Ryan Bailey (order #2639004) 173.14.196.1 - fap.if.usp.br

Ryan Bailey (order #2639004) 1CHAPTER ONELIFE IN THEHIGH FIRST AGEAt the sun’s first rise each morning, I AM wakes everymortal in Creation loyal to the Deliberative. I AM is notan animating intelligence, for its cognition engine has nospiritual components. I AM is a truly independent thinkingautomaton, the first to achieve full sapience upon itsfirst iteration. At the command of the Solar Deliberative,I AM oversees the well-being of mortals everywhere. I AMis named for the first words it uttered. I AM is friend to allCreation’s children.I AM connects the mortals of Creation to each otherthrough glyph projectors they carry and into which theyspeak. With I AM, Creation’s mortals communicate acrossvast distances, find answers to their every question instantlyand enjoy the service the Exalted route through the Celestialgoddess Taru-Kül.To the Exalted, I AM speaks only when spoken to,for it would not presume to offer unasked-for advice to theChosen of the Gods.THE HISTORY OF MANHistorians divide the Age of Man into eras and each erainto periods. Six eras have passed since the Primordial War.The current era, the Era of Dreams, is the seventh. Historiansdeveloped this scheme following the Long Silence period ofthe Second Deliberative Era, and have carried it on since.Older records sometimes use antiquated systems, but theFirst Deliberative’s surviving Exalts are almost all pleasedwith the eras and have made a concerted effort to make surehistorical records are in line with the official histories. Themajority of Deliberative historians accept what follows aseither truth or necessary fiction.THE PREHISTORIC ERABefore the Primordials were slain or banished, the DragonKings ruled Creation. They were man’s teachers, overseersand custodians. Their ancient reptile intelligences, informedby long eons of endless reincarnation, progressed throughsavagery and enlightenment to rebirth. They did not feardeath and expected no such fear from their subjects.Mankind needed the Dragon Kings’ stewardship, forCreation was unsuited to man’s habitation in those days. Thesleep of Hesiesh and Pasiap was still unsure, and the worldshook with every fitful sleeping gesture of Gaia’s Dragons ofFire and Earth. The saurian overlords oversaw the survival ofthe mortal race the Primordials had modeled on Autochthon’sClay Man. In the North, humanity maintained the Pterok’saustere temple-aeries. In the South, tribes of cattle herdersmade their homes in the savannas and made offerings tothe Anklok, the most distant, nomadic and warlike of theDragon Kings. In the East, the Raptok’s great ziggurat-cities10