Belated Prologue: The Story of Samuel

Samuel is the third child of Rick and Evelyn Carnahan, and grew up in the dirt.

Not in the socioeconomic sense – his parents both did quite well for themselves in their endeavors – but as a child of “high-risk archeologists” (Tomb Raiders in less polite company) he found himself spending quite a lot of time in or under the ground. Though ever since his eldest brother got a little too involved in the ‘high-risk’ aspect as a child, his parents have been more cautious in raising the rest of their children so Samuel spent quite a lot of his impressionable years with his uncle – a fast-talking thief with a high opinion of himself (it says a lot about the family’s usual antics that he was considered the better option).

Growing up, he was homeschooled by his mother, and entertained on his uncle’s stories. Much of his childhood was spent dragged across the Wheel from one dungeon to the next, across a dozen crystal spheres. His parents chasing rumors of unexplored ruins while he spent much of his time at the dig camps, being endlessly entertained by his uncle and ‘uncles and aunties’ (various friends and acquaintances his parents have made over the years) and spending time in whatever passed for the nearest town at the feet of the local storytellers.

Growing up next to the ruins of civilizations long past - where knowledge of them lies on the border of history and myth - lends a perspective and urgency to Sigmar’s teachings hard to come by in more settled areas. Civilization seems robust, inevitable - but when one looks at history on the scale of millennia, many die as mere infants, killed almost as soon as they are born. Perhaps it is a coincidence most long-lived civilizations appear in those races with long lives, perhaps it is just that humans are particularly bad at it, perhaps its a feature rather than a bug and we haven’t quite figured out what it’s good for. That last one was probably reaching a bit far, and in such an actively hostile universe, rather than a merely uncaring one, death of civilization could mean near extinction for humans - reduced to fragment communities in enclaves like an endangered animal in zoos.

Growing up human meant growing up Sigmarism in his family - somewhat ironic considering the family occupation, but provided a stark perspective that few ever consider. There was some combination of emotions to be felt if one took a proper look back at human history - awe, humility, pride, fear, and underlying it all, a helpless rage. History was so large it made one feel small, the cycles of kingdoms and empires rising and falling and rising and falling. One would think after all this time we would have figured out how to keep one around by now, especially considering the possible consequences; the fall of the Roman Empire affected Europe but the vast majority of the population at the time existed in societies on different continents. Now, a small number of Crystal Spheres housed the vast majority of humans, and the universe has actively hostile powers against living, thinking beings. But why must it stay this way? Man is born knowing little but his most base instincts; it is only the teaching of the end product of millennia of knowledge, value changes, and ethics that raise him to be the preeminent conquerer of his world - the sum of generations of ancestors thinking ‘We can do better’ and passing it down so the next generation can be better, stronger, wiser. Its just that every so often something comes along and ruins it for everybody, and then they’re set back for some time while they build back up again.

Samuel’s philosophy was never an ‘eureka’ moment; it was the collection of musings and idle thoughts - an odd combination of connecting themes between stories whilst overlooking the silent graves of dead societies. It came from sparks of thought-stuff - an idle idea one afternoon that grew and grew the more he ruminated over it. It was terrifying. It was exhilarating. All Samuel could think of was that he needed to wanted to see this through - he had a philosophy and a goal, and was looking at using the former to achieve the latter, and the itch to start slowly grew all-consuming. He wrote a note, raided the family vault for some useful things and a little spending money, and promised to write home occasionally to prevent the inevitable ‘rescue’ attempts. Samuel was now out in the Great Wheel, and looking to shake some foundations.

Started believing in Sigmar, mostly from family inertia. Sees all the ruins of old civilizations, starts becomes disenchanted with Sigmar. Taught large amounts of history by parents occupation, sees the constant pattern of different societies rising, then most of them falling - either from internal conflict or being conquered by other societies. Starts thinking that Sigmar doesn’t care about any specific civilization, if one falls - he eventually beings being worshiped by the one that comes after. Most people don’t think about this because everybody assumes their society will continue to exist forever. More disenchanted by Sigmar - to be fair most of the disenchantment stems from the assumption that Sigmar cares about this civilization continuing and will take steps to protect it when instead it looks that Sigmar only cares about a civilization spreading but is ambivalent about any specific one. Furthermore, he sees the constant conquering and destruction of civilizations as wasteful - if one is conquered by another they remove any value that society might have created, if one falls from within then there is no guarantee another will come along again.

Samuel still believes in the values that Sigmar holds, but wants his society to keep existing, and thinks that there must be a better way than this. Human beings no longer live such short, brutish lives as their ancestors, why has the lifecycle of civilizations not changed since the Iron Age?