For ages, I dreamed about blood. Of pulsing rivers, barely hidden inside a web of fragile veins. I dreamed of those envious sorcerers who dared to curse me, trembling in fear. Unable to run away. Frozen prey before the predator. I can taste their skin, flavored by spicy drops of glowing sweat. Textured by goosebumps. Their dilated pupils wait in anticipation for the bite to stab down and release the overflowing pressure. Until their galloping hearts calm down and their frozen minds drift away into the call of the silent darkness.

The lines between wakefulness and dream blur. Flowing colors bleed into each other, slowly fading into darkness when the dusk kills the day and the night rises again somewhere out there. But I´m stuck down here, unable to heed her call. I´m still trapped. I´m still forgotten. Left to rot between worm-eaten furniture under a carpet of dust. My mind wanders through streets I never visited, listens to the unfamiliar tune humming in the air, and runs free into the embrace of the dark forest, where the sun never shines. But my body never moves anymore. My flesh was cast into rigid and cold marble, smooth alabaster, covered in dry lichen and bird defecations. I´m only an old trophy. A statue of stone to represent the victory of the masses, the victory of the weak, the foolishness of the last of my kind. A statue whose meaning has been lost to the ages. A testament to how even old grievances are forgotten and lost to the erosion of time.

But I remember.

I even remember what came before. When I wasn´t alone. An older time when we were valued members of our tribes. We were the protectors of the living from the dangers of the wild, caretakers and providers. They let their blood flow willingly into our throats, eager to please us, eager to be with us. I remember hot bodies. Pulsing with life, so tender and sweet.

Then civilization advanced and we became superfluous.

The wilds were tamed. The great beasts were domesticated or erased from the face of the Earth. The dark forests fell to make space for the expansion of humanity.

Admiration and gratitude for our sacrifice turned into indifference and suspicion. Envy germinated in the hearts of the living, fertilized by their never-ending greed. One day it flourished, and we were cast out.

Our most loyal admirers were the first to betray us when we didn´t comply with their ever-growing and outrageous demands. They slayed most of us for the second time, for the final time. The weak became butchers. They went after us when we were most vulnerable, during the day, under the numbing rays of the harsh, unforgiving sun.

I watched all my peers fade into dust, to be lost and forgotten. We hunters of the Nipari became the hunted. The wandering blood priests of the Kitai wandered into the frozen wastes, never to be seen again. The lords of the Sumerians were all slain in their sleep.

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I alone survived for ages, hiding in the shadows, always running, hiding in the ever-shrinking forests. Never remaining in one place for too long. I lived like an animal, seeking nourishment in narrow alleys or on dark roads. Preying on the lost, the sheep, the bandits, the beggars, the forgotten.

Then, I was captured and shackled for the first time. Obese men loved to watch me starve. To watch me fight crazed with bloodlust in their arenas. They called me gladiator. They applauded my suffering viciousness in morbid fascination. But when the drained husks of my opponents faded into the sands. I was thrown bag into the cage. And there I withered away, the shriveled shadow of a proud lion.

One day, after having escaped three times, they grew bored of me, and I was cast into stone by those traitorous sorcerers.

I was a decoration on a pedestal for a long time. The night hunter, the fallen beast, proudly displayed. I witnessed the advancement and collapse of civilizations, the rise of new civilizations, more advancement, and the passing of generations. I stood there until nobody remembered what I stood for. Never able to close my eyes. Agonizing under the burning rays of the sun, unable to hide. Watching and dreaming. Awake and asleep at the same time.

One day, some leader, king, or rich merchant decided to renovate their palace. The decorations needed to meet modern standards. My face was judged to be too ugly, frozen in its grimace. I was just thrown into some dark corner in some cellar, along with a bunch of discarded furniture and some dolls.

I still lay in the same place they left me, dreaming to break my shell apart, to be reborn again a third time. I dream of stilling the gnawing hunger, laying waste to every greedy king, to every sniveling sorcerer, to all the vain witches who abandoned us. To let their blood flow free into the streets after satiating my thirst, food for the rats. To paint an intoxicating artwork of red swirls and slowly drying coppery flakes. An ephemeral and delicate painting, to be washed away by the unforgiving rain. I dream of going on the hunt again, of testing our mettle, of outsmarting great beasts together with all my lost companions.

But I know those are just impossible daydreams. Trying to help me cope with the agonizing boredom of my existence. I´m trapped in stone, lost and forgotten. A miserable soul trapped for eternity.

*Ding

Your civilization is about to collapse. The humans of Dirt have been found wanting, unable to survive anthropogenic-induced climate change. Unable to change direction on their own due to being lost in the production and consumption model promoted by their leaders to continue filling their own pockets at the expense of the future of the masses, while ignoring all the warnings of the few wise men who dwell on the planet.

The System Integrated Conscious Civilizations Alliance (SICCA) has decided that your planet Dirt has to be integrated into the System immediately to prevent the loss of millions of sapient beings. The System is fair. It judges you on your actions, not your connections or social standing. Only your own efforts will be rewarded. Rise or fall into obscurity.

You have been integrated into the System.

Scanning new User to evaluate starting attributes.

Bloodline detected.

Petrification curse detected.

Scan finished.

Starting attributes assigned.

Curse lifted.

Prepare to enter the tutorial*