Ancient Civilizations

• An excerpt from the elven tome __Ancient Humans Civilizations' Magical Devices: A treatise on what we've learned about ancient humans, and what we can learn* ***from*** *them (A study of the creation of magical effects by non-magical means)*

"...Ancient humans were not unlike their modern counterparts: egotistical, self-important, short-sighted, quick-tempered, and mind-bogglingly brilliant.

What little evidence of their technology remains is a mere suggestion of what they were once capable of producing. Small rectangular devices, covered in sharp metal spikes and other strange twisted coils of metal wires that seemed, at first to be, strange pieces of dangerous art. One day, exposed to elemental electricity, portions of the device began to hum and whine...until it exploded.

Years of continuing research discovered that the flow of the elements through those wires were *so* finely-tuned that the slightest hiccup by the mage focused on the channeling of the elements either deactivated the devices or destroyed them. Secondary devices were developed to maintain constant, specific levels of electrical energies to power these devices.

The purpose of each device, individually, is lost to time, *but,* after centuries of excavation, embedded in the mountains to the west of the newly founded human nation of Orbicentrum, a large piece of a metal vessel was found.

Not embedded in the side of the mountain, *inside* the mountain. As if the natural movements of the land itself had engulfed it over the course of, what we determined to be, **10's of thousands of years** based on geological formations.

The vessel itself was mostly crushed into oblivion, however, a device, shoved in a corner, required strong telekinetic magicks to bend the intriguingly strong metals that made up the ship's hull to access and extract it.

When the device, and the devices connected to it through small metal strands, were attached to one of our 'controlled electricity devices' the machines whirred to life.

The flat, black rectangle lit up, and in the common tongue words flashed across the face of the magical device.

Allow me to repeat: *a device over, at least, 20,000 years old, when activated displayed an almost modern version of the common tongue.*

The face of the rectangle said only:

SV Infinitum

Please enter Administrator passcode:

Below that, a white rectangle with a small blinking line on the left most side of it.

With no idea how to continue forward, the research project stalled. The devices were later stolen during an attack by dark elves, but a great respect was developed for the ancient civilizations that shaped the world before us."