Eternal

Year 0

“Is this the one?”
“Yeah I guess.”
“What do you mean you guess? It either is or it isn’t.”
“I dunno I lost the list.”
“You what? That’s just great. You realize how much we’re going to get our asses chewed out because of your fuck up? I’m sick of paying for your mistakes.”
“Will you calm down? How the hell are they gonna know anyway? You seen one ugly little baldy, you’ve seen ‘em all. All babies look the same.”
“Not the elven ones.”
“Enough with your elf fetish. These babies are all under the care of the Empire anyway, they’re here for the taking.
“Yeah, the key word being the Empire. You know we need the proper paper work, which you just fucking lost!”
“So what, I can forge it. You really worry too much, there’s so much red tape they ain’t gonna know the difference and what does it matter? The Empire’s getting a body for their purposes anyway.”
“Yeah, but you know how they like the best.”
”How the fuck can they really tell at this age? They do all the real testing later. Look he’s got all his limbs, and he doesn’t display any signs of impurity. I’d say he’s a prime candidate for whatever they have in store for this poor little bastard.”
“Yeah I guess…damn. I can’t imagine what it’s like being brought up like that.”
“Me either, this program has only been going on a few years, but I’ve already heard some fucked up stories about it…y’know its things like this that sometimes make me question the logic of our glorious leaders.”
“Shhhh! Are you mad? Don’t talk like that! It’s not our place to question anything, we’re just supposed to do our jobs! Besides, the logic is quite obvious. If they train people from birth they’ll have superior combat skills and utter loyalty to the Empire.”
“That’s my point though. Is it really necessary? The Empire already produces so much propaganda that it does the job pretty well in producing loyal citizens and if that doesn’t work it also instills so much fear in most that even if someone wanted to start a rebellion; it’s highly unlikely they would.”
“Don’t be so sure, it has happened in the past.”
“The past? When? Like four hundred years ago when the Empire was still in its own infancy? Pfft. Wouldn’t happen anymore and as for having elite combat troops, again what’s the point? We’ve already got camps to train elite groups like the Shadow Guard who are not to be fucked with and we have more than enough resources to create an army of golems that would be just as loyal and kick the shit out of our enemies.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk about this anymore! Our superiors have their reasons, as does the Emperor! Let us just take this baby and be done with this task!”

The two clerks left the infirmary with you that day where upon you were accepted as a suitable candidate and put into The Eternal Program.

You don’t remember too much during the time of your very young years, except that you are mostly confined to a room where all your basic needs are met. On a daily basis, a couple bigger people come in to check on you. They have you perform various physical tasks as well as spending time to teach you things like basic reading and writing. Sometimes they ask you various questions and write down your responses while other times they come in and stab you with painful needles with fluid in them. (You don’t like those times)

You don’t really understand it all, except that you know that the Emperor is always watching you. He is everywhere even if you don’t see him. He is keeping an eye on your actions and you must always obey his will, lest you be punished. You know this to be true because you have this repeatedly told to you.

Eventually your relative isolation would come to an end.