The Martial Unity

“It is especially strange because the continuity of evidence is preserved from that eleven-hundred years ago to the modern era,” she continued. “For example…”

She waved her hand, causing a variety of images to appear on screen.

They were images of old ruins, structures, pits, as well images of tools, weapons, and other primitive instruments fashioned from stone, bone, and plant fibers.

“There is large swath of evidence on what the continent was like roughly one thousand one hundred years ago,” she remarked, gesturing to the images. “We underwent the Neolithic Revolution, shifting from hunter-gatherers to agriculture. From then on, a myriad of evidence along a smooth timeline demonstrate the increasing sophistication of our infrastructure and our tools as we began learning the power of esoteric substances that fueled our growth exponentially, allowing us to accelerate what would have otherwise been a much slower progress of development.”

Several more images displaying the rapid evolution of human civilization accelerated by esoteric substances, reducing the barrier of entry for great feats with the magical power within their substance.

Homes grew larger and more sophisticated as tools evolved from simple chiseled stones to more complex multi-component tools with several moving parts, some even deploying the power of esoteric substances to a lesser extent.

Civilization as was known in the modern era increasingly began taking shape as homes grew more organized and planned, more sophisticated civil and social structures began taking place around the world as technology rapidly developed by how much power human civilization rapidly gained thanks to the lower barrier of entry due to esoteric substances.

Eventually, about eight hundred and seventy nine years ago, the first Martial Artist was born.

The Martial.

Having gained immortality from the three Keepers of Immortality, she traversed the continent in many forms and lives, spreading the seed of Martial Art across human civilization.

And yet it was only a generation after she completed her spread of Martial Art across human civilization that Martial Revolution was born with the first Martial Apprentice successfully evolving his body, breaking free from oppressive institutions that used the power of esoteric technology to oppress them.

The Martial Revolution, of course, gave birth to the gallant Age of Martial Art that lasted almost close to six centuries in all its glory.

“As a civilization we have transitioned from hunter-gatherer, to agrarian, esoteric revolutions, to mercantilism, to Martialization, to industrialization, and then globalization until of course the Beast Incursion happened undid much of it,” she continued. “The point being that all this evidence connects smoothly and flows smoothly when looked at from a big picture. There may be uncertainties and some contradictions in the details, but when you zoom out, you have what I call the ‘law of continuity in history’ which alludes to the fact that a continuous flow of human civilization will create continuous evidence of their existence which historians like myself can piece together to get a continuous picture of the past. However…”

She waved her hand, returning to the very start of the pictoral representation of the timeline of known human history thirteen hundred years ago.

“This is where the Law of Continuity of History breaks,” her tone grew intense as her eyes sharpened. “There is no evidence of what happened past this particularly date in the past. There are no recordings. There are no documents. Even evidence in records to life and the ecosystem before this date is simply absent.”

The Ecologer nodded knowingly with her colleague. “I have tried to map the biosphere’s evolution into the past to the very origin of life, and stunningly, it is the thirteen hundred mark in human history that crushes all attempts to look past it.”

The Scrier nodded. “There is no human evidence of what happened thirteen hundreds years nor non-human nor even geological. It violates not just the Law of Continuity of History, but also numerous other well-established methods of looking into the past including geological and stratigraphical records that allow us to understand what the world was like thirteen hundreds years ago. The only one thing that we can tell was that…”

Her eyes sharpened.

“Whatever was of the past beyond thirteen-hundred years ago, the evidence seems to suggest that there were no esoteric substances”

The Esoterist fell into thought with curious intrigue.

Although he was far from a historian and had almost no interest in history, it was quite curious to know that there was time on the Panama Continent were there were no esoteric compounds or substances.

“I’m glad as hell I wasn’t born in that era whatever it was,” he chuckled. “Still, it’s quite fascinating. What do you think is the explanation? Why is there no evidence of any kind of what was of the past beyond one thousand three hundred years ago? How could the Panama Continent be devoid of esoteric substances just over a millennium ago?”

It was a question that many had in their mind, dipping a toe in their colleague’s field.

“…This is just a theory as I mentioned,” she heaved a deep breath. “I do not have the evidence to prove it. But I have arrived at this conclusion after slashing out all other more plausible possibilities, starting with the apocalypse hypothesis.”

She directed a sweeping gaze across of her fellow colleagues.

“There are historians out there who believe that this destruction in the Continuity of History was caused by a great natural calamity that almost destroyed all life on the planet,” she explained. “There are those who believe that a tremendous earthquake of unparalleled magnitude occurred. Or perhaps a volcano. Or perhaps floods caused by increasing temperatures. Regardless of the actual event, they believe that only a truly astronomical natural calamity of unfathomable proportions could possibly cause the Law of Continuity of History to falter. However…”

She shook her head.

“I do not subscribe to this theory.”

Her eyes grew hazy with thought.

“We have had even greater natural calamities in the Age of Martial Art than anything that nature could possibly have created. And yet, we don’t see the same kind of destruction of the Law of Continuity of History, the way that it has happened thirteen hundred years ago.”

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