Prologue
Addressed to all members of the Order of the Library (ID: OOL)
-Classification Level 3B (Guardian only) for mention of the Royal Truth
-Flagged for progressiveness by the Order of Overwatch (ID: OOW)
‘A plea for the past’
Long ago, when the Old Gods still ruled, there were nine realms known to us. This was long before the Republic, the Empire or even the League. We were few, weak and divided. We worshiped the Old Gods and they took care of us, but we also suffered their terrible schemes. The best of us were allowed to fight alongside them against the powerful giants that inhabited other realms. We constructed great siege engines and forged amazing weapons and armor from the divine steel that was given to us. It was an age of death and destruction. Realms shattered under the weight of our battles. Armies pressed ever onward and there were always forces that tried to push us back. When it all finally caught up with us, when we needed them the most, the Gods abandoned us.
Enraged and frightened, we ripped the last traces of divine essence from our world and used it as the basis for a wall. In some texts the building of this wall is actually attributed to one of the ‘giants’. Either way, this wall would surround our entire world and make it forever impossible to travel to or from our realm. Some have suggested that the great wall of mist to the south of the civilized world is part of this wall but, as recently confirmed by the explorers of Serenissima, it is indeed possible to travel through it with modified ships. The presence of humans on the other side has been documented. Current consensus is that the great wall of legend is a metaphor.
In the eons that have supposedly passed since its construction, this wall has begun to crack and through those cracks we can glimpse the other realms, even travel to them. Our realm, the World or Midgard, was described as a nexus of many realms. So far, we have only found two ecologies beyond, which are theorized to be two different realms. The Above, which mythology describes as the home of the Golden Race, and the Below, where the Silver Race dwells. The ancient texts make no mention of the human-like species that were encountered by our expeditions. Accounts dating back to Imperial times do mention visitors from other worlds that may be similar to these foreign species however. Prominent Republic evolutionary biologists have proposed that these individuals may be ‘cousins’ of our species, but government restrictions on the study of available data have severely hampered this discussion.
We know there was already contact with these other worlds in early Imperial time, which opens up the possibility of a long history of interaction between the realms. The ancient texts which have been so diligently preserved and studied by the Order of the Library may shed light on this relationship we have only recently become aware of. By deciphering the observations of our ancestors, however crude and limited, we might raise awareness of something we would not otherwise consider. Certainly, the prospect of even more intelligent races than we have already encountered should influence our policy on the treatment of civilizations outside our World.
I do not wish to diminish the valuable work that the Brotherhood of the Night and the Sisterhood of the Sun have done. These two orders have produced many practical advances which enrich our culture. Study of our past with the other realms by the Order of the Library provides a viable option for Progress as well. The products of this research will most likely be more philosophical and intellectual in nature than the ones we have seen from the other two orders. This does not make it any less valuable. If necessary, the Order of the Library can even appeal to the ‘Artist’s Law’ (which states, in essence, that immaterial goods do not necessarily require a practical application) when challenged by the government or the other orders. Like everything before it, we know, the Republic will fall eventually and it will make place for something else. It will be back in one form or the other, because history is cyclical after all. The past is more valuable a resource than any oil field or rough diamond. The Royal Truth tells us, the Guardians of the Republic, that civilization will end with the fall of the Republic. We, the Order of the Library, know the truth, but that does not stop us from giving everything to ensure that it does not happen. We can not always look forward.
Safety, stability, progress. Order above all.
-Sir Clark (ID: 03/10392251) of the Order of the Library (ID: OOL)
