Shadows Within

Prologue

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          The sun had gone down a few hours before. I was scouring the rooftops for the best vantage point when I finally reached one of the tallest buildings in this, once, beautiful city. Under the cover of darkness it still held some of its appeal but history had not been very kind to this decaying ant farm. What was left of the sky high buildings, now stood ruined under the gentle moon casting odd patterns on the cracked roads beneath them. Old houses torn down by wars and the natural disasters that followed, barely had any bricks left to prove their past existence. Windowless stores gapped at the occasional passerby, the evidence of their days of glory hidden beneath several thick layers of colorful graffiti. The odd park, scattered among these relics, once fresh and perfectly trimmed, had grown old and wild. But nothing could instill a greater sense of dread and despair as the permanent sound of deafening silence that engulfed the city, be it day or night. This world had definitely seen happier times but those days had long since set.

          Back in the day life was simple. Humans were oblivious to our existence and we did nothing to change that. We felt it unnecessary. It was later on that we realized our mistake, only after humans had grown in strength and numbers. As expected, it was already too late. Their fear of the unknown and unexplained had pushed them into inventing all sorts of ways to defend themselves from anything the world could throw at them. Even worse, it had increased their paranoia. Thus, it is of no surprise that, when one of the Heran factions decided to give them an existential lesson in the creatures that inhabited this world, it all went downhill fast. Of course, it didn't help that said faction was trying to enslave them for being so weak. Salvation they called it, enlightenment and kindness. What the hell were they thinking? Humans were not going to and did not go down quietly. Unfortunately, their lack of knowledge had them panicking thus, they were quick to shove us all into that wonderful little box of theirs labelled "Monsters". I could spend an entire change of seasons explaining how it all went down, who did what to whom and why, but it would be a waste of time. Ultimately, it all came down to someone's greedy thirst for absolute power and their epic failure in achieving it.

          By the time the first war war over, chaos reigned the world. Although the "bad guys" were defeated, no one had actually won. To make matters worse, the world stood even more divided. However, while these days there aren't enough living souls left for anyone to want to start another war, back then things were a little different. As the onslaught continued, people started taking sides and the more it went on the more vicious the members of each camp seemed to become. Conflicts turned a few hundred groups into a little over thirty, which went on to become a dozen then five and eventually just two large parties. Meda controlled the east, south and central lands. Jhahara, named after a former leader of the resistance, took what was left, the north and western lands.

          Meda, brought no change to the previous mentality, greed playing a key role in all their actions. I'm not saying that Jhahara was the epitome of righteousness. However, since the west and northern lands were a tough environment, their focus shifted more towards survival rather then expansion. Moreover, their domain had some interesting riches, that only they knew how to harvest, which made them all the more valuable. In hindsight, that was the true cause of the war that followed. The beginning of what history will always remember as the Age of Mourning.

          I assume there are quite a few historians that will disagree with me, 'cause hey, what do I know? I wasn't even there. They could have just divided because the majority of the Heran population lived in the west and north, which caused fear and panic within Meda. As a matter of fact, one of the earliest noted attacks, that set the ball rolling, was attributed to Jhaharans. According to the Marashet, Meda's leader, they had been attacking people from the opposite domain to steal food and livestock. So, gradually, Meda started all sort of trouble, blaming it all on uneasiness, due to the high risk of a, successful, attack from their only neighbours. In the end, the methods and the results were a dead giveaway to many of those that refused to see the events as just a psychological squabble.

          If I were to compare the situation with anything, it would be an infected wound that kept on festering. The Jhaharans were patient people, among other things, but eventually even their patience ran out. The constant retaliation from Meda, over things they hadn't actually done, had them finally reacting. The chaos that erupted, gave way to so many deaths, that it's still too painful, for those that survived it, to remember. 

          At first, the war was fought on battlefields, near borders. Then, Meda started sending stealth squads onto enemy territory. They destroyed entire villages, then towns and eventually entire cities, killing every single citizen they could find. On top of that, the methods they used seemed to be intentionally chosen to become more grotesque with each attack. I still remember my mother telling me about the attack on the city of Ghira, where they deployed a corrosive gas that ate away living tissue. I don't think I even want to imagine the agony those people went through before perishing.

          Obviously, these violent attacks didn't go unnoticed nor were they taken lightly. The resulting offensive lead to the deaths of over 3.7 billion people and the destruction of nearly half the planet's habitable areas. Given these conditions, the remaining population faced extreme difficulties trying to survive. By the time the next decade arrived, another billion people had died or vanished due to starvation, disease or just by "natural selection". The world was nothing but a shadow of what it used to be. Food was still scares, entire races were wiped out, others merely waiting to be added to that list. And for once, humans were among them. Since they were so powerless and because all their progress had been turned to ash, they were defenseless. Their very survival was left at the mercy of those that they had deemed beneath them for the longest of time.

          Still, the world moved on and the events that preceded such hardships slowly faded into the passage of time. Their memories remained vividly alive only in the minds of those that had lived, fought and survived them.

          It would take another few centuries for them to be completely forgotten and the ideas of control and power to tempt another soul, the mere notion already painting a dark future......