, but they commanded great power and knowledge. To populate this new paradise, they transformed themselves into the new races-humans, demihumans, and humanoids. The last of the nature masters were gone, and a new age in the annals of Athas had begun.
The rebirth gave way to the green age, a time marked by vast tracts of forest, and green thriving land. Great cities of the new races sprang up during this period and roads were constructed that linked the together. The first elemental clerics appeared, but the true power of the age was psionics. It had developed during the rebirth, and was refined as the green age unfolded.
bed time more tomorrow
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