Moved by their pleas, the Ne’ta agreed to help the people escape their dying world. It was a being of utterly alien nature and inconceivable power, but not a god, and it refused to be worshiped or to intervene further in human affairs. After the rescue, it offered the following choice to the people:

You may choose a life of the mind or a life of the body. The former will know plenty and ease but will be subject to the same decay and weaknesses that led to the death of the old world, while the latter will live in hardship but remain strong and independent. Once the choice is made, I will recuse myself from further participation in your affairs.

About half of the people chose the mind, while the remainder chose the body. The Ne’ta separated them across two parallel skeins of the same world, so that their actions could not directly affect each other. It was careful to leave a few chinks between the skeins, though, for even in its alien wisdom the Ne’ta could not see all ends. It then departed to an unknown destination, which the people in both skeins perceived as a second sun vanishing from their skies.

People who chose the mind founded the city of Ecumenopolis, incorporating all the technological know-how that they had brought with them from their dying world. Though primitive at first, within a generation or two Ecumenopolis was able to implement steam power and eventually electricity. Eventually it came to be known as simply Ecumen, and sat as the crown jewel at the center of a network of smaller towns, farms, and mines. Mindful of the disaster that had befallen their ancestors, the citizens of Ecumen tried to impose strict limits on their use of the natural world and to incorporate more artistry into their technology than had once been the case.

Those who chose the body returned to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, eventually fracturing into a series of rival bands. With no central authority, different bands took different attitudes toward the Ne’ta’s instructions. Many shunned any technology that they could not easily construct from nature, while others reinvented parts of the old world. Rival bands routinely fought each other, grew in power, established empires, and fell or were conquered. Theirs was anarchy compared to the regimented Ecumen, but they were stronger and more fit for individual survival.

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