The history of the universe is recounted in Eras, and Ages. Only the Universal Will can determine the Era, while her children dedicate themselves to recording the Ages. For those lucky few to whom the universe is willing to spill its secrets owe it to future generations to preserve their knowledge.
When the universe was born; the Primordial Era began. The universe expressed itself, and all manner of beings were brought into existence. Celestial beings formed and brought forth the Primordial Races. For nine Ages the universe cycled.
When the Primordial Races expanded outside of the celestial beings that birthed them; the Era of Strife began. The Primordial Races interacted with one another and brought forth the Ancient Races. For seven Ages the universe cycled.
When an alliance of nineteen Primordial Races swore to the Universal Will and created the Three Pillars Society; the Era of Expansion began. Beings of the universe gathered together and brought forth the Great Societys. For five Ages the universe cycled.
When Kul Hknarlut became the first being to ascend to the Origination Stage and create a celestial being; the Era of Origination began. Beings of the universe cultivated to the Origination Stage and brought forth the Holy Domain. For three Ages the universe cycled.
When the Empress Supreme Karma became the first being to ascend to the Origination Stage and create an origin universe; the Era of Karma began.
Trepidus Nislit , Director of the History Society- 1st Age in the Era of Karma
Maria exited her lucid dream, remembering the words she had seen in CCC. She rose and stretched her body. As more time passed, Maria found herself unceasingly amazed by cultivation and the way the world had changed. Every morning she woke up, feeling refreshed and clear-headed, Maria thanked the universe that could be alive during this time, to experience it for herself. Walking over to the fire, Maria began her morning ritual, and brewed herself a cup of mint tea. She walked out of her front door, and sat down on her favorite rock, enjoying the view she had become privy too for the last month, and would be for the foreseeable future.
She sat near the edge of a fifty foot cliff, that rimmed a massive depression in the earth. The massive dent in the earth was surrounded by cliffs on all sides and had a radius of around ten miles making it impossible to see all the way across from any direction. However from any place on the surrounding cliffs, one could see a massive river that divided the rolling plains beneath. At the center of the massive circular plane was a lake that the river flowed through. A lake that had not been there four months ago. The lake was surrounded by a city that over one million humans called home. The other half of the two million souls that appeared in the circle after exiting CCC lived in villages in the surrounding plains, the edge, or the jungle beyond it. Every single one of them: a cultivator. It had only taken six months to transform the entire region into a flourishing city state. It was Maria’s self imposed responsibility to record history in the making and the flourishing of a new civilization of cultivators.
Over the first month after leaving CCC, the cultivators gathered, conversed, and came to a consensus to rebuild civilization in the circular valley. A gathering of over one thousand first domain cultivators, Maria included, concurred amongst themselves to elect leaders, and form a council of different experts from every domain. They divided themselves into the Harvester Guild, the Logistics Guild, the Builders Guild, the Culture Guild, the Wellness Guild, the Cultivation Guild and the Authority Guild. The elected Heads, and Vice-Heads of the guilds worked together with the rest to create laws, and eventually an entire social structure.
The world has changed, so will its civilizations. With the advent of qi, and a population entirely made up of cultivators, many aspects of modern societies from the old world were altered, while the spirit remained the same. All beings have the desire to live, and cultivate. By banding together in groups, and collaborating, a greater effect can be achieved than the sum of its parts.
Although qi consumption had replaced the need to obtain energy from food in all cultivators of the Saturation Stage and above, the body still needed to consume some mass, equal to about one ounce of food a day. A collaboration between several geniuses of the Harvester and Wellness Guilds, created a meal pill by combining common nutrient rich seeds from the surrounding jungle and infusing them with qi. It became the primary sustenance for over a million people, being entirely sufficient to sustain most cultivators for a day. Body cultivators, pregnant women, and people recovering from injuries needed to eat more, depending on various factors, but the Harvester’s Guild brought in meat, fish, and various edible plants from the surrounding environment every day.
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The Builders Guild, using the vast natural resources of the jungle, and clay deposits from the river, had constructed a metropolis in mere months. Qi manipulation allowed even the most base materials to transcend their previous old-world limits. The city’s packed dirt roads were harder than concrete, and unified enough to take minimal damage from precipitation. Sun dried bricks made of river clay and dried grasses from the plains, and resilient qi strengthened wood from the jungle was all the Builder’s Guild had needed to catapult civilization from pre-stone age into something resembling the late feudal era, without a single scrap of metal. The harvesting of clay by an entire city of people had widened the river and created an artificial lake.
From Maria’s vantage point on the cliffs, she could see rafts of logs lashed together with vines, careening off the waterfall, where the river flowed over the northern cliffs, and floating towards the city. Several groups had already begun to build boats capable of traversing the tunnel that the river had created to flow out of the valley in the south. Following the river south eventually found the jungle transitioning to a brackish swamp, and although yet unlocated, a sea or ocean was sure to be discovered sooner or later. Although Maria had initially been very involved with the creation and establishment of the Culture Guild, the hustle and bustle of the city was overwhelming for her. These days she spent most of her time cultivating, and transcribing a brief recounting of world history into Society Standard.
The successes of the Unity Republic had been remarkable to witness. While the introduction of qi into humanity didn’t remove inequality, or stop powerful people from wielding their advantages against others, the extreme abundance of resources, drastically reduced basic needs, and increased capabilities of the citizens, created a perfect storm. The average person only needed to work two to three days of the week, to provide for their basic shelter clothing and sustenance, along with a few small luxuries. While some citizens preferred to produce more, and grow wealth, start business and gain influence in the guilds, many others spent a large portion of their time in cultivation and training. Thus the standard of living, the skills and capabilities of the citizens, and the morality of the city state, continued to grow in tandem. It was an incredibly virtuous cycle. As humans cultivated, so did society. Maria theorized that a sufficient supply of metals could catapult the technology level into that of the 1900’s within a decade, and beyond, only god knew. Eventually humans would once again reach the technology level of the Pre-Change world, but they would also have qi. The main reasons that inter-system space travel was unachievable was the short lifespan of humans and amount of resources they would need to survive, which had both been massively slashed. The possibilities were endless.
Maria broke out of her musings. Her thoughts had become lightning fast, and more and more often she found her mind wandering in different directions. I need to remain focused. She opened a rough leather book, and began inscribing symbols with her mental energy. Once she had completed transcribing all the books in her mind palace she would almost certainly obtain an aura mark. Free from her task, she would be set up to let her creativity wonder. She would create and cultivate freely and try to figure out her plans for the future. She was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching. A young girl in her late teens was approaching at a jog wearing a ceramic badge on her tunic that designated a First Domain member of the Logistics Guild. The girl came to a spot ten feet away from her and spoke.
“An emergency council meeting has been called Miss Lipzeg. It will begin at midday.”
Maria made a stern face. “What emergency?”
The young woman sighed dramatically. “One of the full First Domain explorer teams from my guild returned an hour ago. They were presumed dead when they failed to return from their mission by the appointed time some three weeks ago. They were caught in a flash flood in the swamps, became lost, but survived the process. They discovered bog iron deposits, the ocean, and two different settlements.”
Maria’s jaw dropped, her mind spinning.
“Please head to city hall immediately. Pardon me, I have to deliver this message three more times.” The messenger turned and ran past Maria along the cliff''s edge causing the historian to lapse into thought.
Maria gathered up a bag of her things, and secured it to her back. Gathering a running start she leapt off the fifty foot precipice in front of her house. Expelling qi from several meridians in a controlled stream, she condensed the air beneath her outstretched body, and began gliding through the air. After her glide had stabilized, she used a different set of meridians to release targeted bursts of qi that superheated the air several yards beneath herself. The hot air gusts lifted the condensed air Maria was laying on further into the air, drastically prolonging her glide. She was only able to perform the hot air burst one more time before her qi channels began to feel fatigued and she brought herself down, landing gracefully. Although she felt her technique highly improvable she had still managed to cover at least half a mile, and mostly in the right direction although she was off by several degrees. Maria jogged towards the city lost in thought. The future was approaching at a break-neck speed. Even with her level five mind cultivation, she was clueless as to what it would hold.