Day 2: Perhaps it was for the best

An island culture sets out into the world after generations of isolation.

When an unassailable force thratened a small archipelago, its aeolipile mages created the ultimate defensive weapon -- a series of underwater devices that launched scything, geothermal-powered steam jets that sank approaching ships. The assaulting forces were stymied and unable to mount an invasion of the island nation. However, there was a problem -- the controls that allowed the aeolipile mages to create safe passage for their nation's own ships failed. Without any way to visit or to leave the island, the nation was left to its own devices. Now, 60 years later, with the discovery and application of the principles of flight, the nation has circumvented its own security system, only to find that something devastated all outside civilization.

The mainland is vast and essentially unexplored. Old maps are somewhat reliable, but the landscape itself has seemed to shift in the intervening years. What atlases exist are only useful to find nearby locales; they're unreliable for long journeys or to pinpoint a location. The regions closest to the island are rolling plains that were once wheat fields; now, they're grazed on by herds of spined aurochs. Further in the distance, the fields give way to rocky scrubland. Dense pockets of forest, mostly ancient hardwoods, betray signs of having been religiously cultivated in the past; now, they're slowly becoming a natural part of the landscape. Some are rotting away, while others are growing beyond their carefully maintained borders. Most eerie are the sprawling, terraced cities. Palatial structures and defensive walls are all that's left of once-prosperous towns; the smaller, less-permanent structures have moldered and collapsed, leaving disquieting rings of rubble around buildings that once housed the wealthy and the royal.

There are human inhabitants on the mainland, but they're newcomers. Nomadic, non-native people have settled in the region, finding the fields fertile and the forests full of game. They're peaceful, simple people; they have little to offer in terms of commodities or economic opportunities. They do, however, know the lay of the land are willing to share that information. They don't know much about the cities, though -- they've learned to avoid those places.

Within the cities, brutish, hulking beasts have taken residence. Long-armed, sharp-toothed creatures -- cruel, warlike and horribly strong -- they fight amongst themselves for mates and food. Sometimes, a particularly cruel and strong warlord will band together his kinsman and raid neighboring ruins; other times, the armed bands will roam the fields to test their mettle against what humans they can find.

And sometimes, at night and in the distance, bright flashes will light the night sky. Explorers from the island, eager to discover what fate befell the mainland's once-mighty civilization, explore these regions, finding signs of battle -- flattened trees, scorched earth, the imprints of massive war machines and war beasts -- but never any bodies or wreckage.