This world is old.
It has been existed for billions of years, starting as a cloud of cosmic dust gathered by the paralyzing grip of gravity and uncompromising, electromagnetic forces. It has been melded from rock, ice and iron, heated by the forges of a new, bright star. It was hit by countless celestial objects, like thousands of molten hammers shattering and melding its surfaces. It has birthed a sibling and a child, born from its own, molten flesh. As it cooled down, it breathed atmosphere from its cracks, and covered its scarred face with oceans deep and cold. At certain point, due to an unknown combination of heat, light, water and earth, a strange and new phenomenon has emerged upon it- life, simple at first, but quickly growing in complexity. Endless forms most beautiful were generated in a rapid speed, devouring each other in a mad race which lead to a more and more evolved forms. Disasters came and went, destroying countless species- and letting others take their place, prospering upon the death of their competitors. Life always find their way- crawling from the sea to the land, and from the land to the skies. Green covered the face of the not-so-young plant, opening the way to reptilian beasts and titanic behemoth. And after ages of rise and fall, suddenly came one new specie which spread around the world like a wild fire- humans.
This world is old- but humanity is frightfully young.
Humans have saw barely 200,000 years of light upon the planet. Around.. 0.004% of Earth's lifetime? Practically nothing, and civilization exists even less. Human weren't there when the first nuclear acids bonded together, they weren't there when the boundary between the land and sea was crossed, they weren't there when the lizard kings of old ruled the land and definitely weren't there when the celestial hammer shattered into Earth's surface (which is thankful, or else we wouldn't were around right now). It is easy to mistake and think that everything is about us- that we are the center of everything, and that the planet is merely a stage upon the great show of mankind could take place. That every other specie in the evolutionary chain was nothing but a stepping stone meant to allow humanity to claim its rightful place. After all, so much have changed in the few dozens of years, that recorded history seems like far fetched dream, and everything before it is nothing more than a decaying illusion. We have shattered atoms. We have connected the world. We have reached the stars. Technology advance in a rapid speed, harnessing the powers of light and fire and lightning to our uses, enslaving countless of other species to our uses and erasing countless others in an hindsight. We have won. This planet is ours, and we want more.
That's, of course, a lie- but it is a good lie, one which people like to tell themselves even without noticing they do so. And in the shadows of the world, other beings beg to differ- things which, together with humanity, evolved and grew from the primordial soup into being apex predators, parasites and symbiots. Vampires consume the life of the living. Werewolves hunt while in sheep's clothing. Witches invoke dreadful powers. Creatures of flame bring disaster wherever they walk, while the kings of the fae and the lords of death reach their hand into the world and meddle with it for their own benefit. Clockwork demons steal the skins of mortals, and mythical beasts devour their souls. Humans do not rule Earth- they are simply there, next to countless other races, hunted by them and hunting them in a shadow war which is as ancient as humanity itself.
But didn't I said that humanity is frightfully young?
Evolution is not merely the law of the natural world- it is the law of the supernatural world, too. Those monsters which surrounds us today, they too had to evolve, one step at a time, standing upon the skulls of those before them. They didn't survived because they were the strongest, the fastest or even the smartest- they survived because they were the fittest. Because the world has changed, and they had to change with it. Because humanity became the dominant force in the world's ecology, and they were the most human. Because they were at the right place, at the right time, with the right capabilities to survive the upcoming changes. To cut a long story short- they survived, because they were lucky.
But how the world would have been different if they weren't?
Let's take a step back, let's spin the evolutionary wheel to the ages past. Let's close our eyes and be once more in a distant, primal age, on the very age of our racial memory. Let's return to the days, when homo sapiens has just diverged itself from the rest of its siblings, and started spreading across the globe. How the long journey of 200,000 years has started, with no way or guide to lead us in our way. Let's go back to the old, old world- and see that while changed, the darkness was still there. More primal and chaotic, of course, but jut as dark as it always been. It is an era, when shadows crept into the mouths of the dead, and the shapeless ruled unmatched. It is a time were the old gods toyed with the world around them, and horned predators celebrated in their hunt. A time when fire was wild and uncontrollable, and neverborn monsters made corpses dance again. A time of life with no laws, of visitors from faraway stars, of divine engineers and bestial demons, of hungry lands and spontaneous mutations, of hunters who wear hundred forms. Of those humans, who were there before.
Let's return to the time of the first men.
Let's return to the time, of the first monsters.
************************************************** ********
So the first question you must have asked when you read this thread's headline was "why to bother?". I can understand that- after all, at first glance, we already have an excellent Era which already covers an ancient time frame in the history of mankind. Sundered World did some brave and fantastic things, after all, going deep into unexplored territories and examining just how did the world has changed since that ancient era. Sure, the Upper Paleolithic is, well, older- but what can that era offer that Sundered World didn't? What could going even further in time offer than than "jumping over the shark"?
My answer- Primitive Templates.
I mean, just think about it- what are the strix of not inhuman vampires? The idigam, as they naturally gain Essence in Hisil, seem to predate the coming of spirits to that realm, and the same is true about the Chthonians. Mummy itself details the existence of pre-human civilizations which has slowly collapsed with the rise of the Law, and the Pain Prophet's Testament mentions the existence of beings older than humans and demons. Arcadia was once ruled by the huntsmen, and the Old Gods of the Supernal were banished to become the Bound. Those monsters, and many others, are probably older than humanity itself- and as such, would have been there before humanity has to walk on two feet. Oh, I'm not going as far as suggesting that in this era you would play those dreadful entities (mostly). I suggest that just that as a human being you would play the first humans, as a monster you would play the first monsters to walk among mankind, just as they started to adapt to the new, rising specie. Some have evolved since then, becoming the modern monsters we all know and love. Others went extinct, leaving the path for new breeds to take their place. Some have simply survived- a bit broken and rough around the edges, but they are still there, relics of ancient times, living fossils of the era before the soul carrying beasts took over the world, creating new monsters with them.
That not just a Dark Era. That's the beginning- and who knows what wonders wait for us at that, murky corner of history.
(discuss!)
It has been existed for billions of years, starting as a cloud of cosmic dust gathered by the paralyzing grip of gravity and uncompromising, electromagnetic forces. It has been melded from rock, ice and iron, heated by the forges of a new, bright star. It was hit by countless celestial objects, like thousands of molten hammers shattering and melding its surfaces. It has birthed a sibling and a child, born from its own, molten flesh. As it cooled down, it breathed atmosphere from its cracks, and covered its scarred face with oceans deep and cold. At certain point, due to an unknown combination of heat, light, water and earth, a strange and new phenomenon has emerged upon it- life, simple at first, but quickly growing in complexity. Endless forms most beautiful were generated in a rapid speed, devouring each other in a mad race which lead to a more and more evolved forms. Disasters came and went, destroying countless species- and letting others take their place, prospering upon the death of their competitors. Life always find their way- crawling from the sea to the land, and from the land to the skies. Green covered the face of the not-so-young plant, opening the way to reptilian beasts and titanic behemoth. And after ages of rise and fall, suddenly came one new specie which spread around the world like a wild fire- humans.
This world is old- but humanity is frightfully young.
Humans have saw barely 200,000 years of light upon the planet. Around.. 0.004% of Earth's lifetime? Practically nothing, and civilization exists even less. Human weren't there when the first nuclear acids bonded together, they weren't there when the boundary between the land and sea was crossed, they weren't there when the lizard kings of old ruled the land and definitely weren't there when the celestial hammer shattered into Earth's surface (which is thankful, or else we wouldn't were around right now). It is easy to mistake and think that everything is about us- that we are the center of everything, and that the planet is merely a stage upon the great show of mankind could take place. That every other specie in the evolutionary chain was nothing but a stepping stone meant to allow humanity to claim its rightful place. After all, so much have changed in the few dozens of years, that recorded history seems like far fetched dream, and everything before it is nothing more than a decaying illusion. We have shattered atoms. We have connected the world. We have reached the stars. Technology advance in a rapid speed, harnessing the powers of light and fire and lightning to our uses, enslaving countless of other species to our uses and erasing countless others in an hindsight. We have won. This planet is ours, and we want more.
That's, of course, a lie- but it is a good lie, one which people like to tell themselves even without noticing they do so. And in the shadows of the world, other beings beg to differ- things which, together with humanity, evolved and grew from the primordial soup into being apex predators, parasites and symbiots. Vampires consume the life of the living. Werewolves hunt while in sheep's clothing. Witches invoke dreadful powers. Creatures of flame bring disaster wherever they walk, while the kings of the fae and the lords of death reach their hand into the world and meddle with it for their own benefit. Clockwork demons steal the skins of mortals, and mythical beasts devour their souls. Humans do not rule Earth- they are simply there, next to countless other races, hunted by them and hunting them in a shadow war which is as ancient as humanity itself.
But didn't I said that humanity is frightfully young?
Evolution is not merely the law of the natural world- it is the law of the supernatural world, too. Those monsters which surrounds us today, they too had to evolve, one step at a time, standing upon the skulls of those before them. They didn't survived because they were the strongest, the fastest or even the smartest- they survived because they were the fittest. Because the world has changed, and they had to change with it. Because humanity became the dominant force in the world's ecology, and they were the most human. Because they were at the right place, at the right time, with the right capabilities to survive the upcoming changes. To cut a long story short- they survived, because they were lucky.
But how the world would have been different if they weren't?
Let's take a step back, let's spin the evolutionary wheel to the ages past. Let's close our eyes and be once more in a distant, primal age, on the very age of our racial memory. Let's return to the days, when homo sapiens has just diverged itself from the rest of its siblings, and started spreading across the globe. How the long journey of 200,000 years has started, with no way or guide to lead us in our way. Let's go back to the old, old world- and see that while changed, the darkness was still there. More primal and chaotic, of course, but jut as dark as it always been. It is an era, when shadows crept into the mouths of the dead, and the shapeless ruled unmatched. It is a time were the old gods toyed with the world around them, and horned predators celebrated in their hunt. A time when fire was wild and uncontrollable, and neverborn monsters made corpses dance again. A time of life with no laws, of visitors from faraway stars, of divine engineers and bestial demons, of hungry lands and spontaneous mutations, of hunters who wear hundred forms. Of those humans, who were there before.
Let's return to the time of the first men.
Let's return to the time, of the first monsters.
************************************************** ********
So the first question you must have asked when you read this thread's headline was "why to bother?". I can understand that- after all, at first glance, we already have an excellent Era which already covers an ancient time frame in the history of mankind. Sundered World did some brave and fantastic things, after all, going deep into unexplored territories and examining just how did the world has changed since that ancient era. Sure, the Upper Paleolithic is, well, older- but what can that era offer that Sundered World didn't? What could going even further in time offer than than "jumping over the shark"?
My answer- Primitive Templates.
I mean, just think about it- what are the strix of not inhuman vampires? The idigam, as they naturally gain Essence in Hisil, seem to predate the coming of spirits to that realm, and the same is true about the Chthonians. Mummy itself details the existence of pre-human civilizations which has slowly collapsed with the rise of the Law, and the Pain Prophet's Testament mentions the existence of beings older than humans and demons. Arcadia was once ruled by the huntsmen, and the Old Gods of the Supernal were banished to become the Bound. Those monsters, and many others, are probably older than humanity itself- and as such, would have been there before humanity has to walk on two feet. Oh, I'm not going as far as suggesting that in this era you would play those dreadful entities (mostly). I suggest that just that as a human being you would play the first humans, as a monster you would play the first monsters to walk among mankind, just as they started to adapt to the new, rising specie. Some have evolved since then, becoming the modern monsters we all know and love. Others went extinct, leaving the path for new breeds to take their place. Some have simply survived- a bit broken and rough around the edges, but they are still there, relics of ancient times, living fossils of the era before the soul carrying beasts took over the world, creating new monsters with them.
That not just a Dark Era. That's the beginning- and who knows what wonders wait for us at that, murky corner of history.
(discuss!)
Comment