My research has been quite clear.

Everyone knows the world-ending prophecies found in the Holy Theonomicon; their stories are taught to us from a young age. Even those that no longer believe in the Flock of the First Deity can recite the poetic descriptions of oceans boiling away and the like.

But I feel that this description of the apocalypse describes a real, and imminent, event. And my research backs me up.

Looking at the information available, it is clear to me that the phlogiston power that has been driving our society’s prosperity for the last two hundred years is also flooding the atmosphere with heat energy, and draining the land of its ability to produce food.

My first thought was that perhaps, by stopping phlogiston extraction immediately, we might avert catastrophe. But the latest findings have led me to despair of even that end. The process is beyond any human means of control; it is a runaway cycle now.

Curiously, the Theonomicon’s tales of apocalypse fall in line with what I foresee. The oceans may not boil per se, but they will heat up and act as a giant thermal battery. Famines will sweep the land as our most productive farmlands fail, just like the Hungry Devourer in the book. And, of course, as resources and climate fail, people will begin to fight over the remaining, dwindling resources. If that is not the Lastwar written of by the prophets, I do not know what is.

Sitting here, in my laboratory, I am not sure if this notion gives me comfort or fills me with terror and fear. Is the First Deity real, ignoring our sufferings? Or were the Prophets somehow interpreting through poetry a future they saw but could not comprehend?

In either case, it seems that whatever mysterious force is behind these coincidences has given us a roadmap to our own extinction.

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