{"id":26,"date":"2011-12-17T16:51:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T06:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2026-09-26T15:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:27:27","slug":"overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/the-world-of-the-ascent\/overview\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(Note: This section is early worldbuilding I posted many years ago for the fantasy universe that grew into the backstory of Francois He&#8217;s world. <\/em>A<em>lthough many of the details have changed along the way, <em>I&#8217;ve chosen to leave it up<\/em>.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No great nation endures. In the end, wealth succumbs to famine; armies, to defeat; glory, to oblivion. For all of history, soldiers, rulers, and prophets have dreamed of breaking the cycle. For all of history, they have failed. Until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scholars and tinkerers are succeeding where the warlords could not; as they uncover nature&#8217;s secrets, what was once called &#8220;magic&#8221;&nbsp;becomes more abundant by the day.&nbsp;In the hands of monarchs, its destructive power could change warfare. In the hands of industrialists and inventors, its productive power could free humanity from its limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ascent of humanity is about to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Note: This section is early worldbuilding I posted many years ago for the fantasy universe that grew into the backstory of Francois He&#8217;s world. Although many of the details have changed along the way, I&#8217;ve chosen to leave it up.) No great nation endures. In the end, wealth succumbs to famine; armies, to defeat; glory, &#8230; <a title=\"Overview\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/the-world-of-the-ascent\/overview\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Overview\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.petersahui.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}