The Decades of Chaos
The History of the War on Earth-Humans
Written by Bon Yoe-Mendie
For 2nd squadron, 4th Repossessors.
Rest easy, comrades.
Prelude
To understand the nature of the Chaos, we must look back on the First Welcoming and its effects on the humble realm of Yoren.
The day-time was the Eighth of Krane, 216th Revolution. The Histan Duke's Realmologists had gathered at the annual Worldly Convention1 as they revealed the final Model of the Multirealms, proposing a most perplexing theory stating that the—then-hypothetical— Multirealms are coterminous. The only tangible explanation I could ever give you is this: Imagine you have a map of Junti, Lagrat, and Winhe.2 Place these maps on top of one another and stick a thumbneedle through any point on the top map. Imagine you placed Lagrat at the top and have pinned the capital city, Mayfud. Imagine you have also placed Winhe in the middle of the stack, perfectly aligned with the other two.
If you were to lift the map of Lagrat and track the needlehole made in the map of Winhe, if done right, it should have gone through the town of Kiflet. Furthermore, another needlehole should be in the Junti town of Ufton. In short, one location in one realm shares a point with another location in another realm.
The Realmologists, of course, needed to find a thumbneedle analog if they were to prove this theory correct.3 Many yigs were poured into research on many trans-realm transport methods, though all were in vain; the closest they got to true trans-realm transport was the Point Collider Gate, which ended an explosion killing 140 and injuring 1,275. It would be salvaged for rare materials, with whatever remained being given back to the Commonwealth of Igsta for the dwarves to recycle.4
Eventually, research was transferred to the Confederacy of High Mages, who would wind up forming the Wizardly Expedition Company.5 The Company would spend only two revolutions before achieving trans-realm transportation: death.
Using classified astral projection methods, one's soul can traverse between the "needleholes," thereby accessing many Realms. It took three more revolutions to "portal the physical vessel of the Soul between Realms post-mortem."6 In Iamud's terms, they got a whole body to go between Realms instead of just a soul. Another revolution and they learned how to take steeds and weaponry with them and back, the methods of which were, again, classified.
It wouldn't be until 224R when the Confederacy would reveal the fruits of their labor. After an abundance of military contractors taking the spotlight at the Worldly Convention, the High Mages would announce the first public Trans-Realm Transportation to the first Realm discovered, Ga-na-pur, and back. Very obviously, a mage was killed on stage, which came as a scare to Convention officials, but the demonstration was a roaring success; the mage in question, Argat-the-Willing, brought back the Ankle of Errœba, a gift from the realm of Ga-na-pur.7
Once the Mages presented their findings to the League of Yoren, work on this field, now called Transrealmology, was transferred to them. Much bickering between the states ensued, mostly about what the Transrealmology research would be used for; an assassination attempt on the Orc King Estak of Wend-Koraka would bring the fighting to an end, and it was agreed upon that Transrealmology would be put into the hands of the Karan elves.
The Karans, a noble people, would spend half a revolution finding some way to better the Realm of Yoren with this new knowledge. Eventually, they stumbled upon an unspoken problem plaguing Western Yoren: underpopulation. This area of the Realm had made hundreds of millions of yigs, leading to the politicians building enough infrastructure to support tens of millions of people and enough goods to satiate their needs to make the area seem lively. However, only around 300,000 people lived within the West. Building maintenance was done by a handful of people, roads were ignored in favor of keeping the skyscrapers up, food was expiring due to people not consuming it fast enough, and many more ailments plaguing West Yoren.
So came the bartering with the League. It took bringing up the expired foodstuffs for them to even ask how they were going to use Transrealmology to fix their underpopulation. The Karans explained their plan to bring people from other realms to West Yoren to hopefully populate it enough that the food would be eaten within time. The League green-lit their request, and the Global Magic Division agreed to help the Karans in their endeavor. What followed would be the First Welcoming.
The Karans chose the "Middle-Realm", or Earth, to import their dead from. Since their most advanced intelligent lifeform, Earth-Humans, were similar to our majority species, Yormans, in almost every way, putting aside their dress code, they made a great first candidate for what would come to be the First Welcoming. The Mages would import a maximum of fifty-hundred Earth-Humans for the first revolution, and to slow the import rate of Earth-Humans, only those killed by vehicular manslaughter would be transported to West Yoren. They imported the first Earth-Humans on the Fourteenth of Gane, 225R.
From Fillik-the-Observant's critically acclaimed novel Studies of Beyond, "Earth-Humans are, by nature, curious and fast-learning. It took them relatively little time to reach true modernity from the founding of their first cities; this is further amplified when you consider their inability to master the Magical Arts. Every projection we made of their advancements from one field of evolution to another was vastly undershot, as we were usually four-hundred Earth-revolutions late. Given this, when placed into a new and confusing environment, such as West Yoren, Earth-Humans were quick to adapt to our customs, albeit stubborn about their choice of garments."8
By 226R, half of the Earth-Human population had at least learned magic, martial arts, and combat etiquette, making them skilled fighters. However, they mostly fought for themselves, usually in groups consisting of Earth-Humans and, occasionally, Yoren-born expeditionists. These groups, or as they're commonly known, guilds, would seek to "work their way up the food chain, claiming to help save the people of Yoren by defeating what they called 'bosses,' but only wanted to make themselves look like heroes for the benefit of having their way in the markets."9
The Earth-Humans caused a bout of problems. Many were the subject of the 95 Faults of Earth-Humanity, with their worst deed being their nigh-unirealmist involvement in the slave industry. The cat-people of Felimon were traded to the Dark-Market to keep as slaves for a variety of uses, the most common being farming. The cat-people were kept under brutal living conditions, and most worked from purchase until death. Until 226R, farming was virtually their only purpose; however, the Earth-Human guilds began to purchase them as a cheap companion. By 227R, 80% of cat-people purchased by the Dark-Market were trained in Combative Magic to sell better with guilds, leading to a boom in the slave business.
The mistreatment10 of these slaves was hidden by guild members until the Slave Revolt of 229R, when the slave trade was ended by force from League navies, emancipating the Felimon cat-people and bringing swift justice to almost all Earth-Human guilds. By 230R, all remaining Earth-Humans had gone into hiding.
Transreamology was since abandoned, the League of Yoren outlawed astral projection, and West Yoren decided to simply tear down their excess infrastructure and donate their extra food to underdeveloped states to combat Realm hunger. It wouldn't be until 252R when Transrealmology would be brought up again.
It would be the worst decision in Yoren history.