When people referred to him later, they called him Icarus. If he had told anyone what he was planning, or if anyone had been able to report on his death, perhaps he might have been remembered in the lists of famous explorers, who changed human understanding forever. Instead, we have no idea who he may have been. Without a personal account, we can only guess at his motives. A man with his technical expertise most likely had some goal in mind, but what he accomplished was greater still. The discovery of the Skyworld changed everything.
The journey to diplomacy was slow. Centuries of tension and conflict broke out between Groundworld and Skyworld. Governments united in the face of a common enemy, one with so little in common with us. There was little thought given to peace. Looking back, we may disdain our ancestors for their choices just as they did theirs, but on the cusp of this age, we were still so young. We cannot blame them. If they had known a third of what we know now, they might have acted differently.
After Icarus, and after the War of Esau’s Ladder, things looked bleak for Groundworld forces. The remaining three nations came together (no matter how strange that might seem to a modern reader, it was the obvious choice at the time) and began their final assault on Skyworld. Most historians point to this as the turning point. When Groundworld forces successfully crossed Jacob’s ladder, the sight of a beriset encampment greeted them, and relations between the species were never the same.
Those of a more cynical bent have suggested that if human warriors had faced another species when we arrived in Skyworld, we would not have given up the fight. While any scholar can acknowledge the weight behind such a claim, I must respectfully disagree. Humanity has always checked itself. Even the worst of human behavior has found staunch opponents within our species, which is more than can be said of the akahaha, or hellworms.
None of this, of course, explains the current situation fully. It was when humanity discovered lost pieces of Groundworld that the ILAB formed to respond to such cases. Skyworld and Groundworld disagreed about how to handle these pockets of land that had crossed planes; ultimately, the choice was made by the respective inhabitants. Unfortunately, governments everywhere would regret such a lax approach to legislation when they discovered more.
If it was only that each world had somehow ceded land to the other, that would be one thing, but when the United Nations realized that the phenomenon continued, without any kind of explanation, scientists dedicated themselves to analyzing the process. With no live examples, given the lack of warning before a transfer, they used the first recorded modern transfer as a case study. Although the citizens of Zermatt cooperated, there was very little to go on.
Further study would require searching for more past cases, and gathering enough data points to build predictive models. Groundworld more or less mobilized to the task. Anthropologists, historians, and scientists of all stripes attempted to contribute their minds as humans tried to understand the connection between Groundworld and Skyworld. It was then that we discovered the akahaha.
The initial response was founded on skepticism, hostility, and confusion. Humans had long believed that, unlike Skyworld, Groundworld was free of other intelligent life. There were no signs of civilizations that could not be explained by human presence, or lost pieces of Skyworld. The akaha quickly disabused our ancestors of their close-minded beliefs, showing a vibrant society not defined by typically human markers of such. They had language and law, and the more they learned to communicate with humanity, the more complicated things became. Humans and akaha had shared Groundworld, but if they had anything like the technology we have now, such co-existence might have been impossible.
All of this came before humans discovered Deepworld. Those of you who have struggled to understand why the relationships with both planes are so complex but so different should remember that the time between our first interaction with Skyworld and our first interaction with Deepworld was 224 years. The change in perspective was not entirely for the better. Deepworld posed different problems, and no one was truly prepared for it.
By the time humanity discovered Deepworld, superstitition had faded into obscurity. As science improved, fewer people looked to religion to explain their reality. Day by day, our knowledge of the planes increased. Eventually, we concluded, there would be nothing left to learn. It was a point of hope for some folks. Those people, and those of a similar mindset, are where the Truthless come from. Their aims may be misguided, but it comes from a point of view that many of us can recognize.
Deepworld posed a problem for both planes. Most people had assumed that there was only one other plane, and for Skyworld, that remained the case. Deepworld only had a connection to Groundworld (as far as we know, see chapter 7 for the controversy surrounding the planar model), which reignited tensions. More than that, though, was how foreign it was. Deepworld had less in common with the other two planes than anyone could have expected.
It wasn’t until decades later that the C.A.N. established rules prohibiting transfer. In the early days, transfer was treated like a new, exciting natural resource. The corporations that initially began exploration lobbied against those changes until the first incursion.