City of Zur
1: 1 There is an ancient Sumerian legend that speaks of the extinction of mankind. 1: 2 Although written down on cuniform tablets more than 6 millennia ago, no evidence of these scrolls has ever been found. 1: 3 So the legend comes down to us through stories and tradition. “Where it started is where it will end”, these words are called the Prophecy of Zur. 1: 4 The place in which the first of what is considered civilization began will be the same place in which civilization and humanity will end. 1: 5 This last bastion of man will be called the City of Zur. The city will encompass, and be, a microcosm of the sins of man. 1: 6 Greed, self-worship, and disregard for Earth, these are called the Trilogy of Betrayal, the betrayal of the spirit.
1: 7 The Trilogy of Betrayal
Greed:
Obviously, this means taking more than is needed, an insatiable hunger, but it is much more sinister than that, it is denying others. Taking until there is nothing left for anyone else. The antithesis of community of cooperation.
1: 8 One of the most heinous of sins, a legacy of the Dark Monk, a sure start down the road to extinction.
1: 9 Self-worship:
Christians say humanity was made in the image of God. This is a thinly veiled attempt at justifying self-worship. 1: 10 Monarchies were started with the idea of divine or semi-divine authority of the king. In modern society, celebrities, cult leaders, and politicians are worshipped like gods. Even though they have not created us they do not control life or death, they are just humans.
1: 11 Idealized human forms were given to the Greek, Roman, and Norse gods imbued with supernatural powers. 1: 12 Primitive cultures worshipped large and dangerous predators, which makes more sense they are powerful and savage, However, you cannot claim a divine lineage if you worship a mountain a bear, or a celestial object.
1: 13 Disregard for Earth:
Intended as a collective sentient guardian, we have been corrupted. 1: 14 Agriculture and domestication have poisoned our spirit. We are suit and tie-clad hedonists, social classes have divided us almost to the point of separate species.1: 15 One class exploits and controls the others as if they are gods. They pillage the resources of the Earth and will someday make it uninhabitable for all life.
1: 16 From a penthouse in one of the tallest towers in the city of Zur, a pair of eyes look out over the strata and castes of humanity. 1: 17 Far below through the haze, the daily migration of the masses, the majority being SPs go back and forth to and from their exploitation. 1: 18 In the penthouse, it is clean and cool with a hint of lavender in the air. Far below there is dust and the smell of exhaust and sewage.
1: 19 Behind the pane of glass, there is order and neatness, priceless objects hang from the walls; 1: 20 outside and below the chaos of a decaying infrastructure and a decadent culture. In contrast to the shining white tile floors and marble of the penthouse, is the cracked concrete, stained with the vomit, urine, and blood of us.
1: 21 From below countless pairs of eyes glance skyward at the towers. The towers gleam in the stifling hot sun, summers are brutally dry and hot. Winters are windy and bitterly cold. 1: 22 Scientists speculate there may be only one or two generations before the extinction event predicted by the writings. 1: 23 The eyes looking up are tired, confused, and ignorant. Exactly how the eyes looking down want us, have orchestrated us.
1: 24 The eyes above and the eyes below anatomically are the same species. However, in practical terms, they are two separate variants of Homo. 1: 25 To understand where and how the species split we must understand the fundamental differences between them. 1: 26 The eyes below through no fault of their own were born into their position. For the most part, these individuals make do with what they have. Maintain loyalties to family and ideology, and live at the mercy of nature, the economy, and of course the eyes above. 1: 27 The eyes above were also born into their circumstances, however, because of status and power, and furthermore, an overwhelming majority are Authentics, so naturally they have an undisputed advantage. 1: 28 They are ruthlessly class-conscious, their greed for wealth and power unquenchable. Loyalty only to blood, and most of all hatred and disgust for the eyes below.
1: 29 In the beginning, all men were equal, they lived in small bands of hunter-gatherers and fit into a natural hierarchy. They depended on each other and shared risk and reward. 1: 30 Then in Mesopotamia, The Dark Monk taught man domestication and farming. Civilization slowly developed, Eve had bitten the apple and fed it to Adam.
1: 31 With Civilization came ownership, and with ownership came wealth, with wealth came power. The lines between the eyes above and the eyes below slowly took shape.
1: 32 The eyes below because of their position, as subservient, those who fight the wars and perform the dangerous jobs are an overwhelming majority SP, their Substancias have been lost, dislodged by violence.
1: 33 They are SPs because of their violent deaths. On the other hand, the eyes above have lived lives of comfort, very rarely are they met with a violent end, keeping their Capsa and Substancia together, they are pristine Authentics.
1: 34 The City of Zur is a place, the last city of human habitation on Earth. But it is also the name given to the final days, the name for the time of the fall, the lead-up to the extinction of mankind. 1: 35 The beginning of civilization in all incarnations is Mesopotamia, and so is the extinction, the City of Zur will be in Mesopotamia.
1: 36 The eyes below know the end is coming, however, the eyes above think they will survive, they believe they can cheat their doom, as they cheat everything, society, laws, accountability, and partially, even the damnation imposed by the Creator. 1: 37 But they are wrong. Authentics never remember their past lives. The comfort they experience blinds them to reality. 1: 38 SPs however, are much more sensitive to the Dominion’s Changewaves and their past incarnations. 1: 39 The masses will know the end is near, Authentics will not even see it coming.