A BRIEF HISTORY
                                 ---------------

It has been 620 years since The Silver Towers of Avalon fell. Many things have
been buried or lost. The World has moved on...

* Avalon is said to have lasted for over 1000 years. A golden age of relative
  peace and prosperity, civilization, stability, and innovation. The realms of
  Man and the Fae were intertwined. 

* The Ancient Ones. Thousands of years ago.* Cities of pearlescent domes and
  prismatic towers of glass having the strength of steel that touch the sky.
  Data crystals, android replicants, stellar travel, teleportation, time 
  machines, matter transmutation, the elements are harnessed, the powers of 
  the mind are developed. Massive colony ships depart to found new worlds 
  across the cosmos. And then...a global catastrophe occurs which brings an
  end to civilization and plunges the world into darkness... 
 
         * 6000+

* Between these eras, a long, tumultuous age. Sorcery and super-science wax and 
  wane in prominence. Mad Technologists play at creating and modifying life. Human/
  animal hybrids are genetically engineered, as well as various kinds of cyborgs
  and "mechanical men". Prehistoric beasts once again roam the earth and normal
  creatures mutate and grow to enormous size. Giant war machines walk the earth
  and 

  Mighty magics are born and powerful artifacts created. Techno-magic arises as a 
  fusion of the two. The ancient Ways and portals to the Realms of the Faerie are 
  opened once again. Deep in the earth the dwarves, and other more terrible things 
  are awakened. Many kinds of humanoids and monsters begin to appear in growing 
  numbers.

  Vast empires arise and fall, brought down from without by barbarian hordes or 
  devoured from within by vile rites and sacrifices to insane and malevolent alien
  beings. Things of nightmare are created or summoned and some of these still linger
  beyond the edges of the world, waiting only for the stars to align and the right 
  words to be spoken...  


  * A Common Tongue was created by The Ancients thousands of years ago. It has
    changed much since then and little would be understood by speakers of modern
    Common.