By: Robert Adducci
" The current state of the Athasian tablelands is a result of an apocalypse not thousands of years in the making, but of one monumental arcane apocalypse that happened less than a thousand years ago. Not that the tablelands were some verdant slice of paradise before, but the twisted wastelands and mutant mongrels you know as home are not how it's always been.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://athas.org/articles/alternate-history-arcane-apocalypse