Legacies || Hermitcraft

Chapter X - The Engineer

Timeline: August 2014

Word Count ~ 2.7k

Deep inside of the Nether, far beyond the portals that led to the mellow green hills and cloudy blue skies of the Overworld, there was a forge. It was larger and older than any other in the three realms' history, and the very heart of the Nether itself. Everyone, from the miners who collected gold and iron, to the metalworkers who welded it into shape, to the engineers who constructed the weapons and machinery that the Nether's inhabitants took such great pride in.

They were then traded to the cities of the Overworld in return for food, fabrics, wood, stone, crops and other things that couldn't be farmed in the harsh conditions of the Nether. It was an agreement that had worked and lasted for thousands of years, and perhaps the only thing that kept the two opposing dimensions from declaring war on each other like they had in the past. Everyone did their part and knew their place, and everyone was happy.

Well, almost everyone.

If the word 'pacifist' existed in the Netherians' vocabulary, which it didn't, that was most probably what Tango would describe himself as. He was quite lucky to be where he was in life, one of his most skilled and efficient engineers in the forge, but he hated everything about his job and what it entailed. The idea of war scared him badly enough, but willingly fueling it for your own benefit? That was what kept him up at night.

It wasn't as if he had a choice. There was no job in the Nether that didn't have some connection to the forge and its weapons, and nothing Tango could do to distance himself from them either. And, with the trading agreement being the only thing that kept the Overworld and the Nether from raging war on each other, he wasn't particularly keen on living in another dimension to try and avoid his life in this one.

It was unfortunate, being seemingly the only person who disagreed with everything the Nether and its culture seemed to stand for. Tango had truly hoped that he'd be able to use his skills for a good cause, like automating crop farms to help feed more people or building defenses that protected citizens from blazes and ghasts without needing to hurt either party, but instead he'd simply been born at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Tango groaned, tossing his wrench to the ground. He couldn't keep working, not with all of this on his mind. Instead he wandered over to the lone window in the room, which served no purpose as the view outside wasn't anything to behold, but it was there anyway and pondering its pointlessness gave Tango a distraction from his work.

The only thing outside of the window that was worth looking at was one of the many large portals that lead to the Overworld. He'd watched countless weapons be carried through that portal, and occasionally caught a glimpse of people from the other dimension coming to hold up their end of the deal. While the inhabitants of the Nether all vaguely resembled each other, with skin tanned from the harsh heat and hair that resembled the flames that surrounded them, the people from the Overworld were each so unique and interesting. 

Tango couldn't help but wonder that if the people from the other dimension were so diverse and interesting, what did the Overworld itself look like? And furthermore, why would anyone want to destroy it with the weapons created here in the forge? Imaging such a strange yet beautiful place only made Tango more exasperated with what he was doing, and further instilled the dangerous idea of running away there in his mind.

Although it would be impossible to make travel to the Overworld illegal, it was highly frowned upon and all but forbidden. Tango had heard frequent complaints of humans and others raiding their fortresses so that they could travel to the End and raid that place too, and joining those who were looked down on certainly wouldn't put him in the Netherians' favour.