E K L I P Z4
A Prologue of Sorts . . .
There was first pre-history. Dinosaurs ruled the earth, land, sky, and sea. The meteor struck and most all was lost. The earth's axis was slightly tilted and chaos controlled the climate. Soon though, mammals rose to the occasion while new species of reptile, bird, and fish evolved. Intelligence began to grow within the mammals and there came a new breed of animal. Time went on. More new species inhabited the blue planet. Then, eventually, there came the B.C. (Before Christ). Humans, earth's most intelligent of creatures, waged war over territory and religion as the gods watched in horror. Land was taken from its peoples and, at times, all seemed lost. With the new era, A.D. (After Death), came more war, more loss, and new technologic wonders. The humans began to destroy the earth, bit by bit, piece by piece, without so much as a care from most. The gods were getting angry.
The earth began to rise in temperature and the humans didn't truly fear for the worst. Millennia more, the humans' machines started to become smarter than they were. R.O.M. (Rise of Machines) was what this new era was called. Machines dominated the humans, and the once intelligent species had to live in hiding. (After Strike) A.S. came with the strike of the meteor. It was the biggest meteor impact in all of earth's history; much bigger than that of the one that consumed the sky in the era of the dinosaurs. It destroyed every machine, almost every species of animal, including those in the ocean, and nearly wiped out the human race altogether. Having lived in the undergrounds of the earth, away from the machines, the humans were ironically 'saved'. The humans soon came out of hiding, but radiation from the meteor caused disease and disfiguration. What little food or water the humans could find was usually tainted. Water sprayed down from the heavens in an acidic form. The human population that was already so little dwindled even more, until it reached below the thousands. But somehow, the humans found a way to live. Knowing of past history and the legends passed down to them from their few remaining ancestors, humans no longer wanted to rely on machines, and so they soon went to the old way of life. Many humans experimented in the arts of alchemy to better their lives without the use of machines. The humans had begun to think that the meteor was sent down by the gods to destroy them for not believing in them anymore. The meteor also brought great wonders. The animals that did survive the mass extinction adapted extremely well, as they had no choice. Along with these new species came very strange, unearthly-looking creatures. The meteor contained some water and small microbial bacterium that somehow also managed to survive the crash to earth. By the time the meteor had hit, continents had moved thousands of miles in different directions. Africa joined Europe, closing the Mediterranean completely. Australia and its neighboring islands were much closer to Asia, which had rotated clockwise. North and South America are disfigured and slightly rotated counter-clockwise. The meteor literally left an imprint on the earth; right in the middle of what would today be the Atlantic.
The earth's orbit around the sun had also slowed by this time; so much so that a season lasted 350 days. It took 1400 days to get all the way around the sun. The moon was far from earth, hardly even visible. The orbit of sun had caught it, now making it its own planet. But we had stolen one of Mars' moons long before the meteor strike. Mars itself had been flung out of orbit because of this, and it was soon destroyed after a strike with the asteroid belt between it and Jupiter. Over many more millennia, Mars soon became invisible to everyone. It had crumbled and spread out into the asteroid belt, leaving Martian dust throughout the region. Mercury was still as close to hell as one could get, but Venus had evolved. Though no animals inhabited the planet, lush, dense forests did cover it. Jupiter had grown in size slightly due to the ruin of Mars. And all was forgot about the planets beyond that of Uranus, which had also grown in size for some other unknown reason.
The humans celebrated the strangeness of their solar system and the vastness of the universe. The gods themselves finally came down from the heavens to live on the earth. They hid themselves everywhere, without the humans knowing they were watching. The world of the demons was opened as well as that of light and dark.
And now, A.S. 301000 (more commonly known as A.S. 301-0), the beginning of both a new century and millennia, people are still going through hard times. It is the Year of Autumn, and the people must prepare for next year's winter, which will be harsh and forbidding.
Seth Fuhrmann