Prologue
"Omnes homines, qui sese student praestare ceteris animalibus, summa ope niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri oboedientia finxit."
"All men who strive to rise above the rest of the animals ought with all their power to struggle, lest they pass through life in silence, like cattle, which nature has created prone and obedient only to their bellies." ~ Sallust, Bellum Catilinae
The bullets soared across the red-dune sky, as all that could be heard were the cries and wails of those who were unfortunate enough to have been caught within the crossfire of the two rivaling states. The stars lit up in great dismay as planets and systems collapsed into extreme discrepancy and terrorism. The once balanced ecosystems on the surfaces of planets were scorched and turned into ash and deserts.
Those who fought for their solitude were forced to submit under the rule of their oppressors, as those who revolted were pushed underground, where they formed slums, where they remained devoid of hope, yet needy of retribution.
Those brave enough to battle with their odds stuck to the earth, scavenging past technologies, and creating machines of great power. In strongholds they lived by, yet needing freedom, as they could never lie still with threats looming around their borders.
Those weary and bold migrated to uninhabited lands where ruin awaited their very presence and loomed over every one of their waking moments, pushing them to the means of least morality. Yet, these means hid them from the tyranny of those in control.
Cities were destroyed, as thriving civilizations were degraded into thrashing warlands. Men were executed, as children were held prisoner. Women were raped as buildings were pillaged in the name of supremacy. What stood as young, powerful monuments of hope were demolished and defiled into pillars donning propaganda.
For centuries, man was forced to trudge across the barren lands, forced to discover the history and treasures of those they had forsaken and abused. The great wars that had overwritten the laws of humanity had been etched into textbooks held in great libraries, as the history that came before had long been forgotten, with it only revealed through remnants of ancient technologies and prophecies left by the conflicts.
With the destruction of all order and peace, those who lost what they perceived as rightfully theirs yearned for a leader, yearned for a prophet, yearned for their messiah, the final child of Ver'As.
But how does one determine a messiah?