From:	Josh Harrison mataxes@****.net
Subject:	Atlantis
Date:	Mon, 12 Jun 2000 18:42:36 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Smith <phil_urbanhell@*******.com>
> He's right y'know; 2054, The Atlantian Foundation found Thera + treasures.
> Does that qualify as Atlantis? My Geography is deeply bad.

According to the piece in the book, they don't know if it really is Atlantis
or not. IIRC, most current theories place Atlantis in the Aegean Sea
somewhere (Santorini is a popular choice, but there are dozens of small
islands that were affected by the high amount of volcanic activity in the
area at the time).

> ED players; what happened to Thera, I have the main book which just says
> that no one knows what has happened.

As one of the resident Earthdawn gurus, here's the general story. Most of
this is conjecture, based off of published info for ED and comments made by
Lou Prosperi on the ED mailing list.

On the island of Thera, there are three orichalcum pillars. All evidence
indicates that these pillars are somehow responsible for the stability of
the magic level in the Earthdawn setting (just how the Therans accomplished
this is a mystery, though). Bascially Lou has indicated that the magical
stability is artificial.

Looking at the magic cycle as a rubber band, the orichalcum pillars have
stretched it farther than it was intended to go. As we all know, when an
elastic band is stretched too far, it breaks. The most popular theory is
that at some point in the future, the intended decline in the magic cycle
will kick in, and the backlash will destroy the island of Thera.


> If no one knows how's this for an
> adventure hook; as part of the ritual that protected Thera from the
Scourge
> a pocket of mana was created, leaving Thera as magical as when it was
> sealed.

Thera unsealed itself and returned to Barsaive in 1449 TH. There was a city
that hid itself away like you describe, and had hundreds of horrors trapped
within it -- Parlainth, the former Theran provincial capital. It was
returned to the world in the early 1400s TH (I forget the exact year
offhand), and is sort of the Earthdawn equivalent of "Undermountain" from
that other high-fantasy RPG.

Taken as a purely SR storyline, it is actually rather intriguing. It just
doesn't really agree with the Earthdawn canon.

-- Josh