It is unusually fitting that Man stumbled into the New Age of Myth the same way he stumbled in to every other great age in history-- by sticking his nose where he ought not not. The means for this grand transition, of course, are not solely the dominion of Man. No, it is something of a great conglomeration of events, both minute and earthrending, that all happened close enough to eachother to count as one terrible occurence.
As the one truly impartial historian, I feel it is best to start with the Discovery that made Man into a God. It is the most familiar subject to you, my readers, and yet there is still room for evolving your perception of it-- you did not always have access to the myriad refinements that you now have at your fingertips.
This tale begins in _____. A scientist by the name of "______" was being paid to research an emerging field of human enhancement-- gene therapy was coming into its own, and the next step had to be found. One could prevent hereditary diseases from being passed down, soldiers could be designed rather than born, and all was good, for a time.
But Man wanted more.
Not content with merely controlling the very genetic makeup of its own kind, Man wished to improve upon Man even further. Robotic prosthesis was already possible in theory, but Dr. ______ perfected it. He discovered a way to "wire" the limb to the nervous system. Instead of being a false appendage, incapable of function on its own merit, the limb could be controlled through thought. The process wasn't easy, of course: one would need to start with visualization, picturing the actions of the newly-attached limb. Naturally, this created a delay between thought and action, but after diligent training, the need for visualization faded. Eventually, it would become "synapse fires, limbs move," as natural as what you came into the world with.
There were other problems associated with the prostheses, of course, (the lack of sensation in the limbs made for amusing accidents involving eggs or handshakes for example) but this was merely a stepping stone. The true advantage was to come.
Dr. ______ pondered alternative uses for his fusion of organic and cybernetic. Once he mapped out the signals, it became possible to modify -anything- in the body, within reason. He started small, of course. Heart rate adjusters that would slow down your pulse on command, autodefillibrators that would kill a heart attack before paramedics could even be alerted. ______ was now firmly established as a hero. Then, came personal technology.
Personal technology, or Tech, was the next logical step for ______. Not content with lifesaving applications, he turned to more practical ones-- retinal implants that allowed perfect vision, with thermal filters on command. Adrenal gland stimulators and metabolic accelerators for athletes needing an extra boost. If you wanted to adjust part of yourself, Dr. ______ and his subordinates at the facility had the Tech. One could build a modern Hercules with relatively little effort or risk. And so was born Man as God. Soon, he would have to account for himself to the real thing, of course.
The discoveries made by Dr. ______ were a massive inspiration to the greater scientific community, and a technological renaissance was born. Hyper-efficient cars drove on streamlined highways, with nary an ounce of congestion. Artificial intelligence grew to the level of being near-perfect simulacrum. International relations were at an all-time high.
Naturally, this could not last, although no analyst could have predicted what would cause the catastrophic decay, not without precognition. The world was simply exposed to something it was not at all ready for, without surmisable cause.
The scientific community decided to test something truly remarkable. A device that could "peel back the veil of reality itself." This was far beyond gene therapy and Tech-- the answers to all of Man's questions lay in the confines of the gunmetal grey monolith they constructed-- an engine that even your trusted historian could not faithfully recount the exact purpose of, for reasons I shall elucidate shortly.
The device was turned on, to great fanfare and speculation. But, the only immediate action was... A loud, ear-piercing crack, and a flash of bright light. The scientists were baffled, and assumed their experiment failed.
Days later, a bipedal creature made purely of fire was sighted in the forests of California. Typically, such a sighting would be ignored, both by the public at large and by the being of flames. But, this sighting wasn't made by a lone bumpkin who had too much to drink. This sighting was reported by several news sources, with televised coverage on all the networks. Man did not yet understand, but the Veil had indeed been peirced, and something beyod understaning had crossed over.
The genetically-enhanced, cybernetically modified military was called in to investigate the creature with their newly certified, cutting-edge weapons. They quickly found that the weapons proved ineffective: bullets passed straight through its body, and no amount of water would quench the flames that covered it. And it simply ignored their efforts, cutting a swarth of flames across the forests for a solid ten days, then it vanished as soon as it arrived, leaving firefighters to clean up in its wake.
Five years passed, with considerable research being put into this creature's appearances. A few times a year, it would appear, set fires, and leave. The appearances were seasonal, but not entirely predictable. The creature itself never acted with malice, merely tending to its predetermined route of destruction.
On the first day of the fifth year, the world changed forever.
Similar creatures -- all far taller than men, but still bipedal and sentient -- started to appear worldwide. Atavistic ones raged through the wilderness, rerouting rivers and drying lakebeds. Others ravaged cities, splitting the earth and levelling whole neighborhoods in the blink of an eye. The world was plunged into chaos for weeks... Then, He appeared.
His True Name is unknown-- lost to both Man and Aspect, beyond Memory. The name we all called him was Mediator, for that is what he did. He was the first Aspect to recover from the delirium caused by Dr. ______'s terrible machine. And He spoke to the Rulers of Man, explaining our plight: the Aspects, the rulers of nature, had been forced past the rift that separates them from their dominion.
The Rulers of Man did not readily accept this new information-- their gods did not look like the creature that stood before them: a towering silver biped with no discernable facial features and a voice that rang uncomfortably inside of their heads. But, that is how it was. When the other Aspects regained their senses, they would have to reintegrate with society as they have seldom done in the past.
(From the archives of The Keeper of Memory, Section 01)
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An early draft of the framework of a story that I've been working on. Consider the Good Doctor's name to be redacted, along with his place of origin. Government secrets, you know. (...also, I'm dissatisfied with his name and place of origin.) The text is also a little dry, but the narrator isn't exactly human, so forgive him his lack of nuance. D:
So, is it any good?
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, and 2: ...My Best Day is Gone to come back, which it probably never will. D: Along with 3: Division mode. Still, looks bloody awesome.
