Background Quest

Aeons ago, an ancient civilization spread across the planet and discovered
many scientific principles. Highly advanced in both technology and
scientific knowledge, the civilization quickly exceeded all others before
it. One of the final areas in which they delved was by bending spacetime
around an object thereby transporting it anywhere instantaneously.
Several portals on the continents were thereby established to link
everyone together with the main island (an atlantis of sorts). It was
there that a final project was undertaken; a gateway that could teleport
someone or something anywhere in the universe. Despite all warnings of how
dangerous such technology could be and the warnings that such a thing was
unnatural, the project continued. When it was activated, however,
something went terribly wrong. Losing control of the gateway, a magical
rift opened before their very eyes. The people, scared and frightened, ran
away in terror trying to flee. Those that remained behind tried to stop
the rift from opening any further. Yet, as if the rift was controlled by
someone else, it widened and something started to emerge. The gateway was
deactivated, yet the rift continued to widen. Taking the strength of all
the island's wizards, the rift slowly closed. Unaware of the consequences,
however, the magical drain combined with the massive energy feeding back
through the gateway's power supply caused the area to become extremely
unstable and a huge explosion resulted which caused the entire island's
demise. The island sank to the bottom of the sea and only a few people
managed to make it through the portal before it was too late. The rest of
the people died that night on the bottom of the sea. The shockwave which
resulted triggered massive volcanoes and earthquakes which in turn caused
massive extinctions. A horrible time in history, the knowledge which had
become so prevalent was lost forever and the portals which linked the
continents were forgotten for eternity. Nobody understood what happened
that night long ago and nobody seemed to care, it seemed that the world
was safe once again.  Yet, history tends to repeat itself...

One night 60 years ago, it happened. An invasion force of legions of
undead arrived at Hatar and were eventually trapped in the Garunda tower
by an elvish king. The stars are currently out of alignment, all are signs
that something awful's about to happen.  The portals still exist, able to
be triggered by the dragonfly statue in possesion of Brant. Selena also
had a role in Garunda 60 years ago previously, she the guardian of the
chime. The undead are still in the tower, but losing their leader, they're
waiting for further instructions. Delan is on a quest of glory for the 3
rings which are said to have the ability to raise the island from the
bottom of the sea. The rift is trying to be reopened from the other end by
someone with more power than anything ever seen (possibly banished by the
espers' ancesters into a state of quantum flux, or on another plane of
existence) The seven wisemen still exist, unaware there's someone after
them and their powers (Selena meant to warn Ramuh, but due to something
that occurred either during her teleportation or just prior to, she
doesn't realize it yet and ends up joining with Arvis). Erdrick is also
still alive somewhere. Selena's lost her memory as well. Garunda doesn't
need to exist, but the invasion at Hatar was the first sign something's
not right. Only the espers know what's going on, but they're in isolation
far away from anyone else. The person who created the rift has others on
this side, released before the rift was sealed thousands of years ago.

I hope this idea works out and this is pretty abstract so far, but it
provides something to base our quests upon. I hope that we can refine this
idea to a working example and work out some details or even change some
stuff around.

-Zythis