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When I was fifteen, my parents were victims of the terrorist attack on Alacrin City.

You've never heard of Alacrin City, of course.  It's a huge metropolis in the Western Nations on the planet Jurgo.  During a peace conference about banning chemical weapons, the city was attacked with weaponized nerve gas.  Ironic, no?  Allen Jerno, one of the terrorists' leaders, always had a sick since of humor.  Part of the reason for the attack was that they were in league with the Ghent Empire, who wanted to be sure the other nations were divided and chaotic.  But there was another reason.

Buried across Jurgo were artifacts of enormous magical power.  Under Alacrin City they found a diamond the size of your fist with the ability to manipulate gravity.  I managed to follow them down there and steal the diamond away, and suddenly I was thrust into the middle of a war.  Allen and I would cross paths many times in the race to claim the artifacts.  In addition to the diamond, there was a wooden wand that shot deadly energy beams, vials of dust that had alchemical effects when used, and a wooden stump that would allow you to teleport.  There may have been others as well, but I'll have to tell you about that later.

The war was intense.  The Ghent Empire was run by a cult of religious fanatics worshipping a long-hidden demi-god.  My own Gobon Republic was a tolerant, accepting place with a whole range of beliefs.  We were founded on reason and coexistence, when a great prophet two hundred years ago led an awakening, proclaiming that all peoples and beliefs were meant to live in harmony.  But while it was a wonderful place to live, I discovered our nation had its own dark side.  An arrogant country that is sure it is right all the time often takes to forcing its beliefs on others, and many of the smaller nations came to resent being pawns in our war.  Some gladly accepted the rule of the Ghent in exchange for a certain amount of internal autonomy.

The Magic Wars, as they came to be known, lasted many years.  I made friends and enemies along the way, and discovered secrets that had been buried for centuries.  Under Alacrin City we found a waterfall that falls up!  The diamond, having been buried there so long, had affected the local gravity.  On the Emakan Islands we found people whose bodies had taken the shape of reptiles.  In Dominia, far to the north, we discovered a pocket watch that could stop time.  No, I should say it slows time to the point where it seems to be stopped, but always moves slightly.  My friend Jeremiah is a scientist and insists I explain these things as clearly as possible- "the ratio of local time to a fixed external frame of reference can approach zero asymptotically," he would say.  I kind of understand what that means, but not very well.

When the wars ended, I eventually found myself transported to Earth.  That is again a story for another day.  On Earth, I'm known as Jacob Merner.  It was an attempt to interpret my name back home, since we obviously didn't speak English.  I was born with a female name, but when I realized I was male I chose a name whose origin had to do with fighting.  So on Earth I chose the name "Jacob," since it means "one who wrestles with God."  I hope that's not arrogant, but I've certainly struggled a lot in my young life.  You wouldn't recognize me as an alien if you saw me.  I am a human in every way.  Jeremiah insists it can't be a coincidence, and theorizes that some advanced alien race engineered our DNA to match as part of some grand experiment.  So I look like a native Earthling, but online I can remember my true origin.  I am a man from the planet Jurgo, so I call myself Jurgan.

*All of this was basically a pitch for a series of stories I've had in my mind in some form since 1992.  I'm finally putting them to paper, and they seem to be take the form of a young adult novel series.  Hope you enjoyed reading.*