To return to the past for a moment, we shall head back just under a millennium ago, a bit after the Great Divide, to the mere year of 150AD. Far south of Melgorra, in a small coastal town near the docks of Meridia, an apprentice blacksmith could be seen making idle banter with his dear friend. Toiling away at their part-time jobs as the Great War was just about ending, they were rather laid-back about the whole situation.

“So, what’re your thoughts on the war?” I looked my dear friend in the eye, “Think it’s safe to go on a vacation yet?”

“You and your vacations…” He groaned as the sparks flew off everywhere, “Schnell, have you learned nothing of my lectures to you? Sure they say the war is over, but really, that’s just politician speak for We’re still killing off any and all stragglers! We’ll wait for more information, so for now just sit back and do your job.”

Shaid, my dearest of friends whom I’ve known since I was but a wee lad. That being said, neither of us are so wee anymore, given that we’re both 17 years old as of the coming summer. I’m quite surprised he’s actually managed to pull off such a damn handsome goatee at his age, meanwhile I’m stuck with this annoying stubble. His black, slicked-back hair and bright Blue Eyes also work swimmingly with his thick yet charming accent. But just you wait, asshole! With my bulky stature and well-defined chin, the moment I get to grow out my beard properly, you’re done for!

But hey, that’s Shaid for ya’. A merchant stuck with the role of a lowly blacksmith. ‘Course, it’s not like I’m not in the same situation. Can’t help it though, gotta help pops out with the family business somehow. Really though, our timing couldn’t get any worse. The two of us had dreams of traveling the world, selling wares of all kinds to further the advancements of mankind, and just when we were all but ready to leave… BAM! Yet another War broke out! I swear, they call each War that comes by “The final, decisive, Great War” that’ll finally decide the country borders from now on, but by that logic, there’s been more than ten “Great Wars” ever since the New Era started a century and a half ago, and yet not a single one had decided anything! It’s all just pointless infighting amongst the human race that leads to death and misery!

What we now know as the Great Divide is said to have divided up the known World into countless tinier landmasses, leading to a whole heap of territorial disputes. ‘Course the people here don’t know jack shit about all that, given Meridia’s whole “Safest place in the World” shtick we’ve got going on. Really, I just don’t get it – so what if Cardina was unaffected by the Great Divide? You’re telling me just because we’ve always been an island continent, no one even bothered to check on us? Come on, I want the war to come here too so I can at least see something interesting happen for once!

“It’s all boring here!” I threw a hammer so hard it stuck to the wall, “They’re calling it The Great War, and yet here we are years later not even having met a single soldier that’s fighting in it!”

“Maybe that is because they are in one of the continents that the Great Divide caused.” Shaid yanked the hammer out of the wall, “For the many years us two have known each other, I still cannot understand how you lack the logic to figure this one simple thing out.”

“So you’re saying that in the 9 years this war had been going on, not ONE person thought to run away to what was always considered The safest place in the World? Shaid, bud, I love ya’, but you’re really letting me down here.”

“That is of unimportance.” He tossed me back my hammer, “Now get to work. Your father is a kind man, but he is not one to allow for slacking.”

“He ain’t gonna kill us for taking a break, y’know…”

So there ya’ have it. The situation’s all screwed up all because of those damned world leaders looking for land to conquer and places to pillage. What ever happened to advancing as a society? The moment a war starts, everyone goes back to being chimps! What a joke, to stain this beautiful world with your self-centered ideals…!

“Oh, by the way.” I recalled something, “Where is dad, anyways?”

“Surely you must be kidding…” Shaid facepalmed, “No, you cannot be serious with me right now. Do you not know? Your father has departed for the North of the continent to deliver some goods.”

“Yeah, I know, I just wanted to hear you say.” I chuckled, “Hey, Shaid, pops isn’t gonna be home for a while, so I think now’s as good a time as any to do the thing.”

“The thing?” He put his hammer down for a moment with a slight grin, “That is all you had to say, friend. Let us go to the pub!”

***

“The thing”, for those of you who’re not in the loop, is mine and Shaid’s special little tradition we’ve recently gotten into. Basically, it’s a simple little ball game, where both of us take turns hitting a bunch of clay balls with a stick and try to get all of them in the hole. Yep, you all know what it is – pool, baby!

“Bap!” I absolutely demolished the ball with unspoken style, “Hah! How’d ya’ like them apples?”

“The point of the game is not to destroy the balls, though.” Shaid took out a spare out of his pocket and continued lining up his shot, “Seriously, this pub is the only place that has this game, and yet they still refuse to buy better balls…”

“Hey, you forgot to say Bap! when you hit the ball, jackass!” I said as I hurried to align my shot next, “Bap! Naww, just barely missed it!”

“Rushing will get you nowhere, my friend.” Shaid started getting cocky, “Do you know of the story of the blacksmith who rushed to shoot his pool balls into the hole?”

“What?” I tilted my head, “Alright, I’ll bite. What the hell happened to that guy?”

“I fucked his mother.” He said as he shot the ball straight into the hole, “Bap.”

This guy’s really asking for it now…! He wins a round or two of pool and gets all high and mighty like this, can you believe it?! Now I’m usually not the impulsive type of guy, or at least I think so, but when you pull my mother into this, oh-ho-ho, bud! Then you’re asking for a beatin’!

“Best three out of five!” I shouted as if I wasn’t the one losing 2-0.

“Whatever it is you say, friend.” He flashed a devious smile, “But do note that if you lose, you pay for this outing.”

“Alright then!” I thought up a good argument, “But if you lose, I tell pops about what you just said about my mother!”

“Ack, how foul…”

With that, the table was reset as the triangle-shaped piece of carved wood aligned all the balls near the center. Removing the piece of wood allowed us to begin the match, but sadly I wasn’t the one breaking this time.

“Hup!” He hit the white ball straight on, making the Red and Green solids fall in, “There we go.”

“Hey now. Bap, not Hup!” I corrected him as I changed the topic, “Hey, you never did answer my question from earlier. What do you think about the war?”

“Mn?” He glanced back as he struck the Yellow ball, but just barely missed, “Dammit. Ahh, what I think of it? What is there to say? War is not good in any scenario, so I do not think fondly of it. Your turn.”

“Ah, thanks.” I took the stick from him as I slowed down my breathing, “Can’t mess this up… Bap!”

Striking the ball with just a tad less strength in it than before, it almost perfectly hit the cluster where he weakly broke them apart initially, thus freeing up all my stripes. That being said, none of them actually entered any holes, but I wasn’t planning on it anyways, so it’s fine.

“I see you are finally starting to strategize?” He admired my brain power, “Congratulations. How does it feel to join the smart people band?”

“Just shut up and take the damned stick.” I rolled my eyes as I tossed it to him, “In any case, after I heard the war was ending, I got to thinking… What do you say we forcefully stop it once and for all?”

“We? As in, the two of us?” He shook his head as he safety’d, “Please do tell me more of this grand plan of yours.”

“You damned wimp.” I mocked his passive playstyle, “But really, it’s super simple. See, the wars are all happening because of territorial disputes that stem from centuries of chauvinism, right?”

“Right…?”

“So!” I struck the ball at just the right angle to bounce it over his solids, barely grazing my Green and making it fall in, “That just means we need to be the glue that holds everyone together! We travel the world and document our time in each continent, and later publish the books and spread them across the world to educate the masses on just how nice everyone is!”

“Schnell, your optimism is suffocating.” He groaned as he waited for me to align my next shot, “First of all, what makes you think that everyone in the world is as nice as the people of Cardina? There might be a reason for the people to disagree on each other.”

“But that’s exactly what they want you to think!” I took my eyes off of the ball for a split second to address him, only to completely miss my shot because of it, “Ack! Surely that’s because I forgot to Bap it… In any case, we’re all humans at the end of the day, right? So no matter what race or nationality you’re from, surely we can all find even ground to get along with each other on!”

“Right…” He silently took the stick from me, “Well, it sure does beat out smithing at your old man’s workshop, so I really don’t mind.”

“So you’ll come with me?!” My face lit up as I noticed him pocketing back-to-back balls in the holes, leaving only the Black one.

“Yeah…” He pocketed the final ball into the hole, thus ending the game, “Though I will miss your mother, but what can you do?”

“Alright, now you’re getting it!” I chased him out of the pub, fists ablaze, “Take back what you said about her!”

“What are you talking about, Schnell?” He ran in front of me, all smiles, “To take back a compliment to a lady is a sin, don’t you know? Now come on, let’s go to that restaurant! Remember the deal – your treat!”

“SHA~IIID!”

And so, in the year 150AD, two soon-to-be 17 year olds from the safest place in the World decided to pack their bags and leave their homes. The plan was to travel the world, learn of all the different cultures out there, document them, and finally share them. It was a simple little joke dream of theirs that was really just an excuse to go traveling, but little did they know that their actions would have an incredible impact on the world one day…