In 2001, two Populous players ("Hepple" and "TheGabber") got together with the intent of creating new maps for Populous Online. During this time, "Hepple" worked out the structure of the Populous level files and wrote one of the first Map Editors for the game. This Map Editor was kept from the public to ensure that only decent maps could be played online, or so that was the original intent. As New Worlds began to grow, so did "TheGabber" and "Hepple's" success in the Populous community. "Hepple" left soon after he made an early release of his Map Editor, but "TheGabber" and "1/4lb" worked together on Populous New Worlds. "TheGabber" focused exclusively on making maps wheras "1/4lb" worked on their website. This website stayed around until 2002 when they moved their site to Strategy Planet and became Populous Reincarnated. During this time, New Worlds began to grow increasingly popular. "1/4lb" left the Populous Reincarnated team and was later replaced by the current webmaster, "IncaWarrior".

In 2003, a programmer by the name of "Alacn" emerged on the scene with the first release of a 3D Map Editor. This 3D editor did not actually save maps at the time, but it would modify maps loaded into the editor's engine. "Alacn" joined Populous Reincarnated in late 2003 and provided them with new capabilities far beyond what anyone could have predicted. "Alacn" was responsible for developing a displacement editor (used to change the land textures of Populous), as well as a Resolution Changer to allow people to run the game at any legitimate screen resolution of their choosing. That same year, "Alacn" wrote the Populous Reincarnated Matchmaker, which is the most popular Matchmaker in use today. Shortly after "Alacn" joined in, "TheGabber" asked "TedTycoon" to produce a Pallete Editor to edit the landscape/object colours so new Mods could be developed. "Khickman" joined the team to help "TheGabber" with the production of new maps and sign new ones made by fans. On January 8, 2004, Electronic Arts pulled the plug on their Populous online server, causing Populous Reincarnated to host their own service. This is the service utilized by the Populous Reincarnated Matchmaker (one of "Alacn's" biggest contributions to the game). As time went on, "Alacn" completed work on the Map Editor. It became the first real publicly used and accepted Map Editor because it was the first program which actually edited the maps, objects and the header files at the same time. As a result, more and more Mappacks have been put in production for people to play, providing a bigger interest in Map Making for Populous.

 

The Populous Reincarnated community still lives in 2015, being the most used, famous and active community in Populous.