Front cover of science fiction story

The Press at Honaseka

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In an ancient land that called itself the 'Known World' there are many races and cultures. Thru most of it's history few paid any attention to the outside world. Then, two centuries ago this area was discovered by an outside group, a civilization of Elves with many advances in technology. They brought advanced crops that banished hunger until the population grew. They brought advanced medicines that allowed those with the means to overcome diseases that had taken many in former ages and allowed them to enhance their beauty and strength. They brought machines that could record music, machines that could paint pictures incredibly lifelike and detailed, machines that could communicate over vast distances nearly instantaneously.

But two of the boons they brought have been especially disruptive to the cultures of the 'Known World'. One was extended youth. At first the medicines that extended youth were very expensive so that only the wealthiest could afford them. At first they were secret so very few knew of them. As time went on, the price came down and more of the population knew of them and could take advantage of them, with the result that cheating old age and death is no longer secret.

The second great change was a plague that made people sterile. At first the sterility plague was distant. It is spread only by exchange of bodily fluids, most thought it was spread only by sexual union. At we will witness, the plague has now reached the area where the people we will observe lived. For seven generations the poor have known that the wealthy live on. They resented it, and there was often trouble, but their preachers tell them that living on is a sin that keeps the ageless from their reward in the afterlife. Until now they've always lived on thru their chldren but today the plague is ending all that. The generation that will have no one to care for them in their old age is already born, and all the resentments, both social and religious, are coming to a head.


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