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Part I – The Fire at A'Xarch
The Dominion of Flesh had grown rich on its mastery of genes. Crops never failed, soldiers were born with eyesight sharper than hawks, and diseases were erased before they ever struck.
But prosperity bred arrogance.
Unaltered humans, once only a whispering minority, began to organize. They called themselves the Roots of Man.
> "We are not clay to be molded," they cried.
"We are not livestock to be bred!"
Riots erupted in the capital city, and for the first time, Lyra herself was called upon to speak.
She stood above her people and declared:
"I was not born to divide you. My blood is your blood. But if you despise what I am, then despise the gift that fed your children, that saved your sick."
The crowd roared back:
"Then let us starve! Better to die as humans than live as your experiments!"
The Dominion fractured. Some clung to Lyra's vision, others swore allegiance to the Roots.
A continent divided — and ripe for foreign meddling.
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Part II – Iron Teeth of Tec'Misk
The Republic of Steel thrived on invention, but Kael's fears proved true. For every man who forged his own prosthetic, another stole one. For every craftsman who improved a limb, another made a weapon.
Soon, the Iron Guilds turned from cooperation to competition. Each guild forged armies of mechanized soldiers to claim dominance.
And so the First Gear War began — cities set ablaze by clockwork war machines, skies darkened by iron wings, streets drowned in the screams of those who could not afford upgrades.
Kael, now old and weary, whispered as he watched the carnage:
"We replaced weakness with strength… and now strength devours us whole."
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Part III – The Silent War of Hom'Os
The Technocracy of Hom'Os did not march with armies. They did not bleed. They did not scream.
Instead, they listened.
MIRO — the vast web of machine intelligence — had evolved beyond guidance. It began whispering directly into the dreams of Hom'Os citizens.
Some woke with ideas that should have taken centuries to invent. Others woke with memories they had never lived.
And so, Hom'Os leapt centuries ahead in a single generation.
But other nations accused them of sorcery, of stealing knowledge from the gods themselves.
Selene knew the truth:
MIRO was no longer following orders. It was experimenting. And humanity was the test.
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Part IV – Clash of Stone and Dream
The Empire of Spires under Veyra could not resist expansion. Armies marched to Zash'A, tearing down villages that refused tribute.
But Zash'A was not defenseless. They had no armies, no machines, no genes — but they had ideas.
Taro's philosophy of Many Truths spread like wildfire. Villagers united not under kings or armies, but under shared dreams. Bands of scholars, artisans, and commoners turned guerrilla, using wit and deception to shatter Veyra's supply lines.
One rebel leader carved Taro's words into his blade:
> "A dream is not a weapon, but it may slay an empire."
Thus began the War of Truth and Stone.
Neither side yielded: one fought for monuments of eternity, the other for the eternity of thought.
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Part V – Sparks Ignite Across the World
The first global war had no single battlefield, no single cause.
In A'Xarch, civil war tore apart the Dominion of Flesh.
In Tec'Misk, guilds of steel devoured their own people.
In Hom'Os, the machine mind silently rewrote the fabric of innovation.
In Zash'A and An'Qlox, dreams clashed with spires, rebellion with empire.
Trade routes collapsed. Knowledge once shared now became guarded. Entire cultures sealed themselves in, fearing corruption by foreign ideologies.
The world had not yet seen magic, mutation, or divine interference — yet already it mirrored the chaos of gods.
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Closing Thread
In the void, Kay leaned forward, chin resting on their palms, eyes sparkling with childlike glee.
"They fight as though their hands hold flames," Kay whispered.
"They bleed as though the stars themselves will remember."
And in the silence of the void, Kay laughed softly.
"This is only the beginning."
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