Ravenloft |
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The text of this book has been transcribed into a more common langauge for all to read, hence the lack of any fancy scripting.
Prologue— Through the dawning of the common era, mankind has only recently come into its own in the everlasting struggle to survive. While our own immense potential for logical thought has dragged us from the ooze from whence we came, it is the application of that intellect—the creations of new of more efficient methods for assistance—with which we will prove our dominance both as species and as race. However, while the use of machines has elevated mankind to the level of gods among the animals around us, limits have been found in how far a machine can take us. A bow only shoots as far as the archer has skill. A plow only turns up earth if there is a hand to guide it. Even the most sophisticated clockwork automatons work only with constant adjustment and repair from their creators. It is in this that we also find the inherent flaw of mankind. Even the most brilliant minds, magical or scientific, suffer the frailty of our human form. Where a machine holds immense durability and strength—and can always be reforged and tempered—mankind is frail. Where a machine cannot think on its own, the human mind holds the secrets of life and the universe itself, locked within the sheltered portions of our psyche. This problem, though it may not seem so, is one of control. How does one control an automaton indefinitely, when the life guiding it is finite? The answer to this is simpler than one may think: if a human mind were somehow linked to or imprinted onto the blank slate of a machine, both could work in union for nigh on an eternity! Many will see this concept, I'm sure, as a child's dream. However, those who doubt my axioms and theory blatantly disregard one major field of study that could make this "child's dream" a reality—the arcane sciences. Through various arcane and technological processes detailed later in this study, I intend to prove that a link can not only be established, but maintained permanently, thereby bridging the gap between man and machine. The strength of steel, coupled with immortality itself, is but a hair's breadth away from being completely and totally unified with the power of the human mind. |
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