The plane landed as close as the European Aviation Safety Agency would allow. Commercial flights were cancelled and delayed all over Italy and France within thousands of miles of the city. In the initial bedlam of the attack, the light propeller plane that they had chartered had managed to secure permission to land in the little town of Novi Ligure, just an hour’s drive from Genoa. In the Novi Ligure airport, they saw another breaking news story. This time, the news anchor looked as serious as a funeral.
“Ladies and gentlemen, today we have a video to show you. It is unedited. We just received it. It is shocking to say the least. Without further ado, here it is.”
The screen cut to an image of Ghaelvord. He was decked out in full regalia. The golden ankh in the center of the breastplate gleamed menacingly at the camera. In his full Dahjaat form, he towered over a crowd of fiendish yzorak that surrounded him. He stood in the center of the Piazza de Ferrari, the main square of Genoa. He had one foot on the ground and one foot on the cement curb that surrounded the majestic fountain in the center of the square. The streets around him lay empty. The poignant image clearly left an impression on the faces of the people in the airport as they watched the newscast with awestruck expressions. Ghaelvord began speaking in English. Italian subtitles streamed across the bottom of the screen.
“Citizens of the world, greetings and salutations to all of you. You have questions. Who am I? Why have I taken one of your cities? Should you be afraid? The answer to the last question is an emphatic ‘No!’ I am Ghaelvord War’usk-etal of the Cywornal Clan, Chthonian Tribe and I am pleased to introduce myself. I am the herald of the Rise of the Dahjaat for one day my clansmen will be resurrected and they will join me as we usher in a new era full of progress and prosperity. I am the embodiment of many of the gods that your ancestors worshipped long ago in ages lost to the sand of time. I have returned at long last to help you reach the next stage of development. Look around you. You probably live in a modern city with modern amenities. You probably have running water and electric power. Many of you will never be conscripted into an imperialist army. Truly, your civilization has come a long way.
It all began with the realization that resources were not scarce. This planet carries an overwhelming abundance of everything that we need to consume in order to live full, pleasant lives. Over the course of many millennia, humans gradually came to understand that trade under the rule of law could supplant war as the primary means of wealth accumulation. In the wake of the crusades, religious wars largely died out. In the wake of the desolation of the world wars, mankind realized that the spread of empire was unnecessary. After countless deaths and at innumerable cost, you all reached the plateau of today. The enlightenment occurred. The industrial revolution occurred. The forces of nature were tamed. Resources were increasingly available.
Above all, due to the Doctrine of Mutual Mass Destruction and nuclear proliferation, another worldwide war or any war on a scale that could interfere with international commerce is out of the question. Things, in a general sense, have been good.
Danger, however, lurks around every corner. The economists and physicists who replaced your soothsayers have predicted a new crisis. It comes with the inevitability of death itself. The world’s population exploded. The unthinkable occurred. Unlimited expansion lost its feasibility. The earth contains a fixed amount of fossil fuels. The oceans can only hold so much nuclear waste. Global warming reared its ugly head.
To further the problem, the utopian society never came. The predictions of both Karl Marx and Adam Smith proved laconic. The classes never balanced. The unrest of the bottom rungs threatens the confidence of the powerful. Barriers to efficiency exist everywhere for the poor, the middle class, and the rich alike. True meritocracy became a mere fantasy as the forces of corruption, superfluous bureaucracy, and relentlessly stubborn inertia combined to create enormous waste and oppression. As the financial powerhouses of the world rack up unsightly debts in a reckless and desperate attempt to corner the market on resources before the crisis truly hits, the instability of the entire situation has remained hidden beneath a thin veneer of prosperity.
Weakness in the new world order that has been centered on commerce was apparent with the tulip bubble in the seventeenth century. That same weakness continued and appeared again in the American real estate bubble of the twenty-first century. After centuries of ironing the kinks out, systemic problems still plague civilization.
Citizens of the world, I have returned to intervene for you, to prevent you from continuing with the same mistakes. Together, we will stop running in circles, repeating the errors of your ancestors. I have come to remove you all from the rut that you have fallen into. I have come to stop the weakness from deepening and becoming more intractable with each passing generation. The sooner you turn over your arms and join me in the race to true prosperity, the sooner the bloodshed and the waste and the bickering and the strife can stop. Join me people of earth. Join me.”
Ghaelvord took a break. He paused and looked confidently into the camera. His voice rang out clearly, eloquently, and smoothly. It had a pleasant tone to it. It felt reassuring. Despite his paleness and his baldness, he had a rugged, irresistible charm about him.
Ghaelvord went on, “I have prepared a demonstration for you all today. In front of me lies The Doge’s Palace. I could not pick a more appropriate site for today’s demonstration. The Doge’s of Genoa, as you may or may not know, were rulers of Genoa. They were selected from oligarchical merchant families. They represent the rise of mercantilism and the shift from hereditary power to power based on contributions to the production and movement of resources. Their reign, in many ways, marked the evolution of the mind that led to the modern society that you all live in now, where work is rewarded in accordance with its results. The shift toward true meritocracy, toward true freedom, and toward prosperity for all people only continues today. I will be honest. In the days to come, lives will be lost. Families will be torn apart. In the end, however… in the end, I promise to all of you, to all citizens of the world that, under my reign, you will experience freedom from arbitrary rules and unimaginable prosperity. The pioneers, the entrepreneurs, and the innovators will flourish and we flourish with them. We will march boldly toward our dreams. We will truly live.”
Ghaelvord paused again. The suspense killed Hunter. No one else in the airport seemed bothered. They were enraptured by the rhetoric of the speaker on the screen.
“Citizens of the world, the old must give way to the new. The inevitable path of evolution works best unfettered. We will break down every barrier. We will not stop or delay the inevitable, even for a moment.”
Ghaelvord turned and nodded to the yzorak-al’ghul around the fountain. They lined up, raised their vambraces, and fired their weapons at the palace. The palace still had all of its former charisma. It no longer served as a residence. It was a monument. It was a museum. It was a convention center. It was no more. The particle beams were set to their maximum levels. The building vanished into a cloud of harmless gas and ashy dust.
“The days of freewheeling commerce are behind us. Regulation is in its infancy. We will hold onto neither. We will only innovate. A new era awaits us. The destruction of the old is the beginning of the new. From the ashes of this palace, we will build a monument to progress. We will progress. That is my promise to you. In the meantime, please feel free to martial your armies and attack. The attempts will be futile, but I know that you need to make them. I welcome the challenge. Thank you for your attention.”
The video ended abruptly. No one in the airport moved. No one knew how to react to the mixed message of hope for the future and imminent war. Clever people around the world sifted through the rhetoric to the real semiotics and were appalled at what they found. They found a supremely confident supernatural overlord with otherworldly technology and an army of invariably loyal ghouls threatening to impose his will on the planet. That was the real message, stripped of all decoration.