The Others - Part 1

On the third land out from the light-of-life, there lived a simple people. They thought of themselves as “the makers of things”, or sometimes, “the thinkers of ideas”; but for simplicity’s sake, they just called themselves “the people”.
The people were, for the most part, quite happy. Not so much because they had found an excellent source of fulfillment, but simply because they saw no reason to be unhappy; so they just went about their business.

The people liked to know things. Most of them liked to know how; many liked to know why. Thus they slowly began to amass a body of knowledge shared and agreed upon by all of the people. The people thought this was a good thing, and it made them happy because it was the one thing that they could always agree on .
On occasion two or more of them would enter into conflict, with unpleasant consequences. However, they knew that there was a common bond beneath the disagreement. They knew how their opponents thought. They knew that they were motivated by the same basic interests, and most importantly, they knew that they could eventually see things the same way. They called this common bond, “reason”.

The people took reason for granted. They assumed that it was a natural part of life, just like air was part of the sky or hair was part of their bodies. It was also their most powerful ally. They used it with great success in their thing-making, in their knowledge-finding, and in their interactions with each other. The people were simple, but did not lack sophistication. Their growing body of knowledge allowed them to make magnificent things and to cast light upon their own minds. And so the people grew in knowledge, and power, and wisdom, and were content with their lives.

Then, the Others arrived.