| Post a comment |
|
Through the Ages
|
May. 21st, 2009 @ 06:26 am
|
|---|
|
There was a saying that wisdom came with age. Sersi wasn’t quite sure she believed that. She was certainly old (already tens of thousands of years old), but she wasn’t quite sure she’d call herself wise. Sure she knew a lot, but was she wiser for it? She doubted it. She still rushed headfirst into things and followed her passions rather than her head.
She stood on the penthouse balcony and looked out at the city. New York was by far one of the most interesting cities in the world and she had been in a lot of cities over the course of her long life. Babylon, Rome (when it was a few huts and way beyond that), Paris, London (first when it was a Roman outpost on the fringe of the empire) and countless others, but none captured her attention and heart more than New York. It was a city unlike any other and Sersi felt at home in it.
The three cities her race of people inhabited didn’t come close to being like New York. They were cold, distant and isolated much like her people in general. Not her though. She had always been in the heart of human civilization and she reveled in humanity’s energy and drive.
She had been born not long after the continents of Atlantis and Lemuria sank beneath the waves. It was a time when humans were still following wild herds and gathering what they could along the way. It was her people, the Eternals, who taught mankind how to plant and harvest crops. Reading and writing were also taught to mankind and recorded history began. Sersi had witnessed the birth of civilization and had stayed in the thick of it for almost all of her long life.
Babylon was one of the first cities and one of the first places she called home outside of the Eternals’ cities. The mud-brick building were quaint (compared to the buildings in Olympia and the other two cities) and the city was dirty and crowded, teeming with humanity. She loved it. She watched the Ishtar gate being built by order of Nebuchadnezzar II and then the Hanging Gardens. Often a night she would wander among the many plants and sit in their shade during the day.
Babylon’s star rose and fell and the Egyptian city of Cairo grabbed the spotlight. It was one of the few cities that failed to capture her attention for any length of time. It was a place to live until Athens rose to prominence.
Athens. Now there was a city she enjoyed. The arts flourished and reason enlightened the world. Yet, man was still evolving and stubbornly held on to the old beliefs of gods and goddesses. Her family and the Olympians struck a deal and the Eternals became the embodiment of the gods and goddesses on Earth. The others reveled in their new roles, but Sersi wanted no part of it. She didn’t want to be worshipped. She wanted to live among the humans and enjoy in the revelry. Eventually she retreated to an island in the Aegean.
Humans would not leave her alone for long. Odysseus and his men came ashore and she turned them into pigs for their lack of manners at her table. Thena intervened on Odysseus’ behalf and Sersi turned them back into men much to her displeasure. Odysseus would once again encroach upon her island, but this time in the form of Telemachus, Odysseus’ son. Oh how she loved him. Thousands of years have passed since she had been with him and there was still an ache in her heart.
Greece declined and Rome rose. Now there was a group of people who knew how to live. The decadency, the energy, the passion, everything Sersi loved about humans. Wine flowed freely and she never lacked for lovers or entertainment. Each emperor wanted more lavish things than the previous one. She watched Rome burn under Nero only to be rebuilt bigger and better from the ashes. The empire expanded and along with it came contact with other peoples.
The Germanic clans were a rather scruffy bunch and uncivilized compared to the Romans, but Sersi found qualities in them that she liked. They were full of passion and brewed the most wonderful drinks. Rome declined and eventually split into two empires. As Rome fell she made her way to the British Isles.
Merlin was a funny old man, highly entertaining and very charming. She wished she could say the same about Arthur. He was stuffy to say the least. The court at Camelot wasn’t nearly as fun or decadent as the emperors’ palaces back in the old Rome, but she took what she could get at the time. She found adventure and excitement when she helped Merlin defeat an impostor.
Europe grew and developed, eventually becoming the predominant force in the West. The Catholic Church and its teachings put a huge damper on fun and entertainment, but there were always ways around it. The Crusades came and went and in the end it just killed people on the battlefield and in the form of the plague. The old knowledge of Greece was rediscovered and the light of reason started to spread once more across the world.
The Church would be Sersi’s nemesis for awhile as persecutions for witchcraft ran rampant across Europe. Sersi was never one to hide her abilities and was brought up on accusations of being a witch. She was tried and found guilty, as were most women at this time, and was tied to a stake to be burned. The flames didn’t affect her and she walked away from the stake. She turned her accusers into pigs, a favorite trick of hers, for a short while before turning them back. She quickly left the area.
The Age of Discovery opened new lands for the Europeans, but Sersi and her fellow Eternals had already known about these lands and the peoples in them. She stayed in Europe, roughing it in the wilderness was so not her. She liked the good life and the good life was exactly what she was going to live. The Americas would wait until cities were built.
The next hundred years had been relatively quiet and Sersi found many distractions. They were usually well built and fit, dark hair and had a gorgeous smile.
She watched England become the most powerful country in the world and watched the upstart colonies revolt against her. She had been in Paris, when France went up like a tinderbox. The common people rose up against the aristocracy and Sersi watched Louis and Marie lose their heads.
Occasionally she traveled back to Olympia, but only once every hundred years or so. It was just to touch base and see if anything interesting was going on. There never was. Ever.
Makkari would blow in like the wind to visit her wherever she may be, but like the wind he was gone as quickly has he had come. She crossed paths with Gilgamesh once and awhile and occasionally Sprite, but outside of them she never saw her people except for the infrequent trips back to Olympia.
The years rolled by and before she knew it the 1900s had come. The very beginning was kind of quiet, but then World War I broke out to be followed by the 1920s. Now there was a decade long party. It had to be one of her favorite decades of all time. Booze, music, and mobsters to start and Sersi loved every second of it. Speakeasies were crowded, noisy and exactly her kind of place.
The Great Depression took a lot of wind out of everyone’s sails, including her own. She had never been more glad to see a decade end.
She had coasted through World War II and the 50s. Then came the 60s. The decade of free love and everything else that came with it. Sersi loved every second of it and it was her second favorite decade of all time. She had many, many fond memories of the 60s.
The 70s and 80s were rather uneventful and the 90s started out rather quiet. Then she got involved with the social scene in New York and has been rubbing elbows with the elite ever since.
She smiled and went back inside her penthouse. She had to get ready for tonight’s party.
|
|
|
| Top of Page |
Powered by Scribbld |
![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}