Chapter thirty seven: passage of time
After Caelum's departure that day, he didn't step into Dharti again for quite some time. He only appeared inside the white room that hovered above the world, an empty, lofty space where non of the natural laws existed.
Each time he appeared in the white room, he poured his willpower into the world stabilizer. That alone was enough for the stabilizer expanded the edges of the world without his direct hand. From the start, that was the the reason for the creation of the world stabilizer, to act as caelum's proxy.
And the world grew without any limits under the influence of the world stabilizer.
Unlike when it was first shaped, Dharti now stretched far beyond its original borders. The ground expanded, new mountains formed, forests spread, rivers carved paths where none had existed.
The physical dharti wasn't the only thing that was expanded upon, the natural laws Caelum had set in place through the stabilizer also stretched out to cover the ever-increasing land. Laws of time flow, how matter behaved and stretched with it, how gravity behaved, how the fake sky simulated both sunlight and moonlight. Without any actual sun and moon.
All of it settled into the new land like threads woven into cloth. But it wasn't just the world that changed.
It's inhabitants also changed. They multiplied, adapted, and evolved over time.
From a circle of mud-huts and shared firelight, they had grown into a more structured civilization. They tilled large fields, made bronze tools, passed down and evolved language.
Smoke rose from chimneys of the huts where there had once been only campfires. And all of it happened without Caelum.
The world was built upon the defination of earth, it was an exact copy of earth. The people were shaped from caelum's own biological framework. All that combined gave him confidence that nature would take its course, so caelum chose not to interfere with Dharti's growth.
He stopped visiting the ground entirely, days passed by and turned into Weeks, and during those weeks, he only appeared in the white room above Dharti. Only to replenish the stabilizer with his willpower.
But Dharti did not move at his pace, due to the difference in dharti's time flow, what felt like weeks to Caelum stretched into centuries below.
Generations were born, living their lives and vanishing into the surge of time.
The people who once sat around campfires, speaking in crude and primitive tongues, were long gone. Their descendants no longer clung to the edge of a small village in the vast dharti.
Fields were carved into the lands, borders made of strong wooden and stone structures extended to the vast areas unexplored by the first humans ancestors. Crops sprouted in rows, beautiful wooden and stone homes rose where mud-huts once stood.
Livestocks like goats, cattle, ducks and cows wandered in groups under human control.
The humans shaped bronze into Spears, axes, and different tools. crafting and wielded them to achieve greater success in hunting and farming.
The world beneath changed, stepping into the bronze era.
Though only three weeks had slipped by in the outside world, more than a thousand years had washed over Dharti.
Yet through every season turned, every generation buried and born, one belief never faded from the people's hearts.
After Caelum vanished from the world, the last elder, already on the verge of death passed away in his terror of being abandoned by the creator.
The children of the blessed couple, the person with the golden eyes became the new 'elder'. And from that point on, people of Dharti held to a truth passed down like fire in the dark,.those with golden eyes had been blessed by the creator himself, therefore the ones worthy of leading the human race.
As the small settlement expanded beyond its early circle of huts and fire pits, growing into a modest city shaped by bronze and stone, the population swelled. Thousands now walked the streets and fields, but the ones with golden eyes remained few compared to the masses.
Their rarity only deepened their reverence further.
The trait could only be inherited, beginning with the pair of an old couple. Their bloodline carried the glow forward, even though their population increased with each generation, it was nothing compared to the rapidly increasing numbers of the humans without golden eyes.
Still, Numbers didn't matter. In the eyes of the people, golden eyes meant legacy. And legacy meant authority.
The bronze age rose under the rule of a bloodline most barely understood, but none dared question.
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For more than four centuries, the people of Dharti, led largely by those born with golden eyes lived without formal structure of any kind. Order was held together by tradition, influence, and ancestral influence. But one day, approximately four-hundred-fifty years after caelum's last visit , a shift began.
It started with the wants and needs of the golden eye-lineage, they wanted to have more proper control over the increasingly overwhelming population. Thus giving rise to a formal monarchy system.
Guided by the descendants of the first golden-eyed pair, humanity evolved further. A hundred more years passed, and that early monarchy structure solidified into a hereditary system. From then on, leadership entirely belonged to the chosen heir of that blessed bloodline, an unbroken thread of golden eyes ruling over the growing city.
A hundred, two hundred and finally.
A millennium has passed in Dharti's world since Caelum last walked among them, the monarchy stood as the absolute system of rules for the human civilization, becoming its roots.
The bloodline of those born with golden eyes, after rising to prominence over the centuries, renamed themselves. They came to be know as the blessed ones among the people, creating a clear wall between them and other humans. It was something akin to a noble class, though the society itself never developed a concept of nobility in the traditional sense.
Because their influence wasn't enforced through politics or decree but held firm through reverence. having etched itself so deeply into the culture of Dharti that entire generations accepted their descendants as chosen leaders.
On this day, a sprawling circle-shaped plaza, was brimming with life. It was at the heart of the city build with a harmonious blend of natural materials like stone, wood, and plants.
From above, the plaza filled with a large crowd looked like a sea of humanity.
The sea was layered, flowing, and rippling with energy as people chattered.
"Hey! Hey! A little space, please!" A young woman's voice cut through the buzz of the crowd.
An elderly man beside her glanced around the dense gathering. "Young miss, if you find space today, bottle it and sell it. There's not even room to stretch your fingers here."
The girl sighed, brushing a strand of hair away. "Ugh. I should've expected people will flood the plaza before coming here."
She scanned the area ahead, looking at the raised platform in the distance where the blessing ceremony was to take place. Flags bearing the golden eye symbol fluttered in the breeze, casting streaks of shadow across the crowd.
"It's not every day the heir of the ruling bloodline receives their first public blessing," she lowered her head and said.
"Attention." A deep and commanding voice boomed across the plaza, cutting through the murmur like a blade. It was a voice that was trained over years to silence crowds and command respect.
The ocean of people stirred, all the conversations stopped mid-sentence. Even the children, fidgeting at their parents' feet, fell quiet. All eyes turned to the raised platform that extended from the grand wooden structure dominating the plaza's northern end.
The building itself was an architectural marvel, curved beams, sweeping arcs, and an elegance shaped by hand. The walls bore carvings that twined like living branches: leaves caught in motion, vines curling into spirals, petals in mid-bloom. It was less a house and more a testament to artistry and reverence of the humans in dharti.
Standing tall above the extended platform was a man built like a pillar of stone. His broad shoulders, graying beard, and a face weathered by both time and duty gave him a unique charm.
He appeared to be in his mid-forties, though his presence made him feel ageless. His garments bore the golden insignia of the Blessed, marked with the authority of generations.
"The Lady Chief is in the final hour," the man announced, his voice carrying effortlessly across the plaza. "Soon, she will deliver the next bearer of our bloodline, the heir to the mantle of leadership and the will of our creator."
A ripple of excitement, anticipation and hope passed through the crowd.
"As everyone gathered here can guess, this is no ordinary day," he continued, "for today, we do not only witness a birth, we reaffirm the will of the Creator through the continuation of the golden line."
Murmurs of agreement spread like embers catching in dry grass. Some clasped their hands in silent prayer, others raised their heads with pride. The legacy of the golden eyes lived on, and with it, their unity.
Above them, the fake sky was cloudless unusual for the season. like even the fake sky could see through the brainwashing being done in the name of their 'creator'.