From its beginnings in the Holy Lands, on the shores of the Red Sea, the center of the world's power has moved consistently and steadily west.
From Jerusalem, the world's capital migrated west to Rome, where it remained for the time of Caesar and his successors. Rome's collapse saw the seat of power drift west again, to the empires of London and Paris.
Europe's decline was accompanied by the rise of a great new power, to its west, in the United States. The American era was explosive but finite, and the world's center of power traveled west yet again, to the great population centers of Asia.
Beijing and Calcutta served as the predominant cities of the 21st century, a period of astonishing technological achievement known as the Asian Age. But this epoch was cut short by a horror unmatched in human history.
On July 21, 2094, at the height of a world-enveloping period of spiraling tension and terror, all-out nuclear war erupted in China. In just six days, 26 nuclear weapons exploded across Asia. Over two billion people were killed. The Great Holocaust brought the Asian Age - and very nearly, all life on Earth - to a close.
The eastern hemisphere was turned into little more than a crater: a massive scar on the face of the earth. Because of the enormous fallout, the western hemisphere became endangered as well. The world's water supply was contaminated. Humanity's very survival was thrust into doubt.
But in this time of utmost darkness, a savior emerged, in Africa.
In a small laboratory in Soweto, just outside Johannesburg, a 41-year-old botanist named Dr. Everett Finlay invented a filtering machine capable of purifying the irradiated water. He literally ran to his local reservoir with his device. Miraculously, it worked. Copies of Finlay's invention were quickly shipped to the reservoirs around the world. Mankind's extinction was staved off.
Finlay spent the next five years traveling the world's reservoirs, refining his machine, and meeting the people whose lives he had saved. At each new city he was greeted by thousands of grateful followers. He was friendly and open with them, talking for hours on end, deep into the night, often camping out by the reservoirs, under the stars.
The conversations were not merely about science. Finlay was something of a lay philosopher, with a brilliant mind and a generous spirit. In a time when almost everyone he came across was deeply traumatized by the Great Holocaust, Finlay was an optimist: a beacon. He spoke with eloquence and passion about mankind's potential for decency. He lifted people's spirits.
The word quickly spread about Finlay, and it was not long before he started to become known as a prophet. When he left each city, his work sites at the reservoirs were preserved as shrines. Thousands of people would return to the shrines, day after day, discussing and dissecting the prophet's words and beliefs, tenuously strengthening their delicate, emerging hope.
Thus was the practice of Finlayism born. Some called Finlayism a religion, but one that revered science instead of rivaling it. Finlayism had no God; Finlay himself was agnostic. The bedrock of Finlayism was its dedication to nonviolence.
Everett Finlay was passionate about maintaining a worldwide, permanent peace. He spoke eloquently about the opportunity that this singular moment in history provided – the aftermath of the Great Holocaust. He swore that the human species had a unique opportunity, right now, to change its behavior and fate, and to step off the path towards self-annihilation.
Finlayism was swiftly adopted by every culture and tribe around the world. Those people closest to the prophet - his most learned and devout followers - grew to become the Finlayite high priests and apostles. All Finlayite clergy were scientists: physicians, professors, and chemical engineers. The most brilliant and influential among them rose to become the Finlayite bishops and archbishops.
The worlds and minds of music, art and architecture flowered in the light of Finlayism as well. The music of this period remains, even today, the most popular burst of original music ever written and performed. (Yanu music, short for orin iyanu, Yoruban for "music of the miracle," is nearly inescapable today.) The culinary trends that grew out of this moment - when millions camped out by the reservoirs, sharing their meals and recipes with one another - the shared spices and foods of this period remain sacred dietary staples today. And of course, the physical shrines themselves, developed ecstatically by the twin powers of architecture and near-limitless philanthropy, vaulted into the magnificent Finlayite temples, a series of structures which remain the most awe-inspiring buildings in every city and township around the world.
Towards the end of his life, Everett Finlay was quite easily the most influential man on earth. As his inevitable passing approached, an unease crept over the world, as humankind contemplated a life without their prophet. Finlay knew this. Three months before he died, he issued a statement: eight words that have come to be known simply as the One Law.
"There must be no such thing as war," he said. Finlay asked all nations to completely and publicly disarm, while he still lived: to dismantle their nuclear and conventional weapons; to permanently dissolve their armies; to begin a worldwide, permanent peace.
As the 94-year-old Everett Finlay was lain on his deathbed, an unprecedented global vigil began. Never before had all of humanity given such singular focus to one event, and one purpose. A spiritual ark was being built: a single path forward for the entire species, down which all mankind must walk.
Every surviving nation sent a representative to Cairo. The One Law was drawn up into a formal document. And on August 8, 2147, with a feeling of history itself cracking open, every nation's representative signed the One Law, and ordered their country's armaments destroyed, and their armies permanently disbanded. Thus did the Great Peace begin.
With the world resolved in holy unity, the Prophet began to release his grip on his earthly body. For nine full days following the One Law's consecration, all of humanity's breath rose and fell as one, as they awaited their Prophet's ascent.
On August 17 - just two days before his final passage - the prophet issued one last recommendation.
He suggested (and many Orthodox still refer to it as "the Suggestion") that a monarch be appointed whose sole function would be to manage and adjudicate the One Law. As the prophet described it, this queen or king would be tasked with resolving all irreconcilable disputes between leaders. This monarch, said the Prophet, must have absolute sovereignty. Their judgments must not be subject to protest or emendation. They must be obeyed and adhered to by all citizens, nations, tribes, and leaders, to the letter, and without exception.
Finlay suggested the first monarch himself. He recommended the Argentine diplomat Carime Ortega-Navarro. Thus did queen Carime become first monarch of the Peace, inaugural high servant of the One Law. The Prophet's blessing of the monarch would be among his final spoken words. Only hours afterward, he lapsed into silence, and then rose into peace.
The Great Prophet Everett Finlay died August 19, 2147. Following a month of profound mourning, queen Carime's first official act was to ask Finlay's oldest son, Kwame Philippe, to serve by her side as chief advisor. He accepted. This set a precedent that continues to this day. The monarch sits on the throne in Cairo, with one of the Finlay's direct descendants serving as chief and primary counsel, continuing even in death the proximity of the prophet.
Everett Finlay's life and passage marked the beginning of an unprecedented time of worldwide peace. It lasted twenty full years. The n, astonishingly, fifty. Then, miraculously, one hundred.
To this day, the peace has endured. Never without struggle, but never without resolution. Monarchs choose new monarchs, Finlays raise new Finlays.
The year is now 2296. king Zachariah, a Namibian distance runner turned classical scholar, sits on the throne in Cairo, eleventh high servant of the One Law.
As this singular moment in history begins, the king is confronted with three formidable crises at once. Two brothers vie acrimoniously for control of Peru; a deadly and mysterious plague ravages Ghana; and the long-lingering nuclear fallout still contaminates the earth's atmosphere.
For nearly 150 years, there has been no war on planet earth. Like a massive beast healing from a unimaginably dire wound, the world has slowly nursed herself back to health.
And after a journey of three thousand years, the center of human power has finally come full circle, settling once again in the holy lands, on the shores of the Red Sea.
Some whisper it shall travel no further.
