| From: | Paolo Marcucci <paolo@*********.IT> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Great Lie |
| Date: | Fri, 30 Jan 1998 16:35:35 +0100 |
by Paolo Marcucci and Digger
----------------------------
Warning: This speculation can SERIOUSLY affect the way by which you see the
Shadowrun universe. Many believe that the FASA universes are unrelated, and
only
some thing in Earthdawn can make sense in the sixth world of Shadowrun.
Don't be
fooled by that: Earthdawn IS Shadowrun IS Battletech. No question about this.
Anyway, let's see this theory....
World #0 - Extra-planar struggle
At the beginning of time in our universe, two fourth dimensional beings are
locked in a power struggle across existance planes. These beings are beyond
our
comprehension, so let's give them two names, simple enough for us to barely
understand their motivations and actions: the Enforcer and the Criminal.
Ultimately, the Enforcer manages to get hold of the Criminal, and a council
of
judges comdamn it to an eternal prison, called the Earth. There it will be
reduced to a three dimensional being and thus unable to leave the sphere of
influence of the planet. The council also order to the Enforcer to bring the
Criminal to its punishment and leave immediately.
As soon as the Criminal reaches the Earth, it attacks the Enforcer on the
physical plane and make it loss its four dimensionality, effectively
locking him
to the planet too.
The fight goes on. For ages.
World #1 - Battlefield: Earth
Tired from the fight, both the Enforcer and the Criminal retreat. The
Criminal
manages to hide itself underwater, making it unvisible to the Enforcer
abilities
by the growing life forms that are starting to fill the oceans.
Thousands of years passed, as the Criminal recognizes that this life
surrounding
it could eventually develop into something able to build the means to
getting it
back to its plane of existance. The Enforcer recognizes it too, but also
understands that this will take millions of years to be effective. Bored to
death by this desolate planet, it decides to create some copies of itself.
Calling them Dragons.
World #2 - Of Dragons and Monsters
The Earth is ruled by Dragons that can use the incredible powers given them
by
the Enforcer. Divisions start to appear like crack on a wall among them, and
several factions starts to dominate separate regions of the planet. Small
fights
are brought up but quickly settled down by the Enforcer. This world is too
unstable, so the Enforcer starts to look into something that can act as glue
among the Dragons and finally find it: a new species, called humans.
Meanwhile, from the deep of the ocean, the Criminal is trying to call help
from
the metaplanes. Terrible energies, able to scorch the Earth and, hopefully,
the
Enforcer along the road.
World #3 - The Big Sleep
This Earth planet has some strange cycles, every few thousand of years, the
inherent energy of the planet is able to support the powers of the beings
on its
surface, then, slowly and predictably, these energies fade out and the
supernatural abilities vanish. Now, the Criminal, the Enforcer and all its
copies are forced to slow down their activities and have some rest. The
energy
level is simply not high enough to support them.
The humans, on the other hand, are not bounded by this rise and fall of vital
energy, and continue in their evolution.
World #4 - Elves ahoy!
As soon as the energy level was high enough again, all the dormant beings
woke
up. They find a Earth where the humankind has spread wherever. Different
races
had evolved from the rude, monkey-like beings of the previous age, but no one
would be able to help the Enforcer in its plans. So it goes creating a new
one,
called elves. This should be the race, the elect ones. To further the quick
evolution of elves, the Enforcer itself assumed the identity of one of
them, a
red-hair young elf, but it couldn't keep always that look and had to revert
to
its orginal form from time to time.
The evil energies called by the Criminal finally arrived to the Earth. They
was
quickly dubbed Horrors as horror was their weapon. Those beings feeded on the
terror and the fear they inspired, and the elves found that, to survive, they
had to provoke themselves terrible pain and fear, making the Horrors divert
their attention elsewhere. A ruthless, painful ritual was adopted, and those
elves with strong enough had their skin devastated by thorns.
World #5 - Mankind and other amenities
Eventually energy levels went down again, taking with them Horrors and the
other
powerful beings. Humans remained alone on the surface of the planet. The
Criminal went dormant again under the safe cover of the Atlantic ocean,
right in
front of the New England coast, and the Enforcer managed to survive the 5th
world by keeping the elven form and assuming several identities of rich and
influential men.
At the end of the 5th world, with the approaching of the return of an energy
level high enough, the Criminal restarted its activities, geared to stop the
Enforcer ability to return to its original place. During the 20th century,
the
Criminal sent its minions on the landmass to kill and paralyze with terror
those
who were close to find the truth and to give the Enforcer its victory.
Terrible
creatures raised from the deep, feeding on the sanity itself of the humans.
World #6 - Per aspra ad astra
Meanwhile, the Enforcer developed some serious split personality problems,
shifting continuously from its original form to the human/elvish one. Shortly
after the start of the Criminal activities, the two forms begun to exist
together, a double but unique being, aware of its status. On the early 21st
century, the Earth population finally saw the Enforcer's original form, and
they
called it a dragon, a silver and blue dragon.
The Criminal didn't suffered from these problems, focused as it was in
plaguing
mankind trying to stop the technological advancements that could make the
Enforcer's travel back home possible. The Black Plague, HIV, world wide wars,
nuclear weapons, the matrix crash of 2029, the VITAS outbreak came all from
the
same source.
But mankind, aided by the Enforcer, managed to develop itself. A new breed of
humans, the Otakus, were born, humans able to meld their minds with the
intelligent machines, and capable to stepping up the advancements needed by
the
Enforcer. Men and machines became more and more the same, Artificial
Intelligences took part in political world summits.
The Criminal finally found a way to return to its original place and, aided
by
weak, but still terrible, Horror-like beings, started to build a "bridge" in
order to encompass the space between the Earth and its native plane. The
Enforcer, disguided with its elven features, contacted somehumans and sent
them
to stop this building process, sometimes with success but sometimes failing
miserably. It knew that only the technology could help mankind against a
return
of the Horrors.
More than a thousand years later.
Mankind has conquered the stars. Great, powerful battle machines were
built, but
the Criminal managed to destroy the knowledge and the secrets needed to build
them. Humans were stuck with those few remaining giant robots called Mechs.
Culture and society were kept alive only by small outposts of brave humans.
But a new hope came.
Piloted by semi-supernatural beings arrived from the Outer Sphere,
descendants
of the Otakus, new Mechs are joining mankind and the Enforcer itself in the
battle against the ultimate evil...
____________________________________________________________
Paolo Marcucci paolo@*********.it
InterWare Service Provider Trieste, Italy
http://www.interware.it/ Tel. +39-40-360630
