The Erklirte - Part 1

Over the past few days, we have been reviewing the beginning of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution whereupon Rome and Rei were attacked as soon as they arrived at their soon-to-be new home world of Deucado.

The whys come later but for now, I thought I'd review the formal definition of Erklirte which is the Vuduri word for Ark Lords. The Vuduri call those of us from the 21st century Garecei Ti Essessoni or Essessoni for short. This means the Killer Generation because in our time, nine people died during the Great Dying. There was a small group, members of the Darwin Project, who returned to Earth and they were called the Erklirte or Ark Lords. So, all Erklirte are Essessoni but not all Essessoni are Erklirte. Clear? Here is the formal definition from the Wiki entitled Rome's Revolution: The Science Behind the Science Fiction:

The sequel to the novel Rome's Revolution, called The Ark Lords, is almost entirely devoted to this topic.

The Great Dying occurred in 2081AD and was caused by an artificial virus. Nine billion people died. You will find out the origin of the virus in The Ark Lords. Even though several million humans survived, the chaos created was so devastating that society devolved into nomads and farmers. Things stayed that way for nearly 600 years as the remaining humans eschewed science and technology, blaming it for the near extinction of the human race.

The Ark program was supposed to consist of four Arks but in reality consisted of five. The fifth Ark, sometimes called the Stealth Ark, was launched in 2076 and sent to the Chara star system. There were no habitable planets there so the Ark looped around and returned to the Earth in the year 2655AD or 579PR. It landed in Northern New Jersey, to the west of New York City.

Rather than the crew being a mix of 80% white and 20% gray as previous missions, this Ark was 100% gray. Also, the male to female ratio was 4:1 rather than 4:5 as normal. When the crew of Ark V landed, they immediately settled and created a compound sealed off from the outside world. They ran raids and captured women to bring up the male to female ratio.

They were very warlike and cruel. They reintroduced slavery and used their superior technology to begin building an empire. The people came to refer to them as the Ark Lords or in Vuduri, the Erklirte. They represented the very worst of mankind and the people of our age.

Tomorrow, the conclusion.