Before the Floods the world was quite a different place. While the Ice Age locked the extreme north and South and the mountaintops in a chrysalis of glacial ice a mile or two thick, the rest of the world basks in a mild, tropical climate. A strip of tundra runs along most of the base of the glaciers, but warm currents may bring warm-temperate growth right up to the glaciers' foot. Cool, temperate forests are known only upon high mountain plateaus, such as Tibet, where they fringe mountaintop glaciations.
Fantastic civilizations flourished for millennia. Finally, the most ambitious of their learned folk mastered the Arts to such an extent that they were able to make powerful gods of themselves. Powerful, but foolishly prideful. These self-made gods fought, resulting in world-wide devastation, the Flood, the Fall, the Rain of Fire, and other catastrophe which plunged the world into an aeon of Darkness, the Savage Era.
Majic seems widespread and fabulous.
For details on how majic works, SEE Azytwaznt Overview: Majic.
Much Antediluvian "majic" is actually a "super-science." It is not a Physical Science but a Mental Science. It should not be confused with the Forbidden Dark Arts, the Eldritch Lore by which those, made foolish by their lust for power at any cost, twist their minds until they are themselves warped enough to comprehend, however feebly, the structure of Other Dimensions, weird and uncanny. True, Dark Majic draws its powers from such unnatural realms, and draws, too, the attention of those Beings who dwell their, putrescent in their timeless cells, waiting only the scratching of foolish mortals upon the walls of their alien dimensions to thrust their horrific dreams upon us. This even the Antediluvians feared and forbade. Only the worst of their decadents sought to supplement their incredible Mental Sciences with such foul energies. And they paid the price.
The Antediluvian Mental Sciences are based upon the focusing of Man's faint mental energies upon TUNED CRYSTALS, through which these energies are amplified and become the faint but directive force over greater energies brought in from other sources to boost the will of the influencing mind. The tuned crystals may be giant gemstones, used as a personal focus, of ten portable or at leased "aimed" for exclusive use in one place, or tuned to an individual's mental wavelengths. Flat crystals are often fashioned into mirrors, to assist in mental focusing.
Alternately, whole structures many be tunes. (Note that stable-sand is a crystalline matrix, although it may appear to be practically any type of fine-grained stone, so the crystal need not be obvious.) In this case, the whole area becomes conducive to the exercise of the Mental Science, although of course the more one has tuned the structure in question to ones own wavelengths the more effective the site will be for that individual.
Whole regions may be made psionics-friendly be tuning geologic features such as veins or whole geologic strata, as of salt or quartz.
The Antediluvians have long ago achieved great heights in the physical sciences. However, once they learned the Science of Tuning, they moved on to the Mental Sciences. They build interlocking networks of Tuned materials which eventually covered the greater part of the Earth, allowing the Antediluvians to exercise their incredible Mental Sciences freely.. As the ages passed, the Antediluvians grew to despise the Physical Sciences, and to rely solely upon their Mental Sciences. They forgot that their incredible mental powers depended upon a physical network to support it. Eventually, this physical network began to decay.
Early signs of the decay were the way the Master races became more jealous of their status, and more demanding of divine treatment. They also left their palaces less and less frequently, finally all but sealing themselves in. They had grown to feat the world beyond, for, while in their confines of their palaces, surrounded by tuned crystal, they were able yet to wield god-like powers, in the outer world, they could never be sure when or where the remaining networks might flicker and betray them. The Mental Sciences had become Mental Arts, and were soon easily mistaken for Majic. Tuned "talisman" and other "majical artifacts" became more prevalent as the increasingly unpredictable networks flickered ever more sporadically.
By the time of the Classical Era, only fragments of the Antediluvian networks remained. By this time, the mental powers were no longer termed a mental science but mistaken for majic, easily confused with the Black Arts by which the foolish and power-hungry tap into other dimensions, drawing forth eldritch forces and sometimes attracting the attention of Beings our world was never meant to know. So-called "majic" was clearly strongest in certain places, where fragments of the ancient network of tuned crystalline materials remained. Focal objects, large tuned crystals used as gems, became increasingly important.
Lunar phases are not irrelevant, for, as Luna passes overhead, men can tap the forces projected from the networks of tuned crystal massed above. Even if not purposefully tuned, the random faint natural tuning of an occasional crystal, when spread across such a vast body directly overhead, adds up to a most powerful force.. Equally, one may correctly assume, those on Luna can tap into our Earthy networks over their heads.
Medical Science and the Art of Monsters
The Antediluvian civilizations have reached incredible heights across a range of physical sciences, not the least of which are the medical sciences. Their mastery of medical practices has, in fact, passed from science back to the realm of art.
The Art of Monsters is the use of the medical arts to create the fabulous from the natural and/or artificial. The use of the wondrous elixirs of their medical super-science afford the Antediluvians abilities the results of which must seem majical. Their elixirs and surgical skills permit any parts from any creatures to be crafted together, and to bond functionally. Other elixirs give incredible powers of healing and even regeneration. They even have elixirs that seem to stop physical aging, although the mental side effects can be disastrous.
Such chimerical monster cannot breed true. Thus, while they may seem immortal, over the ages, their numbers will diminish, until, by the Classical Age, they will seem more myth than legend. Only the rare, hidden chimera will remain to linger on until modern times.
Selective breeding, the introduction of trans-species genes, and artificial genes can result in creatures only subtly deviant from their mundane ancestors or nearly as fantastic as their surgically created chimerical cousins.
Naturally, the Antediluvians have not shied from applying their medical arts to the creation of enhanced servants of the sentient type, whether by increasing the intelligence of a lower beast or artfully playing with the form of men of lesser races. Later ages have remembered these as demons or angels, monsters or demi-divine heroes. There are human-derived folk as different as various breeds of dogs are - but often with other, special characteristics. Others have little of human genetics in their makeup, being based more upon some lower creature, now perhaps mentally enhanced. Yes, there are fauns, harpies, and centaurs!
Crystal Snuffers: These are creatures created to be extremely sensitive to mental energies. They are a product of the late, decadent times, when it was easier to hunt for existing Tuned crystals then manufacture new ones. Some later master artists added this characteristic to many races of creature, in order that their descendants would be able to search out crystals which would enable them to exercise those special mental powers they had been engineered to use. This is why some "monsters" have particular, species-specific, seemingly majical abilities.
After the Fall, during the Darkness of the Savage Era, many of these "othered folk" moved off to form isolated communities
Water-crystal: Much of this civilization is based on water-crystal. By applying certain energies (electrical and radiati0ons) to water as it is being compressed at great pressures, they are able to make water solid, like ice, but strong and stable even at high temperatures. They use this where we would use cement, brick, glass, or metals. Later, the special bond is broken, and the water-crystal melts. This is why so much was lost and many cities left no trace. A precious few random water crystal items happened to contain previously irrelevant traces of certain elements; these trace elements had the fortuitous effect of making these few, precious artifacts resistant to the general dissolution, treasures in later centuries.
Solid-sand is the main alternative material, being likewise used both in vast slabs and pillars for architectural purposes and in smaller, finer pieces for household objects. To make solid-sand, cleaned sand is poured into a form or mold. Water is then added to saturate the sand. The water is then crystallized, resulting in an artificial sandstone. Like water-crystal, the vast majority of sold-sand objects later lost their coherence, becoming pools of sand as the water drained away. Solid-sand can appear identical to any fine-grained stone, as it can be made from any ground stone or sand. Porphyry is quite fashionable.
A state of detant exists. As greater and more devastating weapons evolve, so do defenses. The Rain of Fire was developed, and to counter it (and other devastating weapons) force-shield domes were set up over many cities. These were centered on great artificial spherical Stones that emit a special radiation. The radiation goes out imperceptibly to a certain distance, then turns ninety degrees and becomes coherent and at that distance forms a solid bubble. That which is slow - such as someone walking - can pass through, but that which is fast, such as a weapon or water (it turns out) cannot. As a result, when the Floods swept over, many of these bubbles remained intact. Hence the underwater cities. Of course, most of these decay over time.
The Empires
Atlantis: Atlantis was a broad and fertile land spread about the feet of a range of glacier-topped mountains. During the cataclysm and Flood, Atlantis sank. Only the tops of its mountains remain, the Caribbean islands. Naturally, as these peaks are cloaked in ice, they bear no sign of the incredible civilization that is now drowned in the seas between the islands.
Atlantis has widely dispersed colonies. These outposts were fortified cities set up on the fringes of the mainland to trade with the natives. Naturally, the Flood has drawn the waves up over most of these. Locations included the fringes of the Peninsula Britannica (which during the Antediluvian Era was attached to the mainland)
Mediterranean: The Straits of Gibraltar were opened as just one horrific catastrophe in the Cataclysm. During the Antediluvian era, this wide land below sea-level is the lush lands of a great empire.
Lemuria: between Madagascar and India.
Austrolasia: the whole Indonesian Plateau is above sea-level. The Empire spread from modern-day Thailand to Australia. You can walk from Malaysia to Timor, and only a few narrow passages connect the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. These run south of Celebes, as Celebes is connected to Borneo and the Philippines, and on the Malaysia through Borneo and Sumatra and to China through the Philippians and Formosa.
The South China Sea basin is dry, bound by a ring running: China - Formosa - Philippines - Borneo -Java - Sumatra - Malaysia.
Mesopotamia: This was a collection of incredibly fabulous garden estates, the remnants of which would today be considered each a city-state. Their owners were an extended family of incredibly powerful majicians. They were essentially self-made gods. During the Flood, their estates were buried in silt, then covered in a layer of clay which hardened to become the basin of the current Mesopotamia. Subterranean seepage has since pulled the silt out from much of these ancient ruins. The gods retreated, or were entombed, or otherwise waited out the Savage Aeons until they were awakened. Today, from their floating palaces, they rule over their personal city-states through priest-kings.
Eden - The Land of the Four Rivers, now the Persian Gulf
The modern Persian Gulf was dry, with a small sea - a large salt lake, really - at its center. About this is a wide ring of phragmities swamp (like modern swamp Arab territory) and about that the lush belt of Eden.
During the Antediluvian epoch, the Tigris and Euphrates did not converge so soon. The Euphrates flows south, west of modern Kuwait, turning to enter the Persian Gulf from the west. The Tigris hooks about to enter the salt-sea from the north. A river descends from what in now the Rub-al-Khali ("The Empty Quarter") from the south. A salt-water river trickles from the Indian Ocean from the west.
Rub-al-Khali
This is no "Empty Quarter" during the Antediluvian Epoch. Great solar distilleries along the Indian Ocean coast feel a canal network about this fertile land. The architecture is of solid-stone, sand poured into molds and then saturated with water that is then stabilized, the sand thus bonded by water-crystal.
AFRICA: Empire of the Feathered Apes
Africa's premiere native civilization isn't human. It's gorilla. More precisely, gorillas are degenerate descendants of this proud civilization. Their Empire is strong enough to defend itself against Human incursion - which is why the Antediluvian Human civilization has left relatively few marks on what became, after the Fall of the Great Apes, The Dark Continent.
The Blacks of this era are, for the most part, a noble people. They have a number of little civilized states under the homogeny of the Ape empire. Later, when the Apes fall, these will blossom to great heights (SEE Azytwaznt Classical Era.) Sadly, even now, the final degeneration of both Black and Ape is beginning. As the lowest of each breed with the other, the results of this misogyny are vile and debased. By the steam-punk era (which see) individual tribes of gorilla will range from savage beasts, hyenas in primate form, to gentle giants of the woodlands, some but simple creatures any only a few still as intelligent as any human, and fewer still maintaining the hidden relics of their long lost civilizations. But for now, in the Antediluvian Epoch, the Civilization of the Feathered Apes reigns supreme!
Crystal Palaces of the Mountain Tops
This is the origin of the belief that the gods dwell on mountaintops. Many of the powerful Families live in vast palace-compounds made of water-crystal on top of the glacier-covered mountaintops. Much of the c crystal is Tuned to facilitate the exercise of the majic-mimicing Mental Sciences. The courtyards are rooved by vast vaults or lofty transparent or pearlescent domes, containing tropical gardens even in these Arctic conditions. These territories are, naturally, forbidden to commoners.
Sub-humans and super-servants: bioengineering for the classist, plantation economy.
SEE Medical Sciences above for details on the creation of monsters and other tailored life-forms.
The city-states are like plantations owned by the gods. Naturally, they want cheap labor. In addition to regular humans, there are other "races" created by bio-science, both lowly sub-humans and enhanced special servants
Priest-kings and cities' patron gods
The powerful psuedo-gods may no longer be quite human. Each Family has its own traits, reflected in later concepts of the divine. For example, in Austrolasia, the Families tend to be broad-bodied, have golden metallic skin, elongated earlobes, and long, horizontal slit eyes.
The "city-states" are managed by priest-kings, the "Stewards of the gods." The Palace of the Gods, or main temple perched upon its (often artificial ziggurat) mountain really is just that; this is where the gods stay when visiting from their glacier-top Heavenly Palaces.
Cloud-Palaces
Forget ocean liners. Try sky liners! Huge, floating palaces are used to cruise in style. Building in a sufficiency of tuned crystal to empower the Mental Sciences is a priority. Naturally, in this state of detant, the military applications are not to be ignored.