Author's note: This is more IC stuff, written from the perspective of a trio of mages from the Chantry of the Gold Coast in Santa Cruz, CA. This is NOT canon, and I would like any and all suggestions to improve/modify/etc. this piece.

The Lost Empires of Humanity

Kyle McAllister, Dreamspeaker Walker of the Ways, Chantrymaster of the Gold Coast

Mikayla Majistrom, Abbess of the Gold Coast

Angelique Donovan, Riteleader of the Gold Coast

Myth tells of lost empires, places that existed once but are now lost to mankind after the drawing closed of the Gauntlet and the mapping of the world by the Technocracy. Some of these places, including El Dorado, have been found, but two great empires have long remained hidden and unexplained by generations of mages. Places about which legends existed long before the coming of the Age of Reason. Places we cannot find even in the Umbra, even though belief in them is strong. We speak of Atlantis and Lemuria.

Yes, this may sound somewhat absurd, but these two places began to figure prominently in our prior researches into the history of the Ten Traditions and the origin of the schism between the Technocracy and the Traditions. History tells us of the last 2000 years, mythology of 5000 before that, and magic and the spirits speak of times back a further 13,000 years. But there, they stop. No hints, just refusals to give information. Many claim not to know, others grow hostile as they are pressured for information. Even the magic of the Spheres cannot push back this veil in time, a Gauntlet shielding us from our own past.

There is a reason for this. Approximately 20,000 years ago, there was a great catastrophe, that rent not only the physical Terran realm, but the entirety of the Gaian Tellurian. An event of proportions undreamed of probably even by the Oracles.

But we have succeeded where others have turned away, and have gathered what we feel to be a picture of two great empires of humanity, from the time before time, in the midst of what the Technocracy would term the Ice Age. There is a reason for why they wish this time to be lost, shrouded and hidden in the memory of artic ice over the land. The truth is far more frightening.

But before we tell of the fall of these great empires, let us describe them, their culture, their people, their rise. While we know nothing of the origins of these empires save as an evolution of the multitude of tribes that roamed the Tellurian, back in the times when there was no Gauntlet, and the Realms flowed, melding and mingling freely. The Realm of Mu was known for its Spellweavers, and the lush greenery of the landscape, whereas the Realms of Atlantis was known for its harsh climates, rich mineral resources, and tough, hearty people. Blessed by two different circumstances, the tribes of these two realms were slowly
unified, becoming a force in their region of the Tellurian.

But their ambitions did not end there. As the Atlanteans began to tame their own land, their people acquired and placed value upon categorization, forcing things to pattern. Their scholarship was of science, and ritual, and crystal. Great ships plied the skies between the realms, and formal religion and ritual were the rule.

The Lemurians, however, were a more passive, or rather permissive people. They tended to meld and shape the world around them with a subtle, gentle touch. They shaped trees into housing, the animals into forms they needed, and the very world around them into paths and trails that led from one Realm to the next. Thus did they grow, and prosper.

As both empires grew, within them grew the strength of magic, powers unbeknownst to any who still walk the mortal plane. Death was not yet a fixture, and time flowed in odd ways around their leaders, the most powerful magi of their respective cultures. Eventually, a dynasty formed in each empire, and they began exploring in earnest.

Somewhere, the two empires met, and began to trade, then to compete. As they both grew, the Tellurian seemed not large enough for both of them, and tempers began to flare. Then disaster struck.

The details are sketchy, but it seems as though the Realm of Atlantis had grown unstable from all the crystallization of reality around it, and the pattern spontaneously snapped in several places, releasing incredible amounts of energy, destroying countless lives and property. Accusing the Lemurians of this act, the Atlanteans began an assault on the Realms of the Lemurians, swearing to aveng ethe deaths of their people.

The battles were great, and many died on both sides. Great spirits from the farthest reaches of the Gaian Tellurian and beyond were brought to bear, and the damage was horriffic. But there was no clear winner, and after almost a century of fighting, the two battle-weary sides agreed to a reluctant truce, dividing the Tellurian into two seperate spheres of influence.

Thus began a new age of prosperity, even as distrust brewed between the two empires. They expanded aggressively, opening paths far beyond the reaches of the Gaian Tellurian. They spread out far and deep into the reaches, to realms that are indescribable to the sane. But they came, they conquered, and they continued onward.

Somewhere along the line, somehing was discovered by the Lemurians. Or maybe, something discovered them. Outposts and villages would suddenly disappear, falling off the face of the Tellurian, leaing nothing but idyllic countryside with a strange, ominous feeling to it. Soon, entire Realms were falling victim to this strange plague, which was now leaving twisted ruins, warping the entirety of reality and leaving only deformed, pained things in its wake.

The Lemurians felt this was a new weapon developed by the Atlanteans, and as soon as they shut off the main connections to the border Realms, they began assaulting the Atlanteans, demanding retribution and tribute. THey fought fiercely, and the Atlanteans were humbled, though not defeated, and soon they began to fight back.

Sometime during the war, however, this plague sprung up in Atlantean Realms as well, twisting and deforming their worlds. Suddenlyrealizing that there was a common enemy, they set aside their arms, and worked great magics, eventually forming the Membrane that surrounds the Gaian Tellurian. But this had the effect of limiting their space to grow, eventually forcing them to conflict.

And eventually, that conflit came. The continuing pattern degredation of Poseidia, the core Atlantean Realm, had reached a point that it shattered, leaving a group of nine Realms linked together by tenuous pathways. This was the excuse the Atlanteans needed to finally try and destroy the Lemurians, and they launched a war of total genocide.

It is here that the records begin to break down, and reality itself meant nothing during the war. But there are two facts that stand out strangely: One, that the Lemurians seemed to be much less numerous than reported, and Two, that both empires were suffering a form of madness that drove their actions far, far more extreme than even war would allow for.

The spirits spoke at length about the Garden, at the heart of Lemuria, and the Battle of the Garden, a nearly century-long conflict that left millions of Atlantean soldiers dead, ending in the capture of the Guardian, a spirit of unknown power, though probably of near-Celestine level. It had been harnessed only through the combined magical might of the three living Princes of Atlantis and their mated sorceress-queens.

It is said that rather than simply accepting oblivion, the spirit chose instead to uise a gift that only the most powerful of the royal households possessed, they Dying Curse. In doing so this spirit consigned itself to reincarnating as a human, as that was the form it was slain in, but it slew the entire house of Atlantis, in perpetuity. In a single instant, all the royal blood of Atlantis fell to dust, destroyed utterly.

All, save one. The Atlantean king was too powerful to be slain immediately by the magics of the Guardian, though watching his wife and family crumble to dust before him shattered his already unhinged mind. He stormed to the heart of Poseidia, where there stood a great crystal that powered the greatest machinations of the Atlantean empire. In a fit of rage and madness, the king aimed the Great Crystal through the Tellurian, at the heart of Lemuria. Through the very heart of Gaia.

Gaia awakened, screaming, transfixed by this incredible burst of energy. Wounded and outraged, She smashed the Tellurian, sweeping away the Realms of Mu and Poseidia, casting them away into the Abyss. As Her righteous rage abated, She reshaped the Tellurian, forming the Terran Realm, where she would try and keep the humans in check, as they had proven to be Her most wayward children. This was when She created the Garou, and the idea of the Impergium. And thus was the forming moments of the Gauntlet.

Only three questions remain in the hearts of the researchers at this time, but they cause us to miss sleep at night, when at the odd hours there is walking heard among the Maze of Dreams (detailed in another supplement, which I'd like to track down sometime).

1) What was this great plague, and subsequent madness, thatso infected these empires?

2) What happened to the Lemurians who did not fight? They fled, but no record is made of where, or how. Or if they ever made it.

3) What of the Atlantean king? He is said to have survived Gaia's rage, yet nothing is recorded of him save his name: Belial.

By: Corwyn J. Alambar (cja8174@runt.ca.boeing.com)

HTML by Arthur Muzzarelli (theshadw@industrynet.net)