📖Warfare One Origins

"You’ve been chosen to participate in a grand spectacle like no other..." - Overseer XI

Every so often, the little creatures mopping around on that little dirt ball ask themselves, “Are we alone in the universe? And if not, then where is everybody? Why won't they visit us?”

What a self-absorbed little species, thinking of themselves so highly that they must draw the interest of other civilizations. I suppose to their credit; they are partially correct. We, the Velziah, do find humans particularly interesting, but not for reasons they’d expect.

The universe was once a thriving forest of life before the time of Mankind. Trillions of species would grow, evolve, and die every minute. Only the best that the universe could foster would make it past the great filter, the number of which would only amount to less than a single percent of all civilizations. Even so, this still allowed for millions of spacefaring races to make their presence amongst the stars.

To humans, this may seem like the end dream: A universe brimming with intelligent life, where every galaxy hosts its own millions of individual civilizations capable of communicating with one another. Where could this ever go wrong?

Surprisingly enough, it's very difficult to regulate peace between millions of intergalactic societies, with each harboring its own struggles, desires, and beliefs. Inevitably, every galaxy would be embroiled in at least a single war.

If one cannot imagine the absolute devastation that could come from a conflict at this scale, then let it be best symbolized by this simple fact: it wasn’t that long ago that the Milky Way galaxy used to contain thrice as many worlds.

Order HAD to be established, or else the universe was destined to be consumed by cyclical chaos. Luckily, the universe had made us: the Velziah. We kept to ourselves, hiding our existence under a veil. We watched the wars from the sidelines, witnessing their ever-growing destruction. Knowing that our concealment wouldn’t last forever, we worked tirelessly for generations to secure a path to surviving that coming discovery.

This effort led us to powers beyond the scope of anything we previously knew possible. Knowledge and understanding of the universe were revealed to us like an open book, gifting us the ability to achieve our ultimate goal: control over space-time.

At first, our abilities were rudimentary and dangerous to ourselves. Yet, with its sparing use, we were able to dominate our galaxy in only a matter of months, completely ridding systems of other intelligent life. As our technology advanced unrestricted, we were able to accomplish this throughout the entire universe.

After the slate was clean, the cosmos was allowed a moment of peace and quiet. We knew it would only be a matter of time before the next iterations of advanced civilizations began manifesting like cysts. But with our vastly superior power and presence, we were able to achieve the once mythical order originally thought impossible.

However, to tell you the truth, life without conflict is a dull existence. Unfortunately, our minds are made for stimulation, which is something times of peace doesn't generally offer. While we don’t want the consequences of war, it still sits as an innate craving within our very being. That's where you humans come into play.

Enter the Warfare One: our controlled simulation to satisfy this primal urge. Contenders are chosen and abducted from their home world to fight within the ultimate arena of our making. Thanks to our omnipotent presence over all of time and space, we hold any species' history like an archive, taking contestants and weapons from any point within their timeline to be part of our competition.

That's what your planet is to us: you’re just the current pool of candidates to choose from. And with Warfare One becoming a new avenue for investment, now there won’t just be glory and pride attached to your name, but a price tag as well.

Now, you can sharpen your blades and ready your armaments as I’m sure you’re unhappy with this revelation. But unfortunately for you, your meager attempts at threats just make you more enticing to our investors. Realistically, you can’t possibly hope to escape the game, nor should you. Your existence is a living poison to the peace; it is only by our grace that you are given the courtesy of amusing us.

For all those who may still hold onto impossibilities, I’ll leave you with this: you grew and evolved in an age of unnatural tranquility. An age that was only possible after the universe tested us against all it had to offer, and we won.

We hold everything you are, everything you ever were, and everything you ever will be within the palm of our hands. We pluck you from your existence like one might pluck a flower to decorate their windowsill. There is no escaping when the very flow of time is caged along with you.