FIRST CAUSE, Book One of the Terranaut Trilogy

FIRST CAUSE, Book One of the Terranaut Trilogy: The Luceri

*Note: events on both Lucero and Earth will be dated according to the same frame of reference: Eastern Standard Time on the United States’ Calendar.

It is uncertain, and generally considered unimportant amongst Luceri, exactly who founded or conceived of the clandestine group that would be the root of an entire new branch of the human condition; it is most commonly believed that the community known as the Luce–which took its name from the Latin word meaning “Light”– was founded by a small group of like-minded men, rather than a single individual, sometime around 600 C.E. What is also known is that the original group assembled as a secret society by the coastline of Mediterranean Africa, near the ruins of the once great city known as Carthage. At that time, a young man and self-styled prophet named Muhammad was expanding an empire in the region, based on a religious faith that came to be known as Islam. Islam’s rapidly expanding sphere of influence was in direct territorial and theological conflict with the predominantly Christian empires that ruled most of Europe. Christianity had been founded by another self-styled prophet born roughly seven hundred years prior; western Europe had long ago begun marking its calendars based on the supposed year of the prophet’s birth, hence the originally designated term Anno Domini, meaning “Year of our Lord” (In the late 1900s, as the Western Hemisphere became more ethnically and socially pluralistic, the term “C.E.”–meaning, interchangeably, Christian Era and Common Era–replaced “A.D.” as the dominant academic term of reference for the modern era). Though the two competing faiths were far more similar than different–they were, in fact, both loosely derived from the same ancient scripture–“Western Christendom” and “Islam” would eventually engage in military and territorial struggles throughout southern Europe and northern Africa. The ruling elite on each side tried to strategically isolate the other through campaigns of mythmaking and systematic violence; many of the Christian empires employed these tactics with added fervor, as it was their own established rule being threatened by Islam’s expansion. 600 C.E. was marked by seemingly incessant conflict on the small continent of Europe, as a handful of ethnic and regional groups began to assert political and military dominance over their many competitors. It was in this social and historical context that the Luce took form, as an organized attempt to take refuge from the strife, the poverty, and the real and impending violence of the medieval world.

The Luce were relatively small in number at first, comprised of men from various points around the Mediterranean region. Most were scholars or monks who had in some way become disenchanted with, or ostracized by, their fraternal orders; some were rogue warriors or wandering mercenaries who happened upon the group by chance. All were recruited individually, choosing to accept their invitations because they were drawn to the Luce philosophy.

The Luce had no official motto or creed, but as a group was fundamentally committed to escapism via transcendence: to physically, mentally and spiritually eclipsing the standard of the human condition as they knew it. Because the men who joined the Luce were generally disconnected (voluntarily or otherwise) from most other affiliations, they formed a remote encampment by the base of the Atlas Mountains near modern-day Algeria. Their membership was not limited to any national or ethnic origin; they expanded strictly by invitation. Their ranks–which, after ten years, numbered about sixty—included Romans, Celts, Ethiopians, Goths, Arabs and Berbers. It did not take long for the first women to gain entry; the Luce were egalitarian by belief, and they would eventually need to reproduce amongst themselves for the sake of secrecy and group longevity. They subsisted with goods and capital accumulated through mercenary work and craftsmanship; they were men and women of diverse talents and backgrounds who cross-pollinated their skills in keeping with their ethic of total self-development. Many of the Luce possessed uncommon combat skills, which they passed along to their fellow members, as the former monks passed along their advanced learning and meditative talents; all of this resulted in the development of a “warrior monk” mentality that combined a sense of scholarly asceticism with rigorous physical and combat training.