Prologue
One day in a distant age, long before the mightiest civilizations stepped onto the stage of History, even before life on the planet followed the evolutionary paths we know, the sky blazed with a wondrous light, and from golden clouds emerged the figure of an Extraordinary Man.
Inspired by the noblest principles, he descended to Earth and began to wander through the unknown regions of the ancient world. Wherever fate led him, he received nothing but honor and gratitude: at his magical passing, the terrible epidemics and the destructive natural phenomena that had scourged the ancient human tribes since the dawn of time vanished completely, giving way to the marvelous contemplation of his greatness.
In every village temples were erected to celebrate his prodigious magnificence, and statues were built that reproduced his mythical face and his large eyes, shining like the moon. Moved by the love he received from the tribes he encountered along his salvific path, the Man from the Stars bestowed upon the people his boundless scientific knowledge, and a golden age for human civilization began.
The inhabitants of the small and humble villages that benefited from the light of his wisdom became custodians of precious learning. They learned to work metals and stone, becoming skilled sculptors and craftsmen; they acquired knowledge of mathematics and engineering sciences and became great experts in astronomy. The villages grew and evolved into flourishing and advanced garden-cities, governed by a universal and fraternal harmony among peoples. The modest fields, once cultivated according to the archaic techniques of the ploughing fathers, developed into crops so abundant and diversified that the peoples of the ancient world began to engage in intense relations of exchange with one another.
To better govern the lands subject to his celestial influence, the Man from the Stars summoned eleven of his most faithful followers, consecrated to the Cult of his myth, and transmitted to them the knowledge he himself had used to rule Nature and its laws with balance, in the general interest of all species. Eleven sacred Orders were born, each led by a Great Priest who swore to their venerated master to use the immense powers granted to them solely for the supreme purpose of ensuring harmony among peoples and the just order of Nature and its immense forces.
Now sated with honors and glory, and comforted by the extraordinary devotion with which the Priests served Nature and the collective well-being, the Man from the Stars became convinced that his presence on Earth was no longer necessary. Other archaic and primitive worlds, eager to drink from the reservoir of his extraordinary science, awaited him with trepidation. He vanished suddenly, never to reappear, without crowds paying homage to him for all the wonders he had accomplished.
As time passed, the myth of the Man from the Stars faded. The peaceful harmony that had united all humankind in a prodigious brotherhood gradually died out. Kingdoms and independent states arose, developing their own traditions and cultures, so different that their rulers were driven to wage war against one another. The priestly orders created by the Man from the Stars with the sole purpose of guaranteeing the just balance of Nature’s forces fell, century after century, into the hands of priests ever more selfish and hungry for power.
Nothing remained of the golden society that the Man from the Stars had created with such devotion. The ancient world, once a jewel of balance between Man and Nature, became a breeding ground for bloody and unending conflicts.
