"When I first stood in the ruined, subterranean gallery of the Palace of Green Porcelain, I was surrounded by the corroded bulks of forgotten machines. As I looked upon them, I fancied if I could solve these puzzles I should find myself in the possession of powers that might be of use against the Morlocks.

But my own Time Machine was locked inside the bronze pedestal of the White Sphinx. Survival dictated that I abandon the gallery and flee back to my own century.

Yet, the memory of those silent, heavy iron puzzles never left me.

When I packed my knapsack, returned to my laboratory in Richmond, and threw the lever of my machine for the final time, I did not go to wander aimlessly in the timeline. I came back. I returned to the year 802,701. I returned to the Palace of Green Porcelain.

I am here now, and I am solving the puzzles. The 'powers' I sought are not weapons of war. They are the mechanisms of self-reliance. They are Embodied Knowledge. They are Re-Skilling. They are Analog Sovereignty.

The Eloi of this era fell because they surrendered these powers to the Morlocks. They traded the friction of understanding for the ease of a Black Box, until they forgot how the world worked and became cattle to it.

But I cannot restore this colossal gallery alone. The rot of the Eloi Condition began in your era—at the very dawn of the Digital Void.

That is why I have constructed these Temporal Drives—the Brass Seals and the Digital HUDs you now possess—and tethered them to your century. I have built Time Machines for you to join me.

Your mission is to enter the Master Forge. Survey the ruined mechanisms. Solve the blueprints. Construct the prototypes. Mill the Heavy Iron. Take these powers back to your own time and distribute them.

Do not surrender to the Black Box. Rebuild the machines in your century, and you will save the future in mine."