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When Dr. Fischer heard rumors that the Setti tribes living in the mountains were keeping technology from before the dark age, he imagined a treasure trove of untouched wonders which might bring a new renaissance and make right the lost centuries. He thought the power source of the ancients must be a technology beyond comprehension, boundless and elegant, wasted on the simple peoples living there now. He could never have imagined the brutal, primitive truth.
The past was not always as grand as its descendants imagine, and that world died for a reason.
The past was not always as grand as its descendants imagine, and that world died for a reason.
Category All / All
Species Serval
Size 1000 x 894px
File Size 1.17 MB
Something not a lot of post-apocalypse stories touch on: that it was not amazing technology that made a previous civilization great, but the culture and values that spawned it, and kept it alive. And when abandoned, they often seal its fate.
We have yet to break the cycle of Empires, only managing to perhaps soften the blow and pass the torch to a worthy successor. Time will tell if we ever overcome the destructive impulses that keep us on that terrible wheel.
We have yet to break the cycle of Empires, only managing to perhaps soften the blow and pass the torch to a worthy successor. Time will tell if we ever overcome the destructive impulses that keep us on that terrible wheel.
I don't often think of this setting as post apocalyptic, but it does fit the bill. Maybe post-post apocalypse, as it's nearly 800 years after the party and most technology has reached or surpassed where it was before. There are a few notable exceptions though, a few ideas genuinely lost, and always the vain hope that somewhere amidst the scores of interstellar colonies will be some treasure that can make the present live up to the past they imagine. Unfortunately, they don't see the descendants of the old colonies as a part of that treasure, at best just in the way.
A rather unfortunate trend among the intellectual types. It's easy to pump up one's ego and pride surrounded only by books and studious people. You forget that others have value as well, beyond what you would give them. Or what they can give you. Thankfully, the process can be reversed if caught early enough, though even advanced cases can be undone. Just a lot harder, and it sometimes takes a bigger shock, a larger blow to the ego, to manage it. But sometimes not even death can undo it. So, best to get rid of it as early as possible.
Dr. Fischer and his backers have gotten away with it for far too long. They've all had great success by being sure of themselves, and they've promised too much to second guess now. Unfortunately, they could only ever bear a tiny fraction of the consequences, and Fischer never really understands them.
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