THE DISCOVERY

Not very far in the future, humanity was doing well for itself and prospering, and though global peace hadn't been reached yet, steps were being made. However, in the northeast corner of Illinois, a deep cave miner ended up stumbling upon something that changed the fate of human history forever. A massive cavern was broken into, revealing the existence of a slumbering, subterranean beast so large it could only be measured in square miles. This beast was named the Shirake. Upon breaking into its cavern, the Shirake was awoken. With its break in slumber also came a surge of powerful energy emanating from the creature. It was decidedly docile, and did nothing to move or attack as humans built into its cave and even a city directly on the ground above it. Many labeled the Shirake as sacred, and therefore laws were put in place to protect it and make sure its habitat wasn't ruined. The city built directly above the Shirake became known as Armarium, and the founding point of the Shirake became known as The Origin. The two places became so closely related, it wasn't uncommon to refer to the city itself as the Origin. The leader of the crew of miners who stumbled upon the Shirake became the mayor of the once small city of Armarium, and then as more people moved to the famous spot, he became governor.

THE MODERN GOLDEN AGE

What humanity didn't know in breaking open the Shirake's cavern, was that a beacon of energy was broadcast throughout the entire galaxy as the Shirake woke up. It acted as a pinpoint to Earth, an advertisement displaying a bounty of power, perhaps ripe for the taking. And as advertisements are wont to do, it attracted other beings.

The first beings that contacted Earth made themselves known as the Alennants. They were an amphibious people, typically unemotional and very logical in nature. Luckily for humanity, they wished to extend a hand of alliance, however, they refused to speak to anyone but the leader of the city Armarium. They viewed an Earth separated by countries and different leaders to be inferior to the ones who ruled above the Shirake; after all, the Shirake was the most powerful being on their planet. Who else would hold the most authority except the one who spoke for it? Because of this dilemma, there was a stand-still between the two species for a few years before humanity managed to unite and agree on a system; a system in which many countries united and conjoined, so that only the main landmasses were separate. These became known as the New Americas, New Asia, New Africa, and New Australia. These new countries all had their own presidents, which answered to the highest power, that being the leader of the now biggest and most populated city-state in the world, Origin. This highest power was dubbed The Headmaster. And so it was that the former miner, now the first Headmaster to be in power, answered to the Alennants and they discussed an alliance: a trade of knowledge.

Under the guidance of the Alennants, human technology and knowledge flourished. Origin expanded in size as Alennant diplomats came to Earth to learn human ways and to gift their own talents in things such as singing. Space travel was quickly developed with their help, as well as many other technological feats. The Alennant people showed humanity a new source of power, something that had been right under their noses all along. Utilized energy. For centuries human recognized potential energy that dwelt in the human and animal body. Digested food gave the body energy to live- but the Alennants showed humanity that energy could be extracted and used outside the body to form anything the mind could conjure, with enough practice, or to power anything one could build. The only issue was that humans naturally only made enough energy to keep themselves alive, no excess could be drawn out without killing oneself, and even then energy couldn't be excised without significant training and effort. The Shirake, on the other hand, supplied and emitted such powerful waves of energy that its essence in fact could power the entire city it was under. With the Alennants' help, the city of Origin was able to leave behind all external power sources, relying on the Shirake alone for its electricity and power. Humanity grew and discovered more and thrived more every single day, but the Alennants also warned that with the amount of energy the Shirake was producing, they wouldn't be the only ones attracted to Earth. So Origin built high walls, outfitted with the strongest technology and defenses known to man. It seemed like they would be prepared for all odds.

And then the Alennants ceased all communication.

THE RUIN

Shortly after the Alennants ceased contact with Earth, including all of the diplomats they'd left there, Earth experienced its first attack. It hadn't been detected. It came silently in the night, through blips on the radar, until the atmosphere was filled with brooding, dark ships. These aliens did not speak with their own mouths, but through rough mechanical translators. They had no regard for communication. They simply announced their goal: to kill all 'red flesh', and to take the Shirake's power. They dove through the clouds and attacked. Humanity began to call them The Rooks, after the horrible scraping noise they made with their hooves after a victory. It was rather clear they'd come for the Shirake, Humanity tried to fight back, but they were no match for the forces that swept through. In the end, the Rooks wiped out three-quarters of human life, decimating entire cultures and societies in their wake. Only particularly heavily-guarded cities stood up against their attacks, able to keep most of the bombard out. By the time the Rooks had attacked the entire globe, only three of these 'safe' cities were left standing. One stationed in the Arizona region of New America, one in the Russia region of New Asia, and Origin. Of the three, Origin was the only city that had successfully kept out every single Rook, thanks to its high walls around the border, and the invisible wall of energy that the Shirake put out during the attack. The rest of the land outside these cities was dubbed the Wilderness from then on, as those places were always vulnerable to Rook patrol, high radiation levels, and death from exposure and other looters or bandits who had weathered the storm. Many escapees and immigrants flooded into the safe cities to try and avoid being killed. Humanity was decimated, but the Shirake still had yet to give another gift.

HOPE

In response to being attacked, the Shirake began to telepathically call to specific humans all around the city of Origin, and in some cases, beyond that. The center tower of Origin found itself overwhelmed with a numerous amount of people claiming to have heard the voice of the Shirake, that they were called there. The Shirake at this point was barred from access to the general public for its own safety, to keep it from being vandalized or stolen from. However, with such an influx of people it was imperative to figure out what was going on. So a crystal was taken from the Shirake's cave, upon realizing that those truly 'called' by the Shirake would react with the crystal. Those that were called to the Shirake found that upon bonding with it, a sacrifice was made. The Shirake took the human's energy for itself, and then flooded the human with its own energy. An exchange was made, and now the human was an empowered soldier of the Shirake. With their new energy, they could summon it easily and produce much more, and with training became swifter, stronger, hardier, and faster than most of the human race. These elite soldiers seemed to be picked by the Shirake for their morality, as most soldiers if not all were shown to be good of heart. These soldiers of Armarium were the ones who led the battle in fighting off the Rooks from Earth.

Utilizing Origin's new troops, humanity was empowered and now able to fight off the Rooks. While they weren't able to decimate the species in the same way they themselves had been destroyed, the humans drove off the Rooks, and the malevolent creatures fled. Soon after the fleeing of the Rooks, humanity started to pick up its pieces. After the end of the war, the first Headmaster stepped down, as the stress was too much for him to handle. An election system was put in place after that, as well as a council system, to alleviate the pressure of the role of Headmaster, and a new political system formed. With only three safe cities now in existence, they became all one unified country, with a governor in each city, and The Headmaster became the sole ruler over humanity. The Alennants soon came in contact with humanity again, and it was discovered that the reason connection had broken with them was because the Rooks had attacked the Alennants first. Their infrastructure was attacked, and they were able to get no word of warning or cry for help out before they too suffered a blow, but it was much less fatal than the humanity's. With the Alennant's help, huamnity was able to get back on their feet, though the world functioned much differently now. It would take decades before the humans even though about colonizing outside of the safe cities, and unfortunately for them, the Rooks were only down- not defeated.