Editing The Endless Wilds (section)

=The Great Bloom=
So, where did it all go wrong? In the days before the Great Bloom, Civilization had come a very, very long way. From the age of Kings and Castles, Adventurers going on quests to slay Dragons, and wise mysterious old Wizards to Capital cities bustling with people of every race, banded together against the ever-present threat of the encroaching Wilds. It started with Magic.

Centuries ago, Magic was a mystic art divined through arcane means and ancient texts from a time too old for anyone to remember. The first Mages were a secretive lot, gifted with the ability to channel the energies from other planes to perform acts of great power and might. However, they were bad at what they did in a way they could not foresee. The Mages of old were criminally inefficient with their use of '''Mana''', the fundamental energy in which Magic was derived. They'd draw in as much as they could get, regardless of the complexity of the spell, and expend it all at once. Over time, their carelessness caused more to be born with the gift to draw in and use the Mana, but their teachers were the same men who so recklessly abused this gift.

The silver lining to this mess was that the increase in Mages led to a Golden Age of Magic. With so many would-be Mages about, folks finally started caring about the way they were using Magic and sought to understand it better, learning and exploring all the possibilities it truly held. The fruits of a more cautious study of Magic were plentiful; many new inventions and innovations developed which were further perfected through Magical augmentation. Over time the Mages helped civilization outgrow its Castles and Kings and enter a time of prosperity and industry.

For a time, things were magnificent. Magic was used freely and to great benefit of all civilizations. New cities were erected at speeds once thought impossible with the refined production techniques created by this new breed of Mage scholars and quality of life was at an all-time high. However, this glorious era only came after several centuries of frivolous Magic and the effects were only now beginning to be noticed. At first, it was only a fascinating anomaly: magically enhanced patches of forest producing new and interesting specimens. Naturally augmented plant life that grew quicker than any other which gave way to naturally augmented wildlife. Traveling Mages sought these out, seeing them as spots where a caster might reinvigorate and empower their Magic, which led to more unchecked casting.

For all their advancements, civilization could not be ready have prepared for the '''Great Bloom'''. Even to this day, the specific details of the Great Bloom are a mystery. Some tales recall a bright, burning flash in the furthest distances at different places all across the planet, followed by a surge of plant life tearing its way across the countryside, consuming all things in its path. There are no reports of what happened at those burning sites. Within a single day, the patches of enchanted forest had grown and become the Wilds that now engulf the planet. Countless lives were lost and cities fell before they were even aware they were under attack. Only a few places had any luck surviving the incident. Newly invented '''Mana-Siphons''', devices that were being used to capture and study the phenomenon of ambient Mana, were being tested in several cities and happened to create infertile areas where the Wilds failed to grow. At the time, they were the only thing that saved Civilization from being wiped out. Soon after realizing this, there was a frantic rush to build and erect as many of the Siphons as possible while the warriors of the city fought to their last breath to push back the tide of monstrosities that emerged from the newly formed forest. It's been fifty-four years since that day and Civilization is just now in a position to start pushing back properly. New settlements are being prepared every day and the Mages who inadvertently caused the catastrophe and saved hundreds of thousands of lives from being claimed by it have worked tirelessly to find a solution, only now realizing that their careless drawing of Mana into their world was the problem. Though, they still do not fully understand the depth of their mistake.

Current efforts to solve the problem have started by a fundamental change in the way Magic is used, now relying on withdrawing ambient Mana from the area rather than from extraplanar sources as the Mages of old did. Those casters who still seek to use Magic in a more active capacity have redoubled their efforts to understand Magic, approaching the study with intense self-discipline and rigor. This new breed of Mages seeks to use Magic with the utmost efficiency or simply not at all while others have turned towards the study of Magical engineering, instead relying on '''Manatech''' - Mana-powered technology - to help alleviate the problem.