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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tolen Mar" data-source="post: 1588382" data-attributes="member: 1295">Humanity’s PastIt was an age of prosperity, but it had been hard to achieve.  In the late twenty-first century, disease and starvation were rampant.  The world had outgrown its meager limits.  Science had hit a wall.  There was nothing more that could be done.  The diseases proved unstoppable, killing vast numbers at a whim.  Farmland was being swallowed up by cities that devoured their very livelihood.  Most governments wanted to relieve the pressure through space colonization, but any trip was a years-long affair, and no one had broken the light-speed limit.  In the end, like always, it was the wealthy that prospered.  As long as you had money, you could buy the food you needed, despite the inflation rates.  Which, as always, meant that the poorer became poorer.  Then came the great plague.  In 2078, a super plague was born that methodically worked its way from country to country, and city to city.  Only those who could lock themselves in their glass and steel towers survived unscathed. The disaster spawned a new religious fervor.  The streets filled with preachers and shamans, monks, and druids.  Each one proclaimed much the same thing: Humanity was being punished for stretching beyond his reach.  The only thing that varied was their dogma.  Each faith proclaimed that only by converting, would one be allowed to live.  Millions began to worship again.  However, faith in God (or gods, depending on the religion) was not the only answer for some.  A small group calling themselves the ‘alchemists’ began to research the ancient documents from as many pagan sources as they could find.  The alchemists were the first to unlock the secrets of magic locked away since the dark ages, when the inquisition burned all magic users as witches and buried any evidence that they had ever had power.  The alchemists discovered a way to use magic to heal disease, and the super plague was stopped.  By tapping into the natural magical field of earth, they were able to provide food in plenty for all.  The rich stopped getting richer, and the poor flourished.With the newfound resources, mankind did not need to bicker or fight as often.  Differences were resolved, wars reduced in frequency.  It was age of prosperity, but it would not last.Science turned to magic as a means to resolve problems that had stymied them for decades.  Guided by the alchemists, science found new ways to extend life.  A plan was put into effect that would allow a ship to be sent to another star.  It would be crewed by people who would live substantially longer than normal, thanks to magical gene therapy.  However, before the ship was begun, the alchemists had a breakthrough.  It was the Ether drive.  The alchemists had found a means to build a device that could collect and focus the energy of magic into a tangible field.  For the first time ever, humans saw the power of magic without only being witness to its effects.  They also looked into the ether realm for the first time as well.  Their first experiments showed that objects could pass into the ether realm through one portal and come out some distance away through another.  There was no energy backlash, no side effects they could measure and most importantly of all, it was instantaneous.  They built bigger devices, and test vehicles, and learned how to open a portal, and control where the destination opened.  They sent animals first, then people.  With their successes came confidence.So they built the Argosy.  It was to be the first colony ship.  It carried the largest ether drives ever imagined.  It could only crew a small portion of the population, but others were scheduled for construction as soon as Argosy’s test flight proved a success.  No one doubted it would be.  A lottery was held, and the wealthy had their last laugh.  It was easy for them to buy their way aboard the ship.No one knows for certain what happened.  Some say it was a field alignment problem, others sabotage.  At any rate, when the Argosy’s Ether drives came online and the portal opened, a maelstrom of energy swept out.  Argosy was safe, its Ether drive field deflecting the seething energy.  It was like a wave.  When it passed Argosy, it smashed into the moon and the hundred smaller vessels that had come along to see Argosy off.  Those aboard the Argosy could only watch as the wave smashed through those ships like tin foil.  The moon was obliterated in seconds.  It continued on toward earth, the oceans boiled, the mountains were thrown into the air.  The wave continued past, dissipating as it went.  There was nothing but a black ball where Earth had been, lit by the fires of destruction.  Then Argosy entered the portal, and earth was gone.At the same instant the ship entered the portal, it exited near an alien star.  Their original course had been laid in for Alpha Centauri.  The navigators were quick to determine that they were off course, but were at a loss as to where they really were.  Emotions were high.  Anger, depression, rage; no one was unaffected. The Ether drives had shut down, and refused to start.  The main power plants were failing.  Argosy needed to land or everyone aboard would die.  On momentum alone, the ship drifted toward the fifth planet from the star, and the only one too far from it to boil and yet too close to freeze.  Once in the atmosphere, the power plants died completely, thrusting the ship into darkness.  In the crash, many more died.  And yet many more lived.  Mankind had come to Arran.Humanity’s New AgeThe first year was one of turmoil.  With mostly formerly wealthy aristocrats as most of the passengers, arguments sparked off over who should take charge.  The first mate of the Argosy, Lieutenant William Henderson, took command.  He was the only one of the crew to survive.  He helped the survivors retrieve the colony equipment from the hold, and began to set up a place to live.  Much of the equipment was damaged, but enough was salvaged to house everyone.  Henderson organized hunting parties to explore the region and bring back likely sources of food.  More died of sickness from an unfamiliar world, but no one starved.The first year brought contact with the Faen and Elves.  Compared to what the survivors were used to, both societies were primitive.  The elves took a stance of wariness, and refused to allow any land be used by humankind.  They eventually started trade, but tensions always remained high.  The faen were a surprise.  They seemed to hit it off immediately with the new arrivals.  They helped establish a neutral border, and helped with the early stages of defense.  Then Lt. Henderson led an exploration party to the east, and was never heard from again.  With Henderson gone, the church of technology rose in power.  It was their belief that God had punished mankind for dealing with dark forces.  The cataclysm was direct proof of that.  They tried to purge the arcane.  They established the border stations and the wall, and declared all primitives to be agents of evil.  The faen were forcibly removed from within the limits of Argosy City, an event they haven’t forgotten.  The pure-techs, as they became known, made it illegal to use arcane energy for any means.  They began an inquisition designed to root out all traitorous behavior that could lead to another cataclysm.  They also established the Aruspex Guild.  The guild was originally chartered under the assumption that all who joined were damned.  The pure-techs considered the guild a necessary evil, and used their power to augment the inquisition.  The resulting invasion of privacy sparked the first battle.  It would be called a war, aside from the fact that only a few thousand ever fought.  The pure-techs were obliterated when a Guilder led a force in rebellion against the citadel.  There were several factions, and the guilders didn’t hold power long.  For ten years, power shifted back and forth.Finally, a man named Marinek brought peace.  He gathered members from each faction onto neutral ground.  No weapons were allowed.  He created from that group the Theocracy of Argosy.  The Theocracy still holds power today.  Each faction in Argosy City has members in the Theocracy.  It was and is a religious order whose members vote on policy as their version of God’s will directs them.  It is a system prone to corruption, but it works.  Even though the Theocracy has held power for over three hundred years, they have not gone the entire time without some troubles.  A splinter group formed.  They claimed to be God’s Chosen.  They demanded more power within the theocracy as God had given their leadership visions that they would rule Argosy, and eventually Arran.  Such ideas set off a fire that led to another battle.  When it was over, those known as God’s Chosen were put down.  The leaders took their faithful and left.  God’s Chosen established Eden, a citadel in the mountains to the west.  Little has been heard from them since, though their spies still turn up on occasion.</blockquote>

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