A brief Primer of history, Part I

A primer of the history of mankind, how we built the Sanctum Solari and fled to in the the Dark Days, and a reminder of the glorious future we pray for, by Reginald Thrane XIIth, Written 79 years after the Closing of the Gates

There are eight of our many libraries devoted solely to keeping the histories of our people, each holding many thousands of books and scrolls. There are even more tomes dedicated to matters spiritual and theosophical, so this minor primer should be deemed nothing but a drop of the water of Knowledge to a man dying of thirst.

Regardless, it is truth that Man once lived outside the Tower walls, and in a world much different than the one I see through the glass pane. Where today now stands a never-ending field of ice, miles high, this was once the island of Corcansa, surrounded by warm seas and a forest of green. There were trees and hills and mountains, so many things that I fear my children will never understand. Already the Clergy debate if it will be possible to read the Scrolls in a way for our future generations to understand…I digress.

The short shrift is this--The world was once ours, and we explored, we conquered, we expanded. The Old Empires were made with blood and fire and steel. We expanded our knowledge of the world and the heavens. Yes, there were wars and plagues and famines, political unrest and revolutions, but the world was warm and ours to shepard. It was a Golden Age--but like all Ages, it was destined to fail.

Wormwood

We had always watched the stars, but mankind had been scientifically studying them in earnest for 200 years prior to Impact. We have learned how to map the stars and observe with telescopes, letting us see faraway planets and the stars. scores of scientists and astronomers delved the night sky, looking for secrets. Of them all, Lord Halesworth of Coldoon was one of the most talented and recognized geniuses of the age. He was researching comets in the night sky, the mysterious visitors known as harbringers of doom. Studying the ancient records, he realized one comet continued to return to our skies every 88 years, and the one that hovered over Coldoon’s towers that night would return again in 1748.

If Lord Alton Halesworth had only been able to predict his comet would return to the night sky in 88 years, it would have been enough to enshrine his name in the annals of history. However, it was his genius to deduce what would happen when it arrived that granted him sainthood. It took him three years before he was positive, and he shook as his numbers gave him a dire prediction--when the Comet came back this time, it would not pass through our skies, but instead crash into the world. The forces were incomprehensible--it would boil sea and burn sky. Halesworth’s warning was fought and debated, but in the end the wisest scientists and sorcerers agreed--in 88 years, all life on the planet would be killed.