The world had resolved all major problems; starvation, poverty, overcrowding and climate change. Even political extremism was solved for the most part and the world entered an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. At least, that's what should have happened.

The only significant problem left was inequality – the people were not poor, yet wanted that which did not belong to them. This caused tensions between the lower class and the middle class. Their wealth difference grew ever faster, making the resentment and jealousy of the lower class shoot upwards.

As for the upper class? These were entities which no longer dealt with money. To them, that currency had become completely worthless, even as a measurement of wealth. Instead, they bragged with % of the worlds resources that they controlled, or what they could accomplish if they were to employ their influence. Like starving a country of every resource it could conceivably need for a year. This was the true upper echelon.

In the midst of this, 1 group of people became more and more prominent; philosophers – beginning to be called 'the lost gems'.

People had ceased to have anything to worry about, apart from the continuation of the species. Even among the upper echelons, there were those that felt this emptiness and helplessness, and found in these gems a hint of salvation.

Tensions between the mid and lower class reached a breaking point, as de-facto gangs formed on both sides, attacking all who dared think differently than them.

Calls to destroy certain groups of people became louder, as well as calls to destroy the groups responsible for these calls. Know-it-all busybodies unintentionally aggravated the situation further by trying to defuse it.

Violence between groups became commonplace the upper classes simply watching as a form of unique entertainment.

Soon, philosophers started talking about this issue, advising how to stop this. Some did well and the advice helped. Other's backfired. This caused more excitement so the upper classes did not try to stop the philosophers. However, one upper echelon grew annoyed as they felt this frequent coverage was not as useful to them as a broad range of topics.

This sudden pressure from high overhead caused all philosophers to not mention this topic at all if possible. Only 1 still carried on as usual. 1 week later, his video channel was deleted and he was never heard from again.

No philosopher would have ever mentioned this event, if not for the phenomenon that occurred shortly after the channel deletion.

A ray of light pierced the world, straight through the centre of the planet. Its length seemed infinite and its breadth indefinite. Whenever one stopped to determine its edge, one found a hue of light next to that which previously seemed like the end. Thus, the pillar divided the universe and doused it in holy light.

This lasted for 1 week. The pillar was immaterial except that one could not see through it. During this time, 2 locations became famous. These were the locations where the centre of the light was thought to have pierced the earth. One was in the wilderness, or at least, that which this age described as wilderness. It was, in fact, a nature reserve, though strictly guarded and managed.

The other location was in a 3-sided valley with no value besides being a popular hiking spot. These 2 locations could be said to be completely unremarkable and puzzled the millions of excited tourists who had come during and after this week.

However, there was another discussion point besides this godly sign. Certain people had obtained a special power. More precisely, philosophers had obtained this power, though not exclusively.

The power they gained was increased physical strength. However, the level differed vastly from person to person. Initially, this was connected to fame, as most prominent philosophers had obtained seemingly the most strength.

However, this was soon discarded as, not only did some of the most prominent philosophers not receive much strength, there were also previously completely unknown people from all walks of life who had obtained this power.

Theories were thrown around religious communities exploded in size.

The upper classes did not feel threatened. After all, the strength increase was not large enough to cause serious problems. Even if that were the case, philosophers could just be hired as bodyguards. After all, the upper classes were still those that could provide anything the philosophers might possibly want, right?

The philosopher's reactions were mixed as an old phrase long buried in the lost archives of education resurfaced; 'Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely'.

Some were elated, having achieved the herculean task of increasing ones social rank. Others worried about the future; if more phenomenons would appear, if their mind was strong enough not to be corrupted, if this would cause tensions to further rise and cause a bloody massacre.

The gods had demonstrated their existence; how would this society handle it?