As it is today, humanity has three paths toward evolution, and each one comes with its own shortcomings. The Cyborg path risked the loss one's self with each body part that gets replaced by cold metal, while the Genome path is built on altering one's genetics and thus has the highest mortality rate.
Despite the dangers they pose, humans have always found themselves choosing between those two paths. That's because the third one, and by far the safest, had a far worse restriction.
The path of Sorcery was closed to most of humanity. The only way to walk it was to be born with the ability to sense and manipulate mana, and with very few meeting those conditions, Sorcery has remained a power passed down through bloodlines, never falling into the hands of those who weren't blessed at birth.
Of course, there were many attempts to overcome the restriction and allow mundane humans to wield the power. No one has ever succeeded in breaking those chains, but that was finally changing.
