The Reactor - Prologue

Throughout the world, researchers had gathered to review the findings of their fellow researchers and discuss what to do with the data presented. Begrudgingly they had agreed to hear an outsider speak. Many of them feared the woman walking towards the podium, if she could truly be called a woman was even part of the debate. Her ears set high on her head twitched as she walked, her claws clicked on the floor with each step. She stopped before the podium tail twitching from side to side, her ears laid back as she looked at her report and began. In this report, I will lay out the events that led to our current situation in the hopes that our posterity will learn from our mistakes and step away from the cliff of extinction that we have thrust upon them.

As you are all aware this all began in 1945 after the final atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki Japan, unbeknownst to those who created the bombs they had caused an unexpected and undetectable ripple like effect throughout the universe, its impact was most noticeable to those closest to Earth. This ripple was not like a wave rolling upon the shore, no it was more like a hurricane hitting Nebraska, devastating and unheard of, this caused a disruption to the flow of energy that connects all things to each other throughout the universe know by some as the Celestial Flow. In this case, the disruption was called the Celestial Collapse as the void left by detonations caused a wave of energy to rush back towards Earth, luckily Earth had protection from the Celestial wave in lands of the Fae. This protection came at a price, that price was the slow destruction of the Fae homeworld. While Lyoerhan the land of the Fae was acting like a break wall for the coming tsunami, Earth was flooded with what could only be compared to the storm surge before a hurricane in this case, what the Fae had called the Celestial Flow most humans would come to call it magic.

This magic affected only women, many theories exist as to why but most agree it is because women carry children. This changed cultures across the globe because of the effect that all women upon reaching puberty began getting magical powers, many women lost in the power they now had over men started pushing for more and more power, for the most part it was kept hidden out of fear of their husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and male friends, while a few women bathed in the glow of finally being in control of men. In certain areas showing such powers meant death as men reacting out of fear would beat and even kill those who showed such power, this overreaction pushed more and more women to take extreme measures and pushed for the destruction of the old ways.

The first power a woman received was an ability to read the minds of men who showed any form of interest in them, once they reached 18 they would receive a higher power or in some cases powers, now that women had power over men and men had tried to crush this new reality the result of which would be felt throughout the world, gone were the old ways many believed this would bring about a better world, either way, they would never be the same.

After the completion of the Second World War and reconstruction, the world had changed and in many ways not for the better, with repressions by men in many parts of the world and a growing feminist movement that had been gaining popularity among women. These movements had slowly replaced men with women in many key jobs because magic had become commonplace, the most common argument for this shift was the following; how could anyone trust a man who could be used so easily by any woman. The world was split between east and west as the west adopted a more feminist-friendly leaning and many called these policies progressivism, in the east things were calm but a storm was brewing and its ramifications would be felt much longer than the last world war, as the seeds of mistrust took root and began to grow a most vicious fruit.

After 10 years of research done by many in this room about the return of magic, researchers had found that a woman's magical power would be recharged and in some cases increased with the tormenting of men's sexual libido, this research was conducted by mostly women with an agenda of furthering feminism and bent on the total submission of all men. This research said that the more a woman denied a man sexual release the faster they could recover that magic when they finally allowed an orgasm in their presence, however, this research didn't look at other methods to doing the same thing and many male researchers dismissed it as being biased. However, this research was looked upon by those looking to gain more power who spun this data and made it sound irrefutable, this led many men to warn women using the old saying that absolute power corrupts. Women were standing at a fork in the road of history and if they had learned from the past they would have taken the high road, instead fueled by a new and rapidly growing religion that claimed women were now goddesses, they and only they should lead the world a man's place to do as his personal goddess commanded. The new backers of this religion pushed their agenda ruthlessly and in doing so may have sealed the fate of the planet.

Back by this research which was heralded as proof by this new religion and even considered to be dogma by this rapidly growing cult as many a man would come to call it, as women wanting more and more power started to enslave men or maybe torture would be a better word, in the 10 years that followed this new dogma many changes occurred, marriage became a way to control and even harness men's sexual energy as women learned spells to bind their husbands on what would become known as Binding Laws which violated many a right guaranteed by constitution's throughout the world, this did little for any man other than strip the man away from a man, no longer could he enjoy anything close to freedom. Many women said it was to protect men if they were bound then another woman couldn't play merciless games on him instead it would be their own wives who would in many cases be cruel beyond belief, many said that this was justified because of how women had suffered at the hands of men throughout history, this became the cry of the damned as men lost more rights and sense of self, they weren't men anymore they were tools to be used and discarded.

Those few men who were able to hold on to their sense of self, on the other hand, did not take the passing of the binding laws kindly, these laws stated that all men who were bound became the property of their wives and had no rights, just as men disappeared from key positions in the workplace so to did men disappear from public office as the right to vote was stripped from them, men were allowed to work but they were not paid for said work as their pay went to their wife or female family member depending on the age of the man for only they knew what was best for their inferiors. Men who were bound could not achieve orgasm without their wives consent and women who tried to break or did break the bind faced serious jail time and even risked death if they did it repeatedly or to the wrong woman, many women enjoyed "correcting" men for the slightest of infractions. Special units of the police force were created to deal with these new laws and many men learned to fear these units like all secret police had been in days gone by, the dye was cast and only death held any hope of reprieve.

Faced with a bleak future for all men, resulted in the inevitable as violence against women soared, the Gender Wars which began in the former USSR as a group of men banded together to kill the other's wives, these men suffered horribly when brought to the farce that was called justice and it was this persecution and the following martyrdom that started the Gender Wars as men who wanted their freedom raped pillaged and burned much of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. As men marched to their deaths saying, "Death before enslavement." A cry that would take many forms and push humanity to the brink of extinction which we are still on the precipice of to this very day.

Men fell into two camps those who wanted freedom from women at all costs and men who felt by fighting alongside women they could get reforms they wanted to the laws. By 1965 war raged across the globe as men slaughtered each other in the hopes of freedom one way or the other. Many of the battles men fought to the last, in many cases written in the blood of the fallen was the phrase that would become the slogan of all men as it stated, "Better to die free than live as a slave."

In 1966 Lyoerhan was reaching a tipping point 20 years after the Celestial Collapse the land was becoming more and more unlivable as the Celestial Flow turned sections of the realm into wastelands that were so full of this flow that the ground was for lack of a better word irradiated and after having tried radical means to save their home the decision was made to go back to Earth and gather the power needed to save their world. With this decision, they opened gates across the world as the Fae escaping the collapse that was destroying their home, came to earth seeking to live together in peace before returning home.

This kicked off a new era in the Gender Wars which became known as "The Fae Hunts" where human women and the men they were controlling fought side by side with the rebelling men fearing the power of the Fae, they would slaughter them upon coming through the gate, it was later discovered that the Fae were at their weakest after going through the gate. Very few Fae survived these hunts and those that did were hunted down by specialized units called Fae Hunters or just Hunters as the layperson would call them.

Now to say that all women were evil and enjoyed torturing men would be an injustice, some women bound men the truly loved and cared for them as you would a beloved pet but these women were considered so rare that they were the subject of myths told by men who fought on the side of women. One of these saintly sinners was Lila McClain, who had bound Andrew Garner. When Andrew found out she was going to have a boy, he went off to fight for his sons future the hope that such devotion would be proof that men didn't need to be treated as they had been. With the loss of Lila's husband to the war had made her realize that she had come to love Andrew and that left a bond with her son that would in time lead her to hate what she once loved.

In 1970 at what became known as the last Fae Hunt, an American Captain Andrew Garner made a decision that cost him and all of the men under his command their lives but just might have saved the planet, but that is a subject for historians to debate. While fighting with elements of the Muzhskoy Osvoboditelni Front/Male Liberation Front or MLF as they had been known in English, near Ismail Ukraine whilst in the midst's of battle they were given orders to head to Reni Pehi near the border of Moldova/Ukraine/Romania and take part in a Fae Hunt with elements of 259th Hunters a group of women that specialized in the slaughter of the Fae and had for the past 5 years. It is important that I stress the Fae were hated by both sides and were never given any quarter by either side. Men feared that the Fae would be worse than what they had been fighting and attacked them on sight with a fanaticism that had been reserved for human women. Women feared they would overthrow them and do to them what they had been doing to men for 20 years and that loss of power was unacceptable.

When Andrew, saw his first Fae and witnessed the slaughter first hand, it went against everything he had been taught, women were to be respected, obeyed and even protected. The Fae looked like women to him and having suffered at the hands of human women he had no love for the genocide he was witnessing. Doing what he thought was right he turned and opened fire on the 259th Hunters taking them by surprise, this drew a lull in the fighting as the MLF didn't want to lose those men who wanted their freedom or at least that is what they thought had happened when Andrew's men turned on the female unit. With the Hunters eliminated and the subsequent lull in the fighting he used the time to launch a surprise attack on the MLF and opened a corridor to get the Fae out of the trap set for them, this fight was very costly as Andrew lot 2/3 of his men, and out of the 500 Fae that came over that day only 100 survived the last 100 to be exact, for weeks he and his men fought their way down to the Danube until they were caught between the MLF and the FFF or Female Freedom Force a punitive force sent to deal with traitors, at Vylkove and the Danube Delta as the Fae hid in the swamps and forests of the delta, while Andrew and his remaining men fought valiantly buying the much needed time for the Fae to escape but were ultimately destroyed to the last for attacking a female unit, this lesson would be heralded in history books as the Fools Sacrifice or the Great Betrayal it was a sacrifice that would be remembered by the surviving Fae for many years to come.

This was one of the last actions in a bloody war that had killed 75% of the male population and by July of the following year the final elements of the MLF surrendered and figured that they would return to servitude. In what many thought would be the last lesson to the futility of man to resist his betters every man in the MLF was executed publicly along with any women who had sympathized, never again would any man dare do anything such as rise up or so it was assumed.

The Great Betrayal was a rallying cry in America (soon to join Canada and Mexico in the Workwoman's Dynasty) to strip men of even more rights as the feminists launched a vile wave of repressions that were meant to ram home to men that defiance was futile. One of these repressions was the passing of what were called leash laws if more than two men were together they had to be with a woman and could only be so far from her or be open to correction from any woman, this way they could never conspire again. Men still fought their oppressors and after a series of suicides rocked the world, many women had begun to question this policy, let alone the fact that those who could wield powerful magic had become very wealthy and lorded over those who didn't. In response to the suicides all women were told to bind there sons with life magic to make them incapable of taking their lives, this binding would end at 18 when they would be bound to their future wives.

Because of the lack of men, it was decided that men would be hunted in the summer of their 18th birthday during Victory Week in July. These were called Bonding Hunts and all men who turned 18 after the last hunt were to be present this did little for men and as the birth rate plummeted many women began questioning it. Men from powerful families, however, were left out of the hunts to keep less worthy women from gaining a position in a more powerful family and to be given to loyal families or to form alliances, they were even given as rewards.

In the years following the Gender Wars the world was reshaped as the seven most powerful human mages split the world up among themselves; as North America was united under the rule of the Council of Seven member Patricia Workwoman, a spiteful woman who wanted to wipe the stain that was man from the history books, she had even founded a new religion that made all women goddesses. Her aides numbered seven and ruled as nobility had in olden times, these seven families; the Spencer's, Barrera's, Clark's, William's, Harvey's, Massey's and Lake's. The democracy that had lasted nearly 200 years in America disappeared and along with Canada and Mexico renamed The Workwoman Dynasty or just the Dynasty as many would call it, the Dynasty gave rights to women based on magical ability and solidified men as little more than pawns, women were left with a caste system that left little to no room to move up.

The new structure within the Dynasty was structured in such a way that families that had daughters would count towards a women's magical ability. Under this new structure all women were to be called goddess by any male failure to do so was often correction to the cusp of death, after that you had seven families made a Ladyship this was the lowest titled woman who headed those seven families, seven Ladyship's was a Parrish, seven Parrish's was a Baroness, seven Baroness's was a Viscountess, seven Viscountess' was a Countess, seven Countess's a Lady in Power, seven Lady's in Power was a Duchess, seven Duchess's was a Daughter in Power, seven Daughter's in Power was a House and the head of any house was the Matron and the seven matrons served the Empress. As women struggled to grab power this struggle led women to kill male children in favor of being able to form their own titles. This, of course, meant sisters would often kill a higher ranking sister to grab power or even kill their own mothers to take over her title. While this was going on the number of men in the former United States shrunk to 17.6% lowest on earth before the government stepped in and said sons that married off to a more powerful family had to be bought or otherwise compensated.

In the years following the Gender Wars which had toppled many nations and reshaped the planet as the USSR had torn itself apart in the conflict and lead to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, these new nations brought a calm over the world as they recovered from the war that had been fought mostly in their backyards. Western Europe had formed a loose federation of its members and worked together to rebuild, while they had laws like the former United States had they were more lenient with the enforcement of such laws, many of Europe's leaders were starting to feel as if they were puppets of the Goddess' religion founded by Patricia Workwoman and gave the Dynasty great sway over them.

Around 1980 things started to change in Europe when Ukraine shocked the world by releasing a magic engine, this engine stored women's magic and used it as electricity had been. This in effect ended the need for fossil fuels and nuclear energy it also opened the door for new technology to be run off of it. Three years later once again Ukraine dropped the world on its ear by releasing the magic circuit making magic smaller and more portable, this had turned a very poor nation into one which couldn't produce things fast enough to meet the worlds demand. The reason for this was those same Fae who had survived made these magic circuits and engines, this lead to drastic changes throughout the world. However, the greatest changes occurred in Ukraine as the government tried at first to force the Fae to do what they wanted as little more than slave labor, this was met by the Fae disappearing into the delta never to be found and lead to them appearing weak to the rest of the world.

Before the release of the magic engine, Ukraine was unwanted by the Council of Seven and exceedingly poor the poorest nation in all of Europe and one of the ten poorest on the planet. However, due to the failures of the Ukrainian government each of the seven laid claim to it, bent on bringing the Fae to their knees and sent armies, spies and gifts every time one of the council came the Fae would halt production and flee never to be found. When the various attempts failed they left Ukraine alone and watched as they were forced to make reforms that the Fae wanted, things like being given official recognition and a say in the government even the changing or abolishing of laws.

The biggest change in Ukraine was the abolition of Binding Laws and the use of binding magic, which the Fae said could be replaced by something much better, the removal of such laws caused a dramatic increase in the number of men being born in Ukraine which had the fastest growth in the male population on the planet, many a man saw this as proof they had been right all along and added fuel to the other nations who started to ignore more of the church's dogma. In 1983 as part of their concessions to the Fae, Ukraine renamed the Odessa National Maritime University and the Odessa National Maritime Academy to the Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol University of Technology and Magic the worlds first University to the study of magic. To prove the value of such an institution, students from the university competed in the following years at the world magic championships Ukrainian women have won every major medal since often finishing with gold, silver, and bronze. By 1985 it was clear that the Fae had been teaching Ukrainian women magic, which quickly turned the university from a joke in the rest of the world to an elite university training mages from all over the world. Men up to this point were kept mostly as slave labor, only men from powerful families would get a higher education while the remaining took up a trade if they had any skill. GUM as the University was known had become one of the few universities that allowed common men to enroll and every year between 50 and 100 thousand young men would apply for 12 spots and the dream of five years of freedom.