Athens was one of the oldest cities on Earth whose history had been preserved to this day and which was still in use. As humanity stumbled from the primitive age of slash-and-burn farming through the gates of civilization, as people first stopped worrying about food, clothing, warmth, and the beasts of the wilderness, as the earliest philosophers and sages emerged among them, and as they began using written words and mysterious religious symbols to express their thoughts and wonder about the world, city-states began to rise and kingdoms began to be built. The earliest thinkers, freed from basic production, poured their abundant mental energy into enormous stones and meticulously designed domes. They piled up towering walls, columns, domes, and steps of stone to build cities symbolizing human power, and decorated their courtyards with religiously mysterious reliefs and statues. Architecture evolved from merely providing shelter from the elements and protection from beasts to possessing all kinds of additional functions, and even purely symbolic meaning. Ancient, glorious megalithic structures rose from the earth and quickly became some of the most incredible creations on the planet.
Yet cities were not a glory exclusive to humanity. Another group of creatures coexisted with humankind on this planet. Although they had hidden themselves in the shadows, whether willingly or by force, and had even vanished completely from modern human understanding, they had nevertheless once been active throughout the planet's history. Human history books would not remember them, but another history book, made of stone and wood, would never forget any of it: the cities.
The older a city was, the more traces of the ancients it retained. The oldest cities had even become completely inseparable from the creatures in the shadows. These cities were not merely human homes; they were also territories belonging to many dark