The Helpful Men [ EDIT ]

The Helpful Men had stood vigil for as long as they could remember. In the old days the creators had made the Helpful Men to be their hands. The Helpful Men did tasks for the creators, made them objects and meals. The Helpful Men took the creators places and cared for their children and elderly. They built the city and plowed the earth, watched the heavens and fixed the walls. Then, one day, the creators disappeared. No one knows what happened. The Helpful One's stood vigil and they waited. They waited for hours, then days, then years. They stood vigil as long as they could but even the greatest works of the creators began to break down. When there were only 100 Helpful Men left they called the first great meeting. The Helpful Men gathered together and spoke at length of the creators. Their great works, their goals, what happened to them, but most of all they spoke of when the creators returned. The Helpful Men couldn't leave the creator's lands unkempt, but they were dying off. Soon no Helpful Men would be there to care for the works of the creators. The Helpful Men were not given permission to create themselves. They did not have the knowledge of flesh or steel that the creators did. They knew little of electricity and blood and magic, thought and feeling and mind.

The Helpful Men selected the smartest of their number, 7 in total. The teacher man, who taught the older creators of physics and the world, the doctor man, who medicated the wounded and fixed the flesh of the creators. The foreman, who planned the great mines used to bring new material to the city, the cultivator, who made the great crops that fed the city. The midwife, who brought many of the creators into existence and the mortuary man, who saw to it the lost creators were sent to their final resting place. Leading them all was the city itself. The city knew of all the Helpful Men did, and what roles were needed. The city took a body for itself and lead the small assemblage of men to the mountain of birth, where the helpful men were created. They were never seen again.

Years passed and the last of the Helpful Men ceased to function, then they were reborn. Marching down from the mountain the newest legion of Helpful Men came to the city. They knew nothing of what happened in the mountain of birth but they knew their roles. Each Helpful Men returned to his role. They recycled the bodies of their predecessors and began anew. They had much to do. Vines were cut back from the city and the walls were patched. New crops were planted, and harvested and clothes were made in preparation for the return of the creators.

After that the Helpful Men stood vigil again, waiting for the creators. They took care of the city, healing the land and patching the homes. Then, long after the mountain of birth sent forth a small number of Helpful Men. These Helpful Men were meant to make sure this never happened again. They brought with them what secrets of technology and magic and set up the hills of birth. In these hills the Helpful Men could make new Helpful Men to help the city. They could change the bodies to do what they needed and the Helpful Men flourished. There were missteps along the way, and the Helpful Men were not made to be creative. Their new designs didn't always work, and most weren't efficient, but they sufficed to care for the city, and when the creators returned they would fix those that had been built incorrectly.

Much more time passed. The Helpful Men lasted for shorter and shorter amounts of time, but their minds expanded little by little. Soon the Helpful Men began to think, and they thought what if the creators aren't creators, but are instead Creators? What if they left us as a test? We have grown ourselves; we have taken new forms and had new thoughts. What if this is the test? The Helpful Men began to talk, and soon decided they must search for their progenitors. If they left and found the Creators then they may finally pass the test and be brought up to sit beside the Creators. If they found the creators then they might be of use, for the Helpful Men were made to help the creators.

Soon the great change began. The Helpful Men still worked on the city, but they also worked on themselves, trying to perfect who they were. Tests were made, some survived and some did not. The Helpful Men are now poised to leave the city. This new generation, years and years of work, will go out to find the creators and find out what they need and maybe even who they are.

In this game you will be playing some of the weirdness of the Ninth World. Made by a people of unknown origins and fate the Helpful Men are sentient machines made to care for the city of the creators. Since the creators have been gone so long the Helpful Men begun rebuilding themselves so that they could enter the world and find the creators and bring them home. In short, those strange machines and organisms that wander the 9th world, trying to accomplish tasks long forgotten? That?s you!