This work shall focus on the interconnectedness of humankind and their native world, Earth.
This is but an introduction, but here I shall paint the history of humanity as I know it in broad strokes, and give the details in the chapters which follow. It has taken me more than a lifetime to gather together this knowledge, and I do not attest to its complete accuracy, for much is taken from legend and myth. Nevertheless I am sure that the kernal of truth lies here.
There is an ongoing debate amongst the mages, sages and historians as to how the human race first arose. That the gods were there to influence matters is beyond question, but did they originally create humanity from nothingness, or did humans spontaneously arise, or did they develop from lesser creatures? I subscribe to the latter theory, though there is little evidence to support it. My reasons for doing so are fully explained in Chapter 23.
Nevertheless, it is certain that humans lived on Earth as little more than animals until the gods took them in hand. Earth was a harsh and cruel place back in those long-gone days. Periodically the temperatures would plummet and great sheets of ice would cover the world for millenia, before temperatures would moderate and the ice retreat. Our ancestors could do little more than survive and subsist under such conditions.
The gods apparently saw some potential in these poor, struggling creatures, though, and took pity on them. Selecting a representative sample, they took this group and relocated them to a milder, more hospitable world near the centre of the galaxy. This group thrived, and soon developed into a major civilization. As all such young civilizations do, they soon developed a dependence on technology, and with it built a great empire that spanned the galaxy, and came to include Earth and their distant cousins...still struggling under the weight of periodic ice ages.
Little was done with Earth, though, for soon after it was colonized the First Galactic Empire - as it was called - became embroiled in a war against another such empire from a nearby galaxy. The war lasted for centuries and humanity was victorious, but so drained was it by the struggle that soon after the Empire collapsed to become but a small, pale shadow of itself, leaving orphaned colonies of humans scattered and isolated across the Milky Way.
Fifty thousand years passed. During that time the separate races of humanity struggled, while the core of the First Galactic Empire struggled to rebuild itself from its heart in the centre of the galaxy. During this time the Elves first visited the home galaxy of humanity, founding a small colony, but it was soon abandoned and they withdrew. Finally, a number of space-faring groups of humans arose almost simultaneously, and began to reestablish contact with each other, while at the same time a resurgent First Galactic Empire began to reassert its ancient claim to hedgemony of the galaxy.
One of the small groups of humans discovered the remains of the Elf-colony, and with it a trove of technology far beyond what they had. Back in those days the elves were masters of technology and had developed it far beyond what even the Empire had achieved. Soon after this discovery the two civilizations of humanity collided: the Empire and the humans of the fringes of the galaxy, and war resulted. The Empire was old, powerful, cruel and brutal. In their own way the humans of the fringe were little better, but they held a grudge against the Empire for abandoning their ancestors so long before.
The war was long and drawn out, but ultimately inconclusive. Finally, the two