Prologue

Immortality. Mortals should probably never be given immortality. Our minds and perceptions and responses are all evolved around being on this planet a given number of years and then shuffling off the mortal coil for the next plane of existence. As such is the case, our minds are built to process this world with such lingering in the background even as we use the rest of it to go about our daily survival. We perceive the world in ways that help us in that survival and react to the events we chance upon accordingly.

Immortality changes that dynamic. We would no longer need to worry about doing everything in such a limited scope of time. Time is, in fact, on our side and we can plan and react accordingly. The rush to establish ourselves in our livelihood is not as urgent and the need, the ... drive to procreate is no longer an issue. We do not need to work to replace ourselves before we meet our end. The pressures, while not entirely gone, are much less. A lifetime seen over centuries, millennia even, allows for long-term planning the likes of which a mortal cannot truly comprehend, though we might touch the edges of it in speculation and theory.