Kirito Kei
One Thousand Club
The Recollections of Erin Tarn
The following statements are excerpts from the great historian's introduction to her book, Humankind's Rise from Chaos, circa 63 P.A.
I have taken it upon myself to capture human history before it is entirely lost. Many say that it is of little importance since the planet Earth is forever transformed and the human race will never be as it was. All the same, I believe there are generations who will wonder how and why things came to pass as they did, and I hope my works will help to answer their queries.
I am not an educated woman. Thus, my words may not read as eloquently a those spoken by the new gentry rising to power in the middle Americas. I am a nomad who has come to learn, see and hear many things in her travels. Things that too few people remember. Such as the 50 United States of America, the names of the old Empires like Japan, Korea, China, Canada, and our own USA. I'm told that I am a fool, because few people today read American (or what used to be called English), or read at all. Still, I will try to capture our past for the sake of our children and their children. So when the day comes that they ask why, when, how, and who, they will have at least a few answers.
Ancient history of the world I will leave to the old, pre-Rifts books and video disks that still exist. I have seen an astounding number of public libraries and private collections that preserve the stories of our distant past. It makes me glad to see that so many books and recordings have survived. As of this writing, my own humble collection numbers 72 paper books and 31 video-disks, but I have had the pleasure of reading hundreds and hundred of other books. Or course, no collection can compare to the Chi-Town Library of the Ages. It is without exception the greatest library in the world! Books, magazines, antique computer discs, films, videotapes and video discs, microfilm, and original works of art. I am told that many of the books were found in the catacombs of a place called the Smithsonian and other sites in the city of Washington, D.C., which once served as the American Empires's seat of government and knowledge. The months I spent pouring over those volumes was one of the greatest thrills of my life. I look forward to my return there one day in the years to come.
As for myself, I will try to focus my records of history to the period just before the Time of the Rifts, the centuries of chaos which followed and our own, modern day and age. I will try to separate fact from fantasy, and indicate rumor, myth, and legend when facts are not available.
Please forgive my shortcomings.
The Time Before The Rifts
Often I am asked about the time before the Coming of the Rifts. What was our Mother Earth like, and how did the Rifts come about?
To the last question, how did the Rifts come about, I must offer the unsatisfactory answer that I, nor anybody else, knows. But if there is an answer, I will do my best to unearth it.
As to the age before the Great Cataclysm and the Coming of the Rifts, I can tell much.
Believe it or not, the world was populated entirely by humans. There were no mutants, no D-Bees, no Cyber-Knights or Crazies, no vampires or dragons, no Techno-Wizards, nor magic of any kind. Not real magic, at any rate.
Nor were there any vast wildernesses, save for a few parklands and nature preserves that some of the old empires saved to remind them of their past. These were prim and safe places for people to visit, like a garden or a farm, not at all like the fearsome wilderness we know today.
Huge, towering buildings called "Skyscrapers," because they rose high into the sky like a mountain and touched the sky, filled the land. I have seen pictures of these grand cities, but find it difficult to find the words so that all who read this can understand. For those of you who have seen the growing cities of Chi-Town, Iron Heart, and Quebec, these cities were much more grand and covered the land as far as the eye could see. I will try to include pictures wherever I can to give life to my words. These pictures are actual photographs taken from historical records, not an artist's interpretation, and should give us all hope as to what humans can accomplish and aspire to create.
A typical city would house millions of people. Long, concrete roadways would connect thousands of cities and billions of people. It is even said that man had set foot on the moon and could travel along the edge of space to get from one end of the world to the other in a matter of a few hours. Exactly how this was accomplished without traversing a Rift or using magic is not known, but it is true.
A few generations before the Coming of the Rifts, the world enjoyed a great peace and prosperity. The leaders of the day called it the "Golden Age of Man." During this time, many great improvements in medicine and science took place. It was during this period in history that the sciences of bionics, cybernetics, and all types of human augmentation were developed. At the same time, the societies of the world, which had been at conflict for many prior generations, put aside their differences to work together in peace and harmony. They shared their ideas and technology to build a better world world. Trade between each kingdom - each nation - soared and many of the poor became wealthy and joined the world empires. China, Korea, India, and Argentina were just a few of the new empires that rose to stand among the elder empires of America, Mexico, Canada, and Europe.
I cannot help feeling, however, that this was not so much an age of philosophical peace and prosperity as it was a period when the empires simply forgot their differences.
The world seemed to have been enraptured with the notion of human augmentation; the idea that the frail human body could be improved in any number of ways. The historical records of those days are filled with the accomplishments and the accompanying wealth of each new discovery. Discoveries that would reshape the world, as our forefathers knew they would, but this obsession with science and human augmentation overshadowed other problems.
For all their accomplishments, there still existed a sort of rivalry between the empires, and soon, a sort of unofficial race began to see which one could develop the new sciences faster and make them better. At first, everybody in the race grew powerful and wealthy. This is the so-called Golden Age. As long as the empires, old and new, prospered, they were happy. The old saying, "ignorance is bliss" seems to describe this fabled period of learning and miracles. From all that I have read and learned, the leaders of the day were shortsighted or entirely blinded by the wonders of the Golden Age. They continued to create and produce new miracles without thought as to what it was they were accomplishing or where it might all lead. They were lost in the excitement of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and promoted science as the new vehicle to fame and fortune.
Then suddenly, the era of enlightenment stopped.
The following statements are excerpts from the great historian's introduction to her book, Humankind's Rise from Chaos, circa 63 P.A.
I have taken it upon myself to capture human history before it is entirely lost. Many say that it is of little importance since the planet Earth is forever transformed and the human race will never be as it was. All the same, I believe there are generations who will wonder how and why things came to pass as they did, and I hope my works will help to answer their queries.
I am not an educated woman. Thus, my words may not read as eloquently a those spoken by the new gentry rising to power in the middle Americas. I am a nomad who has come to learn, see and hear many things in her travels. Things that too few people remember. Such as the 50 United States of America, the names of the old Empires like Japan, Korea, China, Canada, and our own USA. I'm told that I am a fool, because few people today read American (or what used to be called English), or read at all. Still, I will try to capture our past for the sake of our children and their children. So when the day comes that they ask why, when, how, and who, they will have at least a few answers.
Ancient history of the world I will leave to the old, pre-Rifts books and video disks that still exist. I have seen an astounding number of public libraries and private collections that preserve the stories of our distant past. It makes me glad to see that so many books and recordings have survived. As of this writing, my own humble collection numbers 72 paper books and 31 video-disks, but I have had the pleasure of reading hundreds and hundred of other books. Or course, no collection can compare to the Chi-Town Library of the Ages. It is without exception the greatest library in the world! Books, magazines, antique computer discs, films, videotapes and video discs, microfilm, and original works of art. I am told that many of the books were found in the catacombs of a place called the Smithsonian and other sites in the city of Washington, D.C., which once served as the American Empires's seat of government and knowledge. The months I spent pouring over those volumes was one of the greatest thrills of my life. I look forward to my return there one day in the years to come.
As for myself, I will try to focus my records of history to the period just before the Time of the Rifts, the centuries of chaos which followed and our own, modern day and age. I will try to separate fact from fantasy, and indicate rumor, myth, and legend when facts are not available.
Please forgive my shortcomings.
The Time Before The Rifts
Often I am asked about the time before the Coming of the Rifts. What was our Mother Earth like, and how did the Rifts come about?
To the last question, how did the Rifts come about, I must offer the unsatisfactory answer that I, nor anybody else, knows. But if there is an answer, I will do my best to unearth it.
As to the age before the Great Cataclysm and the Coming of the Rifts, I can tell much.
Believe it or not, the world was populated entirely by humans. There were no mutants, no D-Bees, no Cyber-Knights or Crazies, no vampires or dragons, no Techno-Wizards, nor magic of any kind. Not real magic, at any rate.
Nor were there any vast wildernesses, save for a few parklands and nature preserves that some of the old empires saved to remind them of their past. These were prim and safe places for people to visit, like a garden or a farm, not at all like the fearsome wilderness we know today.
Huge, towering buildings called "Skyscrapers," because they rose high into the sky like a mountain and touched the sky, filled the land. I have seen pictures of these grand cities, but find it difficult to find the words so that all who read this can understand. For those of you who have seen the growing cities of Chi-Town, Iron Heart, and Quebec, these cities were much more grand and covered the land as far as the eye could see. I will try to include pictures wherever I can to give life to my words. These pictures are actual photographs taken from historical records, not an artist's interpretation, and should give us all hope as to what humans can accomplish and aspire to create.
A typical city would house millions of people. Long, concrete roadways would connect thousands of cities and billions of people. It is even said that man had set foot on the moon and could travel along the edge of space to get from one end of the world to the other in a matter of a few hours. Exactly how this was accomplished without traversing a Rift or using magic is not known, but it is true.
A few generations before the Coming of the Rifts, the world enjoyed a great peace and prosperity. The leaders of the day called it the "Golden Age of Man." During this time, many great improvements in medicine and science took place. It was during this period in history that the sciences of bionics, cybernetics, and all types of human augmentation were developed. At the same time, the societies of the world, which had been at conflict for many prior generations, put aside their differences to work together in peace and harmony. They shared their ideas and technology to build a better world world. Trade between each kingdom - each nation - soared and many of the poor became wealthy and joined the world empires. China, Korea, India, and Argentina were just a few of the new empires that rose to stand among the elder empires of America, Mexico, Canada, and Europe.
I cannot help feeling, however, that this was not so much an age of philosophical peace and prosperity as it was a period when the empires simply forgot their differences.
The world seemed to have been enraptured with the notion of human augmentation; the idea that the frail human body could be improved in any number of ways. The historical records of those days are filled with the accomplishments and the accompanying wealth of each new discovery. Discoveries that would reshape the world, as our forefathers knew they would, but this obsession with science and human augmentation overshadowed other problems.
For all their accomplishments, there still existed a sort of rivalry between the empires, and soon, a sort of unofficial race began to see which one could develop the new sciences faster and make them better. At first, everybody in the race grew powerful and wealthy. This is the so-called Golden Age. As long as the empires, old and new, prospered, they were happy. The old saying, "ignorance is bliss" seems to describe this fabled period of learning and miracles. From all that I have read and learned, the leaders of the day were shortsighted or entirely blinded by the wonders of the Golden Age. They continued to create and produce new miracles without thought as to what it was they were accomplishing or where it might all lead. They were lost in the excitement of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and promoted science as the new vehicle to fame and fortune.
Then suddenly, the era of enlightenment stopped.
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