A few days before the end of the month, a note is found posted in roughly the same spot where the monthly report card is usually placed. However, this note would seem to have a different author and a different purpose. Scrawled on cheap parchment in a hasty freehand, it seems to be an open letter to the students of the Academy. No one was able to witness the letter being posted, but a short trip to the Hall of Portals is enough to prove its contents true.

Hey, everyone!

By the time you see this, a whole new section will have been added to the Hall of Portals. The new portals lead to a world I've been spending the last few weeks scoping out. It's a pretty weird one!

In this world, over 20,000 years ago, some primitive human became an archmage with water powers and went a little overboard. As a result, the sea level rose by about a mile. Pretty much everything is underwater now. The continents are mostly gone, leaving behind only the big mountain ranges and a few high-elevation regions.

The water also reflects less of the sun's energy than the landmasses did, so the planet has gotten a lot hotter. It's made for some incredible warm-weather vacation spots, but the parts closest to the equator are too hot even for that. On the bright side, this means that Antarctica (or Atiashla as it's known here) is actually pretty comfy.

And speaking of names, you can forget every single thing you know about our timeline's cultures. Civilization didn't even have a chance to start forming before everything got flooded. Each set of islands has spent the last several millennia forming its own languages, religions, and customs. They have a lot of stuff that's completely different from anything in our timeline. You should all try out some of the crazy things the Suidens do to prepare their seafood, and the Naimish use their artificial cave systems to grow some amazing mushrooms (those of you with more destructive powers might want to get a few miles from the nearest civilization before trying those, though).

The various civilizations have only gotten into contact with each other pretty recently. This universe is technically even further into the future than the Information Age is, but its technology has progressed slower due to conditions being harsher for humanity. It most fields, it's a couple hundred years behind the Early Renaissance, but its sailing technology is actually a couple hundred years ahead. Explorers have already gone around the world and now they're starting to colonize Atiashla. The only thing slowing them down is all the pirates preying on the trade routes.

Anyway, I think there's just one more important point to emphasize: the population of this world is a lot smaller, but its mage density is incredible. Maybe even higher than one in a thousand. You'll all have a lot of new friends to play with. Have fun!

-The Headmaster

P.S. Hi Minnie!