The day was a beautiful one, the sun high in the sky (or the moon, depending on location), the sky clear, the humidity pleasant.  Then came the Day of Reckoning.
There were no horsemen riding palehorses.  There were no thunderstorms, and Jesus had not been reborn. It wasn't the end of the world.  Just the end of the world as humanity knew it.  In fact, it was almost the end of humanity.

Cities were leveled by some unseen will.  The continents were divided, replaced, rejoined, relocated.  All of mankinds achievements were destroyed.  Technology was ripped from their hands and smashed.  Libraries burned. Then, Salvation came.  No biblical savior.  Angels with the bodies of humans, but with firey hair, hands and feet...where their wings beat were flames.  These blue flames didn't burn anything they touched.  The Fire Angels looked at humanity and frowned.  "You have been judged, and found wanting.  Your technology has been taken from you.  Your cities have been destroyed.  Your maps are no longer accurate.  Your dominion over the world has been removed."

"We have spared you, because there are righteous people among you.  Sadly, your people have forgotten what that means.  We leave you here to remake what of yourselves you will.  But, first, you must be changed."  And with a grand sweep of their firey hands, mankind was forever changed, and the races reborn.  "And now, we make the final change in your world."  Take one world, add magic; let sit.  "The magic has always been here, but your race was too afraid of the powers it gave, so you hid it, persecuted those who found it.  Now NO BEING will be able to deny you your magic."  The angels turned to leave and mankind all heard their shared thought:  "How long until they find they are immortal? And how much longer until theyfind how to kill each other?"

Only a select few heard the rest. "They aren't all immortal. Only those within whom the flame is strongest."
"Yes, well...Let those people become heros or demons if they will.  We have given them more than they ever had before.  We have set them free.  But will they realize that?"

One responded, the first to realize her powers.  "I have."  She spoke to the masses. "Let us rebuild our world.  Let those blessed with immortality use it, and make themselves as gods, and let all become what they can.  For we are finally free."

A World Assunder is a MUD written in Java based on an idea contrived by Atlanta Apostol and Jeffrey Bester (co-coders and Implementors).  This is their code base.  It is open source.  Blah blah blah.