100.000 BC
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Not long ago, the world was cold and dry, the northern and southern oceans were wastes of thick ice and the continents were all much more vast. None of the planet’s inhabitants remember this period, for their infinitesimal lifespans makes even such recent events seem eternally ancient, and yet these were the most crucial of times.

In this more primitive era it was possible, with some difficulty, to walk from one end of the world to the other. No living being ever dared to attempt such a task, but if they had, they’d be amazed at the sights the world had to offer; lakes larger than seas being formed as the glaciers retreated, fiery mountains unendingly spewing ash and molten rock and many great creatures that seemed of myth.

These beasts came in many shapes and forms, dragons battled in deserts of the southern island, crushing their bodies against each other in a display of power and might. The plains of the western continent were home to the last vestiges of the formerly powerful lineage of the Megatherium, that struggled to survive in this warmer world, Not far away the great tundra continuously receded further north, alongside the largest Mastodons to inhabit the planet.

For many generations these wondrous animals lived, grew and died, as they always had, ignorant of their past and future. But the world was changing, visibly so, with every rotation of the Earth, with every revolution around the Sun, it became warmer, more hospitable, and change always swept away those who couldn’t adapt accordingly to it.

The first witnesses to this change were found in the snow-covered peaks of the Judean Mountains, on one spring morning, here a large cave bear, just waking up from his long winter hibernation caught sight of strange beasts; they were tall, slender, fangless, and with flat claws. He had seen similar feeble animals further to the north and east, but the Beast realized that these were bigger, and more numerous — the animal could not but feel a slight fright upon looking at them. Still, the bear let out a mighty roar to scare this tribe off his territory.

His pelt made a great trophy for these first men to reach this new world.

As the earth continued to warm, these encounters became more prominent and common, with humans arriving with haste to Arabia, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Soon they would cross the Caucasus.

For the future of the world didn’t belong to the natives of Europe or Asia, nor by the isolated beings of Australia or the Americas, but rather to these new arrivals.

On the African continent, the morning spring sun brought forth changes too. On the Saharan grasslands a tribe collected sweet dates to celebrate the birth of a new member. North, in the Atlas Mountains a boy made friends with a wolf. Firewood was collected on the Ethiopian highlands, to burn in sacred celebrations, all the while, in the shores of the Nile, the first murder took place.

It was the dawn of the age of man, and all the good and bad such a thing meant.

Paleolithic_Diorama

A new world

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