Stane is from the kind of future described in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History and Planet Of No Return. There has been progress in the scientific understanding of society but, despite this, wars continue on an interplanetary scale.
In 2987, the psychographic historian, Rozher Schtein, knows that the endemic war, poverty and tyranny result not from "'...any innate evil in man...'" but from "'...cause and effect.'" (p. 39) Because machine technology had arisen in a divided world, wars became larger and more destructive and his family was killed in a Venusian raid. He met a supposed Saturnian merchant, bartering raw materials for synthrope, who was really a traveler from the far future. Killing the man and stealing his time machine, Schtein traveled to the Dark Ages.
Rome had united and pacified its empire but exhausted itself and collapsed. The encroaching barbarians were vigorous but quickly corrupted. England, isolated, was invaded by Germanics strong and willing to learn. Instead of wiping out the British, then being swallowed by Western civilization, Stane wants them to unite with the British against the Picts, then build a strong Romano-Saxon kingdom able to take over Europe, then the world.
Everard, pretending to be from that future says, "'I have read much about St Stanius...'" (p. 41)
- but only to put Stane off his guard so that Whitcomb can attack him with a ax. Which of them was right?
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