What is an illusion if not one's mind deceiving oneself. What is a lie if not someone deceiving someone else. What is the difference between the two?

In a lie, the fault is with the liar. But what of illusion? Does the mind not bear the sin? Or shall we argue that the mind itself was deceived?

Regardless, when something that had never been present revealed itself, and people realised that it had always existed, just that none noticed, the thin veil separating illusion from lies is torn apart. Suddenly, the imaginary has become reality.

In the year 2142 AD, humanity was faced with a horrifying truth. It was that they were never the masters of the world, not even for a single second.

A giant crystalline tree emitting a divine brilliance appeared on Earth. All of humanity, regardless of where they were in the world, could finally perceive its existence. The tree exuded its presence as though to make up for millennia of humanity's ignorance of its majesty.

It was a miracle. Just with its appearance alone, the world was filled with a power that none had ever known. Countries all around the Earth raced to claim the tree for themselves, yet so naturally did all their efforts end in failure.

Truly laughable. Humanity is but a swarm of insects before the tree, yet they sought to claim its divinity? In the face of the absolute, the inconsequential were forced to accept their fate. 

As though in divine retribution, the world was flooded with a new threat. Just as it was in ages past that gigantic reptilian beasts ruled the land, and just as it was in modern history that humanity with their superior intellect predated on the world, so too have monsters spawned from the very power the tree had brought.

They tore down humanity's civilisation, and in an instant, pushed them to the brink of annihilation. Now humanity has learned what it means to truly fear the divine. However, the power the tree had spread was not limited to just spawning monsters.

It also selected a few worthy individuals out of billions to wield power beyond the natural limits of humanity. They were given blessings in the form of patterns engraved onto their very beings with the tree's power. And these people led the resistance against the monsters, reclaiming the Earth for humanity with the power of their stigmata.

Thus began the worship of the World Tree.