Espers and Elements - A Retrospective of The Great Shift

Written by Ellana Sellis of the New Delta Times

May 27th, 81 AEF (After Esperfall)

After what was originally thought to be a nuclear attack that decimated the southern coast of Florida and so many lives lost, the world changed. Not that wiping a state off the map wasn’t life-changing for Americans and the rest of the world at large, but it was something that could be worked past. Something that wouldn’t just change the lives of those that experienced it to become part of history. No, it was only the start of something larger.

Magic was real.

Verified by hundreds of similar stories across a handful of years and dissections, it didn’t turn out as people had hoped. Instead of choosing humans to wield the awesome power of the elements, the power bonded to animals and other lesser minds instead. It wasn’t much at the time and the elemental secondary characteristics still hadn’t emerged as they have now, but as a species, we should have known better than to dismiss the oddities pre-esper technology shows being recorded for the technological purge.

Mother Nature always finds a way to adapt.

It was only a matter of time before things got out of hand. From sheep that could summon lightning on their shearers to squirrels that could shoot acorns like bullets, the power of the natural and unnatural were unleashed by the newly formed espers on humans and beasts alike. [See: Conventions and Conversions of Espers for more information]

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Cities fell.

Farms and processing plants burned.

Forests and other natural fixtures quickly overtook man’s carefully curated structure and became the norm rather than the exception.

Humanity had to be protected rather than nature. 

Within a decade, the espers had fully dominated the natural world and replaced the entire population of non-magical animals through their increased breeding rate and natural ability to dominate a region. Strangely, the insect population was split in this regard with some maintaining, and even being protected by their esper counterparts [See: Symbiotic Relationships of Insectoids for more information]. With their ability to bend the elements in unique ways, the natural world bent to their will and became more appropriate for the dominant esper factions in the region. It may have been all well and good for the beasts, but humanity was suffering like it never had.

Food became scarcer as herds of all kinds were decimated or fought back with a power unseen by man before. Climates that were once hospitable became unlivable, and soon from the now geologically unstable, poisonous regions of the West Virginia hills and bogs to the now-literal Smokey Mountains of the snowy Washington Wastes, humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction and soon turned on themselves. [See: The Splinter Wars for more information].

During this time, The Gatherers, a group of researchers, occultists, and veterinarians, began the delicate work of bringing knowledge to the masses about the espers. Without them, knowledge of the espers would never have been discovered, and humanity would have been lost to the age of the Espers.

Instead, the world as we know it was changed forever…