Leonel had no idea what was going on so far away from himself. It was true that he had never considered the possibility that someone would try to form diplomatic relations with the Oryx, but this was mostly because of how unlikely that it was.

The Oryx were not human. This was maybe the most important reason. Though racism wasn't very prevalent amongst humans any longerat least not in Leonel's experiencethat was only because it was replaced by another sort of race war, one between species.

Unfortunately, no matter where you were, racism was an almost inevitable part of life. There was nothing people liked to do more than participate in tribalism. The grotesque part of it all was that it was rooted in good. People had the inherent want to be connected and feel connected to one another. It was just unfortunate that this good was often twisted and contorted into what Leonel believed to be the ugliest thing in the world.

What better way to feel more connected to those around you than to exclude the 'others'? If everyone was connected, was anyone connected at all?

It was these kind of thoughts that had always pervaded the psyche of the Dimensional Verse and it manifested in the form of race wars all too often.

It could be said that the only reason Earth had weeded out racism was because of its hands on approach. The Ascension Empire fused the continents into one. A monolithic culture was formed. There were no large swaths of communities where only a single type of face could be seen

Of course, Earth still had its own in groups and outgroupsthat being the people who could call the surface home and those that could not. But, they had still made great leaps and bounds in that direction and it was about the only thing Leonel respected about his grandfather's Empire.

However outside of Earth, these things couldn't be said to be the same.

...