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The author, retired from Victorian National University in 1085, presents this book as the culmination of years of field studies on technological, cultural, historical, and political phenomena affecting Terrans. Its purpose is to fill a void in spreading knowledge across Terra, helping readers understand the land's people and past and current events. Encouragement from Dr. Kal'tsit and former colleagues prompted the writing. Sources include Victorian and Leithanian academic research, resources from all Terra's nations, and decades of the author's notes; oversights will be corrected in future editions. The author urges readers to move beyond "common sense" and respect life. He thanks his wife Susanna, to whom the book is dedicated, and deceased friends.
The author, a researcher of technological, cultural, historical, and political phenomena affecting Terrans, presents this book as the culmination of that work. The preface explains the book's purpose, the factors behind its creation, its academic context, its sources, and the limitations of the author's personal perspective.
The book aims to fill a longstanding void in spreading knowledge and education across Terra. It contains accounts of cultures, prosperities, tragedies, sorrows, and unknowns, all tied to readers' own lives. It targets anyone wishing to better understand Terra's people, regardless of age, gender, birthplace, background, or status, and seeks to distill information and extract insights from heaps of reports.
After retiring from the Victorian National University in 1085, the author often recalled the 1030s, when youthful zeal drove a search for something elusive. Through retrospection, he realized it was a thirst to learn and share. Though an octogenarian with many papers and talks, the mysteries of the lands remained abundant. A year later he met Dr. Kal'tsit, who later founded Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals, and she urged him to pursue his ideas. Encouraged by former colleagues and students, he resolved to write.
The material draws on many sources: Chapter One traces to Victorian and Leithanian academic research, Chapter Two draws on resources from all Terra's nations, and Chapter Three onward consists mainly of his decades of notes, largely excerpted as is. Non-Victorian texts use the widest-known Victorian translation where available; otherwise he translated them himself. He asks readers to point out errors for correction in the next edition.
He warns that some readers, clinging to "common sense" and personal experience, may resist recognizing multifaceted social reality, though it is with others that we coexist on this land. He writes with respect for life itself.
Finally, he thanks those who helped him, especially his wife Susanna, to whom the book is dedicated, and pays respects to former aides and students who passed away during its writing.
For years, I have researched and conducted field studies on various technological, cultural, historical, and political phenomena affecting the lives of Terrans across the land. This book is a systemic summary of my findings and the culmination of my work. Before we delve in, I wish to provide an overview of the purpose behind this book, the various factors that led to its creation, and the academic context of the research undertaken. This introduction aims to assist readers in understanding the central themes of the book, the origins of its materials and viewpoints, and the inherent limitations of my personal research perspective.
To be very frank, this book (and any potential sequels) aims to fill the longstanding void in the spreading of knowledge and education across all of Terra. Read on for enthralling accounts of cultures and prosperities, heartbreaking tragedies and sorrows, and no shortage of unknowns and unseens that almost defy the written word. Do note, however, that they all tie back into our own lives. I imagine this book's target readers will wish to gain a better understanding of the people of our great land, regardless of age, gender, birthplace, background, or status. I have attempted to organize and distill the collected information to help readers understand past and current events on the land of Terra. My goal is to highlight key points worthy of attention amidst the overwhelming complexity of information and extract valuable insights from the monotonous heaps of reports.
Following my retirement from the Victorian National University in 1085, I have lived, in a certain sense, an idle life. My mind often wandered back to the past, and in those moments, I always seemed to drift back to the 1030's, that is—back when I endeavored to spend every last drop of my youthful zeal learning all there was to know. In my surreal flashbacks, I constantly found myself searching for something elusive, yet it always remained beyond my grasp. Coincidentally, that was when I would start to look back over my own life. After numerous retrospections, I finally realized what I had been searching for—still burning bright as ever, it was that same thirst to learn and share.
Though an octogenarian with countless papers and talks on history, society, and the rest of the pedagogue to my name, the mysteries were no less abundant, fascinating, and absorbing, the moment I looked to the lands. There was a drive, a craving in my boyhood heart of hearts, to enable everyone curious like myself about Terra to learn, swiftly and hassle-free, all there is to know. In a canny turn of fate the following year, I met the Dr. Kal'tsit that would later found Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals, and being the bright, young yet profoundly well-read woman she was, she exhorted me to give my ideas the legs they deserve. Following a period of pestering former colleagues and students, I resolved to finally set my sights on writing. Their encouragement and advice were indispensable motivators as I kept at my task.
The material I have consulted while writing is no short of a litany, and certainly not an exclusive product of my own studies. Much of the detail in Chapter One can
be traced to the research of Victorian and Leithanian academics, while Chapter Two draws broadly on resources from all of Terra's nations. Chapter Three onward consist mainly of my information from decades of endless notetaking (and obsessive editing), now recompiled in aggregate, with large portions of those notes excerpted as is. For non-Victorian language text, I opt to quote the widest-known Victorian translation directly if one exists, and the remainder I have translated myself. Inevitably, there will be oversights and errors. If keen readers discover any mistakes, please by all means point them out to me, and I will venture to have them corrected in time for the next edition.
That said, a long stint in academia has instructed me that not everyone will approach this book with such an open mind. Some readers bring only their own impressions and ideas on life to the table. Here, such people will find their old friend "common sense" throwing walls up around them as they read. They cling to the comfort derived from their personal physical and mental experience, unable to detach from their deep-seated notions, camping stubbornly in the domain of their own perception, reluctant to recognize the variegated, multifaceted social reality. An approach with its own benefits, to be sure. One can readily retreat to cramped confinement, feign as if completely oblivious to the changes around them, or even use "why do I need to know this?" as a convenient excuse to mask their mediocrity that prevents them from learning about the lives of others. Yet, it is with these others that we ultimately coexist on this vast and great land. It is with great respect for life itself that I work and write, and I can only hope this book might do the job of conveying that.
Finally, I must thank all those who've lent me their assistance; it is by their selfless help and direction that I've been delivered from many a potential blunder. First and foremost, I must thank the one for whom there is no substitute, my wife Susanna. By no means an academic drudge, she is an endless font of fresh viewpoints I've never chanced to consider before. I can think of no other individual more befitting of dedicating this book to. Furthermore, in my time writing this book, many former aides and fellow students of mine have left us. Their departures mark the passing of the previous age; to those friends, here I lay my last respects and all my gratitude. May their accomplishment and glory find eternal home in our corpus, now and forevermore.
E. E. Erikson