ZAP Guild

Once Upon A Time

Long ago dinosaurs ruled the world. Everything was survival and instinct. That is until the day a meteor hit the Earth. The impact wiped out most of the dinosaurs (the survivors were left to freeze from the "nuclear winter" or to starve from lack of food, not to mention the strange viruses that the rock held). The impact also "split" the Earth in two. Two parallel worlds. One, the physical world that most of us know as the Real World (or so the rumor goes). The second being the metaphysical, or a quantum-like world known as the Core.

The Core remained empty for a long time; until mankind arrived. With the birth of mankind came choice and imagination. Slowly this world began to fill with the dreams, hopes, and stories of mankind. It became a place of laughter and joy. It also became the place where not-made choices became made. If you chose to become a lawyer instead of an artist, a parallel world would be forged where you became an artist. Then one day a group of humans from the Real World discovered this land—how they did is lost to time (there is a clue that says "They wondered"). The group discovered that only ideas or other non-material objects could travel through the Veil.

It wasn't long after this group, called THEY, realized that sharing their works made their works stronger. That with the belief and love and "fandom" of others, the Core grew stronger and bigger. At one point, this belief was so great that the pathways between the Core and the Real World could be formed. The "fictional" beings of the Core could mingle with the people of the Real World.

Soon, THEY discovered that there is no such thing as truly parallel worlds. At certain times or places or in certain ways, the two worlds could connect during an event called Convergence. They found that the worlds were intertwined; what happened in one could bleed (or was mirrored) in the other. If a murder was stopped in the Core, it would be mirrored in the Real World.

As time passed, THEY also learned that while the belief of the Real World fed the Core, and the multitude of realms within it, the Core fed the Real World. People could escape the Real World (forget their worries, etc) through these adventures. If a realm starved, it would collapse and fade into the Void, also known as Nothingness. If anyone survived the fall, they would find themselves in the Wastelands.

Then one day THEY learned that if you changed the Core, you could influence mankind.

This power was great. And with great power comes great debate. THEY broke into a civil war. On one side the Builders (for they wanted to build up mankind; they wished to create and bring joy and love; they wanted to protect mankind and let them decide things on their own). On the other side, the Destroyers. They saw Order and Light as invaders. Their creed was that Darkness and Chaos always exists and that Order and Light are the invaders—the villains. If you turn off a light, there is darkness. If you don't maintain your car, it'll fall apart. They saw Light as a forceful thing while Darkness is natural. "All things fade into Nothingness," they claimed.

Eventually, the Destroyers were able to weaken belief which weakened the heroes and the Builders. The Destroyers took this opportunity to take control and the world fell into darkness for a long time. There were blips of light throughout time, such as the Renaissance, but each time the Destroyers would wrestle back control by sowing fear, distrust, anger, and apathy.

Without their dreams and hopes, mankind turned to war. War with each other. War with those "different" from them. War with nature. War with science. War to control everything. Finally...World War II. It was finally a time when mankind could completely wipe itself out. This had been the plan all along. Mankind had to be destroyed because they brought something dangerous into the universe: hope, belief, imagination, and the gumption to act upon their dreams of a brighter tomorrow (with them gone, the universe could return to its natural, pure state with the Void back in complete control). If mankind worked together there wasn't much they couldn't do; as evident by their latest creation, the very thing that could destroy them all: they'd harnessed the power of the atom. Sure it was in its infancy, but that was the best time to strike.

It was now "do or die" time. The Builders gathered what remaining strength they had and leaked stories of heroes to those who still possessed the spark of creation. Tales of costumed and otherwise heroes flooded the world. People once again felt security and hope, even if they believed it to be fiction. This was enough for the Builders and their heroic champions to get the nuclear info into the "right hands." At least the hands that hopefully wouldn't destroy the whole world. Disaster was averted, but the Destroyers wouldn't take this lying down. They once again went to work sowing fear and distrust. Fear of nuclear holocaust, fear of other races, fear of those with different beliefs, distrust in leaders and corporations, and so on. Anything to get mankind to turn on itself once again and become filled with apathy and darkness.

The trouble with sowing fear and distrust is that eventually people will say "enough is enough" and fight against the negativity. The Destroyers would need a new tactic.