Ice Age: Dawn Of St. Charlies

PebbleLion asked about civil rights and social matters in the world of When We Fly, and this might not QUITE be an answer to that inquiry, but I have to start somewhere. And that somewhere is the literal start of this version of planet Earth.

I'm fascinated by prehistory because it's by far the longest stretch of conscious existence, and we know pretty much nothing about it. Some humans (and WwF animal people) believe that there WAS no existence before a handful of millennia ago. For our purposes, there sure as hell were plenty of sapient animal folk in the WwF world during prehistoric times, and while most of their stories have been lost to time, here's what we've been able to piece together.

As people began to evolve, they mostly stuck to their own kind...the herds of the plains, the swarms of the fields, the featherfolk of the mountains, the aquids of the shores, etc. When a massive ice age rose to devour the planet, the tribes were forced to abandoned their ancestral homes and collectively convene with each other to survive. This was a time of great learning, sharing and prosperity for people of all species, the likes of which would never again be experienced on Earth. Some refer to this community as Eden, and there are endless hypotheses about the setting, its lifestyle and its importance to the political and spiritual future of the world.

Eventually this "paradise" would outgrow itself, and like every supercommunity it inevitably collapsed under its own weight. As the ice age ended, families (many of mixed species by this time) set off into the world to establish new homes. These settlements formed the bedrock for modern countries, and in time the people created new societies and localized languages (there are those who equate the mythical Tower of Babel with this phenomenon). Around this time, the world of WwF begins to resemble our own quite a bit...this is just a theory--A KAE THEORY--but their world may well be a mirror universe of our own, only with proportionately fewer sapient primates (they have a few, but not as many).

I'm going to revisit and continue this discussion another time; while the people of WwF have as many loyalties and prejudices as do we humans, living with thousands of diverse intelligent species thickens the plot. In the meantime, behold some sloths of the Ice Age (what a unique concept!). I have heard it said that, in prehistoric times, transfemme people may have been lauded as spiritual leaders who were afforded great respect in their communities. Also, Itzel's adoptive mom in WwF proper is a sapient smilodon. Lettttt's get rrrrready for furry confusion!

When We Fly (c)Kae