The Time of Magic and Machines

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. When they appeared they had their time. They were mighty and the world trembled upon their terror and majesty. They could not be tamed nor underestimated. Many believed them to be gods and worshipped them. Building great temples in their names.

The last of their kind was slain nearly 200 years ago. The bones of a god slowly turning to dust upon the earth where it rests now in the same valley.

There weren’t always dwarves creating machines ahead of their time. When they did they were wonderous and all held them in high praise and regard. They were moving the world into a new era. Many believed there were no greater minds than that of the dwarves.

Now all that remains of their legacy, are the ruins of their great cities of their kingdom throughout the land. Crumbling into the sea or buried beneath the earth.

There weren’t always humans that existed in this world. When they made their strange arrival all welcomed them. A new race of beings that entered the realm through a gateway. A strange sphere of power as if they traveled across the stars with one simple step.

The elves taught them magic and the children of these humans learned from their parents until generations would carry on these ancient practices.

The dwarves taught them how to build great machines. True marvels. The humans proved to have even greater minds than the dwarves. Engineering a new world in a short amount of time.

However, like all things especially good. It must come to an end. The humans outgrew their teachers and used all they learned to capture and slay their ancient predecessors. The dwarves would see extinction and the elves dwindled down to a few in numbers, were enslaved and thrown into encampments and prisons.

With the knowledge and power of the ancients, humans began to build great cities and kingdoms of industrial power. No longer was the Dragon the king of monsters or the Kraken the fear in the depths. The giants lost to history. The goblins nothing but myths and the fairies simply now fairy tales. The ruling power and fear in the world was the might of humankind. The new monster was the walking tank. The winged dread in the sky, now the airship. The sword now replaced with the rifle. Humans built nations. Ruling the world as the dominate civilization.

Eventually humans could not stay content with what they had built. Obsession with power and greed overtook the nations of humanity and they would wage terrible wars against each other. Using their own weapons, machines, and airships against one another. The blood of their brethren bathed these ancient lands. Their technology escalating for one purpose now. To destroy each other.

Until all that remained of their civilization was the ruins of their once great structures and remnants of their technological creations. One of which were machines so advanced that they took on life of their own. Evolving faster than any being that had ever existed before in this world.

Machines that took on some of the traits of their human predecessors. Forming tribes and communities of mechanical life. Forming their own cultures and religions. Telling ancient tales of the human civilization that existed on these ancient lands and how they must give thanks to these ancient beings of flesh and blood. For it was by their hand the machines lived and learned to love.

Creating their own history. Telling tales of their own heroes and prophecies of messiahs. A world built new again. Ruled not by flesh and blood but by metal and oil.

This is the time of magic and machines.