In the early twenty first century, two scientists on earth accidentally discovered the secret to wormhole travel while researching methods for dispelling radiation. Before the two scientists could publish their discovery a news bulliten flashed on their television, informing them that Russia had launched several nuclear missilies at America, and that America had responded in kind. Knowing the likelihood of surviving a nuclear holocaust, the two scientists went through their untested wormhole. The found themselves in a world far different from earth, thought people looked the same. They were mostly tribal communities with very little technology. The two scientists soon discovered that their was a power that radiated from the planet that they could bend to their will. In a couple of hundred years, after learning to halt their aging process, the two scientists created a civilization that rivaled their home planet.
It was at this point that the two scientists had a sharp disagreement on governing practices, and a war ensued. Elemental forces were unleashed, and alliences were made with the intelligences in the spirit realm, adding to the chaos. Soon, the entire planet was consumed by war, with weapons left cities unharmed, while capturing the bodies of people for the elemental spirits, who longed for the flesh. In a final desperate attempt to end the war, one of the scientists created a shield to cut off the planets access to the surface. Without the planets power, all of the technology they had built was useless, and the spiritual intelligences lacked enough power to invade human hosts. The world slowly died as it's surface was cut off from it's spirit. The shield was not perfect; several hotspots had broken around the planet, causing intense blasts of the planets spiritual energy to effect it's inhabitants. As the rest of the planet died, people fled to the hotspots, the only place that plants would grow and where the water was sweet. This story begins two thousand years after the great war. Most people have no knowledge of the great war, except for historians and scholars. A new race had evolved from humans in the over powering blast of the planet's spirit. The new species were taller on average, and their bones were made of cartilage, making them extremely flexible. They lived up to three hundred years, while humans life spans shrunk to a mere sixty to seventy years.
The inhabitants of the peaceful planet remain ignorant of the pending danger of the Earth's spirit healing. Soon the spirit intelligences will once again have the power to invade human hosts again, while humans seem to have completely forgoton about their power to command the elements.