Requiem of a Black Sun Volume I: The Ebony Shogunate

Prologue: The Awakening

Once, there was a dream, a dream that started everything. A dream that man could do anything, be anything, a dream that we could achieve that which was not meant to be achieved. We believed that we could surpass even God himself, that we were created for the sole purpose of overcoming our own creator, that we were more perfect than the hands that made us.

Such is the nature of man: a race to compete against one another and against the divine, a challenge to prove our worth as 'intelligent life'.

Man, however, is an inherently wicked creature; he is one to betray his fellow man for material wealth, to indulge in sanguine pleasures to repulsive levels, to kill his own kind for the sake of his own pride and motives, to be seduced by power. He is a clever and cunning animal that manipulates the environment around him to his own liking such that he can pursue his sinful desires uninhibited.

When communication between fellow humans was denied by practical barriers, man gifted himself with the art of language. When the load upon his back proved too heavy for his sloth-like nature, he fashioned the wheel. When the earth refused to yield him any more game, he sowed seeds and cultivated himself a source of sustenance. When his neighbors began to become troublesome, he crafted a sword and went to war.

In time, man advanced his plight to new heights, trampling his rivals in order to make himself the alpha amongst the pitiful omegas wallowing in the mud below. The spoken word became the telephone, the wheel became the automobile, the field became the slaughterhouse, the sword became the firearm.

Throughout history, man has defiled the image he was given at his creation in an attempt to best his master, committing heinous acts of violence and avarice to climb the stairs to a heaven just beyond his reach.

The year was now 2021 and man had already been to the Moon as well as other places among the stars. He had built vast networks of instant communication across the globe and amassed more knowledge than all of his ancestors combined in just a few years. He had built massive cities of glass and steel that tore the sky asunder with their looming pinnacles of economic progress. He had devised weapons of warfare with the power to annihilate entire nations with the press of a button. The world as we knew it was supposed to be a paradise thanks to the works of our forefathers and the prodigies of our own age who kept the onward march of innovation trudging on into the uncertain future.

The world, however, was far from perfect; just as man's inventions had evolved, so had his many evils. Power was the currency, wealth was the power, warfare was the new game of politicians, corruption was the machine that drove governments, drugs and alcohol and other contraband fueled the populace, consumerism was the affliction, violence was the cure, sex was the obsession, hatred was the new norm. We were far from perfect, sure, but, as long as we had all of these new toys to play with, the childish human society would have its thirst whetted.

Everybody before then had thought that the true enemies were things like disease and violent criminals, but we had since all but eradicated most of those 'petty' worries. The new enemy, unbeknownst to the bloodshot eyes of the ever-watching populace, was they themselves.

Inside, we all had an inner demon that told us to step upon our brothers and sisters amongst our species in order to rise to a ceiling that was growing higher every day. There was no such thing as winning anymore; there was only being the best, the greatest, the only one.

Humans wanted to be interconnected but also wanted to be alone as ever before so that they could pursue this dream of being the sole victor. Billionaires and dictators alike could buy their own island or even country to do so, but there was no defacto way to be the best when, in the outside world, there were people who plotted to penetrate their little scheme.