Mystara 2000 AC
by David KnottAnyway, the critical event to starting my future history of Mystara is the destruction of Princess Dolores/Synn by powerful adventurers. With her destruction, the forces of Entropy are unable to find a way to reverse the drain of the Sphere of Entropy by the Nucleus of the Spheres, so it continues unchecked through the succeeding centuries. The "Glantri: Kingdom of Magic" correctly states that the Rad drain level in 1012 AC is at 478 but fails to note that the drain now proceeds in a negative rather than a positive direction. So the Day of Dread will continue to occur annually for at least a century, but the next event afterwards will not be another Week of No Magic but a temporary return to pre-Wrath conditions.
When the Rad drain level drops below 100, Mystarans (who by this point will be used to the annual Day of No Magic) will be stunned the first time it fails to occur. The Day of No Magic will become an increasingly rare event as the negative drain continues.
When the Rad drain level reaches -100, Mystara starts becoming even more magical in various subtle ways. True dweomers, quest spells, and psionic wild talents make their effects known.
When the Rad drain level reaches -500, magical talent becomes universal among those races that have mages, and mages become possible among anti-magical races such as dwarves and halflings. The "Night of the Red Moon" in Glantri becomes a full week of chaos. A few individuals become full-fledged psionicists.
When the Rad drain level reaches -1000, all sentient beings become capable of magic use, to at least the extent described for the plane of Old Alphatia in WotI. Glantri and other nations face a crisis as priestly magic is granted to all adventurers (at a level equal to the character's level in any other class!).
When the Rad drain level reaches -2000, an arcane "golden age" begins. At this point all sentient creatures have psychic wild talents, 1st level mage ability, and priestly ability equal to character level, and anyone who is willing to expend the necessary effort can advance as a wizard or psionicist. Glantri uses its access to the Nucleus of the Spheres to become the dominant power in southeastern Brun.
The cataclysm that occurs at a Rad drain level of -5000 catches the people of Mystara completely by surprise, since it is completely indistinguishable from the cataclysm that would have occurred at a Rad drain level of 5000, but without the warnings that would otherwise have clued people in as to what was happening. Not only is Glantri devastated, but a chain reaction of explosions destroys every other centre of magical power in the outer world of Mystara -- Aengmor/Alfheim, the Shadow Elf City of the Stars, and Herath, among others.
The Immortals intervene to rescue the destroyed civilisations and transport the few survivors to the Hollow World. The transportation of so many magical civilisations to the Hollow World eliminates its last remaining restrictions on magic -- in fact, at this point the Hollow World becomes the only place where normal wizardly and priestly magic work. Elves, gnomes, and dragons are among the magical races that are transported to the Hollow World in anticipation of their immediate extinction in the outer world.
Meanwhile, conditions in the outer world become truly hellish as the Red Curse spreads unchecked throughout Brun as the "Red Plague". With neither magic nor cinnabryl available to ameliorate the worst effects, the inhabitants of Brun become fully afflicted, and many die horribly. The region once known as the Savage Coast becomes the centre of civilisation. Eventually the plague spreads throughout the world, to Skothar, Davania, and nearly every island in between.
However, the "Red Plague" is followed by the "Red Hope", which spreads the mitigating effects of cinnabryl (which is mined to exhaustion during the spread of the Red Plague) to local water supplies. Eventually the "afflicted" become "balanced" and are able to keep the worst effects of the Red Curse under control as long as they are able to drink from streams of red water.
As the year 2000 AC approaches, the "Red Hope" has caught up with most of the world. All people have Legacies and/or psionic wild talents and some are full fledge psionicists, but there are no priests or wizards. Technology has advanced, slowly at first but with increasing speed in the last century. The more advanced devices are powered by a combination of mundane power sources and psionic energy. Those of you who have access to the "Amazing Engine" supplement "Magitech" will have little trouble picturing the shape of this "brave new world".
As the third millennium approaches,
the Alphatian Empire, which has comfortably guarded the Hollow
World for nearly a thousand years, decides that the time has come
to embark on a great magical project to move the floating continent
of Alphatia through one of the polar openings and out to the outer
world. It is believed by many that doing so will restore the lost
magic to the outer world. Will the Alphatians succeed in this
seemingly mad plan? And will the magic come back if they do? These
questions are among the many that people are speculating on as he
3d millennium dawns.