A Brief History of Mana
For those of you who like to know, this particular view of Mana history doesn't quite fit in with Charles Smith's Mana timeline. It was produced so I could wedge in the history closer to the e-game; mainly that the Mana War only took place 15 years before the e-game, and that Serin (the hero of my PBeM's time period) was the father of Aerik (the hero of SoM's time period). But you can do whatever you like; this is only my version, after all. 8-] People may also notice certain parallels between the two timelines. Well, there's only so far you can move away from the e-game...
A timeline talking about the future must begin with today. Earth is a world where the machine and industry rule. Greedy corporations exploit the planet for profit, and those who seek to live in harmony with nature are held in scorn.
At the turn of the third millennium, the global computer catastrophe known as "The Millennium Bug" fails to materialise. Except for a few glitches here and there - computers throwing out tins of corned beef from supermarkets, aeroplanes mysteriously crashing, 105-year-old men being sent primary school application forms - very little goes wrong. The age of the computer is still here.
Increasing focus on computer technology would continue as such
indefinitely, but another, more exciting science arrives to
attract our attention instead. It was nearly not
discovered at all, if it had not been for a fortuitious
accident...
In 2017, a scientist working in a tiny private research lab
develops a new kind of hyper-sensitive electro-encephalogram
(EEG), a device used for reading brain activity. His machine
works beyond all expectations, allowing him to pinpoint
brainwaves down to some ridiculous decimal point. He believes
that his device heralds a new era in psychological science.
His device heralds more than that, however. One day, when leaving
the lab to return to his lonely bedsit, he notices that the EEG
has been left switched on. Sighing, he goes to turn it off, when
he notices that the scanner appears to be picking up a strong
life reading, similar to the base-line he detected with all his
test subjects, but without many of the brain-wave variations. On
closer examination, he realises that the scanner isn't plugged
into anything - the EEG is picking up a life reading from thin
air!
Months of furious research produce some amazing findings; the
Earth appears to be filled with a powerful ambient life-energy,
previously indetectable without the sensitive equipment, but a
source of virtually limitless power. The scientific community
goes mad over this new energy source, designated
"Mana", trying to find ways to collect and utilise it.
The existence of Mana is kept a top-rated military-grade secret for three whole years, until one day a leak in one of the main Mana research labs means that the knowledge of its existence is revealed to the public for the first time. Unsurprisingly, the general populace falls into furious debate. Some, including many religious groups, say that use of Mana power for mechanical purposes is both ethically wrong (Mana is created from life, so we are stealing from life) and/or sacreligious (the groups that say Mana is a gift from [insert deity here] that we are misusing, or that Mana is being posted as an alternative to religion). Some advocate proper research into Mana before its use becomes widespread. Some are delighted with the prospect and take it as their own, trying to utilise Mana as much as possible.
It takes a whole year of solid research before the first practical method for drawing out Mana energy and using it in a fashion we are accustomed to is created. As with the early days of computing, the technology is not at its most advanced or efficient; it takes a building-sized machine to draw out enough Mana to run a 60-watt lightbulb for around 10 seconds. This, however, is a great leap forward, and soon Mana technology is greatly in vogue.
Seven years of solid research follow. Virtually all scientific research, commercial and governmental, in the Mana-using nations focus on Mana, all those who use Mana banding together and sharing their efforts to further a common goal. Their years of research produce the first commercial uses for Mana power. Most of it is, as might be expected, based upon recognisable technology from before the discovery of Mana. Items like Mana-powered lighting, tools, transportation and so forth become commonplace. Whilst those who advocate the use of Mana technology say that these advances will pave the way for a new era for mankind, the factions claiming that Mana is an evil become more and more set against it, some to the point of declaring Mana research completely illegal.
Then, a few years later, as Mana becomes more commonplace, the USA announces that from this year forward, all of its national power will be created by clean and safe Mana power stations. The Mana-free nations are outraged; this collossal misuse of Mana power on a continent-wide scale can only have severe consequences for the world and its ecology. Economic sanctions against the United States are soon stopped; the world's economy simply cannot do without the USA, as it is by now one of the main suppliers for computer components and software.
The scheme takes three years of construction work and billions of Gold Pieces, accepted as international currency some years ago, but the conversion of all the United States' power supplies to Mana technology is finally completed. However, the first side-effects of Mana overuse are observed; the power stations do not just collect Mana from the area but actively suck it out. As such, a lot of the local wildlife and plant growth around the Mana power stations begins to wither and die. Major outcry from the public is stifled by the government, which now looks upon it control of Mana power as a ticket to rule.
A massive constitutional rights rally marches upon the US capital, demanding the dismantling of the Mana power grid. The US army marches upon the protesters. Comparisons with Tiannemen are put well behind; the protesters' camp outside of the Washington city limits is napalmed into ashes, on the basis that the protesters threatened the elected government. The US populace is shocked into silence, whilst the rest of the world begins to meet in secret to discuss what they can do...
A few months pass. Noticing the almost-secret military movements that have begun, the USA wheel out the latest products of their Mana research - weaponry. They produce powerful war-machines similar to giant robots from old-science fiction movies, powered entirely by Mana and ready to produce by the legion. These armies of Manabots cause the Allied nations to scale back their planned military action against the increasingly dictatorial USA.
The world would have gone on like this, on the verge of a new
Cold War, if it were not for an important landmark in Mana
research: the day of the great discovery by Luka Desaynovic.
Luka, a young Russian scientist working in an independent
laboratory for usage of Mana in medicine, makes contact with a
mysterious entity calling itself "Undine". The
creature, bearing a strange resemblance to the mythical
"mermaid" claims to be the embodiment of Elemental
Water. Perplexed, Luka quizzes Undine on what she means. Her
findings completely change the face of Mana research.
It appears that the scientific approach to Mana was all wrong.
Mana was, in fact, more on a par with magic; ancient
civilisations, lost to us today, made use of Mana instead of
technology. Mana power became a weapon in an ancient magical
conflict, and a higher power or powers banished it from the
earth, leaving only one tribe of Mana-users left in existence to
tend Mana and make sure that such an event never happened again.
Luka also discovered the true nature of Mana; instead of being a
single power source, it was divided up into the eight supposedly
mythical elements - Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Darkness, Light,
Cosmos and Life. Undine was pleased at Luka's curiosity, having
not had a student for a good three thousand years. She offered to
teach Luka some of the magic of Water. Luka, ever eager to
experience new things, jumped at the chance.
Unfortunately, Undine was a bit out of practise at transferring
power to humans; Luka absorbed far too much of the Mana energy.
Her entire body was attuned to it; she became part of Mana
herself.
Despite this accident, which handily rendered Luka almost immortal, the questions Luka answered changed the face of how the world looked at Mana. As Luka contacted other Elementals, representing other elements, people started to see Mana as something not to be used in machines, but in people. A small, but ever-growing group begins to come to Luka, asking to be trained in the ways of Mana. Undine, having unpleasant memories of the last time humans used Mana, forces Luka to put her students through a series of rigorous tests if they wish to learn the magic; both theoretical tests, character tests, and physical aptitude tests. Those who passed became the first of a new type of lawmaker; the Mana Magi. These tests were soon taken up by all the schools of elemental magic that set themselves up all over the world, although each had a different focus than the others; the qualifications for passing as a Fire mage were different from passing as a Cosmos mage.
The Allied Nations, quickly realising the possibilities of Mana-wielding humans, but failing in any attempt to produce legions of Mana soldiers, give certain Mana-users, such as Luka's Mana Magi and the Knights of the White Sword, legal enforcement powers, especially in respect to Mana. (See entries on these groups in World Info for more details.) The Allies now finally have a weapon to counteract the threat of the US's Manabot armies. A tenuous stalemate is entered into.
The world continues on for another two centuries, without major war or hostility breaking out. Various socio-political boundaries change. America becomes an imperial dictatorship, run from Imperial City (formerly Washington DC) by the Emperor, a position elected by wresting it from the former title-holder and kept by being very sneaky indeed. Australia and many of the surrounding islands form the United States of Oceania, a new benchmark for peace and democracy along with the Republic of Tasnica, the world's first man-made country, constructed on a set of artificial islands out in the deep Pacific. Africa and the Middle East unite in the Free Africa States. Europe and Russia disintegrate into their own affairs, Russia to the point where the whole continent is back to a tribal village structure. Japan, formerly the industrial capital of the world, fails to embrace Mana technology and soon falls apart from the inside, its produce no longer needed in the new world.
But these changes are nothing when compared to the changes in the world's population make-up. Secret advances in Mana technology shortly before Luka's discovery led to another major science; the use of Mana in genetic engineering. Scientists first created the races we know today a long time ago. They bred the Moogle to be the perfect pet. They bred the Neko as an experiment in evolution. They bred the Matango, and later the Mushboom, as an experiment into the ultimate recyclable warrior (the Matango were the failure; the Mushbooms were less intelligent and more aggressive). They bred the Sprites in a lab accident, where the tissue sample was exposed to far too much Mana energy and created a being linked perfectly to the energies of Mana. They bred the Dwarves in an attempt to create a strong, hardy slave race. In secret scientific camps they bred these creatures like rats, perfecting them, building up the populations as they went.
What none of the scientists foresaw was that in these days of mistrust against the machine, their creations, as intelligent (some more so) than their human masters would be accorded with full human rights once their existence had been discovered. A group of Mana Magi stumbled upon the camps located out in the Siberian plains where nobody (theoretically) could find them (the Magi were hopelessly lost after being sold a duff road-map of the area). They freed all the slaves who took to life with a vengeance, spreading into areas of the world they could feel comfortable in. The Moogles, Matango and the Sprites stayed roughly in the area, the Sprites taking over the home of Sylphid, the Elemental of Wind. The Dwarves moved west into what had been Germany and took over a series of abandoned mines that they renamed "Gaia's Navel". The Nekos, being restless types, took up the lives of nomads.
There were... less successful experiments in these horror camps. The small but extremely vicious Chobins, Mushbooms, fuzzy but dangerous Rabites, the carnivorous flowers Lullabuds, the predatory Iffish, the mysterious but deadly Basilisk, the huge predatory Mantis Ant, the giant plant-entity Tropicallo, a supposed "improvement" on the jungle cat, the Spikey Tiger, and many other attempts to personify monsters of myth. It wouldn't have been so bad if the scientists hadn't created at least ten breeding pairs of each of their creations to allow them to observe the effects of their mating. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't all escaped...
So, despite being the technologically advanced Earth of the future, the world is full of nasty monsters, it constantly teeters on the brink of war, and Mana is a daily part of the life of every human on the planet. It can be a dangerous place to live in; these days, laws are a mystery outside of the big cities, enforced only by whatever militia or wandering heroes tend to pass through. Few people go around without knowing how to look after themselves, and if you can master a little magic (or carry a biiiig gun) then all the better. Still, if you're looking for adventure, this is the place for you. Who knows, it may be closer than you think. And found in the most unlikely places.
Are you coming?