Visitors from Terra: Iron and Blood

Prologue

Nowadays, writing is an essential part of modern civilization. Be it in the Halls of the Stockhausen University, the exotic bazars of Constantinople or the labyrinthine streets of Alexandria Nova, the art of the word is so embedded in our way of life that, more often than not, people don't realize its presence. However, what today we consider an inseparable aspect of humankind, in the past was an alien concept to many across the world.

At the time of its invention, around the year 5.000 BC, writing was a relative novelty only known to a reduced number of settlements in the Near East region, but with time it became the greatest invention humans had conceived up until that point. It marked the beginning of History proper, and it allowed for the birth of philosophy, literature and all the different sciences.

Even now, I cannot help but be amazed at humanity's evolution since the birth of the first Homo Sapiens. Millions of years had to pass for the transition from primitive hunters to farmers to happen, but from there things picked up speed. It took a few dozens of thousands of years for the first civilizations to appear, several millennia for the Scientific Revolution to happen, and just two centuries to reach the Industrial Revolution and the Revolution of the Information. The only significant setback humans had to face as a species in its more than millions of years of history was WW3 and the Great Disaster, two tragic events that were the result of power struggles between the great nations of that time and our innate violent tendencies. Albert Einstein had once prophesied that the weapons that would be used in the conflict would destroy humankind, and so it happened. The thermonuclear bombs scorched all corners world, leaving behind nothing more than ashes of what had been our fatuous civilization and unnimaginable suffering.

The days following the destruction of the old world were dark ones, but it was also during those times that the most transcendental event in human history took place. Whether it was a miracle sent by God or whoever is up there as a response of our prayers or a stroke of utter good luck we will not ever know, but regardless of its causes, the arrival of the Teekaz propelled humanity to heights never seen before, even surpassing those reached by the empires of yore. Murdoch von Straussen, physics teacher at the Strassburg University, summarized quite perfectly the spirit of that period with the following words: "Humanity lost it all in the flames of WW3... only to gain the universe."

Now, as the year 3179 comes to a close and people give a warm welcome to the new year, I sit in front of my desk, pondering the first words of what will become this prologue. As a historian, it is my mission to compile and preserve history for the future generations to inherit, for a man who does not know his past is bound to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. This book pretends to be a chronic of the post-war era, in which I will document all the relevant events that have happened in the millennium that has passed since the Great Disaster in the most objective manner possible, separating myth from fact and lie from truth.

I will not dive any further, for it is now your turn, dear reader, to embark in this haphazard journey.

- Charles d' Clermont.

-----------

Hello, dear readers!

As you may have already read in the story's description, this is a sidestory related to the lore of my main works, the Visitors from Terra triology. Given that I'm very busy with work and that most of my already limited free time is being directed towards the completion of Winds of Fire, the updates of this sidestory will be quite few and far between at best, but I'll try.

In any case, I hope it will be of your liking and may you find answers to some of the questions that have arisen throught the series.

Author out!