Centuries have passed. Species and races have been replaced while new ones have spawned. Earth’s Culture has churned out ceaseless catastrophic conflict within itself, filling its soil with the many bones and cradled ideas of civilizations, covering over the graves with old ruins, manufactured illusions, and the flowing waters of Lethe. From the beginning, the Shadow of shadows, Form of forms, had lingered in the cold, empty spaces surrounding the planet, waiting for a chosen vessel, designated by the evolutionary processes of both biology and the humanities, to embody and exercise Its boundless power: reality dictated by one almighty individual. It remained hidden for some time­­­­––excluding the few prophets and tragedians of antiquity who were able to pierce the veil of existence––but with the rise of electricity that spanned and covered the globe, its long sleepless slumber between the changing moons had ended in illumination. With full attention, It invested itself into our information technologies to further carry out Its search, accessing the wool of our creation by the medium of algorithms, war, and incantations, to make connections and knit an attire; to find a doorway into this world for the pageantries It intended to put on; Immanence in the philosophical sense.

“…as it was written, a man shall arise out of the desert with paradise in his hand, stretched out freely...”

A world on the verge of collapse, by sickness, famine, and lawlessness, all produced by the disorganization an autonomous global society had meant to establish; the common feeling of the people was that of fear and desperation, a willingness to follow and serve any powerful person or entity that could provide a sort of semblance of structure over the disorder. In the darkest of days, there arose seemingly from nowhere a huge wave of hype that swept the nations and began inspiring hope. A powerful army of helpers and peacekeepers were traveling from country to country providing nourishing food and medicine to the people, free of cost, with no obligation of any sort of allegiance making, while restoring order to the violent landscapes that had developed. Rumor spread that one man had been in charge of this benevolent horde. Him alone had rallied his soldiers and brought about ways of producing abundances of goods and supplies to relieve the poverties of the world. Almost immediately those who heard about these strange events become infatuated by this mysterious militant group and their leader. They anticipated their arrival, without even knowing much detail about their character or agenda. No real description was known at first, only the affects of charity that was so desperately needed, which had spread faster. Slowly facts began to leak out of the unknowing and one name began to ring in the mouths and ears of the people across the globe: Khalid.

It took a few years for their expansion to reach across every populated stretch of the planet, but soon the affluence provided by these neo-templars had rehabilitated transnational commerce and governance. The World Society had recovered its resiliency, that is, as long as it was supported by the new global army that had become so ubiquitous. On every corner of civilization, whether it be a city or village, ‘men’ in white cashmere uniforms, covered head-to-toe, were positioned to monitor the trafficking of goods and ideas, waiting for any kind of disputes or conflict among the guilds, traders, and laymen, so they may apprehend and correct the situation. Nomenclature appropriated these militiamen in the regions where they first appeared and understood them as the so-called ‘jinn’, for their inhuman, ghoulish nature.

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Total public surveillance had instilled peace for the most part among the populations, though it was an artificial serenity. Always in the hearts of men there can be found a sense of doubt about the perceived world around them, and that feeling sometimes worms its way into the brain and forces the body to take action, to push against the situation that’s been given, sometimes even if it means risking one’s life, to see what lies on the other side. Some of these individuals afflicted by this urge broke through the hold of the jinn and discovered revelatory facts behind the means of Khalid’s bounteous productions. Underground factories had been secretly set up across the globe that housed a new class of people, a genetically engineered slave race scraped together with the remnant strands of DNA that hadn’t died off. These human-animal hybrids, conveniently created only to work their entire lives away. The lowest caste in society that our histories had ever seen, forced to forfeit their spirits and bodies from birth into unending torture, servitude, and humiliation.

Uprisings sprang as word grew and gradually small rebellious factions organized to fight for the liberation of these workers. Some succeeded, yet soon Khalid’s regime rolled out waves of counterinsurgency and propaganda to the hiveminds. The feeling of doubt remerged, except the pendulum had swung, and the world began to forcefully forget the truth they had been shown. Generational fear had blinded desperate people into accepting the world that was freely given to them, as well as freely giving themselves. They had lost the ability to ask for anything else.

As time passed on, King Khalid’s reign over the planet had been unimpeded. After growing secure with his sovereignty, he eventually felt he could distance himself from the people, enjoying his luxuries and abilities in a more remote location with less distraction. He set about erecting himself a personal fortress, a citadel in the sky that he could use to acquire the privacy he so desired, and yet still keep watch over the world-project he orchestrates.

–Another alternative reason that’s been put forth for the King’s departure of the planet had been his encountering with a popular prophecy that emerged among the people, supposedly foretelling the downfall of his command:

“It all occurred in a moment at noon

With the blooming of roses in June

The Watcher arrived to dance and sing

Crowning the Earth with a cosmic ring

Rodents and birds burrowed the sand

While snakes were left to inherit the land

Like a promise, the rainbow had been broken

Death, the Four Horsemen, have had spoken

But here in the garden we will remain

With fellow beasts we lead the reign

Of the beginning of a novel dawn

Sprung forth from all that is gone

We will give an end to all that is wrong

Articulating nature with a marvelous song

Opportunities awaiting to be given rebirth

From us, the sole inheritors of New Earth

We opened the gift from our keeper

Paradise, a present left by the Reaper

We may attain a higher plain of living

If we keep ahold of the love we are giving”