At the turn of the 22nd Century, 2099 A.D., a massive gate ruptured the skies of the island nation Singapore. An outbreak of mass hysteria ensued, as various religious leaders portrayed the unknown phenomena as a sign of impending calamity. The armed forces were mobilised, but nothing occurred in the weeks that followed. Eventually, the gate became nothing more than a popular tourist attraction, the uncrowned 8th Wonder of the World. 

Months later, rumours began spreading in the dark webs, of chosen ones who were able to see a mysterious interface in the real world, showing their stats and skills, similar to a role-playing game. These rumours became the earliest known evidence of what we came to understand as digitisation. Such rumours came and went, until the livestream from a survivor of the Dubai massacre brought to light the existence of humans performing superhuman feats. This became known as Humanity's First Contact with a higher plane. 

In light of the incident, many governments across the globe acknowledged the existence of these trans-humans, as well as their efforts to set up a global task-force to manage these individuals and ensure that such individuals are not allowed to run rampant with their newfound abilities. They also revealed the fact that the gate seemed to be the origin of this phenomena. 

In the decade that followed, governments struggled to keep the order, with the rise and fall of innumerable heroes and villains. Eventually, the entire population of Earth underwent digitisation and it led to many changes in culture, education and technological advancement.

A golden age began, until a team of heroes were dispatched beyond the gate, on an exploratory mission. They found an untouched land, filled with plant life completely different from our own. They also brought back samples of minerals and materials that were alien to us. Plans were put forward to conquer this new world and take its vast resources for our own.

With the support of the world's governments, a frontier colony was established in this new land named Pangaea. In this new place, a new source of energy was first discovered and named Mana. Following which, the development of what we now term as Magic began in earnest. Drawing from the vast repository of human imagination and ingenuity that was the Fantasy genre, the first complete system of magic, the four-elements system was established. Many other systems were proposed and explored, but few survived the test of time. 

As exploration and exploitation of Pangaea continued, Humanity expanded its territories at the blistering pace. In the century that followed, up to the year 2202 A.D., many other planar gates were discovered and explored. Some contained sentient races that were open to diplomacy, while others contained hostile and belligerent creatures that could not be reasoned with. Humanity remains at war with some of these alien races and we are losing ground ever so slowly...

- Excerpt from "Humanity after First Contact"
Written by acclaimed historian Dr. Carla Blune of the Pangaean Institute of Magical Study