Chapter 1: History

You may not know me.

You may just be hearing about me from a friend.

Maybe you have heard of my father?

Maybe not...

Whatever the case may be, fate has brought you to this, this "documentary" as so many have called it before you, of me, Zachary Ralph.

Who Am I?

Well, let's save the questions for later.

I will begin by telling you the history of our world...

My world...

In a land where people have denied the ways of technology and all forms of progress, the world is at peace, for the most part...

We live in harmony with nature.

You may ask me why the world has chosen to deny the better life technology offers.

But, honestly, I have no idea. That is before my time.

We live in huts, all made by hand, by the "Commons" as we call them. The Commons are people who do not have a certain "special" quality.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

My people live in villages, each village choosing its location according to the nature of its people.

There are villages like mine, sea bearing villages with, of course, sea bearing people.

We house fishermen, sailors, navy officers of the past, and so on...

There are four types of villages. Sea Bearing, like mine; Earth Wielding Plantations, whose prime objective in life is farming; Forest Native tribes, which are basically people who live in the mountains, forests, and other places thought to be inhabitable; and also, The Fire Frontier Nation. These are "Old Age" people who cannot seem to let go of the technology the rest of the world has forgotten.

Over one third of the world was initially part of the Frontier, but their numbers have decreased rapidly in the last decade or so. We consider them to be "Traitors to the common good," or so I am told. They have been cut off from society, and anyone from the frontier who dares trespass on our land will be tried as a traitor and hanged.

Sorry to down the mood, but I belive any story, when told, should be told with all the details still intact.

Anyway, the way of life in this world is easier then you would imagine. We do not rely on technology and machinery to do our bidding. We rely on ourselves. Our own two hands and basic tools are all we need to live comfortably. This way of life has brought peace between the countries, as they were formally called.

We do not have a government. We have found that with proper initiative, people will work to better their lives. We live by the policy, "He who does not work, shall not eat." Everyone helps one another.

The plantation owners work the fields, and build most of the huts and wells for other villages. They also give food to the surrounding people. They are good people, they work hard, and they seem to enjoy life, for the most part. (They also support the leading amount of commons.)

In return for the food and building services, the Forest people take care of the animals. They are the most "in tune" with nature. They listen to the trees, and feel the air and the world around them. Most are what you would call monks. They feed the flocks, they care for the environment, and they seem to keep to themselves.

In return for these services, our people, my people, are the "police" you might say. We tend to the borders between us and the frontier, we capture and kill and trespassers, and we handle any diplomatic issues that arise between our two worlds.

We are the craftsmen. We build and "invent" new ways to live off the land. We house the most schools, the most people, and the most "brain" as others might say. We are the most progressed nation of the world. Who wouldn't want to be here?

I will tell you who, me.

Each day we wake up to the same hut, the same rules, and the same routine. We eat vegetables and fish, for each three meals, every day. We "children" go to school each day for three hours. We learn about the history of the world, the benefits of nature, the enemy that is the frontier, and, of course, fish.

I can't go two minutes without hearing about the latest catch, the new net someone got, or the damage a great eel did to someone's boat!

You can see how ecstatic I am. I don't even remember most of my school sessions. They are all the same. It is almost as if I wasn't there at all, like they are memories from a forgotten dream.

"Every day is the same. Every move is planned. Every breath is granted," so my teacher says... "We are content. We are happy here. We are whole."

This is precisely the reason I am writing this documentary. There is something going on here. I can't explain it. Don't get me wrong, I love this place, it is my home. I need to find out what is happening. I just hope that one day, this will do more good then it does evil.