The world was once a vibrant, living place. It is no longer. War has destroyed all. The land once teaming with life and activity is now a desolate, lifeless place -- except for Tor, the last person left alive. Amid the ruins, he recalls the times forever past. He recalls the good days of his world and of his own life. He also recalls the wars, and the path they blindly followed to oblivion.
How is it that people can love individually and hate collectively, as they do? Groups can be defined as enemies. People can hate another group of people with a passion, a rage, wanting them all wiped out of existence. Confronted with an individual of the group they hate, though, the hatred fades away. When someone's no longer a faceless enemy, they can be loved as any other individual. Why, then? Why do people who can love individuals still hate groups? Why do they make war, why do they kill and thirst for revenge?
When people declare war not only on each other but on the planet, what's the point? What drives people to this kind of group suicide? Of course, people speak of wanting a war to end all wars, and there's only one way to get that kind of finality.
This was a temple... and this a place dedicated to the arts. And there where the waves sped upon the beach the shattered walls of stone we made remain to mock us. And there, where the white road was, is the desolation. The winds die down, and the sun wanes, and the moon is sickly.
Tor