Rekindling
Civilization grew again, and in so doing provided the
germ of another downfall. First, local tyrants laid claim to
the ruins of the past, organizing their domains around
altars of scavenge and scrap. Wandering machines were
tamed or hunted, followed and worshiped. Small plots
grew into farms. As before, lines and borders were drawn;
land claimed, loyalties pledged. Scraps of cloth and paint
and feathers and flags were given meaning and used to
divide people into tribes, cities, kingdoms, then nations,
and – fatally, finally – empires.
Then, the healing world was humbled by the first of
three great revelations – some historians paint them
as three great traumas –– the discovery of the Massif
vaults, great stores of information and artifacts from
before
The Fall. So far removed from Old Humanity,
the survivors had come to think that they were the
first to walk under the Sun. The vaults showed them
otherwise. They were not the first – they were the last.
Reeling from this knowledge as the riches of Old
Humanity were unleashed upon an injured world, the
fledgling powers of Earth retreated to their corners.
The second trauma was a reckoning:
Global war, the
Little Wars, a bitter fight to control and consume the
scraps of the long-dead past.
Foundation of a Brighter Future
The survivors gathered together at the conclusion of the
Little Wars to pledge peace. The tools of war and capital
were thrown aside, that they might never kill the Earth
again. Crowns and borders cast down, left to decay
amidst the ruins of empire. New Humanity, finally united
in trust, contrition, and solidarity, raised one banner, and
committed themselves to one purpose:
Union.
Foundation Day reset all clocks, replacing countless
calendars and dating systems with one coherent
timeline. Year 0 marked the beginning of a new age
and the redemption of a people. The bruised
stewards of an old and aching world had one more
chance at peace.
Everything found in the vaults was given freely to the
people, who organized in democratic groups and
whose representatives met in a single shared
campus. The tools of safe flight and clean power
spread across
Cradle. Reliable, networked communications
bound Union across continents. All of New
Humanity benefited from incredible advances in
medicine, computing, and all other sciences – the
bounties of the past, given to the people, with no
kings or emperors or bosses to jealously guard them.
Over time, researchers revealed much of the story of
the Fall – of Old Humanity’s desperate rush to
preserve what it could so that future generations
could begin anew with all the knowledge of those who
came before. Union's archeologists and anthropologists
unearthed technologies that could have saved
the world but were discovered too late or kept from
humanity by their owners, who only tried to save – or
worse, enrich – themselves.
The Push Forward
Unlike its predecessors, Union had no such restrictions
on time or license. As planners and administrators
nurtured a New Humanity to live in gentle coexistence
with the world upon which it lived, some began to look
out, toward the depths of space. Newly discovered
records spoke of inhabited worlds and distant
Stations
– of ancestors who escaped to the stars.
Never a priority to Union before, the stars took on a new
meaning: their ancestors might still be out there, and
humanity might not be alone. With approval from the
united communities of Cradle, whose representatives
formed Union’s Central Committee – the First Committee,
FirstComm – Union began the great work of reaching
those stars. Dormant satellites were found strung in
Earth’s orbit; ancient shipyards hanging in space. On
Luna, explorers found dusty
Colonies, empty but for
mummified remains of the people who once lived there.
On Earth itself, investigators found charts, logs, trajectories.
They found old telescopes, radio towers, and laser communication complexes preserved in deep ice on
mountaintops and high places all over the world. They
pointed them to the stars, turned them on, and waited.
The first messages arrived almost immediately, and
with them came the third great trauma: the voices of
Old Humanity, thousands of years ancient and dead,
carried on signals garbled by radiation, time, and
distance, crying out to their home for help; lost souls
that begged for aid, guidance, and their loved ones.
Millenia of messages, recorded and playing on
endless, decaying loops for the survivors to hear.
Resolved to Expand
This was the voice of Old Humanity as Union had never
expected it: a desperate cry for help, a lonely gasp as the
air ran out. A plea, unanswered, as the lights grew dim.
Shaken and sobered, FirstComm eventually returned
to those messages, resolved to answer those calls
and to ensure that whatever had caused them would
never happen again.
Old orbital stations were retaken. Vast machine minds
– the first artificial intelligences – were reactivated and
set to puzzle out solutions that humans could not.
New ships, proud and able, were launched toward
those old signals, along ancient charted paths, and
out toward new worlds.
Union could not bring their dead back home, but they
would choke the stars with the living.
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