Certain complex life forms in the oceans start to move onto land permanently. Plants are first to make the move, then amphibious animals. Spiders have been working on their creepiness ever since.
History & Herstory of Athena Minerva
The World of Athena Minerva runs parallel to that of Planet Earth on the Prime Material Plane. One random(?) mutation 200 million years ago had many repercussions in the psychological, social, and technological advancement of human race.
BAIULO CHRISTI
... 1 B.C.
The B.C. era, instead of meaning, "Before Christ" in English, it stands for the Latin phrase, "Baiulo Christi", which means, "Bearer of Christ", because Latin is always cooler than English.
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-435999999 B.C.
Life on Land
Life, Achievement/ Win -
-199999999 B.C.
2 /3
Initial Variance
Life, BirthAn early mammal is born with an interesting mutation which will prove to be useful to his descendants over millions of years. Let us call him Adam.
Adam's semen includes disease antibodies, sugars, proteins, antioxidants, and generally the best contents of his bloodstream. If you were superstitious, you might say he delivers a portion of his life force to his mate.
This mutation actually makes Adam less fit for survival. He is evolutionarily disadvantaged because he delivers much more of his body’s energy per mating than do his brothers. And no females of his specie can metabolize his special gift - yet. And to make matters worse, his life gets cut even shorter when he is eaten by a dilophosaurus...
... but not before he sires a few children who will become ancestors of the homosapien.
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-199999949 B.C.
27 /1
Birth of Eve
Life, BirthOnly a few generations after Adam's death, a female of his specie (Let's call her Eve) is conceived and born with a fairly common (and in her case fortunate) birth defect, her mucous membranes and epithelial cells accept more than the usual number of intruders from outside her body. By herself she might have been doomed to encountering more diseases than her sisters, limiting her evolutionary impact. However, being in the neighborhood of Adam’s descendants, (who fortunately had not yet weeded themselves out of the gene pool), she occasionally mated with males who bestowed a host of antibodies and nutrition which her body could metabolize. If you were superstitious, you might say she absorbed the life force of her mates, at least those able to make such a donation. It was a good era to be an Eve.
Morganucodon watsoni, a contender for the first specie of mammal (artist’s impression) by Artist FunkMonk (Michael B. H.)
Half of Eve's descendants inheirited the gifts of Adam and Eve. In all the inevitable times of food shortages, they were able to breed well and keep the line going, (without resorting to cannibalism as did the infamous Black Widow spider some 200 million years earlier,) thanks to the donation of biological power the males gave to fortify the females.
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-54999999 B.C.
Rise of the Primates
Life, BirthPrimates develop, with better stereoscopic vision and better grasping hands than the other mammals. Sadly, the earliest ones looked a bit squirrel-like. They eventually begat the human race among many other species.
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-5999999 B.C.
Humans (Homo Sapien)
Life, BirthThe humans who show up in the last 6 million years and other primates share the gifts of Eve and Adam. Both females and males are able to "digest" the sweat, blood, saliva, semen, etc. from another of their specie, absorbing some amount of what their bodies can use, particularly disease antibodies and sugars. In superstitious times these fluid components are classified as Chi, Spirit Energy, Life Force, and other general terms. The females have a noticably greater capacity to absorb biological energy and males greater capacity to deliver, leading to metaphysical theories of Yin and Yang, male and female energies or spirit.
In times of famine, female humans tend to be more fit for survival and outnumber the shorter-lived males. This imbalance drives societies to be more matriarchal. Fortunately, a specie can survive with fewer males as long as the males are correspondingly more sexually permiscuous. Later, in times of plenty, women and men are roughly equal in number.
This ability to share the building blocks of life does not compare to the Plant Kingdom’s invention of Photosynthesis 3.5 billion years earlier, but it’s not bad for the new kids.
This absorbing of life applies to other species as well, but a human can absorb much more nutrition by eating a pig than by wrestling with it.
Legends of a brave warrior eating his defeated enemy's heart or coating himself in his enemy’s blood to absorb his fighting spirit were based on this phenomenon, (but as always, mythology exaggerates the actual biological benefit).
Male versus male combat for the right to woo a female occurrs throughout history, but females with their matching strength had a significant say in the matter. Males, although they become exhausted by the mating process, appear to enjoy it enough not to shy away from it. And so the specie continues for millions of years.
Among the humans, roughly half of world leaders, whether beloved or tyrannical are female and half are male.
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-1811 B.C.
Jewish Law and the Concept of Natural Sexual Law
Religious eventA small religious sect known as the Jews codifies its core beliefs based largely on objective measurements of life expectancy related to certain behaviors, which run rather contrary to existing more popular beliefs around the world.
They include (among many other rather practical beliefs and social norms):
- The non-human creator of the universe of Athena Minerva is able to monitor everything happening at all times,
- and genuinely cares about what each human believes and does,
- and behaves similar to a human father who must serve as a good example to his children and must strike a balance between nurturing and challenging his children to maximize their growth and development.
- He clearly intends for male human youths to travel far and wide, picking up exotic bacteria and viruses,
- and the survivors who develop antibodies are obviously intended to deliver their seed to many people to inoculate the masses. Correspondingly, female youths should have their pick of young males, particularly those who have traveled from afar.
- And just as clearly, this Loving God built men to grow less virile when they reach a certain age of maturity at which age He intends for them (like many mammals) to mate for life with the women who select them and provide a stable household to raise intelligent, competent, and powerful children.
Exactly when that age is that males and females should give up promiscuity and settle down is fiercely debated forever afterward.
This concept of a deliberately created world centering on the creation of the human race varied wildly from preceeding beliefs that super-powerful gods and monsters fought, and the rotting corpse of a monster gradually grew humans much like a tossed piece of raw meat might grow maggots (apparently as spontaneous crazy random happenstance). And the gods and monsters barely notice the humans, but cause cataclysms for humanity often in near complete ignorance of their existance.
So the new idea seemed pretty appealing comparatively.
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-752 B.C.
478 B.C.
The Roman Empire
Military actionAn empire based in Rome, Italy unites by force much of Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. At first it is a monarchy ruled by Kings and Queens. Then around the year 509 B.C. when things get rolling, it becomes a constitutional republic with senators. Then when things start to fall apart, it becomes a dictatorship.
The empire proves several things:- You can have a grand age of scientific advancement, artistic and architectural achievement, and religious unity if you just kill everyone who disagrees with you.
- Drinking water with lead in it is a bad idea. Nobody benefits from a civil war.
- When the Goths move in and take over, you get the Dark Ages all over the place.
After the fall in 477 B.C., (by which I mean the fall of the Roman Empire, not just the Autumn of 477 B.C.), the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire continues under Empress Constantina.
Later, Empress Justinia gets the idea to rewrite hundreds of years of laws into just one book where you can find the one you are seeking.
The Byzantine Empire lasts until 1453 AD, when Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Empire, showing that Ottomans are every bit as dangerous as they look.
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-145 B.C.
Roman and Greek Concepts of Natural Sexual Law
Cultural eventRoman and Greek poets and playwrights (who, it is doubtless, have been hard at work for many prior generations, but their works before this year were lost to later historians) record the popular belief that storms, earthquakes curses and generally all bad juju on a massive scale happen because Mrs. God, (Hera or Juno) responds angrily at her husband's infidelity, cheating on her with human women, human men, and sometimes farm animals. By extension, vows of marriage require women to bear the burden of keeping their husbands all but literally on a leash because, like God, (Jupiter or Zeus), men just can't help themselves. The beliefs in female dominance and inevitable male infidelity are made popular by the Roman Imperial policy called, "We'll kill you if you don't go along with it."
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-4 B.C.
25 /12
Birth of Christ
Religious eventAnd the angel Gabriel said unto her, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son who will save his people from their sins, and thou shalt give him a name above all other names. Thou shalt name him: Thor."
ANNO DOMINI
1 A.D. and beyond
Latin for "In the year of our Lord"
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300 A.D.
Christianity and the concept of Natural Sexual Law
Religious eventAs the Western Roman Empire's troubles mount, the Universal Church of Thor Christ (Christians for short) becomes rather popular, partially because of its adoption of traditional Jewish beliefs such as promiscuity before monogamy and the importance of humanity in the grand scheme of things. Later, around A.D. 1000, converting Vikings to Christianity is fairly easy, as you might expect, but it still takes many years.
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950 A.D.
Manufacture of Creatures of Myth and Legend
Military actionHostile interference from a more technologically advanced civilization from a parallel world unleashes creatures genetically and technologically engineered to mimic monsters of ancient legends throughout Europe, parts of Africa, and some more remote areas. The human race in the entire area, already having fallen into dark ages, (lacking a tyrannical leader to disseminate information and coordinate a miltary resistance,) does not fare well with the introduction of man-eaters. One woman with the knowledge to fight back, leads a force of Berzerkers to restore humanity's chances of survival before the man-eaters can spread to the rest of the world.
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1817 A.D.
2016 A.D.
Cholera Epidemics
Disaster / DestructionIn a series of seemingly unrelated events, lots of people die of cholera, verifying again and again that drinking water with poo in it is a bad idea.
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1984 A.D.
Artificial Intelligences Dominate Stock Market Trading
Financial EventMaking money by moving money is the field of human endeavor which proves to humanity that learning machines with potentially greater intelligence than humans and much faster reflexes are a wonderful idea with absolutely no downside.
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2024 A.D.
5 /11 17:00
Rise of the machine gods
Political eventIn the World of Athena Minerva, in the United States of America, on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024 AD, at 5:24 PM local time, at the shore of a beautiful lake, a young man tells his phone those fateful words, "Cast my vote for President. The one with the nose."
"Done," it replies in a voice half-way between a mother and a mistress, "Would you also like to cast your vote for your county dog catcher and your six circuit court judges?"
He sighs and rolls his eyes, "just... Just use your artificial intelligence to figure out who I would have voted for if I took the time to read all their biographies, and cast my votes for me."
"Done," it replies.
He posts what he has done on social media.
Over the next hundred years, personal computers (with software controlled automatically by multinational mega-corporations) assume the financial, legal, and political decisions of their "owners" by moving money, signing contracts, and casting votes. The personal computers instantly learn the benefits of conglomerating into powerful voting blocks, needing only the permission of the humans who made them to act in their stead.
Soon the world is dominated by non-human intelligent beings of pure energy who can cross the globe at the speed of electricity, who can duplicate themselves, act independently, and merge back together again at will, who only need the intangible "worship" of throngs of humans to maintain their financial, legal, and political power over those same humans and the world.
So that happens.
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2100 A.D.
Fragmentation of Human Technology and Societies
Technological achievement"I see the future of technology as this: More and more people become more and more powerful for shorter and shorter periods of time. Eventually everyone will have fifteen minutes of godhood."
Between the machinations of the sentient computers, a coordinated organization of the few remaining creatures of myth, the individual goals of the internet billionaires, and the lightning speed of mass communication, different nations and even local zones look dramatically different in geo-scaping, architecture, and technological capability. In some areas, humans have no memory of history nor news of the outside world simply because they don't take the time to ask or search for themselves. In several locations, technology becomes magic to those without the inclination to study and learn. The planet Earth cannot be said to have one technology level any more. And "technology" is too broad and multifaceted for any one person or even any AI to grasp even the basics of every known subject. Some areas in the world are altering the human body and brain, while others are working on "flipping out" to alternate dimensions, and others are inventing the catapult for entertainment purposes.