The girl laughed as she trod on the tiny man. Less than an inch high she barely felt him crunch through her shoe sole. She walked on and ten minutes later she had completely forgotten about the encounter....
This is not Earth.
This is a world called by it's inhabitants Teralax. It's a world both like and unlike our own. This story takes place in a country called Lucitania. It's culture and technology is much like that of early 21st century England, but this is not Earth, nor is this England. This world is recivering from a dark age, much as our own is, but in this case the rise and fall of technology was far more drastic. Three thouand years ago, technology and science had advanced to a level far beyond the level of the present day.
The study of genetics produced many strange creatures, few of which have survived to the present day. With the success of this Utopian society came overpopulation. People were living longer and unwilling to forego children. Society faced disaster as resources seemed destined to run out. Genetic science seemed to hold the key to salvation.
Rather than fathering children normally, children would be engineered by combining the genetic material of the parents. Also these children would be smaller. Much smaller. Eventually, when the older generation died out, the human race would all be less than an inch tall and would never have to worry about starvation or poverty again.
Of course, to some, this plan seemed insane, and many refused to take part in the programme, to the disgust of the billions who did. The programme continued anyway. At first, the tiny children were cared for by their parents, but as they grew up, many chose to move to their own miniture towns.
Then came the plague.
It was a mistake. A mistake which became a genetic disaster. A virus created in a lab experiment was accidently realeased into the air. The virus was deadly, airborne, and seemingly unstoppable. Across the world people died in their millions. But, as with many viruses, particuarly those borne in the lab, the plague prayed on certain people with certain genetic traits. It barely touched the new inch high population. It struck at the 'traditionalist humans'. And though only about 70% of women were killed, it infected 100% of men. None survived.
In our society, such a thing would mean the end of the species, but not here. They still had the technology which had artificially combined DNA to create tiny people. Now, it was used by the surviving traditionalists to combine the DNA of female partners and create full sized female offspring. There was no point in creating boys, as they would become infected and die within hours of birth, and it was likely that the virus would never go away. It lived benignly in all females. Mankind (normal sized) was dead, but by the miracle of technology, womankind survived.
Then came the Age of Chaos. The sudden death of 85% of the traditionalist population which still covered the majority of the planet could not go without effect. Civilisation collapsed entirely and the rule of the sword became normality. Cities were abandoned, full of the dead. Everything was ruined in the space of a year. What followed was a dark age lasting over a thousand years. Almost all science culture and knowledge was lost. Only the vital reproductive tech survived as the centre of various new world religions.
Eventually, culture, science and civilisation recovered. At least it mostly recovered. History was a blank slate, there were no men.... and knowledge of the true nature of the tiny people had been forgotten. This was the greatest tragedy of all.
When law and order broke down, the people who called themselves the Alieth had no protection from the barbaric giants. A thousand years later and they still don't. To the modern woman of Teralax, these tiny people aren't people at all; merely insects who oddly mimic human shape. And they think nothing of killing them en masse.
After a thousand years spent hiding and fighting for survival, the Alieth (as they are known only to themselves) have reverted to a savage state. They aren't stupid; not by a long way, but a short and violent life doesn't lend itself to study and science. A sharpened stick is a pretty standard weapon.
There are far more Alieth than Teralaxians. A corruption of the genetics caused by the virus has led them to grow up and reproduce twice as fast as their taller oppresors.
But enough history! How does this story begin?
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