Prologue

Outside Earth’s Terraplane October 23rd, 2025

The time had finally come. The one million different souls had been chosen. 

Three hundred thousand years of sapient life had led to one hundred seventeen billion humans coming and going, traversing their specific paths, intermingling, and growing constantly. Their growth separated them from the other billions of species that were placed or evolved on the planet. They learned from their successes and failures in equal measure. Each of them was different. They had different wants and needs. They had different loves and hates. They had different backgrounds and learning styles. They had different souls. Every individual had become uniquely themselves through both who they were at birth and their surroundings as they experienced life.

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The Aether had watched this group of humans for generations upon generations, watching them grow. They had an equal tendency to destroy each other while also creating previously unimaginable things without the magic that the rest of the cosmos utilized. So The Aether waited until the time was right for Earth’s integration into the Magiplane, where both monsters and magic were as essential as a cell phone and vehicle.

It was time to connect them to the magic of the universe, though. These one million souls were chosen as a group that could learn quickly or lead others in perilous times. They were needed to help direct the world that was coming to Earth.

This group would be taken to a preparation world where they would learn how to navigate the magic, skills, and abilities needed as mana permeated the entirety of their known civilization. Everything would be different. 

The Aether reached out to the one million chosen souls, pruning them one by one so that it could fundamentally change them in preparation for their role in the evolution of Earth. Each of the souls would have to experience death first for the transition to take place, becoming more than they ever dreamed was possible.