In the year 4,000 Earth had progressed to feats beyond human imagination; then, before the end of the millennia, both society and progress came to a crashing halt. The rise and fall of humanity can be blamed on a substance called aether, a mysterious element that allowed humans to make their wildest technological dreams come true. Aether was a clean and abundant resource. However, like most resources aether had its limit. When aether was beginning to grow scarce, mining and harvesting it became a frantic international hunt. The search for aether took its toll on the environment. The excessive mining eventually triggered a series of earthquakes that in turn set off multiple tsunamis. Human civilization became buried in rubble, trash, and ocean until one continent – a fragment of Eurasia – was left standing.