Bizdoatl was relatively smart, but a terrible student at "eru", or magic school. He came from the dominant empire in this sector of space, and a race within that was itself unimpressive other than having exceptionally long life spans. So the empire explored and created and discovered, aided by their profound command of magic and some technologies, and his race just tagged along, if that. And he tagged along with them, an ordinary person of no distinction, with no one caring for the colors of his life or achievements or ideas.
As a people his race had just a minimal command of basic magic. But in his case, he was a rarity even among them in having none at all. This made his life rather hard, less from his incapability than from the social stigma of being magic-less, barely passing even low level school on theory alone, not practice. Those with little can still be very mean to those with none. Meaning low status, only short term employment, and zero prospect of having a mate.
Of course this bred in him some small amount of resentment at his family, people and world, yet he knew that anywhere else in the empire he would fare as bad or worse. Unless he could pay someone a fee for magic, unlikely at his pay scale, it also meant that he had to do it the hard way, so he became a jack of all trades, a fix-it man. But useful only to himself because as far as most people were concerned, if it couldn't be done by magic, it wasn't worth doing.
Living on his own in modest surroundings, discarded and cut off by his family barely out of adolescence, as an embarrassing defect, a mistake, his growing despair at living a meager life of petty jobs for a vast stretch of time began to weigh on him.
So it was with great surprise, and great trepidation, that he received a communique from the powerful school-world of Ilúvatar. Typically cause for great celebration as such messages usually meant acceptance at a premier eru, but if summoned for other reasons, typically as punishment for having interfered with one of their students in the past, it could be very troublesome, as their commands had the force of law in the empire. And unless you were a student, afforded some respect, you were relatively powerless and expendable. All he really knew of it was its name and harsh rumors. His only option was to comply, as to do otherwise was inviting swift and painful ruin. Besides at least it offered a future, any future, compared to where he was now.
After free magical transport to quickly cross the vast distance of space, he was then shuttled to where he was to meet someone, though he had no idea who, why or for what. Just at a glance he could tell that the place had both a ridiculous level of security, both physical and magical, yet had a good balance of aesthetics, comfort, and efficiency for those inside. After a time, a single individual, of middle age for his very magical race, entered the waiting room, wearing professorial clothing and visibly radiating what Bizdoatl felt was like a large electrical field, giving him a slightly bluish tinge.
"I am Jaldo, the demiurge of this department." A meaningless statement to Bizdoatl. What it meant was that he was the single most important person in the region, a mage of great power. Noticing Bizdoatl gawking, he turned down his field, making it mostly invisible, before apologizing with the explanation that he had been in a faculty meeting, where treachery and assassination was a possibility, as it always is among academics. At face value, Bizdoatl felt relieved that he looked relaxed and even friendly, not hard and stern.
Before he explained the purpose of the meeting, he was clear to Bizdoatl that everything said to him was of the highest secrecy, to the point where mental barriers had been installed, painlessly, he made it a point to say, in Bizdoatl's mind, so that he could neither give away the information as such, to unauthorized beings, nor have it taken from him even if it was to kill him, yet the voluminous information would remain at his command. Bizdoatl grasped that this knowledge was flooding into a compartmentalized part of his mind even as they stood there, at a tremendous rate. Quite an experience. And then it stopped.
"So, now we can both feel free to talk," said Jaldo, after a pause. "I'll start. The empire is dying."
At this point, Bizdoatl felt the need to sit down. As much as he disliked his condition within the empire, he knew that in the greatest majority of empires in the galaxy life would be much worse for him. Because for all its faults, his empire was mostly indifferent to the lives of his race and other races, and his person, not actively malevolent or cruel. They would at least leave him alone for the most part, to live an uneventful life, for better or worse.
Jaldo continued. Of the hundreds of known empires and dominions that exist and used to exist, they all have or had a self inflicted lifespan. And one such extinct empire, not us, he made clear, developed a means to accurately predict when this would happen. And based on the prediction of that means, time is running out for this empire. Yet while it could not be said for sure what the form this collapse will take: violent, destructive and murderous; or peaceful and gentle, prior to its replacement with a new empire, its end was certain and obvious to those aware of this prediction.
And fundamentally, the key to this calculation, this collapse, was magic. And its speed was directly proportional to the amount of magic available to the worlds of the empire. The most powerful magical worlds would collapse first, and those with minimal magic, like Bizdoatl's world, will become sanctuaries for the refugees of the collapse until the last vestiges of the old order had failed. Even if nonviolent, countless lives would still be lost as the system broke down.
To explain, for all its innumerable benefits, the convenience of magic weakens a society, makes them less capable to create, maintain, grow and improve. At the same time, it hypnotizes with entertainment and pleasure. Entire empires have perished from enjoyment and ennui born of lack of interest in the real world. Add to that, with greater complexity magic becomes unworkable and vitiated, so what had once been amazing and strong becomes overly complex, incomprehensible and weak. Specialization among its users divides its mastery. Its users want its power and do not care how or why it works, so they lose their grasp over it. They do not repair what is broken, only replace it, and eventually no one knows how to replace it.
It is worst among the young people, for without their management of the present, and their reproduction of future generations, empires are sure to fall. And in our galaxy, magic is almost ubiquitous, almost impossible to get away from, an irresistible temptation. At some point, they would rather have its convenience than live.
One of the original founding empires in the galaxy, long since gone, was aware of this problem of magic as well, and so created an astounding device, an entire world where almost no magic exists, nor could exist for long. Truly a work of art. Before they had perfected almost magic-less life there, over a vast length of time, they needed to fully or mostly sterilize the world of more advanced life several times over after it was seeded or evolved naturally. Ironically, in doing so, they discovered the key to an almost magic-free world.
In the great closed system of life and death, life creates magic, which is then freed up with death, to return and promulgate more life. There is an overflow of various degrees and thus a barrier of magic forms between life and death, and the thicker this barrier, the more magic that exists in a world and can be accessed by those that live there. Conversely, the wiping out of more advanced creatures all at once had ironically resulted in a barrier so thin that in practical terms it didn't exist.
This world also has a vast, liquid metal core, and a surface mostly covered with salt water that also worked to inhibit the generation of magic. Overall, it is a destructive, violent place where without magic, life is forced to live in brutal competition, rapidly evolving a completely different paradigm than elsewhere. It is truly a frightening work of genius, made long ago by a race so ancient and forgotten, almost nothing is known of them other than this, their masterpiece. They might have used it for its intended purpose, or they might have collapsed before they were able to. We likely will never know.
Almost since the founding of eru Ilúvatar, a select group of top mages and scholars here have been investigating this world, and it has shaped us even more than we have been able to shape it. We have created entirely new fields of study to produce masters in non-magical skills, some of whom you will soon meet. Their purpose is to train you in a manner of thinking that is not based in magic, but non-magic and technology. Yet on this world, we intend that you will be a big part of helping to develop something better than magic. After a long search, we were able to identify you, who has almost uniquely. a combination of an extremely long life and an absolute lack of magical ability or reserve.
While it is too late to save the empire, in exchange for this work we will give you tremendous power to shape and manipulate this world, all built and paid for by the empire as research, with the idea that you might create this new system, that the children of this strange and harsh world can someday travel throughout the galaxy and free all or most of it from the endless cycle of pain into something better. You will have a staff of powerful mechanica to do your bidding, and the authority of both eru Ilúvatar and the empire at your command, for as long as they last.
For our part, the masters will remain here in the empire, to guide its collapse in the more peaceful way if we can, yet it is with sadness that we know our lives are too short to see what you can accomplish. As a small solace, we will let it be known to your own race, who despised and discarded you, that you are officially titled a hero of the empire, a far greater commendation than any of them could ever aspire to be, yet they will never know why. So perhaps indeed the best form of revenge is success. Bizdoatl pondered this for a bit before agreeing that it would make up for a lot of ill feeling on his part.
Since I have put a lot of data in your head, it is important to check that you have full access to it. You do this by saying my name. Then when you get its response, ask it to run a self diagnostic test. Bizdoatl complied, saying "Jaldo", and instantly a second Jaldo appeared, seemingly in his field of vision, identical to the real one. He was awed by how realistic it looked. The real Jaldo then said to him, you don't have to say it out loud. Oh, right, replied Bizdoatl, then he said 'conduct self diagnosis' to himself. After a few seconds, the new Jaldo said complete, no errors found. After a brief pause it said, there are several mental inefficiencies, would you like them to be upgraded?
The real Jaldo saw the look of puzzlement on his face, and immediately said "No! Answer that question 'no'!", before mumbling to himself I thought I had fixed that error. Bizdoatl complied, then the second Jaldo disappeared. Jaldo explained that Bizdoatl's mind was very different from a typical magic user, and were he to answer 'yes', much of his mind would have been rewritten to make him conform, which would have messed him up terribly, or even killed him.
But be that as it may, Jaldo said, your mental mage appears to be fully operational, and will be available to you for the rest of your life, as will the mental versions of the other masters that will soon be teaching you. With this, I feel obligated to ask the question all good teachers should ask: "What are your questions?"
His answers included that the civilized ones who live there called their world "Lur". For the others, the uncivilized ones, their word, if any, is unknown.
The civilized ones are from the anti-magic, pacifist belief system Samiru, who live on the great island of Lur, isolated from the larger land masses by much salt water, and an energy barrier to protect them from encounters with the uncivilized ones that dominate everywhere else, who terrify them. The Samiru are there by contract with the eru, and also occupy two major protected observation sites in the northern and southern land masses to observe the uncivilized ones. The uncivilized ones are native to the world, and are easily the deadliest intelligent animal known in the empire. Once their contract is complete, the Samiru are promised their own, minimal magic worlds, which they crave to avoid the destructive magical paradox.
This is the second occupation of the Samiru on this world. The first time their cities on the great island were quite advanced and they were learning a great deal, discovering many new non-magical secrets, when a time of great cold descended on that world, which scrubbed their cities into dust and forced them to abandon their surface civilization and move deep underground. Eventually they had to use their most powerful skill, called soundless words, strong enough to lift great weights or dig large tunnels, to propel space vehicles to escape temporarily to their other worlds. Only a long time after the great cold had abated did some of them return to Lur. The generations spent on their new worlds had adapted them physically to their new ecologies, and only one kind of Samiru could still function well on this world. Tall, thin, mostly hairless and dark skinned, they still preferred life underground, but at the same time above the average surface, living in hollowed out extinct volcanoes, with easier access to space, mostly out of fear of the uncivilized ones, but also out of enjoyment of life on the surface.
Much to their surprise, in their absence, even with the severe cold, the uncivilized ones population had radically increased, as had their non-magical abilities. Their aggression and violence were so extreme that the Samiru decided to modify the uncivilized ones' life patterns to make them more pacifistic. So with a combination of taking of young females and modification before release, the uncivilized ones were infected with a very stable yet dominant modification of pacifism that they would pass along to their descent. It would still take a great length of time and countless generations to spread among them fully.
Bizdoatl's next question was common sense, and involved the standard means of measurements for Lur. This made Jaldo smile to himself a bit because Imperial standards had only a limited value in the future, so it was wise to have standards for his new home. He said, the period of the orbit of Lur around its star is called an Urte. The first Samiru occupation took place about 40,000 Urte ago, and the current one has been here about 10,000 Urte, though likely not much longer, as living in perpetual terror of the uncivilized ones, even separated across vast water, yet having to closely watch them, has taken its mental toll on them. This also means that with the collapse of the empire, you will not be able to rely on them much longer, so there is little choice for you other than to take an active hand in the evolution of the uncivilized ones. Or you will become their food, as has happened to others.
Jaldo continued by saying that while he would enjoy their conversation, Bizdoatl could continue to speak with his mental mage to the same result, and the other masters still needed to confer with him. But I am almost late to attend a luncheon that will determine the future of the people of several other worlds, and saying so, the blue energy again enveloped him as he left the room, and a mechanica arrived to shepherd him to his next meeting. He felt some relief that not only had he not been in trouble, but that he now had, he hoped, a good job, recognition, and more than anything else, purpose. That he would effectively be on his own, on a strange world, and surrounded by hostile primitives was surprisingly not very intimidating to him, for he had always felt alone.
The mechanica guide, designed to look like an attractive female of his kind, which he figured was done as a courtesy for him, instead felt quite uncomfortable, for females of his kind had openly disdained and abused him as soon as they learned that he was an inferior male. And this cruelty lasted through their extended adolescence, a very long time, until they were mature enough to just ignore him entirely. While he couldn't blame them for that opinion, he did resent the meanness they injected into it.
Without prompting, the mechanica began speaking, introducing itself as Maid Sagran Doable. If my appearance makes you uncomfortable, you can change it at command, advisable since we will be spending considerable time together. I am the team and internal defense leader of the mechanica under your eventual command on Lur. My peer is the masculine Ell Redoubt, who will be in charge of external security, and is designed for maximum combat value against the uncivilized ones.
Pondering this for a while, he asked her if she could take on the characteristics of a female Scubausuc, as he had seen one once as a child and found her beautiful beyond description, elegant and powerful, intelligent and graceful. And, he said in passing, I wish she had fallen in love with me. A great choice, said Doable. Right now I am configured as a general purpose mechanica, but with several major upgrades I could be better in most every way than a real Scubausuc. Physically, intellectually, and emotionally. But she didn't mention to Bizdoatl that Scubausucs are very passionate creatures and jealous, far beyond the emotional base line for general purpose mechanica, and she was looking forward to experiencing such intense and deep feelings. Bizdoatl will be deeply in love with me, she thought. I should also be able to reproduce with him if he desires it, which will need other upgrades.
By this time, they had reached their second destination, very different in layout than the offices of Jaldo. It seemed to have minimal security, and a focus on physical exertion. Difficult strength and endurance training, and sparring with and without weapons. Then he realized that nobody was using magic. The master here forbids its use in training, said Doable. Master Parkdeer.
With that, and the assurance that he could feel safe here, while having his lunch at one of the better eating places on the eru, she excused herself to get some of her upgrades nearby, noting she should be finished and would return before he was done eating. All eyes turned to her Scubausuc form on her return, just after he had finished his last bite. She was everything he had imagined, and more. A goddess. She then told him that she was only partially upgraded, and would need further modifications. Bizdoatl couldn't help but admire her. Are you ready to meet Master Parkdeer, she asked?