Earth… was often kind of awful, if one is a student of history on a galactic level.  Humans had a very long, irritating habit of doing the most unexpected and most difficult to handle things.  For example, once upon a time, a full-sized Grand War Fleet had been sent by The Horde to invade the planet of thirty billion.   It was nearly a full five thousand years behind the development of the Horde.  The result was that through a combination of earth’s Psi Comp and the various talented individuals used to thinking non-laterally, not only was the The Horde, a force once believed to be an unstoppable juggernaut, halted, but they were then turned back.

Most people on a galactic level REALLY hated The Horde.  Most civilized races still tended to exterminate its ‘Components’ as it called its people wherever they were found.  A single hordeling could eventually become an active invasion, which usually led to all life on the planet being wiped out.  Feelings about humans were almost as dubious.  They didn’t tend to exterminate people, sure… But they had a pretty large population for a spacefaring race, and their defeat of The Horde gifted them with the ability for easy interstellar travel and advanced gene manipulation far ahead of the time they would’ve natural developed it.  With their newfound technology, they spread to the stars.

And they immediately started to immigrate.  Everywhere.  With a home planet low on resources and too cramped for even a third of their population to be comfortably situated, they spread to every available planet, populated or otherwise.  And so curious!  Many races greeted that curiosity with the same sort of distant fondness one offers to a precious child.  Then the criminal elements began to rise up.  Fast learners, but without the years of trial and error and sacrifice many other members of the galactic community, it meant they rarely had the emotional maturity or community spirit even some of the most cantankerous peoples possessed.

Con games, bribery, extortion, outright violence and murder… The initial lack of familiarity with modern technology and techniques meant such attempts were initially easily foiled.  Humanity, however, was ever so clever at getting around impediments and limits on its progress.  Those criminal elements worked hard to get around security and the relevant authorities.  In time, anti-human sentiment reached a fever-pitch nearly as great as that which drove the urge to exterminate The Horde.

A war erupted.  There were of course plenty of kind human elements, ones eager to integrate into galactic society.  Somehow, that only made things worse, as other jealous of their rapid advancement fought back.  Bit by bit, they were pushed back towards their home planet, dying in ever greater numbers.  Billions and billions of humans, fighting across the galaxy.  What happened then is, in retrospect, surprising to almost no one.  The Horde chose that moment to invade, spearing deep into the heart of occupied space.

Hostilities with the humans were put on hold, and the leaders of the human race rallied their remaining forces to throw themselves against The Horde.  They had managed to push the invaders back once long ago.  In that respect, things had not changed.  They fought, and many died, and in the end, the Humans pushed The Horde to the outer rim of the Galaxy.  In the end though, the succession of wars and the diaspora that followed ensure that humans had died, made extinct.  Which brings us to the current predicament.

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In gratitude, the people sought to make a monument to human kind.  Restoring humankind was against their laws… Going back in time to procure specimens that would be unmissed, though?  Well within their laws.  A science vessel procured an older member of the pre-human ancestors, one bound to expire soon anyway.  It was brought on board the vessel.  The goal was simple study, of course.  Then again, they couldn’t have reckoned on two separate disasters occurring.  The first was completely impossible to predict: The specimen, Kain, was, though elderly and dying, a primitive shaman of its people.  It had called out to the spirits to save it.

The second was dumb luck.  Grex, a rather lazy green Sylenxi scientist, who is likely to be fired in short order, had slept through the class on operation of the cargo controls continued his inattention by pressing ‘Launch Cargo’ instead of ‘Cargo Stasis’ on the viewscreen without paying much attention.  This had the unintended effect of dropping the cargo-pod carrying the sickly specimen towards the planet below in a surprisingly safe supra-orbital automated cargo pod.

Why does all this matter?  Well, a spirit answered the caveman, Kain.  And as each age is filled with spirits that represent the values of its people…  It was a spirit of ‘Progress’ that answered Kain.  And so, the near-extinct hominid when it landed upon the planet was greeted by several things: local medical staff, a terrifying mixture of confusing sounds and smells, and a bunch of really weird looking blue boxes.

*Congratulations, you have gained skill Embattled Soul!*

*Congratulations, you have gained the skills Pitiful Sight, Pitiful Hearing, Pitiful Taste, Pitiful Smell, and Pitiful Touch!*

*Congratulations, you have gained the skill Balance (Wobbly)!*

*You have the status effects: Elderly, Starving, Dehydrated, Malnourished, and Dying!*