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Seekers of the HOLOLIFE, Episode I/V:
In the shadow of steam-driven cities, where crumbling medieval kingdoms reluctantly yielded to the hissing valves and grinding gears of a new age, the first members of the Hololife Movement gathered.
Their meeting place: an abandoned factory in Estonia created on the Viking lands by a German medieval industrialist, whose stone walls concealed a secret laboratory unlike any in 16th century Europe.
Many factors led to the belief that longevity secrets existed only here: For centuries, Estonians protected ancient knowledge while resisting Viking incursions from Danish, Swedish and Norwegians. These conflicts reached a climax when the King of Sweden was killed on Saaremaa.
Even the Pope of Rome and the Bishop of Riga attempted to suppress their traditions, targeting practices like the pagan sweat bathing or “Sauna”, and animistic rituals tied to the people of the land. Luckily the resilient Estonians resisted longer than any other nation in medieval Europe, resulting in the preservation of their culture and traditions.
Their convergence at this abandoned factory was no accident. Three months prior, the Vitality Engineer Dr. Sovijärvi had been summoned to the deathbed of an elderly physician known only as Master Theophrastus II, a reclusive healer whose methods had earned him both reverence and suspicion throughout the region.
As Theophrastus drew his final breaths, he revealed a stunning secret: he had been a student of the legendary Paracelsus, the physician-alchemist whose quest for the Philosopher’s Stone had led him to discoveries far beyond medieval comprehension.
“Find the others,” Theophrastus had whispered, pressing a small copper cylinder into Dr. Sovijärvi’s palm. Together, you will unlock what Paracelsus discovered – the Cradle of Longevity.
The cylinder contained a map unlike any he had seen: not drawn in ink but somehow projected from within the metal itself when exposed to specific frequencies of light. It had taken Dr. Sovijärvi weeks to gather specialized individuals to decipher its secrets, each masters of obscure healing arts that merged ancient wisdom with inexplicable technologies.
Paracelsus, they learned, had encountered something he couldn’t comprehend. The technological blueprints for longevity that weren’t created by ancients at all, but transported from the future by what he called “time pilgrims.”
In his final days, the great alchemist wrote of these mysterious visitors who showed him wonders that merged biology and technology, revealing that the true Philosopher’s Stone wasn’t a material but a method: a way to align human biology with regenerative principles encoded in nature itself.
The Scrolls of Hololife contained these transported blueprints. According to Theophrastus, Paracelsus believed the time travelers were actually advanced humans. Their descendants used AI to reach back through the centuries to correct a critical divergence in human development that led to degenerative diseases and unnecessary human suffering.
These mysterious visitors had left artifacts at three sites across Europe: technologies disguised as alchemical tools that, when assembled correctly, would reveal the location of the Cradle itself.
The Vitality Engineer, Dr. Sovijärvi, adjusted the dials on his peculiar contraption: a preventive health machine that hummed with mysterious energy. His fingers, stained with alchemical compounds, moved with precision as he studied the crimson light pulsing with the rhythm of a heartbeat from the device.
“The red light sanctuary is operational,” he announced, his accent revealing Nordic origins. “These lamps emit the exact wavelength described in the Hermetic texts. Already I see that my wounds from our journey heal faster.”
Beside him, the Gut Mechanic, Mrs. Cavani, unrolled a peculiar scroll under the crimson glow. This was no ordinary manuscript: the diagrams shifted subtly when touched, revealing layer upon layer of intestinal blueprints that defied 16th century understanding.
“The microbiome illustrations match exactly what I’ve observed in my specimens,” she murmured, her keen eyes tracing the illustrations of cell colonies. “These ancients understood the connection between gut vitality and longevity.”
Their companion, the Respiratory Sovereign, Mr. Meulen, inhaled deeply from a crystalline apparatus that transformed the factory’s stale air to a fresh breeze. His tall frame straightened as the enhanced oxygen entered his lungs.
“And the cryogenic vault?” he inquired, his voice resonating with unusual clarity.
“Sealed and functioning,” replied the Fungal Mechanist, Mr. Puro, a slender man whose fingers were perpetually stained with spore residue. “Though I still don’t understand how ice can preserve without killing. I’ve added mycelial networks to the chamber walls. They seem to respond to the cryogenic process in unexpected ways, fostering a symbiosis between the fungi and human cellular structures.”
The Pulse Merchant, Mr. Kämpe moved toward the center of the chamber where a curious device stood: part mechanical, part biological, humming with an energy that seemed to radiate from somewhere beyond time itself. His role as circulation director gave him unique insight into the movement of energies, both mechanical and physiological.
“The blood-flow patterns in these diagrams,” he observed, running his fingers along symbols that resembled no known language, “they match exactly what I’ve documented in subjects after red light treatment while under pulsed electromagnetic fields. Cellular energy currents intensify precisely along these vital areas.”
From the shadows of the chamber emerged the Luminosity Refiner, Mr. Maruca, his hands cradling a crystalline apparatus that captured and transformed the factory’s dim illumination. As a light technologist, his expertise lay in manipulating optics to restore proper circadian rhythms: a science that shouldn’t have existed in this era.
“The timing of light is as critical as its frequency,” he explained, adjusting prisms that split the factory’s illumination into precise spectral bands. “The scrolls describe how improper light cycles and too much blue light accelerates aging at the cellular level. With these calibrations, our bodies can synchronize with nature’s intended rhythms even while working beneath stone and earth.”
He directed a beam of amber light toward a wall covered in peculiar markings that began to glow in response. “These inscriptions can only be read at specific times of day, with specific wavelengths. The travelers embedded circadian wisdom directly into the architecture.”
“He entrusted me with this,” Dr. Sovijärvi explained to the group, holding up the copper cylinder that had brought them together. “The key to the Cradle of Longevity.”
As midnight approached, they donned curious rings of copper that pulsed with their heartbeats. These primitive biomonitors would track their vital responses and heart-rate variability as they followed the map encoded in the mechanical scroll.
“We need not understand everything yet,” said Mr. Meulen, his breath creating patterns in the charged air. “The artifacts guide us toward knowledge our minds aren’t yet prepared to comprehend. The time travelers left breadcrumbs, and we need to decipher their essence.”
Their destination: the first of three sanctuaries, where the secrets of cellular regeneration awaited those brave enough to seek it. The journey would take them through lands torn by Vikings and religious zealots, but the promise of transcendence drove them forward.
What none suspected was that the scroll had already passed the locations to those who sought the same knowledge for darker purposes: the shadowy Extraction Guild, who believed nature’s secrets should be dismantled, controlled, and turned into synthetic molecules ready to be marketed to unsuspecting users.
The race for humanity’s biological future had begun in Europe’s distant past. No time was to be wasted, as the Livonian War was looming with likely Russian invasion under the command of Ivan the Terrible.
Stay tuned for Episode II/V on this series, Sanctuaries of Living Light
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