15
minutes into the future…
For
untold generations, mankind has huddled next to its fires to stave off the dark.
These fires have evolved, from crude sticks and stones to manipulation of
the bonds of electrons and the spinning of generators, but the purpose has never
changed: never let the dark in, never extinguish the light.
Mankind
has lived a lie.
Even now, Shadows walk amongst us.
They use us, deplete us, and leave our empty shells to walk a landscape
of their shaping, their devising.
Some claim to fight to free us, some to enslave us.
Some try to lead us to realize what they believe to be our potential,
whatever that may be.
All of them, despite their wars and intrigues and the countless mortal
lives lost in their pursuits, hold to a single credo: never let them see, never
let them forget.
Never in all their years of dominance did they imagine they would
actually win.
It
is a new world.
The time of choice has past, and true night has fallen.
The predations of the Shadow Worlds have scarred the soul of the human
race. Untold
years of denial, pain, and loss at their hands have caged mankind in a prison of
its own apathy.
That apathy now has led to numbness, relinquishing their ultimate power
of will.
The Shadows no longer need fear exposure, for the masses have been
reduced to simple husks, their seed spilt on infertile ground.
The great struggle for humanity’s soul is over, and we have lost. The
Great Ones rejoice.
Ancient remnants of a world before our own, they now seek rebirth in
these darkened times.
It
is not in our nature to go silently.
Guttered out like a candle, the fire that was once the human soul still
has dying embers that may yet be relit.
The tools of the light lie shattered and corrupted.
What remains to fight the darkened tide?
Torn
from the shadows, creatures of ancient enmity are raised, recruited, and
assembled as allies.
They are trained to exacting specifications by an organization whose
agenda is as yet unknown, by Benefactors none has seen.
They are sent out into the world as their Hand, to thwart the Shadows and
their overt collaborators.
They alone of the Shadows serve the light.
By their hands the tide of Darkness may yet be stopped, or the whole of
the world may be swallowed whole.