According to the Old Religion

The evolution of men reached a point after the creation of God by their subconscious minds, that drove the species apart from a whole. Those that found comfort in the crutch of an ultimate being to represent them, they formed the majority of man kind. For those that discovered the power of creation residing within them, they colonized the landmass that came to be called Atlantis. Whether that landmass was a continent or just a large island, that is unknown.

With the creation of the division of man, the people of Atlantis reached a society of heightened technology as it was at that time in the world... not by the technology standards we know today, but of elemental harmony with the 5 elements. Their very mastery of the 5 is what set them apart from normal humanity, as they were able to control the elements in order to maximize their standards of living. This meant that nothing weather related was ever a mystery (as tends to still be the case today) and that everything went according to their plans.

Eventually, those that studied the manipulation of nature would become a new race unto themselves, but not for many hundreds of years. Along with them, another group of humans would follow a similar path, and become the masters of fate. Thus on the island nation, three new races emerged. In time, it was because of the power struggle that the world gained so many of its ancient mythologies. But it was also because of the resulting wars that we lost a great civilization, only to gain races that became known as demons.

But that is another story...