Generation 166
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A Time of Plenty
Life has continued to recover from the events of the runaway Snowball event, now a distant memory fifty million years in the past. The volcanism that had pulled the planet out of the Ice Age has continued apace throughout the Bonoian Period, with new magma chambers and eruptions springing up all across the planet. This period of activity began to slow about ten million years into the period, and as the Bonoian gave way to the Huckian, a calm has washed over a surface wholly unrecognizable from that of the previous eras. Increasing geological activity has resulted in an expansion of land, in both existing landmasses as well as brand new subcontinents and archipelagos springing from the sea floor. Increased temperatures have also coincided with a marked increase in atmospheric water, fueling devastatingly powerful storms annually and acting as a potent greenhouse gas, raising temperatures further. Taking advantage of both the newly available moisture and the large tracts of land, flora life has exploded in abundance. Forests and heath are plentiful, and while some more rugged terrain still remains, most is restricted to the far extreme latitudes. Devastated by the Ice Age, tree-like flora had struggled to recover their size and distribution, but now thick canopies can be found in all major landmasses. Even the open oceans, once a barren desert in their own right, are now covered in vast floating islands of flora, providing a home to some of the most unique ecosystems this planet has yet produced. Across the Wallace supercontinent, life is rapidly expanding to all corners, out from the equator and down from the mountains, as the once separated landmasses of Dixon and Darwin continue to coalesce. Life from these once disparate regions continue to mingle as well, however as new points of conflict and competition emerge as the biota interact, for now the good land provides opportunity for all. Not every ecosystem is sharing in this abundance however. The increasing tectonic activity has begun pushing Drake further north. As permanent winter set in on Drake the local species showed remarkable resilience. Most species on Drake, like the rest of the world, are descendants of the previous Ice Age, and while much life was still lost it has merely set the continental makeup back to a level comparable to that of the Masonian. This however may not last, as the increased moisture is fueling the growth and expansion of glaciers which threaten to push out all but the most extreme of species. Those that have adapted to the warmer climates still cling on as rifts have separated off Dingus and various small islands from the southern point of the continent, granting the biota here a temporary haven. Overall, life has rebounded and continues to diversify, however such favorable times can’t last forever.
