[WP] The Council of Gods assigns a God to each planet to create life according to a grand design. Earth's God disappeared shortly after mankind was created, and over the eons the Council has sent various Gods to investigate.

Rand stepped lightly through the city, brushing Ether dust off his suit jacket as he went. Looking around the bustling city, with its towering buildings and high-speed transit, he stroked his long, greying beard in thought.

"Tier IV civilization, huh? That's fairly unique for having existed for such a short time period. Make a note of that, Fal, it could be relevant to the investigation."

"On it," Rand heard Fal's response in his head.

Glad I set up that Etheric Connection before I left. So much more convenient to have a random underling take notes for me.

"I heard that," Fal said. Rand could hear the irritation in her voice. "If you're going to insult me, you need to be more careful to keep your thoughts to yourself."

Rand smiled. "Sorry."

Fal sighed. "Knowing you, though, I can't tell if you intentionally thought that to get a rise out of me, or if you were just being an idiot. I'm not sure which one would be more aggravating."

He brushed his jacket smooth one last time, then swiftly changed the subject. "Still, this is all very impressive. I almost can't believe it was accomplished without any Ether sources on planet."

Rand walked over to a human sleeping on a nearby bench. He put his hand to the human's head and tried to pull an Etheric Connection from him. Strangely, there was a small resistance, for a moment. Rand frowned, then pulled a little harder.

The Connection stuck. Information suddenly flooded Rand's mind. Luckily, Rand was a little more suited than most gods to parse through it all. Words like 'English,' 'Great Wall of China,' and 'ice cream' suddenly had meaning and context to him. More importantly, though, it gave Rand a lot of data on the humans there.

"Fairly normal trait distribution, all things considered. Slightly more determination than standard. Maybe that's to blame for their ambition. Wait..."

Rand removed his hand from the human's head before he drew unwanted attention. He absent-mindedly took off his top hat and stroked his beard as he walked on. "0% capacity to utilize Ether. That's completely unprecedented. And yet they were able to advance all the way to Tier IV? I guess that's the creations of an Elder for you. I'm always amazed by how competent those gods can be."

"Up until he disappeared," Fal whispered.

Rand sighed, "Up until he disappeared."

"There's a lot of strange circumstances around this case, Rand. How does an Elder just vanish from the face of the Universe? What happened to the first two investigators who went to check on him? I think the council believes the unique Etheric properties, or lack thereof, of the planet played a role in it. That's why they went you to take a look at it, I guess."

"Well then," Rand smiled and put his hat back on, "As the god of Ether, I suppose I should try not to disappoint. Let's check in with my predecessor, shall we?"