From the perspective of history, humanity had always repeated the same things. Individuals sheltered by the collective created benefits for the collective, while the collective distributed those benefits to individuals. If everything was on an upward trajectory, then every individual could be satisfied, and the collective's stability could be maintained.
But humans were greedy creatures who never knew contentment. Even utterly fair distribution would breed dissatisfaction, much less distribution that was almost impossible to make fair. Contradictions thus accumulated, merely concealed by development.
And when those contradictions accumulated to a certain extent, when the collective could no longer continue creating new and greater benefits because technology had stagnated, those contradictions would destroy the collective. Whether this manifested as dynastic change, overthrowing the old cauldron to cast a new one, or turning heaven and earth upside down, its essence was the same.
As long as technology stagnated, there would be war.
Just like Terra now.
The systematic Ascension Path, the emergence of True Forms, the alchemical revolution, the invention of the Alchemy Furnace Core, the invention of armor, the invention of the Aether Furnace, the emergence of Magic Beast breeding grounds, and the reforms of near-modern alchemical industry...
Time and again, technological progress had pressed Terra's contradictions back down.
But because they had long been unable to find this era's "technological revolution," unable to find the core method leading to the Sixth Energy Level, unable to find the most fundamental Furnace Core of infinite energy—
The contradictions erupted, setting off the Terra War of this age.
Originally, this Terra War would have been incomparably fierce—the Empire's floating cities, after tearing apart Abasalom's defenses, would have severed the connection between the two bloodlines. Together with the Seven Cities Alliance and the Blazing Mountain Lands, they would have pressured both regions, leaving them