Far across the shimmering waters of Mortai, the great ocean, and beyond the desolate salt plains of Khazalin from which no man returns, there once upon a time was a green land of plenty. It was rumored that in the green land children never went hungry or thirsty, and each man who wanted one had a farm - a place where food was produced. Gigantic rivers that were said to be miles wide flowed across the land. When there were wars, because even in paradise do they war, the battles were lazy affairs and few men died. The soldiers were healed by majik and sent home.      This world was known as Kor'Vlacian by its people. These words mean 'blessed land' in the old tongue. The four kingdoms of this green paradise were called Kor'Drojna, Kor'Learis, Kor'Trencal, and Kor'Vivalet. The kingdoms were human kingdoms, of course. The elves lived far to the south, in the ancient sprawling forests of Kistaapn. The Halflings lived as nomads on the plains north of the four kingdoms, and the dwarves resided in the low hills even further north. There were orcs, of course, but they were isolated to the eastern border mountain known as Slavi D'raen, or The Teeth of the Sky.      Where the four kingdoms converged there was a great free city. This central part of trade was known as Miroana. It was the trade and cultural center of paradise. Markets stretched for miles, and the temples of many false gods were there. The palace of the High Marshall in that great city was said to have fifteen miles of corridors - a small city in its own right.      It was said that because of man's corruption in Miroana there were temples to at least seventy gods, not one of them a true god. And this is the reason for the downfall of paradise. The gods became angry that their worship was sinking into the past. They would not abide by this. When a god looses worshippers, they fade away and become weak. When the last person alive who knows their name passes from the realm, the old gods also die.      The four true gods were indeed afraid of this, if a god can be said to know fear. Each god brought three of his or her followers to a center in Miroana. It was here that two clerics of each god gave their lives in the creation of the Circlet of Si'din. Imbued with eight powerful essences, the Circlet was the greatest artifact of all time. The four remaining invoked the Circlet.      It was then that the world was pulled apart in the great cataclysm known forever after as Ki'Pa Saol, The Great Destruction.      A great chasm swallowed Miroana, going north and south with a split on each end. An enormous plateau the size of a kingdom rose in the west, while a huge area of land to the east sank. In the north where the dwarves existed, a new mountain range pushed up. The Slavi Draen expanded, and a new addition to the range sprung up from underfoot - later called Treub's Spear. Half of the population of the world died that horrible night known as Ki'Pa Saol.      Unfortunately, Ki'Pa Saol was only the beginning. The water began to disappear from the world. Lakes dried up, rivers ran dry, the salt flats to the west of Kor'Drojna and Kor'Learis expanded as the ocean receded. Even as the kingdoms tried to re-establish their borders - as the plateau people declared their own nation and as the Independent States were formed - the world dried up. Inenaiv, the land north of the dwarven mountains, became a giant glacier. That was where the water went, but the people of Vlacian did not know this. No longer was the land called Kor'Vlacian, for it was no longer the blessed land.      East of the chasm, Trencal and Vivalet turned into nations of short harsh grasses and deserts of blowing sand. Only two rivers remained, flowing down from springs in Treub's Spear. West of the chasm, the giant age-old forest on top of the plateau died and became a place of wild elven majiks. Drojna and Learis became vast plains, Drojna in much worse condition than Learis, until the black soil there turned to brown sand. Far to the south the ancestral elven forest of Kistaapn was lost between two branches of the chasm. Those who found ways to cross were never head from again. The nomadic Halflings of the north were between two other branches of the chasm, though their grasslands remained intact.      This is the world as we known it now - desert wastelands, hungry children, and broken kingdoms always on the verge of collapse. If we celebrate the four true gods at the dawn of each year - Tor Pa the god of justice; Celinae the keeper of life; La'Saol who brings chaos; and Kanathie who keeps the underworld - it is only to preserve the memory of what happens when you forsake those who are your true gods.