Cilidia is a world built on a desire to move on. At least, that’s what is commonly held by historians today. As a boy, I was told Cilidia was a world built for a better tomorrow. I’ve heard it said those two ideas are one and the same.

I disagree.

Cilidia was once called “Earth”, though that’s been wiped from the public consciousness and only the most trusted of scholars are allowed to know even that truth. There are thousands of years of history which predate us, but the stories of our ancestors have long since been lost. That is thanks to “the One”.

The One, rather known to the world in her day as Sarah Oncel, was the first woman to hold my seat. She was the President of the World Bank, General of the One World Security Force, and the First Citizen of Cilidia, a civilization hewn from the ashes of all the Old Civilizations. She had ambition, drive, and vision. She had resources, smarts, and ability. She was born into an advantageous position, and it was all the perfect thing to make a woman like her. It was all a perfect storm of events that allowed her to hold perfect dominion over the world.

Thanks to the technological boon she’d inherited from the fallen civilizations she had built from death was no obstacle. That is how for five-hundred years the world marched to the drum of one woman. That is how history was erased along with religion, racial divides, and ethnic borders. One woman ruled the whole world until her mind had decayed to the point of madness and she was put to death by her own most trusted lieutenant, Gray.

Anyone alive today knows Gray. They don’t know him for the assassination though… They know him as an assassin. Gray is a relic which I should’ve left on ice. He’s killed many of my Elites, friends nad enemies alike. He disappeared for some time, but his recent reappearance has given me cause for concern. While I find religion as absurd as my deranged predecessor, I can’t help but feel the tugging in my mind that he is an omen of change. Perhaps though that is simply the edges of my mind beginning to fray?

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Indeed, I know the time is fast-approaching for a new Bank President. I know that I am getting to old and frail in spirit to keep this up. That is the point of my system, my society. Instead of blood and war, disputes are handled with finances and Briars. I’ll admit, it’s not an original idea, and it’s not been perfect. However, I have ruled over the longest uninterrupted period of peace ever. The One constantly had to put down rebellious states. I have only had to dispatch one minor settlement.

As the time draws near for a replacement to be found, I cannot help but look at the youth my vision has brought up. Many of them sicken me. A few surprise me. There is a handful though which impress me. In fact, one of them recently shook things up in New Haven. Whe word reached my ears, I had to know the truth of the matters, so I called up my senior Auditors and made up some story about being disappointed in the recent conduct of New Haven in order to get them to put together an account of things I could get my head around. Afterall, one man’s viewpoint hardly gives the whole picture.

I selected Auditor Merriam Price for her straight-forward and amoral nature. She does as I tell her to and has little interest in what others may think of how she carries things out. She never intentionally disrupt anything without a point, and will always be discrete. I like her. She would make a terrible Bank President though… SHe has little-to-no vision!

The candidate which interested me, Mervin Douglass, he is something different. I’ll admit he is a far cry from perfect, but perfect people aren’t the ones who you get to run things. Mainly because they don’t exist. Anyone who appears perfect, who seems to have everything together at all times, is a person you should mistrust. It means they are hiding things. Mervin hides very little, at least, when it comes to his character.

The boy smokes cigars, but only occasionally. He drinks like a fish, but with the stresses of his position I suppose it’s between that or pills. Personally, I think alcohol may be healthier, if only because the average person can wrap their head around the side-effects. He prefers the company of whores to dating, but I was told it’s because he finds most society women to be “dishonest whores after upgrades in money or status”. Apparently he finds the honest ladies of the evening more endearing. If a person had to lock down his flaws, I’m sure those would be the most damning. In most people, that would be it. Not him though. Not him…