Imagine, if you will, how life would be if computer AI had been developed and perfected decades ago, if computers could think, function, and learn with little to no human interaction needed. Also imagine a world where most of earth had come together as one government to combat a crippling depression, and that it was largely successful. Think just how your modern day life could look, and you would have a picture of how Nor'Ova looked during the last years of the First Era.
This forum RP takes place in the time just before the Great Magic War, leading up to it and taking place during it. This is a time with technology of Nor'Ova at its highest. A world where everything is connected by a super internet that thinks, learns, and solves problems on its own govern by a rapidly advancing AI known as the MIND. A world were most of the governments came together under the Empire of Nor'Ova to resolve and recover from a very crippling depression that would have made our Great Depression look more like a walk in the park.
We lived happily for the next decade, until in 1995 when we as well as the rest of the world were rocked hard by a massive solar flare that took out the Multiuser Information News and Data (MIND) network. Within a week all of the global financial markets crashed and tensions were high. The solar flare damaged everything and it would take time to repair all of the fried circuits, yet the nations of the world couldn't seem to come together to find a way to deal the economic restructuring needed to bring relief to the people. They were all more absorbed in blaming others than helping each other, truly it was a sad state of affair and it made me ashamed to be called a Nor'Ovan.
- The Journal of Emperor Killian Xerxes
Just think of how devastating a financial collapse would have to be to have so many different cultures and beliefs, so many different nationalities with their own nationalistic pride, to come together to form a global nation. Of course some stayed independent, but that's not the point here. The point is, the world almost recessed all the way back to the dark ages with its global depression, and would have if they didn't pull together as one to combat the issues head on.
In 1997, I was sent to the Federation of Nations in Xenopolis. As a leader in the field of economics and one who helped to bring some economic stability to the Republic, I was asked to develop a strategy to revamp and recover the global markets and end the Great Depression. The MIND network, version 2, was already coming back online and it was deemed necessary to develop a strategy to help speed up the economic recovery and find a way to prevent a future disruption. I worked with the other leaders and we laid out a plan that would bring needed stability. It would require greater cooperation between nations, secondary systems for storing financial data, greater transparency, and a development of global relief funds and social security nets to bring immediate relief and future relief if needed.
Needless to say, it worked to a degree, with only one stumbling block - international cooperation. Never would I believe that so many nations would be unable or unwilling to work together for their people. Instead, they continued to accuse each other and sought only to prop themselves up. "Me" seemed greater than "we". Later that year I made a speach to the grand assembly that was televised stating that a divided Nor'Ova can never hope for a full recovery. Instead we must erase the invisible barriers that separate us and become united if we ever wish to fully come out of the depression that has for too long plagued us. It wasn't as well received by the leaders, with many of them storming out. However the populace of Nor'Ova latched onto it. They were tired of the lies and false hopes and wanted real change. After seeing the broadcast, they rose in great force and a great global revolution was underway. The global leaders attempted to put down this resistance, but the militaries were all made up of normal civilians with families of their own, and they sided for once with the people.
By the end of 1999, 75% of Nor'Ova was united into one country and I was elected by the will of the people as its first ruler. I was elected as Emperor.
- The Journal of Emperor Killian Xerxes
In this time, the Nor'Ovan Great Depression is nothing but a bad memory in the minds of a generation fading away. Only the longer lived races have any real memories of it. The global unity has developed an era of relative peace. With no real wars to focus on, other technologies have taken center stage and developed at a faster pace, except space exploration. While there is a space station in orbit, Nor'Ova's ring of planetary debris has made space travel risky, and its sulfuric moon as made moon landings impossible. Satelites are there, and to combat the ring interference they are developed a bit more so that what you'd find on earth.
You won't find flying cars of course, but you will find a world that is a bit more advanced than what you know now. A world of high-speed rail and hydrogen powered cars. A world where you can solve problems yet unsolved by a simple "internet" search. A world where old age and disease is being combated with the latest in genetic therapy and where robotics is on the verge of replacing human bodies fully. To imagine Nor'Ova in the end of the First Era, you simply need to look around, and imagine if you will, if the current researches in genetics and robotics have already been completed. Imagine asking your computer to cure your cold, and it being able to do so by a doctor emailing your pharmacy a genetic medicine without you ever picking up a phone or seeing the doctor, because your computer already has deduced all of your symptoms for your doctor.
And finally imagine this technology rich world, on the brink of a world war that the world doesn't believe is coming. A world where the doom of the era is on the horizon, yet everyone continues to eat and make merry.