Excerpt
Prelude

What is today's date? That is a difficult question to answer. By the Gregorian calendar the date is 4911, give or take fifty years. Oh, I forgot A.D. The Gregorian calendar is only used in the Americas. Europe uses the Persian calendar that marks the date from the end of the Demanon war, which makes the year 1640. Parts of Europe use the Hebrew calendar that marks the date as 8362, as close as I can calculate. Africa uses at least twelve different calendars, one of which follows the phases of the sun and only uses 22 years over and over again. Asia uses nearly twenty different calendars, including the ancient Chinese calendar that marks the date as the longest continuous calendar. All of which may, or may not, be accurate.
The world has changed much in the last three thousand years. The great cities are gone. The energy guzzling machines are gone. Most of the people are gone. Well, not all of them. Nearly seven billion died in the war with the Demanon Empire. Another seven million died in the Dragon Wars.
The Demanon Empire was discovered in the early twenty first century. The wizards of earth, back then called scientists, were experimenting with artificial gravity, playing with the laws of nature. Nature plays a serious game.
The scientists opened a portal. Many debated whether the portal led to a wormhole and thusly to some distant point in our universe. Others believed that the portal opened into another universe, at some point parallel to our own. Many probes were sent to study the other side of the portal, they returned totally destroyed with their memory systems blank. One returned with a sign attached; unfortunately, no one could translate the message. If they had been able to translate it, perhaps they could have saved mankind. Instead, they were elated because they had found other intelligent life.
The scientific community urged that someone should be sent to communicate with this intelligent life. Four men ventured into the portal. Three of them were returned in very small containers. The fourth lived long enough to deliver a message. “Close the portal!”
The military was outraged. The best fighting unit available was sent as a response for such desecration and was never heard from again. Several small patrols were sent into the portal searching for the previous military units, none returned.
October 31st 2031, two creatures entered through the portal from the other side. An American soldier accompanied the Demanon. Both were dressed in flowing robes, but that was their only likeness. The Demanon stood nearly eight feet tall, with massive shoulders and arms. His legs were not nearly as well developed, and he was extremely bow legged. The Demanon’s eyes were serpentine in appearance. His flesh was reddish in color and devoid of hair.
The Demanon spoke deliberately and distinctly as the soldier translated. “You have defied the orders of the Demanon Emperor by opening this portal. You have further defied the orders of the Demanon Emperor by not closing it when requested. You have insulted the Great Emperor by sending armed warriors against him. You have declared war! We have no choice except to defend ourselves!”
Immediately after that was said, the Demanon army poured through the portal. They rode dragons and used magic, and the war that ensued lasted for twelve hundred years. Technology won some battles, but at great expense, and far too few. Billions of Demanons continued to pour out of the portal. The horde overran western America in the first year. Much of South America fell in the second year. Asia proved to be the most resistant and slowed the advance. It took most of a century for the Demanons to advance across Asia.
Nearly a hundred years of war had passed before the humans began using magic, they learned spells to defend themselves. As the humans began to understand the principles of magic, the more powerful they became. Great battles raged between several human sorcerers and several Demanon sorcerers, each supported by thousands of warriors. Victory was the only goal and the cost did not matter. The human race was dwindling rapidly, but so was the Demanon race. It was evident that neither side could win the war, yet neither side would admit defeat. The war raged on.
Twelve hundred years after it had begun, the war ended. No one won. The human race woke up one morning and the Demanons were gone. Except for two old wizards who stayed behind to cast a great spell to seal the portal. They ended their own existence before revealing the spell or the means of reversing its effects. Besides the two sorcerers, the Demanons left behind thousands of dragons. The dragons were considered expendable beasts of burden and simple mounts to be ridden into battle.
The dragons were intelligent creatures that could speak and read. They were creatures with a language and culture of their own. They wandered the earth for years. Some were hunted as beasts, some were taught as the two cultures learned from each other, and some were domesticated to guard their master’s house. Most of the dragons knew the magic of their former Demanon masters and most fought for suppression of thousands of years of slavery. The wars between the Dragons and the Humans lasted nearly two hundred years. It ended much like the Demanon war. It simply stopped.
Actually, it just changed forms. The remaining Dragons became War Lords who commanded great armies, powerful wizards who supported human War Lords, or hermits living in hidden dens.
In the year of our Lord 4911, magic rules the world. The technology is gone. Continued existence now demands that you be the quickest and most powerful, or die.