Antarctica

Earth's southernmost continent, a land once covered by a colossal ice cap which melted away as a result of the Old World's climate change.

Geography

With its ice gone and global sea levels raised some seventy meters, Antarctica consists of several large landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The largest territory is East Antarctica, a vast expanse which once held four-fifths of the planet's ice.

History

During the Old World's heyday, Antarctica was a frozen wasteland home only to penguins and scientific research outposts. As carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, Earth's climate was tipped into a hothouse state and as human civilization collapsed, the ice cap destabilized and began to melt.

The melting took over three centuries, causing constant sea level rise which continuously drove human populations further up the new coastline and prevented the establishment of permanent settlements. When the rise stopped and civilization began to rebuild in various places around the world, colonists from Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa began to sail to Antarctica and eventually took up residence. While farming was hard on the soil-poor continent, the new inhabitants found a land overflowing in natural resources--for while Old World capitalism had managed to strip the rest of the Earth bare, even its might could not break through the ancient ice cap. An entire unspoiled continent had thus been preserved free of human exploitation. From its first colonies, new cities arose and were eventually unified into the Antarctican Federation.

Type

Continent