Duration: 9:41

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"France, Holland, Tibet, Kyoto, London, Russia, Orleans." There's no reason to correct that aside from it bugging the hell out of me. Also, the flamethrower's range really isn't that bad in retrospect, considering that it's better than the shotgun's effective range and (as demonstrated later on) it outdamages everything like nobody's business. Too bad it uses up a unit of ammo every time you fire, even if you just tap the fire button.

Despite saying that I was dumped into the Council HQ specifically so the game could tell me the backstory I still missed practically everything (how do you miss big glowing consoles?). Fortunately someone copied it all down; that said, here's the abbreviated history of Pandora's Box: Way back in prehistory, mythological creatures actually existed, and their connection to the hidden energy of Animus Vitae (which, again, is Latin) made them masters of the earth. They did that whole nebulous "maintaining the balance of nature" thing up until humanity evolved, at which point they started eating humanity right up until humans found a mysterious rock with a connection to the Animus Vitae. Naturally, they carved the rock into what is currently known as Pandora's Box and used it to banish all these creatures from the face of the earth, because cavemen were wizards in accordance to the Law of Inverse Magical and Technological Prowess.

I'm assuming that the activation of Pandora's Box also had the secondary effect of wiping out all fossil records and other archaeological information pertaining to these creatures. Somehow. Good riddance, too, because trying to figure out the circumstances that lead to the evolution of fire-breathing rock dragons that died when they came in contact with water and bipedal wolves that had to hunt and eat constantly lest they starve would drive scientists to suicide.

It's anyone's guess as to how all these creatures crept into folklore, religion and mythology if they disappeared during the time of prerecorded history. Or rather, how they crept in at different times and in different regions if they're all *from* the same time. Like, if golems/giant rock beasts are a thing then why do they appear in the Talmud but not in the Greek or Roman mythos?

The lucky tribe that did this became the guardians of the Box, protecting it from anyone who wanted to use it, and over time their descendants turned that into "protect humanity from any technology that we don't think they're ready for" and became the Council of 98. I like to think that at some point in their illustrious history there was a meeting at a Council castle and they're just looking down at a nearby town that's ravaged by the Black Plague going, "well, we *could* tell them the cure, but are they *really* ready for it?"