Pitticus Lore

My name is Pittacus Lore. I am a Loric Elder, from the Planet Lorien, which is three hundred million miles away. I am approximately ten thousand years old. I have been to earth hundreds of times, and I am here now.

I am one of ten Elders who lived on our planet. Everyone on our planet was gifted. Compared to humans, we are incredibly strong, incredibly fast; able to do things the superheroes in your Hollywood films are capable of doing. We are also born with powers we called legacies: invisibility, the ability to control the elements, imperviousness to heat and cold, telekinesis, the gift of communication with animals, and many others. Most Loric are born with one major legacy, and develop other lesser ones. The Elders are born with all of them. Many of your human myths of people with extraordinary powers are not actually myths. They were Loric.

Earth is a planet similar to our planet, or to our planet before it was destroyed. We happened upon Earth by accident. One of our ships, which was on its way to another system where we believed there was intelligent life, had a technological failure. It started drifting through space and ended up in your solar system. When our repair ships reached it, it was orbiting Mars. We noticed Earth because of the deep beautiful blue of its water. Water is relatively common in the universe, far more common than your scientists believe it is. What is uncommon is the massive amount of it on Earth. We sent a ship to look at your planet, and discovered a healthy, beautiful, pristine environment, teeming with life. Remarkably, we saw you, human beings, who resembled the Loric in many ways, but were much younger than us. The humans were living in tribes, in caves, on open plains, along the banks of rivers, and coasts of seas. We decided to help them.

We introduced language. We taught you the basic tenets of agriculture. We provided you with simple tools, and the skills of metallurgy. We taught you how to build boats, and to sail, and to use the stars to navigate your oceans. You spread among all of the continents of the world, and societies developed, and we set a regular schedule of visits with the societies, and helped them build pyramids, and temples, and rock installations, and methods of keeping time using astrological systems, so that they would know when we were coming back. We watched from afar, and often sent in our people to live among you without you knowing.

As ancient Greece began to develop, we saw enormous potential in it. It was centrally located near the meeting point of the major land masses of Asia, Africa and Europe. It had a language and alphabet. It had fleets of ships. It had a basic system of government. It was, however, in a constant state of war. Seven of our Elders, including me, went to the country, and introduced it to more advanced ways of thinking, and set about ending the war that plagued it. We became known as the seven sages of Greece, and we have become part of the country's history. My own role was as that of a military leader. I first announced myself in the city Mytilene, and became known as Pittacus of Mytilene. I led my army to a victory over an Athenian army, by offering to engage in single combat with the Athenian general. The winner, and his army, would be declared victorious in the battle, and the armies would not fight, preventing untold amounts of bloodshed. I took his head off with a broadsword. Sometimes in the interests of a greater peace, it is necessary to engage in isolated violence.

Once Greece was settled and thriving, we left. We had made occasional, but less frequent visits to earth. We, the Elders, decided we should let humanity find its own course, let humans make the decisions, without our influence, that would determine their fate. The societies we built were conquered. The temples and astrological installations fell into states of ruin. War and violence were the currencies of human governments, and Earth's political systems were, and are, based on aggressive conquest. The once pristine planet was soiled, and exploited, and has begun to decay, and decline. Very occasionally one of us stayed and tried, in more subtle ways, to help humans with either technology, art or philosophy. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of us. As was Mozart. As were Joan of Arc, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Picasso, Ghandi and Einstein.

I am here now because our planet has been destroyed. We had eliminated war from our own society tens of thousands of years ago. And while we were still trained in methods and strategies of war, and had the means and materials to defend ourselves, when we were attacked, we were taken by surprise. The Elders, who were responsible for the defence of the planet, were away. Our planet's people, the Loric, were overwhelmed and defeated. When we became aware of what had happened, there was nothing left to defend. Our entire population, except for nine children and their nine guardians, was killed. The Nine fled to earth, where we hoped they would be able to hide, and grow, and develop their Legacies, and one day avenge the loss of Lorien.

They look no different than human children, and their guardians knew how to train teach and protect them. Unfortunately, the same race that destroyed Lorien, the Mogadorians, followed them to earth. They have been hunting the children and have killed three of them. The six that are still alive have started fighting back. As I said, we are not human. We are capable of extraordinary things. United, the six could defeat any Army on earth. The Mogadorians, unfortunately are not human either. They are vicious, bloodthirsty and ruthless. Defeating them will not be easy. Our war has come to your planet. It will either be won or lost here. There will be scenes of great carnage, where will do our best to spare humans, and protect them, though it may not always be possible. For that, I am sorry.

I will not go into the details of my life on Earth. Nor will I go into the details of how I got here, where I was when Lorien was destroyed, or what I am doing now. I am telling the story of Lorien, and the Nine, and the war with the Mogadorians so that you are aware of what is happening here, and so that you do not allow the same thing that happened to us, happen to you. I am trying to find the children and unite them. As of now, they are either hiding, or fighting alone, and I do not know where all of them are, or under what pretence they are living.

They may be walking past you right now, or sitting near you, or watching you as you read this. They may be in your city, your town. They may be in school with your children. If they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, they are living anonymously, training, and waiting for the day when they will find each other, and me, and we will make our last stand together. If we win, we are saved, and you are saved as well.

If we lose, all is lost.