The Shadow of Time

The Shadow that resides within each Esper has the unfortunate tendency to prioritize short-term benefits for its host.

When an Esper reacts unconsciously, their Shadow takes over and acts in their place.

Instead of thinking about the long term, which is difficult and requires time, effort, and concentration, their Shadow prefers the lure of an instant gain, easy to obtain and seemingly useful at first glance.

Rather than taking into account the possible consequences of their actions, the Shadow makes the Espers say, “We’ll see what happens.”

An attitude that sometimes works, when the problems to be solved are not complex.

But since the discovery of magic, the population of the Espers had grown phenomenally, without considering the consequences this might cause.

No one had imagined that allowing their Shadows to guide them could bring their civilization to the brink of a global catastrophe.

Little by little, this took the form of major environmental problems across the planet, making harvests increasingly difficult despite the use of magic, for an ever-growing population.

The use of magic itself, despite its destructive effects on Aether, the source of life of the planet, now well known to them, had nevertheless become indispensable to the functioning of their society…

Conflicts intensified everywhere, regardless of the region.

The most basic needs were becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy, and in a world where inequalities were growing ever greater between those who profited from magic and everyone else, the beginnings of a planetary war had taken shape.

“The Chaos War”.

Want to share?


Comments

Leave a Reply


Our latest tales

  • Failures

    Failures

    There is a certain irony in how the human brain works: for us to learn and grow, we also need to fail personally. Babies do it naturally when trying to grab objects, sit up, or learn how to walk: they try, fail, try again, fail again… When this was understood by the Espers on Esperia,…

    Read more

  • Climbing

    Climbing

    Cha Cha liked studying human civilization and the various inventions humans had created—especially sports. One of them in particular captured his attention: climbing. He saw in it a philosophy of life: “You get to battle with yourself. You fail a lot, but try again a lot, and eventually succeed—or not. Sometimes what you lack is…

    Read more

  • Your Doors

    Your Doors

    We can be taught many things. But others can only bring us to the doors—we must open them with our own hands. Opening those doors will be up to you. And you alone. Some doors are harder to open. Others you won’t even know exist—until you meet new people or live new experiences. Some doors…

    Read more

  • Empathy

    Empathy

    What truly defines us as humans? What sets us apart from other species? Not our physical strength, nor our intelligence. It is our social abilities—our capacity to form groups of many individuals—that have led the human species to eventually dominate the Earth. Empathy is our ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It…

    Read more

  • Language

    Language

    One of the most underrated “skills” to learn is language. For those lucky enough to have had access to education, the use of language in all its forms—be it speaking, reading, or writing—may seem obvious and trivial. But it isn’t trivial at all. Mastering a language is one of the key skills to develop. Why?…

    Read more

  • Natural Resources

    Natural Resources

    In just a few hundred years, the shape of the Earth has drastically changed—mostly due to the use of fossil fuels that created the “world of abundance” we live in today. While this allowed some countries to thrive on this new “black gold,” when we realize that this resource is, first, not infinite, and second,…

    Read more

  • Habits

    Habits

    While the details of how our brain functions are still a mystery, we now understand that, of the multitude of choices we make daily, most are made unconsciously, based on our own habits. We could truly say that human beings are creatures of habit! Making better choices in our daily lives means building better habits…

    Read more

  • The “Modern World”

    The “Modern World”

    “As long as humans don’t realize their own nature, new technologies won’t solve any real issues.” In the last two centuries, the modern world has given rise to modern civilization: globalization, overconsumption, a world that seems boundless and infinite—a reflection of the most powerful country in the world. But when we understand that the resources…

    Read more