AT THIS MOMENT, SCORMETHEUS REALIZED SOMETHING CHILLING. THE "SIMULATION EXPERIMENT" HE'D INITIATED OUT OF CAUTION HAD BECOME A BARRIER TO REASON. WHAT WAS ONCE A SAFEGUARD HAD NOW SILENCED ANY VOICE OF DOUBT, EVEN HIS OWN.
"WE'LL JUST STOP WHEN THE TIME COMES," SOMEONE SAID, AND SCORMETHEUS WAS AT A LOSS FOR WORDS. HOW COULD HE ARGUE AGAINST THAT? COULD THEY REALLY STOP WHEN THE MOMENT ARRIVED? WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WHEN THE ELVES, NOW NUMBERING IN THE MILLIONS, EVEN TENS OF MILLIONS, NEEDED MORE LAND, MORE RESOURCES? WHO WOULD HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO HALT THEIR EXPANSION?
WHAT IF, ONE DAY, ELVES WHO HAD GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO CONSUMING TEN PORTIONS OF ENERGY DAILY WERE SUDDENLY TOLD THEY COULD ONLY HAVE TWO? WHO WOULD DARE ENFORCE SUCH A DECISION? ANY SAGE WHO ISSUED SUCH AN EDICT WOULD SURELY BE BRANDED A TYRANT AND QUICKLY OVERTHROWN.
AND THESE WERE JUST THE PROJECTIONS UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS, SCORMETHEUS THOUGHT. WHAT ABOUT DURING WARTIME? ENERGY CONSUMPTION WOULD SKYROCKET BEYOND IMAGINATION.
SCORMETHEUS'S ROOM, NOW CLUTTERED WITH DATA SHEETS AND CALCULATIONS, FELT LIKE A TOMB. HE SANK DEEPER INTO DESPAIR. HIS EFFORTS TO WARN OTHERS HAD BEEN IN VAIN. NO ONE WANTED TO LISTEN TO THE MADMAN RANTING ABOUT POTENTIAL CATASTROPHE. MEANWHILE, THE WORLD'S ELVEN TRIBES WERE FORGING AHEAD, CONSTRUCTING NEW ALCHEMY TOWERS, WEAVING INTRICATE SPATIAL FIELD BARRIERS, AND MANUFACTURING ALCHEMICAL GOODS FOR CIVILIAN AND MILITARY USE ALIKE. THIS GRAND PLAN WAS PROMISING TO ELEVATE THE ENTIRE ELVEN RACE, BRINGING PROSPERITY TO ALL CLASSES.
EVERYWHERE SCORMETHEUS LOOKED, PEOPLE WERE WAITING WITH EAGER ANTICIPATION. WORKERS, RESEARCHERS, VILLAGERS, SPELLCASTERS, ALCHEMISTS, AND GOLEM MAKERS, ALL OF THEM POISED FOR THE LAUNCH OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY. EVEN THE HEIR TO THE THRONE COULDN'T AFFORD TO DELAY IT FOR LONG.
FROM THE TEST RESULTS, THINGS SEEMED UNDER CONTROL. YES, THERE WERE RISKS, BUT THEY APPEARED MANAGEABLE, AND ANYONE WHO WORRIED TOO MUCH WAS SEEN AS OVERLY CAUTIOUS.
BUT SCORMETHEUS COULDN'T SHAKE THE THOUGHT: THE EARTH, THE INSIGNIFICANT PLANET BENEATH THEM, WAS PAYING THE PRICE. HE SPIRALED INTO ANXIETY AND FRENZY, TRYING TO PROVE HIS SUSPICIONS, BUT EVERY TEST ONLY LED HIM TO MORE ABSURD, YET INCREASINGLY PLAUSIBLE, CONCLUSIONS.
"A TIMETABLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD? THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT," HE MUTTERED TO HIMSELF.
YET, HIS MATHEMATICAL MODEL PAINTED A BLEAK PICTURE. POPULATION GROWTH, RISING ENERGY CONSUMPTION, IT ALL LED TO ONE INEVITABLE OUTCOME. UNLESS A MASSIVE REDUCTION IN POPULATION OCCURRED, EITHER THROUGH WAR OR OTHER MEANS, THE DEMAND FOR RESOURCES WOULD SOON OUTSTRIP THE SUPPLY. AND WHEN THAT DAY CAME, IT WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE TO MAINTAIN BALANCE WITHOUT RESORTING TO EXTERNAL PLUNDERING. EVEN A SAGE COULDN'T ORDER HIS OWN PEOPLE TO STARVE.
IT WAS AN AGE-OLD TRUTH: IT'S EASY TO TRANSITION FROM FRUGALITY TO EXTRAVAGANCE, BUT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GO BACK. A CIVILIZATION THAT GREW USED TO EXCESS WOULD SUFFER FROM THE DISEASES OF AFFLUENCE, AND BEFORE THEY REALIZED THE TRAP THEY HAD SET FOR THEMSELVES, IT WOULD BE TOO LATE. WHO AMONG THEM COULD WILLINGLY GIVE UP THE COMFORTS AND LUXURIES OF THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES?
SCORMETHEUS STARED AT THE NUMBERS, BUT ALL HE SAW WAS DESPAIR. IN A LAST-DITCH EFFORT, HE REACHED OUT TO HIS BROTHERS, TRYING TO MAKE THEM SEE THE LOOMING CATASTROPHE. YET ONLY ONE, JUST ONE, REJECTED HIM OUTRIGHT.
IT WASN'T THAT THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE DATA, HE REALIZED. THEY UNDERSTOOD THE RISKS PERFECTLY WELL. BUT THEY WERE BLINDED BY THE BEAUTY OF PROGRESS, BY THE DAZZLING IMAGES OF WHAT THEIR NEW TECHNOLOGY COULD ACHIEVE. THEY BELIEVED THAT EVEN IF THE WORST SHOULD HAPPEN, THEY COULD ALWAYS STOP IT, JUST AS THEY HAD IN THE SMALL TEST WORLDS BEFORE.
BUT SCORMETHEUS KNEW BETTER. HIS WARNINGS WENT UNHEARD, HIS PLEAS DISMISSED. IN DESPERATION, HE SOUGHT OUT HIS FATHER, THE SAGE, A FIGURE REVERED ALMOST AS A GOD. THEY QUARRELED BITTERLY. WORDS WERE EXCHANGED THAT COULD NEVER BE TAKEN BACK.
AFTER THAT DAY, IT WAS SAID THAT SCORMETHEUS HAD GONE MAD, LOST TO DESPAIR AND DECAY. BUT IN HIS HEART, SCORMETHEUS BELIEVED SOMETHING ELSE. HE BELIEVED HE HAD FOUND HOPE.
***
THE SNOW-WHITE WINGS SLICED EFFORTLESSLY THROUGH THE CLEAR BLUE SKY, CASTING A GENTLE SHADOW OVER THE GREEN EXPANSES BELOW. THE HUM OF LIFE ON THE GROUND, CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER, THE RUSTLING OF LEAVES, THE DISTANT LOWING OF CATTLE, PAINTED A PICTURE OF THE VIBRANT, THRIVING WORLD BENEATH SCORMETHEUS'S FLIGHT. THIS WAS THE LAND OF THE ELVES, A PLACE WHERE MAGIC AND NATURE INTERTWINED IN A DELICATE DANCE, BUT FEW UNDERSTOOD JUST HOW PRECARIOUS THAT BALANCE HAD BECOME.
SCORMETHEUS SOARED HIGH ABOVE THE LANDS, HIS SHARP EYES SCANNING THE HORIZON, THOUGH HIS MIND WAS FAR FROM THE PRESENT. UNBEKNOWNST TO MANY, SCORMETHEUS WAS NOT JUST ANY ELF; HE WAS A SUPER DRUID, A MASTER OF NATURE'S DEEPEST MYSTERIES, AND A KEEPER OF SECRETS FEW COULD COMPREHEND. IN ONE FATEFUL ADVENTURE, HE HAD DISCOVERED THE LOST ART OF SOUL TRANSFORMATION, A KNOWLEDGE AS ANCIENT AS THE EARTH ITSELF, NOW DEEPLY ENTWINED WITH HIS OWN BEING.
"HAVE WE ALREADY ENTERED THE FOURTH PHASE?" SCORMETHEUS MUSED TO HIMSELF, HIS VOICE BARELY AUDIBLE OVER THE WIND. "ONLY TWO MORE PHASES REMAIN. AT THIS RATE, THIRTY YEARS IS AN OPTIMISTIC GUESS. THE LAST PHASE MIGHT COME IN TEN, MAYBE LESS." HE GLANCED DOWNWARD, THE PROSPERITY OF THE ELF LANDS SEEMING ALMOST CRUEL IN CONTRAST TO THE FATE HE KNEW WAS LURKING JUST BEYOND SIGHT. "THE WORLD'S ECOLOGICAL CHAIN IS ALREADY BUCKLING UNDER THE WEIGHT."
AS THE FIRSTBORN OF THE SAGE, SCORMETHEUS HAD BEEN GROOMED FROM AN EARLY AGE TO CARRY WISDOM FAR BEYOND HIS YEARS. HIS EXPERIENCES WERE RICH AND VARIED, MORE COMPLEX THAN ANYONE COULD EVER KNOW. HE HAD STUDIED UNDER THE TOWERING SHAMANS OF THE GIANT CLANS, AND FROM THE ENIGMATIC CHILDREN OF THE FOREST, HE LEARNED THE ANCIENT DOCTRINES OF NATURAL BALANCE. FOR DECADES, HE HAD IMMERSED HIMSELF IN THE STUDY OF PRIMITIVE SHAMANIC RITES AND THE DELICATE ECOSYSTEMS THEY PRESERVED. COMBINING THAT KNOWLEDGE WITH THE ELVES' ADVANCED UNDERSTANDING OF NATURE, SCORMETHEUS'S GRASP OF ECOLOGY AND THE FOOD CHAIN WAS UNPARALLELED.
WHILE OTHERS MARVELED AT THE WONDERS THE WORLD CONTINUED TO OFFER, SCORMETHEUS SAW THE CRACKS FORMING BENEATH THE SURFACE. THE WARNING SIGNS WERE ALL TOO CLEAR TO HIM.
"THE VEGETATION IS HALF AS THICK AS IT WAS A WEEK AGO," HE MUTTERED GRIMLY. "IT'LL BE BARREN IN LESS THAN A MONTH. AFTER THAT, LIVESTOCK WILL STARVE, AND SOON THE CITIES WILL RUN OUT OF MEAT. AND LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT THE WINTER BEAST TIDE. ONCE THE WILD BEASTS LOSE THEIR PREY, THEY'LL SWARM THE CITIES." HIS BROW FURROWED IN THOUGHT. "A WORLD DOESN'T DIE BY WAR OR FLAME, IT DIES WHEN NOTHING GROWS."
LIFE'S ENERGY COMES FROM THE SUN, BUT PLANTS ARE THE CRITICAL LINK IN CONVERTING THAT ENERGY INTO NOURISHMENT FOR THE REST OF THE FOOD CHAIN. WITHOUT THEM, EVERYTHING COLLAPSES. SCORMETHEUS'S COMPANION, BASTIAN, FEARED THE SOUL-SAPPING POWERS OF THE "SOUL-RECEIVING TREE" AND THE DEVASTATION CAUSED BY THE SPREAD OF SOLESIA. BUT SCORMETHEUS'S GREATEST FEAR WAS MORE INSIDIOUS: THE QUIET, UNNOTICED DEATH OF THE SMALL GRASSES THAT SUSTAINED LIFE.
THE WORLD'S VEINS WERE RUNNING DRY, AND THE CHAOS OF REINCARNATION WAS WREAKING HAVOC ON SOULS. BUT THESE SOUL STORMS, AS DEVASTATING AS THEY WERE, WERE ONLY PART OF THE EQUATION. THE TRUE CATASTROPHE WAS UNFOLDING IN THE NATURAL WORLD. FRAGILE SOULS WERE THE FIRST TO BE SWEPT AWAY BY THE SOUL STORMS, LIKE LEAVES CAUGHT IN A GALE. AND THE PLANTS, WHICH EVEN DRUIDS AND SHAMANS HAD ONCE THOUGHT SOULLESS, WERE PROVING OTHERWISE. VAST FIELDS OF GRASS, TOWERING FORESTS, AND ONCE-THRIVING SHRUBS HAD WITHERED, LEAVING BEHIND ONLY DESOLATE WASTELANDS.
THE WAR HAD ONLY BEEN RAGING FOR HALF A YEAR, YET THE APOCALYPTIC DISASTER SCORMETHEUS HAD FEARED FOR DECADES WAS PROGRESSING FAR FASTER THAN EXPECTED. IN HIS STUDIES, HE HAD MAPPED THE STAGES OF ECOLOGICAL COLLAPSE, THERE WERE SIX IN TOTAL. TWENTY YEARS HAD PASSED SINCE THE FIRST SIGNS, AND NOW THE WORLD WAS ENTERING THE FOURTH PHASE. IN SCORMETHEUS'S GRIM CALCULUS, ONCE THE SIXTH PHASE WAS REACHED, THE FOOD CHAIN WOULD BE ENTIRELY SEVERED. AT THAT POINT, THERE WOULD BE NO TURNING BACK.
"I ONLY HOPE MY FATHER DIDN'T BURN THE PLANS I DEVISED BACK THEN," SCORMETHEUS MUTTERED AS HE BANKED LEFT, HIS WINGS CATCHING A NEW CURRENT OF AIR. "IF WE CAN IMPLEMENT THE TECHNIQUES I OUTLINED, WE MIGHT JUST BUY A FEW MORE YEARS. MAYBE EVEN REACH A NEW BALANCE."