wild

Once upon a time, we tamed the world. It happened slowly, over the course of generations, as temples and monasteries spread across the continent with the inexorability of a plague. The channels and conduits of power became the shackles which bound the world, driving back the wild places and keeping the wolves away. In time this became the basis for an empire. As often happens with empires, cracks developed over time. It was a slow, almost imperceptible process, so of course, as empires do, they elected to ignore it.

Eventually the wild places crept back into the civilized world, the chains that kept the world bound having weakened over the years. Fear of the wild spread unrest into the leaders of the empire, who were ever eager to cast blame--far easier that than to accept responsibility yourself.

One day a princess came to believe that she could repair the chains and drive off the wilds once more, using nothing but the strength of her will. She believed it to be possible in the same way that you or I believe the sun is going to rise tomorrow, and she was willing to go to great lengths to make this possible. She believed she was going to save the world. But the world, which had been tricked into its chains, did not wish to return to the previous state of affairs, and as she traveled the world hoping to achieve her ends, the world began to wake.

And so when she returned to the spire where it had all began, there was a great battle between the wilds and the princess. At first, wielding a power fueled by the sacrifice of every living soul in her city, it seemed that she had achieved her goal, but her power and her will faltered and the world cast off its chains. The wild returned with a vengeance. A series of great catastrophes befell the empire, scattering its people to the winds, and in the time it took for a new generation to come of age all that remained of it was memories and ruins.