Rise & Fall of the Umbran Society

Studies from the dawn of time have fallen out of favour recently; our leaders do not support looking back in favour of only ever striving forward. I personally do not agree that our history should be lost to the ages, My name is Archivist Freeman, and I have devoted my life moving from town to town uncovering the histories of the Umbrian Civilisation. 

The black dark stone surface of our world is mostly barren, We are the only form of life, as unlikely as it seems to all of us, although our own survival is a miracle by modern standards, we eat proteins scraped from the surface of the world and we have no idea how our primitive ancestors were able to identify what was needed to live. As I approach the great library of Cas' si I feel a great burden lift from my shoulders, My life's work has lead me here, All of the rumours point to the huge dark layered structure before me.

I am greeted at the door by the Head Librarian. She looks at me, eyes downcast and shakes her head solemnly.

"Another Scholar to be lead to madness, Another wasted life".

Her gentle, sympathetic tone sets me back slightly as I extend my hand to greet her. "Oh, I do think you're looking at one of the more sane scholars on Umbria" I offer her as a solid counterpoint. She simply shakes her head again and gestures me into a side chamber. 

"These are the earliest accounts from the first of our people; These are what you seek although you will not like what you find" 

I follow her to a large series of black chip tablets; the writings are crude and certainly look ancient. However, they are all transcribed in modern Umbrian; I was assuming I would need a translator for an ancient language. I query the Librarian on this strange observation.

"That's not Modern Umbrian; They call it English, You see when the first of us arrived, They already had language and full comprehension of basic sciences, They simply lacked the modern tools we now take for granted"

I take a moment, scanning through the tablets. Sure enough, there are differences in the words; however, there is no sign that any of black chips were written by a primitive mind. I fall back into a chair, processing the information, confused. "This creates so many more questions, Did they come from behind the barrier? Did they have a way to cross the great plains?". She looks back at me, a dark expression on her face.

"No, They were placed here, thousands of years ago, They never knew why they were chosen. They were the ones who done the majority of the research on the barrier. It was the first of us that learned leaving the umbran flats caused us to almost freeze in time. You can still see a couple of them from the barrier, most of them slid out of view over the centuries, never ageing and moving in perceptibly slow."

I reach for a readily available decanter of whisky as the new information is offered to me, Time Barriers and Ancient knowledge, it was all too much. "Why is this secret? Why haven't we told the world?" my mind raced for answers to my own question, Would it cause panic to know they were living next to a time bubble? Would people start venturing out there looking to live longer?.

"We do not share what we know, For we know too much. We encourage our people to enjoy their time and not think about the bigger picture; There is no solace in this truth"

I find myself staring a map of Umbria, sprawled out across one of the walls, detailing every town city and village in the known world. "What truth would cause such distress". The Librarian steps up beside me; her tone is dark now, almost angry

"Because we are nothing, The first ones were aware while it was happening, Some of them claim to of been taunted over their fates by a great Titan they call "Cassi".

She walked up to map and rotated the map, dropping down a cover showing four other similar maps. She takes an older black chip slate from the hole in the wall and hands it to me.

"We are one of five umbran worlds, although we believe there may actually be 10, Based on the accounts of the first umbrians, we are nothing but ingredients in enchanted nail polish, crafted by the Titan Cassi for her Goddess to wear."

"What…" was the only word I could find. This had to be wrong; there was just no way my entire life had been as insignificant decoration on a woman's toe. I read through the tablet, a vivid telling of a story of gods and magic, a dark read for sure. The following hours brought me nothing but madness inducing truth as we learn about historical contact between the other Umbrian Flats, further proving the theories laid before me.

"There is nothing to be done, Live the best life you can. Based on the explorers outside the barrier, our best minds estimate we are living nearly 100 years to every hour passed outside, whoever owns the world on which we stand has only experienced maybe 27 hours."

Shocked back into thought as I realise the whisky I was drinking from the bottle is now empty, I turn to face the Librarian. "Ok, so this may ruin our society. People need to know though; They should know they nothing but a minor decoration, maybe we can find a way out!" I can feel the rising panic and fear in my tones as I sense the large men appear behind me. "What are you doing? You're not going to take me anywhere" I back into the wall as the large men advance on my and easily subdue me.

"You see, If people knew, they would rebel, If they rebel, they risk damaging the polished nail, If they do that, The Goddess above will remove our entire civilisation and repeat the process anew. Our best option is to preserve our world and make sure it serves its purpose, Who knows, We may be able to get another 5000 years of existence, maybe in that time we can find a way to leave, I am sorry, I cannot allow you to leave, In Fact I cannot allow you ever to speak another soul"

My vision swims as my consciousness fades, the world turning to darkness.

Charlotte lounged on her sofa, Idly inspecting her nails, watching the little blur of existence, feeling the presence of rapidly multiplying souls on each of her digits. This was power. She mused over them and spoke softly, knowing they couldn't hear her, but it still gave her a rush.

"I am going to wash you off tonight; You were lucky I let you have this long specks"