The Hyperborean World:  Previous to this time, the life of the world was largely plant and small animals, survivors of the ancient cataclysm that had rocked the world and thrown it upon its side.  But as the very force of the Earth tried to repair what had been destroyed, so did it bring forth creatures and plants that should have come into existence naturally.  Over the millions of years, this life was forced into an evolution that somewhat mirrored what should have been, but with plenty of aberrations along the way.  By the dawn of the Hyperborean World, the north polar continent was a paradise of tropical forms, by and large inoffensive, ranging from primitive and more modern elephants, rhinoceroses, deer, and so forth.  The equatorial regions were more wild, and through a strange set of circumstances were claimed by creatures primarily from before the corruption of the world.  Dinosaurs and other such creatures inhabited the lands and the waters, and became adapted to the varying climates.  Beyond the equator, in the cold night side of the world, what little land that was present was inhabited by beasts wholly unnatural, in that they never would have evolved had the world not been changed.  The waters, as well, were home to strange and terrible beasts, and all of these things were supremely adapted to the dark and the cold.  But they were rare.

"Man is not alone in the world.  He has always shared the land with creatures of all forms.  But what is more, oh Son, the beasts were here long before even the gods.  And they know...."
~~ The Book of al'Quirish

Updates

November 2, 2005

• Added the introductory paragraph for the Muvian World.

October 19, 2005

• Reformatted this page to fit with the rest of the site.

• Added the introductory paragraph for the Lemurian World.

October 8, 2005
Added the introductory paragraph for the Hyperborean World.
October 7, 2005
Revamped the look of the page
January 16, 2005
Established this page.

The Lemurian World:  Lemuria was a step close to What Should Have Been, and as such the animals that lived in this time had begun to more closely mirror what life would have existed had the world not been corrupted.  But hold-overs from the Hyperborean World survived, and in many cases they thrived.  Lemuria itself was home to many of the reptilian beasts that had once ruled the world, but more and more they were being usurped by forms of mammals that had -- or would have had -- ruled the jungles after the Dinosaurs had died out.  In ancient Hyperborea itself, only those forms that could adapt to the cold would survive, and these tended to be horrible, savage animals.  The oceans became somewhat safer than they had been, with fewer monsters and more creatures that were meant to exist.  But the greatest change was wrought by the Lemurians themselves, for even as they developed a technical society, so did they bring about the extinction and denumeration of many species.  By the time that this World ended, the animal life that had vanished had done so more because of Man than cataclysm.

The Muvian World:  The mighty old-blooded reptiles of far antiquity had become much more rare, despite the preponderance of jungles and tropical climates in the Muvian world.  Dominating the landscapes were those mammals that thrived in such warm surroundings, while in the northern landmasses creatures that should have populated a world of ice were appearing.  Mammoth and such wandered cooler steppes and forests, but no ice had yet come to fall on the lands, and so these animals were few and did not thrive.  It was only the power of the world itself that kept them from sliding into extinction.